Econ and Public health - Where to apply EA

[Anonymous]

We are immigrants and clueless. Our URM DS is interested in a midsize school, urban or suburban, he is into economics/math and public health. Grades are average (3.6UW in rigorous private high school in DMV), SAT is 1480. Panic on board because deadlines are approaching and we still don't know where he would have any good chance of getting admitted. Help.

[Anonymous]

Your child’s private school college counselor should be helping guide him through the process

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your child’s private school college counselor should be helping guide him through the process

+1. I would make an appointment with the college counselor. What schools has he visited and liked? If you are in MD or VA I'd have him to apply to in-state options. What flavor of URM? This will matter too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your child’s private school college counselor should be helping guide him through the process

Maybe. Maybe not. Many, probably most, high school college counselors care about hitting a goal of 100% college acceptance for each member of the graduating class. This is achieved best by directing students to apply to safety & match schools.

[Anonymous]

I would recommend Brandeis. They have a great undergrad program where the student could major in econ. Then they could take classes in Health Economics, Health Policy, and other health related topics at their Heller Graduate school. Tufts is another place, although back in the day they'd have the Brandeis faculty come over to teach their health policy courses. I'd say UNCCH but it's stupidly difficult to get in there OOS. Same for Michigan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your child’s private school college counselor should be helping guide him through the process

Maybe. Maybe not. Many, probably most, high school college counselors care about hitting a goal of 100% college acceptance for each member of the graduating class. This is achieved best by directing students to apply to safety & match schools.

In the current college admissions climate, this is about all they can do. My guess is that OP and her kid are familiar with reach schools. College counselor can help round out this list so this kid will have a couple of safeties that they are excited about attending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your child’s private school college counselor should be helping guide him through the process

+1. I would make an appointment with the college counselor. What schools has he visited and liked? If you are in MD or VA I'd have him to apply to in-state options. What flavor of URM? This will matter too.

This is solid advice. University of Virginia & University of Maryland should definitely be on your son's list of schools.

Public health = consider Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Appalachain State University as a safety school for public health major.

[Anonymous]

Those are good stats for competitive private especially if student is first generation to go to college. Definitely UVA and UMD because those are EA and can do them simultaneous with another early school. Really depends what type of school the student wants. (small or large?, rural or urban)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your child’s private school college counselor should be helping guide him through the process

Maybe. Maybe not. Many, probably most, high school college counselors care about hitting a goal of 100% college acceptance for each member of the graduating class. This is achieved best by directing students to apply to safety & match schools.

In the current college admissions climate, this is about all they can do. My guess is that OP and her kid are familiar with reach schools. College counselor can help round out this list so this kid will have a couple of safeties that they are excited about attending.

OP here. Yes, this exactly. We have a couple of safeties and a couple of reaches, but are looking for EAs. Most "good" schools now offer EDs, no EAs.
Does EA really provide better chances than a true RD?

School's counselor seems at times overconfident, and yet also almost overcautious. Could be us too, we are not familiar with the process and consequently insecure AF.

Anything below 20% acceptance rate = reach
Target = any school where DC will have SAT at 50-75% percentile

I have been playing with collegevine.com chancing app and the results are not really giving me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those are good stats for competitive private especially if student is first generation to go to college. Definitely UVA and UMD because those are EA and can do them simultaneous with another early school. Really depends what type of school the student wants. (small or large?, rural or urban)

Not first gen. Looking for midsize, urban/suburban.
We are looking at UVA and UMD, but a bit too large for DC's taste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your child’s private school college counselor should be helping guide him through the process

Maybe. Maybe not. Many, probably most, high school college counselors care about hitting a goal of 100% college acceptance for each member of the graduating class. This is achieved best by directing students to apply to safety & match schools.

In the current college admissions climate, this is about all they can do. My guess is that OP and her kid are familiar with reach schools. College counselor can help round out this list so this kid will have a couple of safeties that they are excited about attending.

OP here. Yes, this exactly. We have a couple of safeties and a couple of reaches, but are looking for EAs. Most "good" schools now offer EDs, no EAs.
Does EA really provide better chances than a true RD?

School's counselor seems at times overconfident, and yet also almost overcautious. Could be us too, we are not familiar with the process and consequently insecure AF.

Anything below 20% acceptance rate = reach
Target = any school where DC will have SAT at 50-75% percentile

I have been playing with collegevine.com chancing app and the results are not really giving me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

I think the range of schools (safety/target/reach) is more important than making sure you have EA applications. But FWIW, the less selective schools (true safeties) are more likely to have early action, so it's a little surprising that the schools currently on your list don't include some EA schools.

What schools is your child applying to?

[Anonymous]

I recommend also considering schools that have strong quantitative econ and the broader lens of public policy. The skills needed to apply economics to public health are the same as those to apply to public policy and at an undergrad level, it probably won't make much of a difference. (But I'd check course options for these public policy programs).

Agree that UVA and UMD will fit the bill. Michigan and Wisconsin are also strong (stronger actually) in the large public realm. William and Mary also has a strong econ/public policy department.

I haven't looked - but I'd also bet that schools that have a hospital associated with it are decent choices to have some overlap in econ/public policy with health.....I'm thinking: Emory, Tufts, USC, Vanderbilt, Duke. We know of a public health economist at Carnegie Melon (not sure in what capacity though) so that could be an option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recommend also considering schools that have strong quantitative econ and the broader lens of public policy. The skills needed to apply economics to public health are the same as those to apply to public policy and at an undergrad level, it probably won't make much of a difference. (But I'd check course options for these public policy programs).

Agree that UVA and UMD will fit the bill. Michigan and Wisconsin are also strong (stronger actually) in the large public realm. William and Mary also has a strong econ/public policy department.

I haven't looked - but I'd also bet that schools that have a hospital associated with it are decent choices to have some overlap in econ/public policy with health.....I'm thinking: Emory, Tufts, USC, Vanderbilt, Duke. We know of a public health economist at Carnegie Melon (not sure in what capacity though) so that could be an option.

This is very helpful. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recommend also considering schools that have strong quantitative econ and the broader lens of public policy. The skills needed to apply economics to public health are the same as those to apply to public policy and at an undergrad level, it probably won't make much of a difference. (But I'd check course options for these public policy programs).

Agree that UVA and UMD will fit the bill. Michigan and Wisconsin are also strong (stronger actually) in the large public realm. William and Mary also has a strong econ/public policy department.

I haven't looked - but I'd also bet that schools that have a hospital associated with it are decent choices to have some overlap in econ/public policy with health.....I'm thinking: Emory, Tufts, USC, Vanderbilt, Duke. We know of a public health economist at Carnegie Melon (not sure in what capacity though) so that could be an option.

Aren’t those all reaches with that gpa and those scores though? Im not the OP but I am working with my jr on a list of schools, slightly higher GPA from a top public (will prob be about a 3.8 unweighted, 11 APs total) not an URM, no hooks, and I’m considering all those schools as reaches.

Midsize and not a reach is a bit of a unicorn. There are huge schools and tiny schools but not many midsize ones.

[Anonymous]

gpa is totally different in public vs. private. 3.6 can be quite strong depending on the school.
Also the fact that the student is a urn can make a big difference in these situations.
I grew up next to Emory and the resources with cdc and big hospitals etc give lots of public health opportunities.