Applying to college

I finished all my applications, but the schools I applied to don't reply until late March or early April. My strategy was to apply to a lot of reach schools and at least one that I knew I could get into.

I've got the straight A's all through high school (valed yo), and my test scores are okay (SAT: 2250 ACT: 34).

I have applied to Duke University in Durham, NC, Vanderbilt University (home of Stellar) in Nashville, TN, University of Chicago in Chicago, IL, Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA, Columbia University in New York, NY, as well as my guaranteed Clemson University in Clemson, SC.

I've only heard back from Clemson, and I got into the honors college with a pretty good scholarship. Hoping for the best in the coming months.

Good luck to everyone else as well!
 
Myzozoa said:
if you're referring to the a-g requirements, f is certainly also a 'requirement'. 3.4 gpa is not that difficult to get, though it is slightly easier to get in college than high school (since you choose the classes), it depends on what you study. You don't want to enter the UC as a frosh anyway, waste of money, go to CC and transfer.
Click to expand...
What kind of cutthroat high school/major did you choose if college is easier lol?
Ice-cold Claws said:
Well, the GPA thing could just be my own incompetence, although I'd like to think I'm doing sort of okay.
If I go by the GPA-% conversion, my GPA is a measly 2.5 right now. At the same time I'm also in the top 5% of my class. Maybe my whole class just sucks? Who knows?

I've had friends who transferred schools and came under the GPA scoring system, and their grades seemed to have significantly improved afterwards. I have several reasons to believe the GPA scoring system is relatively lenient.

Not sure about going to CCs though. I'm coming all the way from Singapore after all, it seems nicer to just settle down directly in a huge comfortable campus. I may be having the wrong idea though, feel free to give pointers.
Click to expand...
The thing about the CC to transfer route, something I'm doing right now, is that your decision of going straight to a university vs. CC to transfer should be heavily dependent upon whether you want to do research/take advantage of things a research university has over a CC. If you're pretty sure you want to get into research, UC as a frosh is a better route, since graduate school is heavily dependent on the amount/quality of research you do and more often than not, you'll lose at least 2+ possible years of research. So yeah you'll probably save money going to a CC, but going to a UC earlier could make your applications to grad school look better, so it's a tradeoff. Although some CC's actually do have very limited research opportunities on their campuses, like mine is researching water bears or something. Of course, you actually have to pursue getting into research once you're at the UC.

That said you could also transfer to a "better" UC from a CC if your high school performance isn't as up to par, CC's have this pretty great program called TAG where you basically just need to get ~3.2-3.5 GPA and you get a "transfer admission guarantee" to one of the UC's not named UC Berkeley, UCLA, or UCSD (UCSD just ended their TAG program a year or two ago). Also, if you're a little unsure of what to major in, don't have many AP credits and/or have some remedial classes you need to take, want to take an extra year of taking different subjects before deciding on a major, don't really plan on doing research, don't care to interact/work with people high up in your chosen field, or want to save money (which may be more relevant since you're coming all the way from singapore) CC to transfer is good.
 
Last edited:
Al_Alchemist said:
What kind of cutthroat high school/major did you choose if college is easier lol?
Click to expand...
*cough*IBdiploma*cough*
But I'm quite sure it depends on what college you go to as well. I've had seniors who said college was a breeze compared to IB, but those were the ones in B/C-grade colleges. My older brother is in University College London now and he said IB was a pushover in retrospect.
-snip-
Click to expand...
Nice. Thank you for the comprehensive reply.
I think I really do want more opportunities for research. Currently in IBDP I'm getting my hands on lots of mini-research opportunities, and surprisingly I find myself obsessed with them. Been looking up research publications by universities and industries on my own. So if I follow your advice, I think I might opt for direct admission to research Us.

The TAG system sounds great, but while I'd be perfectly happy going to UCI, I really do want to get my foot into those 3 particular UCs. Sooooo....I guess my options are pretty clear for now.
 
Got into cal poly pomona, uc merced, san diego state, and chico state. I haven't made a decision yet but I'm leaning towards pomona or merced. I like the pomona campus and location but uc merced offers probably a better education for less (thanks u.s. govt.) Although merced is a shithole just like the city I live in. The valley sucks.

EDIT: anyone have experience with any of these schools?
 
I'm in a similar situation to Woodchuck, got into Berkeley and waiting for Princeton(but considering rejections from Stanford it's unlikely), so I might meet you there as a freshman this year :)
 
I got to U of Mass Amherst with my reqs lol. With the top scholarship(Chancellor's) funnily enough. Rejected everywhere else tho. My stats for reference 2290 SAT, and 3.4 GPA. Anybody from here go there?
 
