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And yes, how many schools should I apply to?
When I was applying, the general rule of thumb was 10. I know your circumstances are different, but even in my own circumstances, this was not a hard-and-fast rule.
For example applications to the University of California college system were all on the same application so there was no reason not to submit the same application to 3 colleges instead of just one. (except like an extra $30 per college blehh...)
Meanwhile, almost all the private schools I applied to, with the exception of MIT and Stanford(?), were on the Common App. I just submitted that (along with a 1-page supplement unique to each college), to 6 or so top-tier colleges (again paying an addition ~$100 fee for each one).
The idea is really just one of insurance. At the end of the day there is a stochastic element from your perspective as to whether or not you get in, and thus the more places you apply to, the better off you are.
This is completely different from, say, the Asian system where your test score determines 95% of whether you get into a college, and what college you put as your 1st, 2nd, 3rd choice actually matters.
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how much do rankings matter?
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On September 05 2010 02:05 geometryb wrote:
how much do rankings matter?
It depends entirely on which ranking you're using.
I'm not saying that rankings are entirely arbitrary (in fact most reputable ranking systems are based on some concrete formula in some form or another) but their relevance to the on-campus experience is tenuous at best.
They key issue is that the standards used by the rankers and your personal standards may be entirely different. In fact, no standardized metric will work for the "mass" of students with their myriad interests and goals.
I'll give an example:
My school's compsci department is not very highly rated. One of the reasons is that it is incredibly small. Each class only graduates a few dozen (tops) majors, and the CS program is not necessarily the best outlet into going to a top-5 CS grad program.
Nonetheless, I enjoy the major program a lot because of the ridiculous personal attention each student receives. No class above the intro level ever has more than 20 or so people... and often you're on a first-name basis (as a lowly undergrad) with all the grad students and many of the Profs. The resources spent on the department are also enormous, and when divided among so few undergraduates, means you can freely get an entire lab to yourself for several days at a time to run a CPU-intensive computational experiment.
So I guess my advice is to take rankings with a grain of salt. More important than the number or rank is the explanation.
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How much does the writing score on the SAT matter? I took the SAT in the spring and my writing score was significantly lower then my other two scores. I heard that since the writing was new that some schools wouldn't really take the test into consideration, is that the case? (M 700,CR 710,W 630)
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It's not very new, no. And it does matter to almost all top schools (with as of 4 years ago, a few notable exceptions). That being said, it probably matters proportionally less than the other two sections.
However, depending on which schools you're shooting at (private/public) you can retake and only shoot for the writing section.
This is because almost all private schools give you the benefit of a "super score." That means on the application when it asks you to fill in your SAT score, you just write the best score you've gotten on a section through all your attempts (assuming <=3 attempts).
Many state schools require your best "single-sitting" SAT score however, so if that's your target, you might need to put in a little more effort into restudying for the SAT.
But seriously... I don't want to sound like a jackass, but the SAT is one of the easiest ways (in terms of time investment vs. return) to improve your chances of getting into a good school. If you're willing to put the time in I'd recommend you retake. You're in the range where if you get 1-2 more questions right in each section and get your act together in writing, you could be looking at 750+ across the board...
I don't want to turn this into an SAT thread, but if you want some more tips as to how to improve your SAT score, feel free to PM me.
However, don't take this as a "OMG NOW I HAVE TO RETAKE THE SAT \WRISTS." I'm just saying that given your current scores, getting just a few more questions right puts you into the "star student" range of many colleges. That range is usually 2250+.
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It's okay synapse. My GPA has been dropping since Freshmen year, and I need perfect grades to boost up my GPA and to look okay on transcript.
I know that downhill is bad, aka I'm screwed.
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On September 05 2010 02:58 supernovamaniac wrote:
It's okay synapse. My GPA has been dropping since Freshmen year, and I need perfect grades to boost up my GPA and to look okay on transcript.
I know that downhill is bad, aka I'm screwed.
