College List for IB/HF/AM (Pls Help)
I would greatly appreciate any help with my college list, potentially adding new schools or swapping out bad ones, as well as thoughts on each. I have already started my apps and have most of my essays done, including the schools that are on this list (except ones with ? next to them), but I need to make my final list, ideally by the end of August.
Background info: Male from L.A. and I attend a semi-feeder HS (Brentwood, Windward, Crossroads), not HW. I have a heart condition that prohibits me from drinking alcohol, so I don't care for frats or partying. I am dead set on IB (possibly ER)/HF/AM; I have already done some AM internships and love investing. I have a 4.0 GPA and 1440 SAT (I know it's low; I am retaking it), but I have good ECs: economics research that I presented at a conference, 4th, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd in international finance/stock pitch competitions ($1500 in total prize money), top leadership position in worldwide organization, and alot more. I also have good essays. Here is my list; I greatly appreciate any feedback and help!
Reaches:
Yale? (my school has a good relationship, but they mandate testing.)
Duke?
Cornell?
UChicago? (one of my rec letters is from an alum)
Columbia (ED, Legacy)
Williams
UC Berkeley (Haas Spieker has like 3% acceptance rate)
UCLA (possibly target)
Emory
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Georgetown
Targets:
USC
NYU (good relationship)
UMich
Boston College
UVA
UT Austin
UNC
Safeties:
UC San Diego
UC Irvine
IU Kelley
If you are rich and don’t like to party I suggest uchicago. They have debt problems right now and need full pay people, so odds ED are very likely these days
Thank you for alerting me about this, it seems like a pretty bad situation that they are in.
if you can get to 1530+ I do suggest it for your profile. Good luck
I just got a 1540 (760 E, 780 M) from August and will definitely be ed2ing UChicago. I appreciate the advice.
You do know you can still do coke and slay birds at frat parties right
I’m going to be honest, a 1440 SAT is just not enough for Yale, Duke, Chicago, Northwestern, Columbia, Cornell or Williams (unless you go to a feeder boarding school). Maybe you could squeeze into one of Cornell’s public colleges if you ED but its still a 30/70 with that SAT
I am aware of this; Yale, Duke, Chicago, NU, and Cornell are penciled in if my score were to increase; if not, I won't apply.
I'm a UChicago student who is from LA. Opinion about UChicago is below and mostly copy and pasted from a similar post.
You have the stats, EC's, (and presumably essays) for all these schools, but you need a smaller list so you can actually deeply research your colleges and tailor your essays.
Only problem with your list is that they colleges you picked are WAYY too different. I don't really get the sense that you know what you want out of college (besides a good job). Consider size (Williams AND Michigan on the same list???) and location, especially because there's a decent likelihood you'll work in the region you go to college. You're from LA, and most of these colleges are huge changes in scenery from SoCal. Go do some college visits if you have the means and time to.
I also can't tell you which schools are IB targets (I'm not a recruiter)
Reaches:
Yale - Excellent school, but New Haven kinda stinks
Duke - Comparatively big party/sports culture compared to rest of list, but Durham kinda stinks
Cornell - Middle of nowhere
UChicago - Opinion below
Columbia (ED, Legacy) - Go for it, and good luck!
Williams - Small and middle of nowhere
UC Berkeley - If money's not an issue (which I'm guessing it's not), would deprioritize it because it's super big and you're under resourced. Also, the Bay (and west coast in general) is a little lacking in opportunities in industries that aren't tech compared to Chicago/East Coast.
UCLA (possibly target) - Not a target lol. (I got into UCLA and but not Cal). Same problems as Cal except less depressing b/c of the weather (You should know this you live in LA).
Emory - It's the south. No opinion besides that.
Northwestern - I think it's inferior to UChicago (biased), but tbh can't go wrong. Little difference between NW and UChicago when it comes to career opportunities, but huge difference in culture and educational experience.
Notre Dame - Huge sports/party culture + pretty comparatively conservative
Georgetown - Best school in the DMV, but DC is weird
Targets:
USC - You know the deal.
NYU (good relationship) - No opinion (but most New Yorkers will hate you).
UMich - Probably biggest party culture of your list.
Boston College - No opinion
UVA - Same problems as the UC's (Big state school and thus under resourced), except you're paying out-of-state tuition.
UT Austin - What I said for UVA + it's Texas (I dislike Texas)
UNC - What I said for UVA
Safeties:
UC San Diego - Not as much of a safety as you think it is
UC Irvine - Not as much of a safety as you think it is (I got waitlisted!)
IU Kelley - What I said for UVA + it's Indiana (I dislike Indiana)
Based on my personal preferences, the final list would be (in rough order), UChicago, NW, Yale, Columbia, UCLA, Cal, USC, NYU, UCSD, UCI and maybe add GTown, Duke, and Cornell.
UChicago Opinion:
UChicago social life is more about the city (bars, concerts, sports games, museums, really good restaurants) than parties. ~7600 undergrads so about same size as Ivies. Only downside is people here are kinda weird, but that's how it is at most Ivy+ schools. Given your background, the student population is somewhat similar to the socioeconomic demographics of your high school with more geographic diversity.
If you want to apply, I'd suggest ED 2 b/c the acceptance rates for that are pretty good.
From peers experience, really easy to get into IB/PE/Finance, especially if you're okay with working/living in Chicago (Way cheaper than any other big city, and safety concerns are isolated to a few parts of the city). Top firms are always hosting networking/recruiting sessions, career advancement has people with pretty good finance experience, and the clubs/frats/student orgs all have good networking opportunities. You can also take classes at Booth (M7) which is nice, although the selection of classes is limited.
Chicago's great for finance, and UChicago has a good to great connection to every finance firm in the city (I'm biased, but they're better connections than Northwestern). Every big/medium-sized bank has a Chicago office + Chicago has the biggest derivatives/options exchange + tons of HFT (although this is more for CS). It's still behind New York (Finance Capital of the world) in terms of total opportunities, but in NY, you're competing against every Ivy under the sun for internships as opposed to Chicago where you're head and shoulders above almost every other Midwest school. Some Ivy kids apply to stuff in Chicago, but Northeast kids tend to stay in the Northeast.
Lastly, from your list, I could probably say that only Yale is definitively better from a pure brand name/networking perspective (especially if you want to work in NY). The only thing I can confidently say UChicago is better at than the rest of your list is getting you opportunities in Chicago.
Nw clears; hotter girls, way more fun, and virtually equal placement over the last few years (and better at EVR, BX, MS, etc)
I like UChicago b/c culture/curriculum is more my speed + closer to the city. Like I said it's about culture fit (e.g. you care about "hotter girls").
Went to UChicago and currently work at one of the big Chicago PE firms. I unfortunately do have to attest that placement is equal between the two schools recently, but both attract WIDELY different personalities, so they aren’t comparable at all from a culture standpoint. I disagree though with the notion that Northwestern is way more fun. A few of my close friends are Northwestern grads and I’ve heard from them that NW has tons of grade deflation and STEM/Econ is absolutely a grind.
If you don’t get your score up, prioritize your targets and non-ivies. If you do, then go for all of them.
I say ED2 UChicago if Columbia doesn’t go well. The truth is, at any ivy or Duke/Northwestern you’ll be completely fine for recruiting. Without much differences unless it’s Yale.
Then your choices depend on culture.
People here will say bad stuff about NYC, San Francisco, and basically any city any school is in. The thing is any city is fine and you’ll have a good experience most places. Since you don’t like partying I would stay away from schools like UVA and UMich, but if those are your only choices, then you have to pick. But for now, apply to all of these, focus on the ones with realistic chances. You’re in a good spot since you have a lot of stuff done already and basically have 4 months to grind out other apps.
The one problem is that it’s a lot of schools. And applying to so many sometiems will lower the quality of your application.
If there’s a school you wouldn’t go to over UCLA/Cal since you’re in state and have good chance, then don’t apply, or focus less on those.
You have to make cuts here and there to be able to focus on the ones that are really important.
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