Master Sunny-EX said:
I got to U of Mass Amherst with my reqs lol. With the top scholarship(Chancellor's) funnily enough. Rejected everywhere else tho. My stats for reference 2290 SAT, and 3.4 GPA. Anybody from here go there?
Click to expand...

I visit there like once a month. Currently a junior at UMB.
 
Ahh nb. We'll have to meet soon then :P. Well actually I'm waiting on North Western Uni still, hopefully I get in there :P. Are my stats terrible? lol. I also forgot to mention that I did Subject tests too but I kinda screwed up. Math 2 750, Physics 660 ;-;. Well if anybody has nything to advise me o, feel free to do so.
 
Last edited:
Woodchuck said:
Got the Regents' scholarship at UC Berkeley, so I'll probably be going there (still waiting on Harvard decisions, but after rejections from both Stanford and MIT I'm not optimistic :P).
Click to expand...
ooh I'm a Regents scholar at LA and I know a bunch of Regents scholars at Cal (from high school/Conference). I'm pretty sure you guys get like 5x as much money as we do but either way, priority registration for classes is really nice

if anyone's considering UCLA feel free to ask me about it :o
 
vyomov said:
I'm in a similar situation to Woodchuck, got into Berkeley and waiting for Princeton(but considering rejections from Stanford it's unlikely), so I might meet you there as a freshman this year :)
Click to expand...

Don't give up hope just yet. I got into two top 10s after being rejected from 3 and waitlisted at 3 more. The process is very random.
 
Did anyone apply to Rice and get in/waitlisted? Just curious as I'm an alum :x

Decisions were released sometime this past week. I interview a couple of applicants in my area earlier this year and was surprised to find out that they didn't get in...they were way more impressive than I ever was back then. Must have been a tough year...
 
I'll give a breakdown of my college apps.

Accepted: Cal Poly SLO, San Diego State, Chapman, Santa Clara, Michigan, Illinois, Purdue, Oregon
Rejected: Texas, North Carolina, USC

Michigan is in my opinion the best school I got accepted to, especially for my major (Business Admin), but it's also the most expensive. Chances are I'll be heading to Cal Poly because it's a nice area and still a good business school. As much as I love Michigan, I think the financial burden is too much and I don't want to put myself in that kind of situation.
 
So I've been accepted to all of the colleges that I applied to (UVA, W&M, W&L, Rollins) and now I just need to decide where to go, and that mostly comes down to money. How much should tuition affect where I decide to go? UVA and W&M are out-of-state, but I plan on obtaining residency in VA asap, so the junior and senior years at least should be in-state level tuition. W&L and Rollins are different 'cause they're private, but I might be able to talk to the financial aid offices for more help.
TLDR: UVA/W&M/W&L/Rollins, advice on choosing?
 
Ender said:
Wrong answer
Click to expand...

princeton is a terrible place with terrible people. according to the people i know who go there no one gives a fuck about learning. it's just about making connections and cheating for perfect grades for when u go to stanford for grad school. if u dont care about the atmosphere of the school then yeah, wrong answer

at least cali is warm
 
Danilo said:
princeton is a terrible place with terrible people. according to the people i know who go there no one gives a fuck about learning. it's just about making connections and cheating for perfect grades for when u go to stanford for grad school. if u dont care about the atmosphere of the school then yeah, wrong answer

at least cali is warm
Click to expand...
Yes because this is an accurate representation of the school.

Woodchuck, if you want to know what an Ivy League atmosphere is really like let me know and we'll talk. I'm graduating from one in a couple months and going to another one for grad school.
 
I go to UVA and would be happy to answer any questions. There's actually been a bit of a stirr here over the board's attempts to raise tuition, but a significant protest by students and alumni have the the situation currently undecided. As it stands, UVA instate is consistently rated a top value college, and my roommate is in a similar situation (went to high school in KY like me, but had moved residence in time to pay instate even by his first semester).
 
moonbound said:
I go to UVA and would be happy to answer any questions. There's actually been a bit of a stirr here over the board's attempts to raise tuition, but a significant protest by students and alumni have the the situation currently undecided. As it stands, UVA instate is consistently rated a top value college, and my roommate is in a similar situation (went to high school in KY like me, but had moved residence in time to pay instate even by his first semester).
Click to expand...
Doesn't moving residence require having lived in the state for a minimum of one full year? I'd love to change residence as soon as I can (can't wait to get out of Florida), and the drop in tuition would make my decision a million times easier. On another note, how do you feel the student-to-teacher ratio at UVA is? I know lots of smaller schools (like the rest of my list) like to show off how low they keep their ratios, but I'm not entirely sure I'd be comfortable in a class with only five or so other people.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top