Applying to college

[blitzlefan]

Should apply to Oklahoma, too, lots of free money for National Merit. One of my friends from HS got a full ride.

University of Alabama will give you a free four years, instant access into their honors program, and some other weird stuff for national merit (or just free four years for an act of 32 or higher). The question is wether or not you want to go there.

I've actually heard similar things about the University of Alabama, though I'm sort of terrified of leaving everything behind. I really do want to go to a college that'll recognize National Merit as well as the International Baccalaureate program (UT doesn't), so I'll look into those! However, UT Dallas has a pretty high priority because a notable percentage of IB graduates end up going into UTD (so I'll know people there), it's in-state (I live in Texas), and it's not too far from home, though far enough (it's around a 4 hour drive).

Thanks for the responses! :)

 

[toshimelonhead]

Im applying to ucsb in a few hours and UT Austin tomorrow, really excited this is almost over. I should hear back from UW - Madison with in the next 2 weeks I think.

I have no desire to apply anywhere else it's too exhausting.

That's OK, once you come visit Madison you will wonder why you bothered to apply anywhere else :)

 

[Laurel]

That's OK, once you come visit Madison you will wonder why you bothered to apply anywhere else :)

Lmao I have to get in first. Do you go there?

 

[toshimelonhead]

Lmao I have to get in first. Do you go there?

Yup

 

[GatoDelFuego]

I've actually heard similar things about the University of Alabama, though I'm sort of terrified of leaving everything behind. I really do want to go to a college that'll recognize National Merit as well as the International Baccalaureate program (UT doesn't), so I'll look into those! However, UT Dallas has a pretty high priority because a notable percentage of IB graduates end up going into UTD (so I'll know people there), it's in-state (I live in Texas), and it's not too far from home, though far enough (it's around a 4 hour drive).

Thanks for the responses! :)

Alabama is a lovely school. I'm a sophomore right now studying aerospace engineering. I'm not national merit, but I get free tuition anyways because of my high ACT scores. If you have a 32 or above you get tuition completely paid for, AND if you're studying engineering and have a 30 or above you get the same bonuses. One of my roommates is national merit and I'm 95% sure that you get 4 free years of tuition anyway. You also get one free year of housing completely free (they used to do 4 years but then too many people started getting in on it), which is a great value (housing is EXPENSIVE!). The dorms here are first-rate; I've got three roommates but we each have our own rooms and only share a living room and kitchen. I don't follow the football here but it's a cool thing to have. It's kind of a shame that the university's only heard about for its football, because it's actually a really good program with great connections. There's tons of people here from texas, I'm sure you wouldn't have trouble finding people from around where you are even (I'm from chicago and I've met tons of people). I'd heavily recommend you take a closer look at alabama, it's fantastic and I love it here.

verbatim you don't go here, do you?

 

[verbatim]

No, I got accepted, but I want to hear back from all of my schools before making a decision. (if I get into University of Chicago, I'm going there, if not I'll sit down and think about everything else)

 

[Ray Jay]

The biggest thing I can suggest, even after you find out where you've been accepted, is to tour different campuses. I toured the campus I'm at now, University of Colorado Boulder, and absolutely fell in love with it despite having some supposedly "better" options available to me academically. I talked with people from some of these other places (not going to name them just so I don't steer anyone away), and they were frankly very rude and I started to be kind of anxious about my first year in college. Meanwhile, I took a tour of CU Boulder and loved the campus (you're going to be living there for a while, so pick somewhere livable!) and met tons of super nice and frankly astonishingly impressive people in my field of study who really seemed like they were in it for me.

Now, I actually give campus tours at CU and the thing I've actually been told the most is "after touring the different schools my top choice in school has completely changed". And that's to be expected! There will be some places you will find yourself fitting in naturally from day 1. There will be some places you thought were your dream school and turn out to be a huge mismatch with you. So take a campus tour of everywhere you're seriously considering! And if you're interested in applying to CU, feel free to talk to me~

 

[Lamppost]

I'm going to ohio state :)

 

[Brap]

I've got 5 conditional offers at 3 Unis around the North West.

My personal statement was quite fun as I had to split it between Mechanical Engineering and Economics, the two (totally different) subjects I applied for.

Need between CCC (Salford Uni lol) and BBB (Manchester Met) to get in from my 3 A-Levels (Maths, Physics & Economics). Might not seem that hard a task, but after my dismal showing last year of BDE (which ironically is an anagram of bed; where I spent most of time this past 12 months), not forgetting a U in further maths and a D in compulsory General Studies, I've got a fair amount of work (and plenty re-sits) on my plate this summer.

Also, Michael Gove is a wanker.

 

[billymills]

What does that even mean?

 

[Super Mario Bro]

Welp, I just applied to UCLA and UCSD as a transfer student. Hope I get in!

 

[Zystral]

I've got 5 conditional offers at 3 Unis around the North West.

