what's a "just right"?

College Search & Lists
1

<p>Hiya. My S needs a few “just right choices” according to his GC. Seems that all we could come up with are reaches: Stanford, Dartmouth, Brown, WUSL, Williams, G’town, Rice, Northwestern, notre Dame, UChicago, William & mary. </p>

<p>Criteria: nat’l university, private, preferably near a city, FA not issue, pre-med/research</p>

<p>Stats:
SAT 1550/2250, 750CR, 800M, 700W
SAT IIs: 730 USH, 750 Bio-E, 800 M
gpa: 4.25 cum(W)…3.8 freshman, 4.36 soph, 4.47 junior
transcript: 8 APs, 14 Honors
AP score: 5 on USH, Bio, US Gov. 4 on Comp Gov.</p>

<p>Tons of awards: State (Science Fairs) and Nat’l (History/Debate)
NHS, AP Honor w/ Distinction</p>

<p>ECs: EIC satire newpaper, Entertainment editor school newspaper, Scouts (Eagle in spring 2010), EMS, Safe Rides, Debate Team</p>

<p>We’re certain GC will want to see some schools where their acceptance rate is >25%. Suggestions?</p>

2

<p>Forgot to add: white male, HS doesn’t rank, ?/2500, very competitive school, probably top 20% (freshman year pretty low)</p>

3

<p>ND and W & M seem just right. Maybe Bowdoin, Bates, Colgate, Vassar.</p>

4

<p>Emory, Case Western Reserve, Rochester, Tulane, NYU, George Washington</p>

5

<p>Bowdoin/Bates/Vassar are not national Us. I don’t remember if Colgate is categorized as a national U or an LAC, but it straddles the line (larger size than most LACs, has D1 athletics). Not anywhere near a city, though.</p>

<p>I second all of zapfino’s suggestions. If you’re looking at Georgetown, you should look at GWU and American as a matter of course.</p>

<p>What is his unweighted GPA? Top 20% doesn’t suggest particularly good grades, but it is a very competitive school; weighted GPA is useless though without knowing what your weighting system is.</p>

6

<p>Tulane for the $$ (and I mean merit, if you were wondering) and an early admission…GW good choice as well…</p>

<p>Just to add to Keilexandra’s post, a 4.25 W GPA = top 20% smells of grade inflation big time…an unweighted GPA would be more helpful but if that would technically drop the rank, your schools are definitely tippy-top…</p>

7

<p>American U is a good suggestion. DC is an unbeatable city to go to college in.</p>

8

<p>Tulane is a great choice. How about Santa Clara…it’s considered a Masters, but it’s a top ranked school.</p>

9

<p>Tufts, Southern Cal and Wake Forest seem easily in line with his stats.</p>

10

<p>I’m not at all sure about his rank. Several of his friends have 4.8 out of 5. But he hangs out with incredibly gifted kids, so who knows. In truth, I’d put him about top 15%. Mostly, he has Bs and As.</p>

<p>Here are the suggestions so far that seem “just right”: ND, W&M, Tufts, Wake Forest, Case Western, NYU, Rochester, GW, American.</p>

<p>What confuses me is the prevalence of LACs as “just right”. In that category, there’s Trinity, Lafayette, ConnCol, Oberlin, Colgate, and on and on. It feels that if we added a safety, it would be a LAC. This has us think less highly of LACs, although of course that’s totally not true. Where’s the balance?</p>

11

<p>I missed the national U part. While Dartmouth is one it’s really an LAC in disguise, Williams is a quintessential LAC, and W & M is one, and Brown is LAC like so the list already includes several.</p>

<p>What do you want out of a school?</p>

12

<p>My S liked Williams and Dartmouth, even though both are LAC or quasi-LAC and he originally thought he would prefer a nat’l school. He also thought he wanted urban until he visited those two as well. He’s really hoping to find a great research / pre-med school. Approx 3-7+M kids, lots of clubs, good intellectual diversity. He likes spirited debates. </p>

<p>Right now, he attends a public school, 2800+ kids and at least 55+ clubs. It’s well known, very competitive, and has steller sports (football, soccer, lacrosse, ski, swim, diving, water polo, gymnastics, volleyball, fencing, track, XC, wrestling, baskketball, etc.) where most kids who participate are recruited. (he’s not one of them). But there’s tons of school spirit.</p>

<p>He’d like a similar situation in college, on a slightly bigger scale.</p>

13

<p>Seems to me he should include Duke on his list. Vanderbilt as a “likely”.</p>

<p>Is your question: do LACs have a lower prestige? I daresay yes, although that of course is an opinion. Some LACs are much more selective and prestigious than others. SWAMP are all very selective, but because they’re smaller too, less well known.</p>

14

<p>I thought of USC, NYU, Lehigh, Carnegie Mellon</p>

15

<p>Your list should be classified as mostly all matches with just a couple of reaches. Your S would also have a great time at Colgate, Duke, Emory & Lehigh.</p>

16

<p>The only school that might be considered a match is W&M full-pay. Colgate, Emory, and Lehigh would also be safer. Duke is a low reach.</p>

17

<p>Boston College</p>

18

<p>Holy Cross-great pre-med with new science building and strong alumni network. Agree, about Duke and W&M.</p>