Easiest "target" school to get into

First there is nothing elite about getting into a college, second I'd state instate you're correct but out of state, I'd say NYU.

i would think harvard or princeton. maybe yale, that is another easy one to get into.

with Cornell right on its tail.

Cornell is an elite public school.

If you live in Texas and are in the top 2-3% of your class, you are in McCombs automatically.

Top 2-3% of your class seems a lot harder than getting into NYU or something. I wasn't top 25% in my high school class but I got in.

That's what you think. There's been plenty of reports of kids with good but not great grades transferring to deplorable inner city public schools for their senior year and indefinitely being top 1%.

That seems very extreme. I know at the bad schools around where I grew up, the val and sals didn't break 1000 SAT lol. So people with near straight As didn't break 1000 SAT lol. I think even if someone smart but went to a good school, they wouldn't be able to be top 1% after just one year. So many people there would have aced the first 3 years there and again the 4th because they are the cream of the terrible crop.

Texas, UNC and Virginia (in-state) Michigan, and NYU.

"That's what you think. There's been plenty of reports of kids with good but not great grades transferring to deplorable inner city public schools for their senior year and indefinitely being top 1%."

That's basically the problem with UT. You have incredibly intelligent and ambitious individuals from large suburbs of Dallas and Houston struggling to get into the program, while you have other kids from more rural/inner city areas given the choice to enter the program on a gold platter. The disparity between students here is like comparing HYPS to a community college in some cases.

Kasanova, you play(ed) at Texas?

What position did/do you play Kasanova ?

rather not go there...im sure you can go through some of my old posts and figure out who i am.....tore my acl though, for the second time since hs.

he's ricky williams lol

michigan, nyu, cornell.

(three school I got in with soso grade :))

I would but I'm too lazy to do that.

Two people from my HS class (good students, etc..) didn't get into Cornell - one went to Princeton, the other to Duke.

target schools..overrated

if you really want to do it, your drive would easily differentiate you and get you to the right place.

easiest thing. go to wherever undergrad. maintain good grades..network ..show your drive and you would certainly go the distance

disclaimer; i go to a totally non target and i'm interning at a BB this summer

i totally agree with you. Maybe my statement is a little wild but at my non target school with a non target gpa, i interviewed with all the BB's this summer so i could say i'm biased. I just feel people take this target thing way too far. my own little theory is you can make yourself a target if you want to. Once again, its much easier getting a job from a "target"

Berkeley

UCLA

Claremont McKenna, USC, etc.

USC is not a target school, unless the west coast offices recruit there.

MOST APPS = HARDEST TO GET INTO DUH. Are you stupid or something?

Admission Statistics for Fall 2006

UC Berkeley - High School GPA: 4.17 - ACT Composite Score: 28 - SAT Critical Reading: 665 - SAT Mathematics: 690 - SAT Writing: 670 - Admit Rate – Overall: 23.6% - Admits (1): 9,831 - Applicants: 41,716

UCLA - High School GPA: 4.13 - ACT Composite Score: 28 - SAT Critical Reading: 658 - SAT Mathematics: 687 - SAT Writing: 665 - Admit Rate — Overall: 25.5% - Admits: 12,069 - Applicants: 47,245

i have a hard time believing either of these schools are the easiest target schools to get into.

Nice use of stats sshiah. Good to see some objectivity.

One thing I'd like to add to sshiah's post above RE: UCB and UCLA statistics is that the UC system calculates GPA's based on a full +1 point weighting for AP coursework and honors coursework in high school. If I'm not mistaken, not all target schools allow the full +1 boost for all of these classes. I also seem to remember that UCs allow you to omit certain non-academic (ie. Phys Ed) grades from your GPA calculation.

I feel as though both of these factors would have an inflationary effect on the "High School GPA:" figures above.

They did on mine, anyway. My 3.89 unweighted was something like a 4.2 using UC weighting when I was doing college apps a long time ago.

Just my 2 cents.

NYC BB firms make two stops on the west coast:

Stanford, Berkeley.

Sleepyguyb makes a lot of good posts on this site. However, I definitely agree with aspiringmonkey that the 'most apps = hardest' logic is fallacious.

Take a look at Deep Springs college (100-200 applicants -- arguably the hardest college to get into... anywhere). Total apps is at best only moderately correlated with overall 'difficulty'.

I bring this up because I don't want to see another thread spiral off into a personal sh*t-hurling fight between two posters.

(none of this is to knock UCLA -- which is a top school by any measure)

.

If we're speaking solely of the "true" targets (those that basically every BB visits to recruit for banking and s&t (the two hottest divisions) for their NYC office), I'd have to say it's Michigan, Duke, and NYU. I do think Duke is a really good school and they've got a strong average SAT, but it definitely seems much easier to get into than any of the ivys...most people I know who got no ivy acceptances ended up at Duke. As for Cornell, I believe their admissions stats (GPA and SAT score averages) are artifically depressed since they have some sort of public school part (I'm not sure exactly but this is what I've heard).

I don't think you can place all that much stock in average stats really. The average SAT score here at Penn is like mid or low 1400s I think. But there is absolutely no way in hell a white guy from the Northeast (like me) would get into Penn with that score. My admissions counselor (correctly) told me that I would need to break 1500 at least. Having sat on a university steering committe, I can tell you that a large part of the class is very very smart (1550+ SATs, vals or sals) yet like 10% of our class has sub 1100 SATs and B high school averages. I would say that the UC schools are really the only schools where the average stats are truly representative of individual members of the class, since affirmative action and other preference systems have been eliminated there.

brown? columbia (know it was easier after 9-11)? been awhile since i applied to college though

Isn't it easier to get into some of the schools at Cornell than others?

remember, UCs are really easy to get in if you are top4% at a California high school due to ELC.

but getting into haas is another story...

just because you are top 4% at your HS doesn't mean you get into any UC but rather a UC. if you go to a bad school with poor test results but are top 4% you will get into UCR or UCM not UCLA or Cal.

UCLA ELC Student Admit Rate: 57.6%

UCB ELC Student Admit Rate: 60.3%

it does not guarantee it, but it's still 60% admit rate.

just my 2 cents: uchicago has a disproportionately high acceptance rate next to comparable similar schools...then again, it's extremely self-selective so no one should go there just to take advantage of recruiting opportunities...u better love studying...otherwise recruiting is fantastic there...

Berkeley has a ridiculous number of second-gen Asians. It would probably really suck to have to compete with all of the Asians to get into the school, and then compete with the top Asians again for jobs out of school...

Though not really a target school, Indiana would be an easy school to get into for banking. The #-of banking-jobs/selectivity ratio is pretty high for Kelley.

smart kids out of u of c...in my experience at least

I've seen some Berkeley kids in the b-school with absolutely amazing backgrounds, grades, ECs, work exp, etc. Good thing most try to stay on west coast, heh...

UChicago have like 40% acceptance rate

but you gotta consider that so many people giveup even finishing the application because their essays are confusing like hell :)

in our group last year. They were by far the best analysts (out of 6 we had) and even better than most of the summer associates. They knew valuation down cold. Getting a 3.5 GPA there is very very difficult as curving standards are tough.

dude...i went to uchicago..maybe u did too, since u seem to be from the midwest..anyhow, u talk like i was saying something negative about the place... did i somehow imply that the high acceptance rate means lower standards? SAT scores are SAT scores..no big deal...but our reputation in circles that matter is solid and i wouldn't have gone anywhere else...our ranking has always been crap just cuz the graduation rate is comparatively low (ppl drop out b/ they can't handle it) and the alumni giving sucks...i guess we're all pretty cheap.. however, admittedly there is a strong bipolar reaction from ppl that went there..either they loved it or hated it, sometimes both...the academics is just plain grueling in part b/ of the quarter schedule and low curve (avg is a C usually), plus many students double or triple major...but the faculty is unbeatable..it was esp cool taking econ of crime w/ steven levitt senior year... in the past, the acceptance rate was high b/ the school didn't have the same name recognition, but as the applicant pool increases, the acceptance rate will go down but it'll never get close to say h/p/y, just cuz the rep will still weed ppl out... but yeah, i don't know many banks that don't target uchicago..and they will adjust for a lower GPA.. i like that comment on the essay tho...just to show how dorkish we are, there's basically been a huge uprising ever since the administration decided to go w/ the common app