My personal statement was quite fun as I had to split it between Mechanical Engineering and Economics, the two (totally different) subjects I applied for.

Need between CCC (Salford Uni lol) and BBB (Manchester Met) to get in from my 3 A-Levels (Maths, Physics & Economics). Might not seem that hard a task, but after my dismal showing last year of BDE (which ironically is an anagram of bed; where I spent most of time this past 12 months), not forgetting a U in further maths and a D in compulsory General Studies, I've got a fair amount of work (and plenty re-sits) on my plate this summer.

Also, Michael Gove is a wanker.

General studies is a piece of shit, the fact that your school has it compulsory means I'm already judging.
My personal tutor at Imperial is also one of the Admissions Tutors, and he says he ignores General Studies when it's written on an application.

Regarding Manchester - a lot of my friends go there currently and they're all enjoying it. The social life is really good, but the quality of work is quite poor; none of them feel challenged at all.

Maths is a pretty easy A-level to pass, depending on which modules you're taking. I personally found the four Core modules a breeze.

Regarding Economics; which exam board are you on? If you look over the past papers, you'll usually be able to piece together gaps in the examined syllabus and predict what's coming next. I'd definitely recommend getting used to being able to pick out data and identify the theory behind it. Being able to analyse a PPF curve, or being able to accurately draw and describe an AD/AS curve are some of the easiest marks you can get.

Physics was one of my worst subjects mainly because I got cocky and complacent. You cannot afford to rush Physics. It's not like in Maths where you take the wrong turn but you know that you went wrong because the answer clearly doesn't work; in Physics, anything to any decimal point can be considered a correct answer, the biggest advice here is to carefully read the question then reread and think what you need to do.

Have you had interviews anywhere else yet? Where are the other places you've received offers from?

also lol enjoy that 9k.

 

[♡ GagaOopsy♡]

I got accepted into all the colleges that I applied.

 

[ssbbm]

DEFERRRRRREDDD AHHHHHHHHHHH i really hope that i dont have to depend on this semesters grade cuz they are SHIT

 

[Stratos]

Rejected from caltech and deferred from mit woo

Also why the fuck do you even apply early to maryland they dont respond until jan 31 i mean what the fuck, really. Fuck college maybe ill go be a stripper instead

 

[moonbound]

Deferred MIT. I still need to apply to Duke, Rice, Caltech, and wherever else regular.

 

[Pallas Athena]

Joining the "deferred from MIT" bandwagon. I can't even claim to be a proud MIT Reject yet.

 

[verbatim]

Deferred Urbana, accepted Madison, university of Chicago's later this month and Wash U is something ridiculous like February.

 

[blitzlefan]

Yeah, I got into UT Dallas with a full ride and a thousand dollar stipend per semester!! :) I'm applying for the McDermott program and I have a national merit semifinalist status (I'll know more in January) so things look really great financially.
I don't know about Texas A&M and UT Austin yet but I'm pretty excited just to be accepted by one college.

 

[JALMONT]

wow we should all start a "deferred from MIT" club here lol (i was deferred as well)

does anyone know the official date for uchicago EA decisions? nothing on the admissions site, but i read somewhere that it is to be this wednesday...

 

[verbatim]

The website says mid-december, hopefully that means soon.

 

[Stratos]

rather than do my physics lab i decided to make this infographic in case future generations want college advice:

 

[ssbbm]

uchig is on 18th idk when tho

 

[Bughouse]

To piggyback off of Pwnemon, I wrote a satire piece while in high school about college admissions in the form of a scoring rubric written by a director of admissions of a small liberal arts school. Some excerpts include:

and my personal favorites:

tl;dr college admissions are a crapshoot. don't get down about any rejections. a friend of mine was rejected from Tulane and admitted to Brown. Life don't make no sense sometimes.

 

[Tayla]

If anyone is looking to either apply or attend Auburn University, try to have a solid body of volunteer work under your belt, especially if your GPA is subpar. I was denied out of high school because I was a lazy piece of shit. I didn't have the best grades (I had an alright SAT score in 1860), nor did I have any real meritable after school body of work. By 2010 I figured out what I wanted to do. Auburn's always been my dream school, so I decided to try them again. This time, I visited the school and spoke to one of the counselors there. He basically said that while my grades weren't the best, a college's decisions on a person will a lot of times weigh heavily on your body of work if your grades are below average. So over that year, I volunteered at as many places as humanly possible. I was accepted into Auburn with a 2.56 GPA out of high school, and I now currently hold a 3.7 and am nearing junior status.

I'll soon have to transfer somewhere else, as Auburn doesn't carry an Astronomy program, however all I can really say is never give up on the school of your dreams. There's lots of things you can do outside of school to up your chances significantly, especially if your grades aren't the best. My advice is, if you are in high school and have the grades problem, start your volunteer work now. Meet with your chosen school's advisers, as well. They can tell you what the school looks for in that regard.

Good luck everyone. (: