[Rant] Despite a top 1% SAT score, I'm fucked regarding college admissions

[Lark]

I always found that sort of interesting, the extracurriculars aspect of US university life, I can see why universities would be interested in that but it has never been an aspect of Uni intake in Ireland, north or south, they ask about it sometimes but its not crucial.

In the age of life logging I can see this is important now, I've heard about friends who go to job interviews and discover that its way more important than they thought, particularly if the extra currculars can involve learning which has a margin impact or significance for their work, like photography, digital manipulation etc. and this then allowing them to better presentations and work like that.

 

[highlander]

I did a state for both undergrad and now grad but my employer is paying for that. It's never been an issue. I'm not conveying the idea that state schools are necessarily easy peasy to get into though. It depends on the school and more often, the program. That was the experience we had with our daughter who wanted a good PA program - that narrowed the list significantly. And I don't know what the OP considers "decent" either.

A lot of state schools are excellent. These are a few that I've had exposure to directly.

University of Virginia
College of William and Mary
University of California, Berkeley
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
University of Wisconsin, Madison
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Purdue

 

[Jaguar]

Chill out.

 

[StonedPhilosopher]

I don't know what the OP considers "decent"

For reference, here are some of the colleges I'm looking into:

Colgate University
Colorado College*
Macalester College
UMD College Park*
McGill Univ
Middleburry College*
University of Toronto
Villanova University
NYU
*second thoughts

UMass Amherst is my safety.

Here's some of my general college criteria

• Want to major in Physics, so obviously a good physics program, but I want to take a variety of classes, so not a tech school like MIT or Caltech.
• >1000 undergraduate population
• Not in the south and/or west
• Decent campus
• Probably some other stuff I'm forgetting

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I want it to be near a decent-sized city.

 

[GavinElster]

Honestly, a strong state school is going to give you the same education as a private school. Many such state schools have very strong departments, and are only less prestigious than say Ivy counterparts for undergrad due to the large student body/being less selective towards instaters. The actual professors are often brilliant.

If you take a school like Berkeley, its grad departments more or less destroy (as a whole) those of most prestigious private schools. It's good at nearly every field and top of the line in several

 

[Smilephantomhive]

As long as the school has a good physics program, then you are fine (unless you end up changing your major lol).

 

[ceecee]

Here's some of my general college criteria

• Want to major in Physics, so obviously a good physics program, but I want to take a variety of classes, so not a tech school like MIT or Caltech.
• >1000 undergraduate population
• Not in the south and/or west
• Decent campus
• Probably some other stuff I'm forgetting

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I want it to be near a decent-sized city.

My husband majored in physics and went to Ohio State. It's a very nice campus, undergrad population around 45,000, Columbus is a good sized city. Not in the south or the west.

 

[rav3n]

Unless you're headed for a career in business, school rankings don't matter much, according to this study. Science careers are less prestige focused.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/...ZGHmvCEJHDiOMx5kybrKwD9dJBLZ67EZom--bWIdPjEJA

 

[á´…eparted]

Calm your tits. You'll be fine. Find a program you like first, the name of a school for a B.S. matter rather little now. Also, states schools accept almost anyone, give great scholarahips, and are often excellent schools.

 

[Jaguar]

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I want it to be near a decent-sized city.

University of Chicago.

 

[Lark]

University of Chicago.

Detroit.

 

[Jaguar]

Detroit.

Red Wings.

 

[Lark]

Red Wings.

I though you were lost there for a bit.

 

[StonedPhilosopher]

University of Chicago.

That's more selective than the schools I'm already worrying about.

Though yeah, a state school--such as UMass Amherst--would be fine.

What's sort of funny is that today in philosophy class, someone was discussing colleges with their friend, and they mentioned that UMass Amherst--where I'm basically guaranteed admission due to my SAT being over a standard deviation above their average admission score (I'm guessing for scores that much above average, the "holistic" stuff haunting me goes out the window)--was their reach. Puts things into perspective, I guess.

 

[Galena]

I was you except with a slightly lower SAT, and then I watched half the people I knew who went to further away, more impressive schools transfer back just to be closer to home before the end of year 2. There's more I want to say on that seemingly sudden appearance of comfort as a motive, but I'll have to get back to it later.

It's kind of crazy what big decisions we have to make at a time where there's still so much we haven't experienced, so feeling similarly kind of crazy over it is only to be expected. No embarrassment needed.

 

[StonedPhilosopher]

I just realized Trigglypuff goes/went to UMass Amherst

Meh, whatever. Absolutely no SJWs would actually be kind of weird; I want diversity of thought/opinion. And there are nearly 30k undergrads there, so yeah.

 

[highlander]

University of Chicago.

It isn't a state school unless you mean university of illinois at chicago

 

[Tilt]

It's the people with aptitude and persistence who succeed. The prestige of the school can make things slightly easier but it does not make or break things.

 

[ceecee]

Detroit.

The University of Detroit is an excellent school. My neighbor went there, he's a Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon. Which is really convenient when one of your kids faceplants off their bike and knocks out a couple teeth.

 

[The Cat]

You could always ask your Uncle Same for a leg up, and go for the Military while you figure things out...