Valid College List??

College Search & Selection
1

College List: Harvard, UChicago, Yale, UPenn, Northwestern, Duke, Johns Hopkins, University of Michigan, CWRU, UPitt

So…suggestions, comments, criticisms? ED, EA, or RD? I’m the first out of my siblings to go through this process, so my parents and I are trying to decide how many colleges to apply to/how to balance reach schools with safety and in-between schools.

Currently a Junior at a public high school
African-American Male
GPA: 3.934 (UW) and 4.529 (W)
ACT: 33 with 10 in writing – planning on raising it to 35-36 this spring
Plan on taking SAT and subject tests in Chem, French, and Math 2 this upcoming spring
Taking AMC and USNCO local exams this spring semester as well

8th Grade (High school courses):

  • French I
  • Algebra I

Freshmen:

  • Honors Geometry
  • Honors Algebra II
  • French II
  • Honors Band
  • World Studies
  • Honors Physical Science
  • Introduction to Engineering Design
  • Honors English IX

Summer going into Sophomore Year:

  • CCP Precalculus A/B
  • Health

Sophomore:

  • AP US History (5)
  • AP Biology (4)
  • AP Statistics (4)
  • AP Calculus BC (5 for BC and AB)
  • Honors Biochemistry of Health
  • Honors Band
  • Honors French III
  • Honors English X

Junior (currently in):

  • AP Chemistry (5)
  • AP English Language and Composition (5)
  • AP US Government and Politics (5*)
  • Self-study of Calculus III (first-semester)
  • Self-study of Differential Equations (second-semester)
  • Honors Human Anatomy and Physiology
  • Band
  • Honors French IV

*assuming based on how smoothly the classes are going

Senior (planning to take):

  • AP Psychology
  • AP French
  • AP Physics I: Algebra-Based
  • AP English Literature and Composition
  • Self-study of Linear Algebra (first-semester)
  • Honors Genetics of Disease
  • Honors Biomedical Innovations

Planned Recommendations:

  • AP Chemistry teacher
  • AP English Lang teacher
  • Teacher I had for Calc III/DIff Eq/Linear Alg and whom I also compete in Mu Alpha Theta for (same person)
  • Teacher I had French 2 thru AP French

Extracurriculars:

  • Founded project Spark the Park with TomTod non-project organization – revamped our local park and added bat boxes and mini-libraries along the trails (9, 10, 11)
  • Founded and preside over Math Club as we are competing in AMC for the first time this year (10, 11)
  • programming team on 4121 FRC robotics team (9, 10, 11); Captain (11)
  • French club officer (9, 10, 11); next in line to become president
  • JV academic challenge team (9, 10); quit before joining varsity team junior year
  • Marching Band/Pep Band/Full Orchestra/Symphonic Band playing Mellophone and French Horn (9, 10, 11); Officer (10); quitting after this year
  • Leadership Club (9, 10, 11); Officer (11) and got accepted in RYLA conference
  • President’s Council (10, 11) and NHS (I don’t know, haven’t heard back yet) – mainly a title
  • Mu Alpha Theta collegiate team (10, 11) – compete twice per semester – personally have nationally ranked
  • Planning to do 100+ hours of neuro-research at NEOMED during summer (may continue with this going into next school year with band being out of the bucket list)
  • US Soccer Referee since June 2018

Community Service (over my high school career):

  • Camp Invention Leadership Summer Intern (40 hours)
  • Altar Server at my church (31 hours)
  • Rotary Club Flag Set-Up/Take-Down (10 hours)
  • VBS Assistant Teacher (45 hours)
  • FFF Assistant Teacher (57 hours)
  • Instruments of Christ (play horn in my church–20 hours)
  • Senior Citizen Cover Story/History Project (10 hours)
  • …and several other hours for soup kitchens, concessions, marching band (uniform fitting, band room decorating, mattress sale, contest facilitator, etc.), senior citizens’ prom, French tutoring and crepe making (FRENCH WEEK!!)
2

There are no safeties on this list.

You should have at least 2 safeties - where your stats put you above the 75th percentile, with a high acceptance rate, and that’s affordable. IMO, the majority of your list should be matches with just a couple of reaches. Your list is very reach heavy.

3

@momofsenior1 Would UPitt be not considered a safety school with an approximately 50% acceptance rate and rolling admission? If not, would Miami University and the University of Cincinnati be good safety schools to add? Finally, am I applying to too many schools?

4

Plus, do you think I could get accepted into any of those top colleges? As I said, my family doesn’t have many references and I don’t want to lead them on.

5

Check naviance if your school has it also check out college data for each school.

IE: https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=379.

This has the breakdown for each school. Lots of good information about each school

Your resume is impressive but you need more safeties so you don’t end up going to a community College.

6

@Knowsstuff Thanks a ton for the resource! I’ve been scrambling everywhere for information, so having it all on one platform is nice for a change.

7

I would suggest you add Univ of Cincy if possible at this late date. You are a good candidate but you are applying to very selective schools.

8

@JBSeattle Oh, I am not applying right now! I’m just trying to formulate a list early on. But do you think I have the merits to get accepted into an Ivy?

9

Maybe OP but not great to bank on a maybe.

10

@JBSeattle I’ll make sure to adjust. Thank you for the comments!!

11

OP, given your reach, you are definitely not applying to too many. Yale recommends 10 - 15. Make sure your family is aware that a good number of your top schools won’t be offering much in the way of merit aid (UChicago is kind of the exception for some admission plans). Some of them will meet full demonstrated financial need, however.

Adding a couple more safeties is not a bad idea. If you are in OH, then MU or OSU makes sense due to in-state tuition and perhaps the possibility of sizable merit. Add one or two more respectable backups to your current line-up and you should be in decent shape. A bit top heavy, but not at all over-ambitious given the chance-me profile you’ve provided.

