Stupidity

Colleges & Universities University of Virginia
1

<p>Alright guys,
I’m finally starting to realize I’ve been ignorant. I’ve ignored your posts and my parents advice thinking that I need to get into UVA. However, I’m finally starting to realize I need to begin thinking of the other options because UVA is more than likely a no shot…</p>

<p>Ok so I came here to ask for help formulating a list of colleges that I should apply to apart from UVA. (I’m applying to alot of reaches but I need to think of more saftey/matches)
(THIS IS NOT A CHANCE THREAD JUST A PLACE TO FORMULATE IDEAS)
My Stats: </p>

<p>ACT: 31 (anticipating a 33 on next test)
GPA: 3.85 </p>

<p>Freshmen
English 1 H: A
Algebra 2 Adv H: B+
Global 1: B+
Biology H: B+
Latin 1: A
Religious Studies 1: A
Intro to computers: A
Intro to music: A</p>

<p>Sophomore Year
English 2 Adv H: B+
Geometry H: A
Global 2 H: A
Chemistry: A
Latin 2 H: B (grrr)
Spanish 1: A
Religioius Studies 2: A</p>

<p>Junior Year
AP english lit and comp: B+
AP US History: A
Trig-log-calc H: A
Physics H: A
Latin 3 H: A
Spainsh 2 H: A
Religious Studies 3: A</p>

<p>Senior Year (anticipated)
AP Lit and Comp: A
AP Calc: A
AP Macro: A
Latin 4 H: A
Engeneering Science H: A
Religious Studies 4: A</p>

<p>Extra curriculars:
I have worked at a local hardware store since 8th grade (for 5 years) for
10hrs+ p/w durirng the school year and 30hrs+ p/w during the summer.
Indoor track: freshmen/junior year
Cross country: Freshmen/sophomore year
Outdoor track: Freshmen/sophomore year</p>

<p>List of colleges I’m thinking of right now:</p>

<p>Reaches: UVA, UNC, Duke, Vandy, Rice, Emory, John’s hopkins, Dartmouth, USC, Uchicago, Georgetown, Northwestern, Cornell, Notre Dame</p>

<p>Matches: Umich, Boston College, (need more matches, if you have any in mind please post)</p>

<p>Safteys: University of Florida (bought prepaid when I lived there so I’m considered instate… I verified this with the dean), need more safteys</p>

<p>Early Decision: I’m really debating whether or not to apply ED to anywhere. If I do apply ED it will either be to Duke or Upenn. I know I have a very slim chance at getting into one of these schools but I know I will be happy attending them. I don’t want to apply ED to somewhere that isn’t a very high reach because that will eliminate my shot of getting into UVA.</p>

<p>2nd choice; Behind UVA I would like to attend UNC, Duke, or Umich. I don’t know how much of a reach these schools are but I’ve seen them and like them alot. </p>

<p>Final Words:
Guys, thank you so much for your help and advice on this thread. In the begining when I came to CC I was egotistical (thank you newenglander) and thought I had a chance to go to whatever college I wanted. However, throught my arrogance, sense was knocked into me and I now have a more realisitic view of what my college selection process is going to look like. I still would give a leg to go to UVA but I know that my chances are very slim to get in there so I’m trying to expand my horizon of what colleges I’m looking at. All I can say is that getting these acceptance letters will be a very interesting process (if I get a likely letter (which is increadibly unlikely lol) I will post a picture of me holding it and you will probably hear me screaming from where ever you live)</p>

<p>P.S. sorry about my spelling/grammer, I AM HORRID AT GRAMMER. (sat ;o)</p>

2

<p>what state are you located? </p>

<p>are you planning to take the SAT at all or are you sticking with ACT? Great score btw!</p>

3

<p>Have you checked out the College Match tool?
You might also look into schools like UMaryland, UDel, Clemson, URichmond, VCU, JMU, other VA state schools or other NC or SC state schools (like instead of UNC-CH you could look into the other UNC’s). But check out the college match tool it will definitely help you out.
What state are you from or did I just miss that?</p>

4

<p>You are going through a very natural process. Remove the word ‘stupidity’ from your vocabulary. If you need to label then choose ‘new approach’. Everyone should have a safety. The best advise we have been given is ‘Love thy safety!’. Many students ignore this and pick something rather randomly. If admissions are very steep that year and the safety becomes home, you often hear ‘I would never have chosen this school if I had really looked into it.’. Visit it and make sure you’ll love it. That way if things don’t work out the way your really want, you know you are going to a school you’ll be happy with. I’m going through this with S2 right now. He’s very reasonable about his match and a reach, but he has to work on choosing a safety.</p>

<p>Post this information on the ‘College Search’ forum where you will get a greater amount of viewers. Another thought you may want to investigate is a ‘safety’ school that will offer great merit aid and you may qualify for the honors college. The benefits are smaller classes, professors as opposed to TA’s, priority registration, to name just a few. The money saved can be put towards grad school! :)</p>

<p>Have fun investigating and learning about some other wonderful universities that just may turn out to be your dream school!!</p>

<p>Peace.</p>

5

<p>Check out Wake Forest as a match, Fordham as a safety.</p>

6

<p>First of all, your chances at UVA are pretty good, so have some hope. :slight_smile: Second of all, I don’t suggest applying to so many reaches. Just remember, you don’t want to seem cumbersome to your parents because the application fees for most of those colleges are $50+. There are lots of safety schools you can look into like Trinity University in Texas (great undergraduate school), Centre College in Kentucky, Case Western, Furman University, Clemson University, Wake Forest (match), University of Texas, etc. But the most important thing to remember is that you want to personify yourself well on your application, especially on your essays. Most colleges have supplemental essays that you need to focus on. University of Chicago has about three apart from the Common App Essay. UNC has quite a few as well. Just make sure you have plenty of time to complete each one to the best of your abilities. Think outside the box and SHOW, DON’T TELL.</p>

