[plus_c]

Heh, and let's not forget that for the last 8 years we've had a Harvard Business School graduate in office...you can draw your own conclusions from that.

Personally, that makes me glad I went to Wharton.

 

[JahJahBinks]

I kinda envy the kids today because they probably will never experience the same thing as old farts like us who were in college when the twin towers fell. If you think getting to college is hard, wait till you submit resumes and wait endlessly for interviews, then wait endlessly for rejection letters. heh, just kidding. I ended up with a very good job, but also put out a lot of effort for it. I did hear on the news that the job market right now is the best in the past 4-5 year, so lucky you! May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields.

 

[Whorehay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSlacker I am a junior in high school and this college talk just drives me nuts! College process seems to be so stressfull that it gives me a head ache when i just think about it.

same. i am about to die.

SATs april 1st baby!!!

"you got a 2400!...... april fools!"

just a question, how much do ivy league colleges look at freshman year in college? i am just asking because i completely bombed freshman year obviously.

so it effects my total rank (SUCKY), but i am ranked 1st for 10th grade-present in my class.. how much would they look at each? i know i can't do anything about it, but it is kind of depressing.

because we had this freshman at yale come and talk to us about her life at yale, and she made it seem like i'd need to be a genius to even consider applying. "umm... yeah i was the top of my class. but you don't need to be the top of your class. my roommate was rank 15 or so." O_O

yeah, intimidating.

 

[JahJahBinks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whorehay because we had this freshman at yale come and talk to us about her life at yale, and she made it seem like i'd need to be a genius to even consider applying. "umm... yeah i was the top of my class. but you don't need to be the top of your class. my roommate was rank 15 or so." O_O

That reminds me one year at the career fair in our college, we asked this representative from Boeing of how the internship (or Co-op I forgot) was like, and the person began by saying...well, my project was Top Secret so I can't really tell you much ....I was like PPPSSSfFfffffPRRRRrrrrrrrrrsssssssssTTTTT!!!! .... Oh yeah, thanks! that really helped a lot in answering our questions!

 

[granodemostasa]

actually, it might be better to apply for a private. last i checked, getting into UCLA was harder than Chicago!
It actaully depends where you go. the University of California has a strange system, they rank all the schools and every course given by a High School is evaluated by them. what results is a strange and unequal distribution of admissions, so for example you have people from my H.S. killing themselves over possible admissions to Cal, at most 3 but usually 0 get in. at other H.Schools you have 40+ students getting into Berkeley, one HS (Arcadia) had over 400 students get into the U of C system- more than what the bottom 50 HS in LA city (under the UC system) sent combined.
it's a strange system.

 

[Oistrakh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whorehay just a question, how much do ivy league colleges look at freshman year in college? i am just asking because i completely bombed freshman year obviously.

yes, they do look at freshman year and it DOES count. I've heard stories of kids at my school getting rejected from their dream college because they got a C freshman year.

 

[plus_c]

At the same time though, it doesn't count for *that* much. There must have been other underlying reasons why that person didn't get admitted - one C by itself in freshman year is very unlikely to be a deal-breaker.

 

[JahJahBinks]

Are people getting smarter each year or they just happened to have more extracurricular activities to do each year?

 

[xbkingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by plus_c At the same time though, it doesn't count for *that* much. There must have been other underlying reasons why that person didn't get admitted - one C by itself in freshman year is very unlikely to be a deal-breaker.

You have obviously never applied to med school. My college gf was premed. She got a B+ and cried for weeks. She ended up in med school, but one of her bottom of the list choices. She was rejected first round, and had to get a Nature publication to even be considered. (All her other grades were A's and a couple A-'s)

 

[Teerawit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by granodemostasa (with a tone of distain) Easterners! (actually some westerners do it too), but seriously, plotting your HS career around getting into a particular school is absurd. HS is suppose to be experienced, it's suppose be fun..... on that note: 4.3 GPA, 3 semesters during H.S. taking courses at a local college, Marching Band, Wind Ensemble, APU Honor Band, Concert Band, Woodwind Quintet, Acdemic Decathlon-many medals, Academic Olympiad-more medals, Drama/musicals, 7AP courses (did great, thankyou), 3 Honors courses, President of Cal Scholarship federation, MESA-calc team, Student Ocean conference, part of 3 Church groups and a participant in the service, much random volunteer work, and countless awards... and i did all these things for the full 4 years... .... all that to get into Berkeley. I have no clue what it would take to get into an eastern school. good luck! Edit: my bad, the only reason i got away with that was because the U of C knew my school only had 7AP courses availible. that, and i think i got some points for going to (at least in api scores), the worst school in the county (although LA city is worse). I guess this doesn't help, assuming that you go to a decent HS then you might have to plan it out...there are more options i guess.