If you can increase that ACT a notch or two and perform well on the subject tests, that will help your application. Most importantly, be sure to keep up your junior and first sem. senior grades. You might need to send a mid-year report if you roll into regular round with your #1 so those senior grades are crucial.

Finally, spend time exploring why every single one of those schools is an exciting prospect for you, since that energy and desire will come across in your essays. Take nothing for granted, even the safeties, since you’ll want to maximize your options at all of them.

Good luck to you!

12

What state do you live in, and what major are you thinking of? I would guess that you live in Pennsylvania, so maybe add Ohio State, which may be close and is likely be a safety for you in most majors. If you raise your ACT to 35, CWRU would also be close to a safety, or at very least a low match. Again, depends on your major. Also, maybe look at a few more large public schools for matches and safeties.

13

Safeties need to be affordable. Make sure you run the NPC (Net Price Calculator) at places like Pitt and get numbers that look do-able to consider them safeties. Otherwise, I agree that Pitt should easily be an admissions safety with your application as written above.

Since you like CW and Pitt, give a serious look at U Rochester. Most students I know who like those two also like U Rochester and URoc many times comes back with better finances, esp if need based aid is a factor. They also offer merit scholarships - many as smaller amounts, but some that are quite tantalizing. They have oodles of options to continue in music at various levels (fun to classes, etc) as well.

14

If you want to maximize your chances at those most competitive colleges, take the SAT & ACT as many times as it takes to get up to 35 or 36 (or SAT equivalent).

15

OP - 50% acceptance rate is a match school in my book. Safeties - 75% acceptance rate and higher, and as mentioned up thread by multiple people, affordable. The fact that Pitt is rolling definitely helps. You could apply when the common app opens and know very early if you need to look at less competitive schools.

Cincinnati would be a good choice for a safety for sure. If you are in OH and interested in stem, U of Akron as well (your scores would get you full tuition in honors college and they are also on rolling admission).

FWIW, I think you are competitive even now with the 33 ACT at some of your reach schools. Obviously a higher ACT score would be even better. 750+ on your SAT II tests will also help.

If you are going to apply to more than 10 programs, my advice is to start the process early! Get your common app essay done and edited this spring. Have your recommendations lined up and do as much of your application as you can when the common app opens. All the competitive schools have college specific essays you will need to write. My daughter applied to 8 schools and had to write 19 essays. It’s a lot to deal with when school is in session so try to do as much in August as possible.

I would also encourage you to do a deeper dive on what kind of schools you are looking at. Other than prestige some of your reach schools have totally different academic approaches, not to mention social life. The more you can verbalize why a school is the right fit for you, beyond ranking, the better.

Good luck!

16

I don’t think you are wasting your time applying to any of these but agree that you may want to add a few easier admits to the list. And I also agree that with the exception of being highly selective, they have little in common with each other so it’s not clear what you are looking for.

You mention that you are first gen. Will you also be needing a lot of FA? If so, are you eligible for Questbridge?

17

Based on your numbers, you should be a competitive candidate for admission at half of your listed schools, while the other half are reaches–although as an AA male applicant, they are reasonable reaches.

Currently, your list consists of ten universities. You might want to add 2 to 4 more schools. Consider Brown, Columbia, Middlebury College, Williams College, Bowdoin College, Amherst College & your state public flagship university.

(Not sure why someone would recommend the Univ. of Cincinnati to you.)

18

Do you have a planned major or area of interest?

19

@moooop and OP. It’s a good goal but enough with I’ll keep taking it until I get a 35 or 36. You are both super bright. And hope is not a strategy. Be hopeful but strategic in your thinking. And obviously you both are great at math and probabilities. Here’s the data and facts. I think you have a great list of reach schools and Pitt is great and you will most likely get in. CW is a match and the rest reaches. Maybe add a few Uber elite HBCUs like Howard for an additional match while at the prestige level equal to the reach schools.

You have a terrific profile and you could add many matches for you that are reaches and dream schools for thousands of other students.

Here’s the data. Approx 19k out of approx 2,000,000 scored a 35 or 36.

And only approx 70k out of 2mm scored a 33 or better. Yes try to move your score a bit but you are already in an elite category.

“In the class of 2018, 1,914,817 students took the ACT. The average composite score was 20.8 out of 36 (for more on how the ACT is scored, read our article). This means that a score of 21 or higher puts you above average.

But if we consider 21 and up good scores (since they’re above average), what would qualify as an amazing score?

To find out, let’s look at ACT percentiles—the rankings tied to composite scores. For example, a 90th percentile score means you scored higher than 90% of test takers.

On the ACT, 34 and up is the 99th percentile. So if you score 34 or higher, you’re in the top 1% of test takers!

But exactly how many students earned a 33, 34, 35, or 36 in 2018? And which score is the rarest? Let’s take a look:

Score # of Students Percentage of All Test Takers
36 3,741 0.195%
35 14,928 0.780%
34 21,836 1.140%
33 26,930 1.406%
Source: ACT.org

Unsurprisingly, a perfect 36 is the rarest score of all”

20

“If you want to maximize your chances at those most competitive colleges, take the SAT & ACT as many times as it takes to get up to 35 or 36 (or SAT equivalent).”

Yale at the very least requires all scores of either ACT or SAT. Incessant retaking draws OP away from other things he could be doing to help his application, and may hurt at the very top.

OP - didn’t catch this earlier but if your parent didn’t attend college, UChicago (among others) will be a great place to look since they have money available for first gen. applicants. These appear to be automatic scholarships so apply to binding (EDI/II) or non-binding (EA/RD) applicants. You’ll want to contact them to find out more information but you can also look on their website.