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<p>You are looking at a lot of the schools I looked at (which makes sense i guess). That being said, one school I would recommend looking at is Tulane. This year at least, I applied early action there, got in and got a very large scholarship I had no business getting. As the year goes on, their admissions process becomes more and more selective, so the early application is the way to go.</p>

<p>Also, if UVA is really important to you, I know of a good number of (instate) people who went to VCU for a year and then transferred into UVA. If you were somehow able to establish in state residency through something like this, then you would have no trouble getting in second year if you somehow missed it first time around.</p>

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<p>Hey this is a very mature step and trust me, seeing that you have other fantastic options will make you much happier in the long run :).</p>

<p>Galt makes a very good point – at schools with rolling admissions (i.e. UMich and UNC…) get your application in ASAP. Set a deadline for yourself and then meet it.</p>

<p>Hm, do you think that you could give us more information as to what you’re looking for in a school? (Potential majors/areas of interest, size, location, personality…) What do you hope to get out college? Etc., etc…</p>

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<p>Thanks for the help guys, I’m looking for a school that is in the south (perferablly). Also in response to gc414 UNC has rolling admissions? I knew Umich just got rid of theirs but UNC has them?</p>

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<p>UNC has two deadlines, I believe its a form of non-binding early action. You could probably find this out on the UNC forum, but I don’t actually think UNC gives preference to early applicants.</p>

11

<p>gc414, UNC doesn’t have rolling admissions!</p>

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<p>it’s not rolling admissions… but they start reading the applications as soon as they get them… in my head i knew that it wasn’t… but in the parenthetical phrase it didn’t come across that way…) bah whatever i got in anyway lol.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the help guys, UNC is still a sweet school…</p>

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<p>Your transcript is a strong suit for you…good job on keeping focused last year.
Working in a hardware store…I feel a good essay coming on.</p>

<p>If you would like to know more about Furman, let me know. It is less selective than Wake but quite challenging in the classrooms. They really want kids from outside of the SE with your stats that are males. You might stand out there if you did the merit application essays. Very southern vibe but new President…from Chicago, Yale Football player and first in his class at Duke Law…a first amendment guy who we are excited about. Sometimes a match college allows you to shine and makes for excellent grad school options. My classmates went to Harvard Med, Yale Div, Univ of Chicago (chem), Stanford, Northwestern (music), Vanderbilt (law), UVA (law) and to the more typical southern state grad schools native to students. Furman gets fewer Middle Atlantic state applicants and more from Florida than you will find at Wake.<br>
Our son liked the sports scene at Wake however.<br>
good luck…still hope you will change your screen name and reappear here…so we can greet you in your new more neutral persona.
The University of Richmond has a good bit of merit dollars and a strong program as well. Merit money at Wake Forest is extremely elusive and hard to locate.<br>
In VA in public schools, Wm and Mary is know for being highly selective like UVA but they get many fewer male applicants so sometimes guys get a break there (at the expense of equally or better qualified female applicants). We greatly revere Wm and Mary. Google and you can read about the disparity there for female applicants or merely type in Common Data Set in any college search window and you will see that males often get an advantage at Liberal Arts colleges where fewer male applicants congregate and all schools are eager to keep as close to a 50/50 balance as possible.
of the Rice/Duke/Vandy/Emory/Wash U medium sized research institutions with national reputations, Emory is by far the easiest admission…but Emory doesn’t admit students who do not demonstrate interest and whose applications do not display an understanding of their missions. Emory has a great impact in Atlanta …I used to work on their campus. Vandy’s RD was 16% last year…and less in regular decision cycle. Odds of admission to Dartmouth are quite remote for people with top test scores. (Eldest son knew this but didn’t quite believe it till the rejection letter arrived.)</p>

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<p>Faline - I mostly agree with your post, but I don’t understand your statement about Dartmouth. 2/3 of their enrolled students scored between 700-800 on each section of the SAT with nearly all the remainder scoring between 600-700. Not sure what you are considering top test scores, but looks to me like you need them to get in, as opposed to making your chances “quite remote”. Now top scores alone are not enough, that is true, but it certainly appears that not having them is what makes ones chances remote.</p>

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<p>I think faline meant “without top test scores.”</p>

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<p>Wow guys, thank you for the increadible help. I’m not going to change screen name till I get rejection letter because that 1% chance is still out there (and I’m still looking for it). My parents said if I don’t get into a top 30 school I’ll just got to Florida whcih I’m fine with because I’ll just transfer after a year or two. I’m applying to a lot of reaches and I hope I get into one but what can you do…</p>

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<p>UVA - Well, I think it is a shame to use rankings as any part of the decision process, but as long as you are OK with a school like UF (I mean that literally, not disparagingly), in other words with a huge entering class and large lectures, then of course it is a fine school. Otherwise I think it is a bit short-sighted to eliminate schools like Tulane and Miami.</p>

<p>FYI:

For future reference, it is grammar, lol.</p>

19

<p>One word of advice, don’t consider UF as a safety neither. It is very hard to get there too. Due to Bright Futures a lot of top kids are staying instate. It is very competitive to get in…</p>

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<p>It is moderately competitive, and this student should have no problem. 42% are admitted, and with the GPA and ACT he has, it should be no problem.</p>