GPA doesn't matter in a strict sense, but your GPA relative to your classmates DOES matter. Top colleges want to know if you're in the top 1%, top 5%, etc... academically.
One sort of unfair trend is that if you're slightly above average at a super-competitive school, vs. top 3 of a shit school, the latter is more likely to get you accepted... even if the former student has better standardized test scores...
But regardless, just do your best, and keep looking forward!
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On September 05 2010 03:01 love1another wrote:Show nested quote +On September 05 2010 02:58 supernovamaniac wrote:
It's okay synapse. My GPA has been dropping since Freshmen year, and I need perfect grades to boost up my GPA and to look okay on transcript.
I know that downhill is bad, aka I'm screwed. GPA doesn't matter in a strict sense, but your GPA relative to your classmates DOES matter. Top colleges want to know if you're in the top 1%, top 5%, etc... academically. One sort of unfair trend is that if you're slightly above average at a super-competitive school, vs. top 3 of a shit school, the latter is more likely to get you accepted... even if the former student has better standardized test scores... But regardless, just do your best, and keep looking forward!
I'm looking forward everyday, it's just the fact that stupid transcript confirmation arrived in my mail and it just went *BOOM FU* on my face.
I'm just hoping my extra curricular activities and my SAT/ACT scores will cover up the GPA shit T.T
Thanks for the encouraging words though =3
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On September 05 2010 03:04 supernovamaniac wrote:Show nested quote +On September 05 2010 03:01 love1another wrote:On September 05 2010 02:58 supernovamaniac wrote:
It's okay synapse. My GPA has been dropping since Freshmen year, and I need perfect grades to boost up my GPA and to look okay on transcript.
I know that downhill is bad, aka I'm screwed. GPA doesn't matter in a strict sense, but your GPA relative to your classmates DOES matter. Top colleges want to know if you're in the top 1%, top 5%, etc... academically. One sort of unfair trend is that if you're slightly above average at a super-competitive school, vs. top 3 of a shit school, the latter is more likely to get you accepted... even if the former student has better standardized test scores... But regardless, just do your best, and keep looking forward! I'm looking forward everyday, it's just the fact that stupid transcript confirmation arrived in my mail and it just went *BOOM FU* on my face. I'm just hoping my extra curricular activities and my SAT/ACT scores will cover up the GPA shit T.T Thanks for the encouraging words though =3
Yeah... what tends to happen is that a 2400 + 36 will make people not exactly care about your GPA. More than a few of my friends took this route... did shitty in high school, then crammed for the SAT, and got 2350+. Then they all got into their top choice of UC Berkeley.
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I was a pretty horrid student my freshman and sophomore year (like 3.23 gpa), and didn't take many challenging classes; however, my junior year I took a few AP classes and got all A's and my gpa is rising. My senior year, I'm taking even more AP classes, and hopefully my gpa will rise to at least a 3.9+ (if that's possible).
My question is, am I unable to go to a top school like MIT because of those two horrible, horrible years? What can I do to improve my chances?
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Would you say it's easier or harder to get into an American college if you are a foreigner? As I'm from Sweden, I'm interested in studying psychology maybe sometime in the future, and I was considering studying in America or in another English-speaking country. Though, I'm wondering if foreign applicants are generally biased against, and if so, biased against negatively or positively?
Does the fact that I'm a foreigner increase or lower my chances of acceptance?
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United States24637 Posts
What do you guys think about class rank? How important is it? How often is it used? My high school didn't calculate a class rank intentionally.
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On September 05 2010 03:06 MidasMulligan wrote:
I was a pretty horrid student my freshman and sophomore year (like 3.23 gpa), and didn't take many challenging classes; however, my junior year I took a few AP classes and got all A's and my gpa is rising. My senior year, I'm taking even more AP classes, and hopefully my gpa will rise to at least a 3.9+ (if that's possible).
My question is, am I unable to go to a top school like MIT because of those two horrible, horrible years? What can I do to improve my chances?
