Where should I apply?

[spydertennis]

<p>GPA - 94 unweighted, 97.7 weighted, top twenty in rank</p>

<p>PSAT - 2280
SAT I - 2210
SAT II -
Biology 740 and 800
Math 780 and 800
Physics - 800</p>

<p>Classes
Sophmore
AP Calc BC - 5
AP Euro History - 4
Junior
AP US History
AP Biology
AP Physics B
AP English Composition
Multivariable Calc
Senior
AP Government
AP Chem
AP Physics C
AP Spanish
AP English Lit
AP Economics
Graph Theory</p>

<p>Extra Currics
Varsity Tennis 4 Years on the best team in the county
Mathletes A Team
Art Club
Key Club
Writer for the Literary Magazine
Editor of the School Newspaper
Founder/President of the Film Directors Club
Founder of the local Unite For Sight Chapter
President of the Future Business Leaders of America
President of the Academic Team
Volunteer teaching mentally challenged kids tennis</p>

<p>Research
8th grade summer - mathpath
9th grade summer - genetics research in Cyprus
10th grade summer - nanotech research in Russia
11th grade summer - RSI at MIT</p>

<p>brother and sister went to Harvard</p>

<p>Well, I'm trying to decide where I should apply, reach, match, safety, etc...
The only problem is I have no idea about how hard it is to get into any colleges and stuff. So could you just give me an idea what I'm looking at...</p>

[chanman]

<p>anywhere is fine</p>

[crumflake]

<p>ok, i dont even need to look at your stats. u should apply anywhere were ureally would want to attend. forget the "oh, my stats arnt good enough for an ivy" thinking.if u like the program/the atmosphere/or anything about it besides the name, then u should def apply. and GOOD luck</p>

[spydertennis]

<p>yeah but i dont know anything about colleges, actually make that, I dont know any colleges.
any help?</p>

[crumflake]

<p>first, what do u want to study? and what kind of enviroment do u want? small or large?</p>

[spydertennis]

<p>umm im have no idea what i want to study... prob business though i dont know whether i want to go to business or med school... large college though... i def want to apply to harvard and stanford, but besides the big names i really dont know any colleges.</p>

[aroundthecorner]

<p>Yes, before you show your stats what do you want out of a college? It's usually reverse, knowing where you want to go THEN showing your stats of if you can get in. </p>

<p>Take a look at Princeton Review's Counselor-O-Matic. You don't have to go by the results, but the questions that they ask will get you thinking and narrowing down your list. </p>

<p>Be prepared to pick some solid safeties too! If you look around you'll see some amazing people rejected to all schools.</p>

[spydertennis]

<p>what colleges can i get into with these kind of stats?</p>

[crumflake]

<p>none, u arnt guaranteed a spot anywhere, except at the community college</p>

[spydertennis]

<p>wow you are an ass
didnt your mommy ever tell you, if you dont have anything nice to say shut the **** up</p>

[aroundthecorner]

<p>I don't think he meant to be mean. In general, no one is guaranteed anywhere. Be careful with safeties.</p>

[dufus3709]

<p>I agree. There are no guarantees. Over the last few decades, the number of people going to college has increased dramatically. Also increasing competition is that the colleges have made it possible for people of low income to attend, and the number of colleges that people apply to has increases from 3-4 to 8-10. </p>

<p>At the same time, the top colleges still have the same number of open slots. The acceptance game has gotten insane. For every applicant accepted to schools like Harvard, Yale or Princeton, there are four or five applicants of identical calibre who are denied. In 2003, there were 760 people with 1600's on their SAT's. Two thirds of them applied to Harvard, and less than 200 were accepted. It is a crap shoot to a large degree. </p>

<p>With your stats, you can apply anywhere. If you apply to some schools where you look over qualified, they might deny you because they think you are using them for a safety. Colleges track your level of interest. If you go to a seminar, or a college visit, or ask for information; they track that information.</p>

<p>Now back to your main question.... Your first decision is whether you want to go to a large state university, a small liberal arts college, or a medium size private university. It sounds like you need some names. Try looking at the US and News Report rankings. The universities are at:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/ranknatudoc_brief.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/ranknatudoc_brief.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>and the liberal arts schools are at:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/ranklibartco_brief.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/ranklibartco_brief.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Then get one of the Colleges Guides such as Princeton Review's Top 357 Colleges and start looking up colleges.</p>

[spydertennis]

<p>whats the difference between a liberal arts college and a private university?</p>

[sr6622]

<p>LIberal arts can only get you a bachelor's degree right?</p>

[dufus3709]

<p>A large university has 18000 or 30000 students. It is normally a public university (but not always, i.e. Boston Univ). The facilities are fantastic. There are a lot of opportunities. It is easy to get lost and forgotten and the advising is weak. The professors are interested in research, and classes sometimes taught by graduate students. Classes are larger. Tuition is lower, but this isn't that important provided you qualify for good financial aid. </p>

<p>A liberal arts school is a private school with 1000-4000 students. It doesn't have huge research facilities. The students and professors may know each other on a first name basis. Classes are small. Because of lesser resources, these school may be a little weaker on science and concentrate on liberal arts subjects like English and History. On the other hand, some are very strong with science. The emphasis is on undergraduate education and not on research. Tuition is higher than a public school, but this isn't that important provided you qualify for good financial aid.</p>

<p>A medium size university has about 4000 or 5000 students. The facilities may be good, and some of these schools are the best in the nation. The student-faculty ratio might be low, like 12:1. Good examples of medium size universities are Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Washington Univ in St Louis, Tufts, Vanderbilt, and Emory. Tuition is higher, but ...</p>

<p>I would recommend that you do some research over the summer before senior year. Get a college guide that is general and will talk about the differences between types of schools. Then you might get the Princeton Review Top 357 Colleges guide. That guide will talk about individual colleges including campus life and the personality of the school. It's hard to just read the guide from beginning to end, so check out the US News and World Report rankings. I don't mean so much for the rankings as much as just to get a list of names that you can look up in the Top 357 Colleges guide. Try visiting some nearby colleges. You don't have to really be interested in the school, but you can visit different types of schools just to get a feeling for where you feel comfortable. Public/Private, Large/Medium/Small, Urban/Rural, ...</p>