You would have gotten into some Ivies for sure. I was kinda like you back in HS. If you won national medals for Decathlon you woulda gotten into HYP definitely.

On the other hand, big name schools also look for people who excel in a field. For example my friend is a math GENIUS (by genius i mean placed 7th nationally in math tournaments), got a 1600 SAT (back when it was out of 1600), 36 ACT, and got into Harvard and MIT. Math was his forte; that is all he does, and apparently that's all that matters.

Quote:

yes, they do look at freshman year and it DOES count. I've heard stories of kids at my school getting rejected from their dream college because they got a C freshman year.

one C isn't going to hurt your chances for medical school. Besides, how would your friend have known that it was ONLY that C that prevented his acceptance?

Quote:

Let me guess, you were a perfect student with 99% in all your classes was valedictorian of your school, got full scholarships to every school you applied to, etc.... That really bugs me...

I was, but I didn't get into HYP. Oh wait, I didn't apply to Princeton

All that matters is that you are extremely good at one or a few things, not being okay at many.

 

[yellafella321]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oistrakh did you go to UPENN for undergrad? Did you get straight As, and did you take calculus BC? I'm going to take AP Calculus BC and I might want to go to AB, but my mom still wants me to be in BC. How much work is there? whats the easiest ivy league school to get into besides cornell?

Take AB purely for the GPA benefits.

Its not worth taking BC.

(i took calc AB my junior year and calc BC senior year and still found it a pain)

 

[granodemostasa]

"You would have gotten into some Ivies for sure. I was kinda like you back in HS. If you won national medals for Decathlon you woulda gotten into HYP definitely.

sadly, competing against the schools that regularly took nationals didn't get my school beyond regionals (Curse you varsity team!)
I was good all around, but i was nearly perfect when it came to history: which is my major now.
I'll admit that it's one of my regrets that i never applied to any elite private schools. there were many factors influencing my decision at the time: Money (i'm from a poor family), race (didn't want people to think i got into a school because of that (Berkeley doesn't use affirmative action)), anti-elitism (i still harbor this), and pure intimidation.

to add to the thread: one of my professors put it this way- "graduating from Columbia (grad school), can get you a job at another elite school like Stanford, while graduating from North Dakota (grad), could get you a job at North Dakota. yet if you do great research and get the bancroft prize then your next job might be at yale.... but then the publications read for the prizes don't usually include North Dakota."

 

[Teerawit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by granodemostasa sadly, competing against the schools that regularly took nationals didn't get my school beyond regionals (Curse you varsity team!)

Oh, bummer. My high school didn't have much competition, cuz we're from Georgia, lol

so that team went to nationals every year. I wasn't on the team though. But one guy who placed nationally in some subjects got into Harvard undergrad and later Harvard med. But I think cases like that are rare.

Quote:

whats the easiest ivy league school to get into besides cornell?

UPenn. Maybe Columbia and Dartmouth too.

IMO Ivy League is not the end-all-be-all. I'd give up an arm and a leg to go to UCSF, UCLA, UMich, U. of Washington, etc. for medicine.

 

[PSmith08]

I go to a small, all-male liberal-arts college in west central Indiana. Do I wish that I had gone to an Ivy? Not particularly. Will my college get me hired in some enormous conglomerate in New York? Probably not. Will it get me what I want in Indiana? Probably.

Yes, they do open certain doors for you. However, working hard, being prepared, and being a people-person will probably open many of those same doors. There are few substitutes for hard work.

 

[dhp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chych Ahhh, if you love making robots, Carnegie Mellon is a much better place (yes I need to plug this in ), way more robotics effort than any other school out there (also the only school that actually has a separate robotics department and graduate degree). And except for Cornell, ivy league schools are very weak in engineering disciplines (and thus I completely ignored them for graduate studies).

MIT?