Hmmm.... A simple calculation will tell you that, assuming your GPA is unweighted, that your 3.23 will not average with even a 4.0 to produce anything approaching 3.9. (3.23 * 1 + 4.0 * X)/(X+1) = 3.9
Solve for x to find that you'll have to take something like 5 times as many classes your last two years as you did your first two years to catch up.
That being said, if you are a female and you can pull off a 2250+ SAT score and can talk confidently about some extracurriculars, you can probably get in.
If you're white/desi/east-asian, however, and you're not at one of the top high schools in the nation, you're chances aren't looking good.
That being said, however, my conclusion only has a basis if you're talking specifically about MIT. MIT is notorious for its male/female affirmative action, where females have something like a 3x higher admit rate (source questionable, but I think it's in the right ballpark) than males.
If you're talking about other good schools, like NYU (or a lot of liberal arts schools for that matter), the situation is totallly reversed.
Anyway, good luck and keep working hard!
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On September 05 2010 03:11 love1another wrote:
If you're talking about other good schools, like NYU (or a lot of liberal arts schools for that matter), the situation is totallly reversed.
At our school it's considered average T.T
I hate my school's standards.
On September 05 2010 03:06 MidasMulligan wrote:
I was a pretty horrid student my freshman and sophomore year (like 3.23 gpa), and didn't take many challenging classes; however, my junior year I took a few AP classes and got all A's and my gpa is rising. My senior year, I'm taking even more AP classes, and hopefully my gpa will rise to at least a 3.9+ (if that's possible).
My question is, am I unable to go to a top school like MIT because of those two horrible, horrible years? What can I do to improve my chances?
Believe it or not, extra curricular can help, especially Math Team.
I only have 3.5 unweighted (Fuck you junior year) and only aiming around 3.6 with senior year boost. But I'm going to apply to top schools due to things other than the ones on transcript.
IMO, without GPA, I think I can get into good schools that I want to go into (especially math related).
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On September 05 2010 03:11 micronesia wrote:
What do you guys think about class rank? How important is it? How often is it used? My high school didn't calculate a class rank intentionally.
The particular number is rarely important, but you often are forced by the college application to give some estimate. So long as you have some sense as to whether you're in the top 1%/top 5% you should be okay.
It is used almost exclusively as the metric in the admissions offices, since it is completely ridiculous to compare the GPA of one school (which is out of 100) to the GPA of another school (which is out of 4.0 unscaled) to the GPA of yet another school (which gives you bonus points for AP/Honors classes).
Thus, the only real way admissions officers can compare you to a student from another school (this is actually rarely ever done in the sense of putting two apps next to each other, but in a broad sense... in order to establish thresholds at each stage) these officers must use a more "fair" ranking system, and that is class rank.
See my previous posts for a bit more detail, or just download the application for the colleges you're interested in to see precisely what they ask for.
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On September 05 2010 02:04 love1another wrote:When I was applying, the general rule of thumb was 10. I know your circumstances are different, but even in my own circumstances, this was not a hard-and-fast rule. For example applications to the University of California college system were all on the same application so there was no reason not to submit the same application to 3 colleges instead of just one. (except like an extra $30 per college blehh...) Meanwhile, almost all the private schools I applied to, with the exception of MIT and Stanford(?), were on the Common App. I just submitted that (along with a 1-page supplement unique to each college), to 6 or so top-tier colleges (again paying an addition ~$100 fee for each one). The idea is really just one of insurance. At the end of the day there is a stochastic element from your perspective as to whether or not you get in, and thus the more places you apply to, the better off you are. This is completely different from, say, the Asian system where your test score determines 95% of whether you get into a college, and what college you put as your 1st, 2nd, 3rd choice actually matters.
also... something that could make life easier is applying to a uni that you're keen on going to that has early action- then come regular application time, if you've been accepted to an EA school, you don't have to worry about applying to safety schools.
