<p>These are now my top 4 schools and I have a good chance on being accepted to most of these. I want to get away from home so I chose schools that had okay academics and had a campus feel that I believe I would enjoy all year with great weather. But now I cant seem to settle on one and I wish I could attend them all but I cant. So could someone help me by giving insight on these schools.</p>
<p>Honey, you have to apply first and be accepted in order to reach the point where you have to “decide”. It is dangerous to pin your hopes on any one college, especially these days. Stanford is a reach for the best students because it only accepts 8% of applicants. And Stanford could not be more different from these colleges -UMiami, UAlabama Tuscaloosa. They are your safeties?
What is it you are looking for in a college? What are your stats?</p>
<p>I know that I have to apply first I just wanted to get an idea of which school I should really reach for and what others think. Stanford is my top tier choice of school and I kno it would be sort of a reach but it isnt my top chioce. My ideal college would be one with solid academics, good weather year round, great social life, good pre-med program, good job placement, and an overall good reputation as an institution</p>
<p>USC would fit the bill. For those who qualify, [ gpa, sat scores] they have an excellent Honors science program with small classes and the best science teachers, a great writing intensive Honors humanities series called Thematic Options. If you have the GPA/ SAT’s to be in the running for Stanford, then you SHOULD send in your application to USC by no later than Dec 1, in order to qualify for their generous merit scholarships. This will NOT prevent you from applying early SCEA to Stanford, if that is something that you are considering. Also, if you are a NMF[ and you should know already if your PSAT stats qualify you for NMSF status] then you already qualify for an automatic 1/2 tuition scholarship at USC.</p>
<p>USC! And you might also want to look into UCLA. Both have excellent academics, awesome Cali weather all year round, etc. </p>
<p>But to be honest, if you think you can get into Stanford go for Stanford</p>
<p>Just want to make sure the USC here is not university of SOUTH CAROLINA, and Stanford here is not SAMFORD. I think UMiami, Bama, South Carolina, and Samford can make a group of peer schools, and are hard to choose from each other.</p>
<p>USC is southern Cali and Stanford is the real Stanford.</p>
<p>UMiami has a significant male-female ratio imbalance, if that could be important to you. The pre-med program is enhanced by a large hospital at the edge of campus, where jobs, internships and Dr.-shadowing opportunities are easy to pursue. The big pond on campus has alligators in it. USC and Stanford have their drawbacks, but at least humans are the highest species in the campus food chain.</p>
<p>Stanford, especially for graduate school.</p>
<p>What are your stats?</p>
<p>Why in the world would you want to go to UAlabama Tuscaloosa if you have the stats for the other 3?</p>
<p>UAlabama seems to be the only oos school that my mother and I could agree upon because we have family nearby. That is sort of my last resort to going away with peace. That being said my ACT score was a 27 but I plan to retake it to get at least a 30. My weighted gpa is 4.54. I am number one in my high school class and I am involved in about five EC activities.</p>
<p>Your stats are very similar to mine. I did get accepted to USC two years ago (and this year b/c I did an application update).</p>
<p>I had a 27 ACT and a 4.5 GPA. I live about 20 miles from USC, so I’m not sure how they treat local versus out of state students, but if you do retake the ACT to get a 30, you’ll be in the running for scholarships, possibly. </p>
<p>Stanford is a great university, but remember to keep a level head when you think about Stanford because of their very low acceptance rate.</p>
<p>I’m unfamiliar with the two other universities you’ve listed, but I would think that you have a very good chance of getting into UMiami and UAlabama Tuscaloosa.</p>
<p>Realistically, you need to find a much more reachable “reach” college than Stanford, given your current ACT score of 27, which Stanford will see. An ACT score of 30 puts you in the bottom 25% of accepted students, which include their numerous recruited athletes. Add that to the fact that Stanford rejects 92% of all applicants and I really think[ as a Stanford area local who sees a lot of the kids who do and don’t get accepted there] that if you planning on applying only a few schools you need to modify your list of schools . Take a look at Stanford’s common data set statistics.[Stanford</a> University: Common Data Set 2008-2009](<a href=“Stanford Common Data Set | University Communications”>Stanford Common Data Set | University Communications).
What about Rice as a reach?</p>
<p>I’ve looked at Rice in the past but it doesn’t really appeal to me that much</p>
<p>Either way you need to raise your scores because you’re in the bottom quartile for Stanford and USC.</p>
<p>What’s your unweighted? Weighted doesn’t mean much since every school/city/state uses a different weighting system.</p>
<p>Well, Stanford “appeals” to a lot of kids, but given how incredibly competitive admissions are these days, that isn’t a very good reason to apply. I personally think you would be wasting your time applying, unless you have some incredible EC’s that would make you stand out among 25,000 applicants. Sorry to be harsh.</p>
<p>Actually, in my opinion (which is not worth anything), OP actually has a chance at Stanford considering all stats stated from previous posts.</p>
<p>Apply to all and see what happens. Then come back here and we’ll help you decide where you should go. :)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>If you can get in to Stanford, you should consider that they no longer charge tuition to families making under $100K/yr and no room and board fees if you make less than $60K.
Depending on your financial circumstances, you could graduate entirely debt free.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, USC is not following this trend amongst premier colleges with high endowments.</p>