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On September 05 2010 03:07 SolHeiM wrote:
Would you say it's easier or harder to get into an American college if you are a foreigner? As I'm from Sweden, I'm interested in studying psychology maybe sometime in the future, and I was considering studying in America or in another English-speaking country. Though, I'm wondering if foreign applicants are generally biased against, and if so, biased against negatively or positively?
Does the fact that I'm a foreigner increase or lower my chances of acceptance?
I'd say the most important factors are:
1.) What country you're from and
2.) How much money your family makes.
If you're from an under-represented country it's a plus, because colleges like to brag that "we have students from 173 countries in our freshman class!"
The second factor comes in because a lot of top colleges are "need blind" to domestic students. That means that your financials and your applicant statistics are completely separate and are looked at by completely separate people so that your ability to pay does not affect whether or not you are accepted. Fortunately, or unfortunately, most of these schools do not extend the "need blind" policy to foreign students. Simple conclusion? If you're rich it's a good thing. If you're poor, well you better damn well be amazing.
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United States24637 Posts
On September 05 2010 03:15 love1another wrote:Show nested quote +On September 05 2010 03:11 micronesia wrote:
What do you guys think about class rank? How important is it? How often is it used? My high school didn't calculate a class rank intentionally. The particular number is rarely important, but you often are forced by the college application to give some estimate. So long as you have some sense as to whether you're in the top 1%/top 5% you should be okay. It is used almost exclusively as the metric in the admissions offices, since it is completely ridiculous to compare the GPA of one school (which is out of 100) to the GPA of another school (which is out of 4.0 unscaled) to the GPA of yet another school (which gives you bonus points for AP/Honors classes). Thus, the only real way admissions officers can compare you to a student from another school (this is actually rarely ever done in the sense of putting two apps next to each other, but in a broad sense... in order to establish thresholds at each stage) these officers must use a more "fair" ranking system, and that is class rank. See my previous posts for a bit more detail, or just download the application for the colleges you're interested in to see precisely what they ask for.
Actually my guidance department had a stamp they used wherever an application said "class rank" or "approximate class rank" which said "class rank precluded by board of education" or something like that :p
But I'm guessing in special case high schools the admission officers are already familiar with them and can get the same basic info from the gpa etc
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On September 05 2010 03:11 love1another wrote:Show nested quote +On September 05 2010 03:06 MidasMulligan wrote:
I was a pretty horrid student my freshman and sophomore year (like 3.23 gpa), and didn't take many challenging classes; however, my junior year I took a few AP classes and got all A's and my gpa is rising. My senior year, I'm taking even more AP classes, and hopefully my gpa will rise to at least a 3.9+ (if that's possible).
My question is, am I unable to go to a top school like MIT because of those two horrible, horrible years? What can I do to improve my chances? That being said, if you are a female and you can pull off a 2250+ SAT score and can talk confidently about some extracurriculars, you can probably get in.
This is kind of a weird question, but what exactly IS an extracurricular? What kind of extracurricular are out there? Are there specific ones that MIT might be more interested in? How do I go about finding them?
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On September 05 2010 03:22 MidasMulligan wrote:Show nested quote +On September 05 2010 03:11 love1another wrote:On September 05 2010 03:06 MidasMulligan wrote:
I was a pretty horrid student my freshman and sophomore year (like 3.23 gpa), and didn't take many challenging classes; however, my junior year I took a few AP classes and got all A's and my gpa is rising. My senior year, I'm taking even more AP classes, and hopefully my gpa will rise to at least a 3.9+ (if that's possible).
My question is, am I unable to go to a top school like MIT because of those two horrible, horrible years? What can I do to improve my chances? That being said, if you are a female and you can pull off a 2250+ SAT score and can talk confidently about some extracurriculars, you can probably get in. This is kind of a weird question, but what exactly IS an extracurricular? What kind of extracurricular are out there? Are there specific ones that MIT might be more interested in? How do I go about finding them?
Something that MIT is interested in: AMC/AIME scores (I FUCKED UP AIME T.T). It's a math competition held in USA every year during Feb.~Mar.
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EPT
