Your list is fine, but most are Reach and I find nothing wrong with that. Just be aware of it.
My eldest had a strategy of 1 Safety, 0 Match, and several Reach. Her attitude was why waste time and money on applications for high match, match and several safeties?
She wisely chose a Safety that had rolling admissions and was consistently Top 10 in the U.S. in her broad major in all six rankings we could find. It was a state flagship (out of state). She applied very early and within a couple of weeks she was accepted directly into her major and into their Honors College, so she could concentrate on her elite Reach applications.
@lobrim: Of course, admit rates change for those applying ED. For example, while Northwestern University’s overall admit rate is about 8%, the ED admit rate is in the 22% to 25% range.
To say the list is lazy is ridiculous. We have spent countless hours as a family trying to narrow down the list. Should one expect to not get accepted to any schools that are target? I am taking finances out of it because I will find a way to pay for any of them, weighing whether that is worth it after acceptance is a different story.
If his stats put him in the top 10% of accepted students and the school accepts 64% of applicants that seams pretty safe. Obviously any of the top schools are no guarantee. Finding safe schools that fit what he is looking for is the tough part. I like the James Madison suggestion as one not on our radar. Any other suggestions of safe schools would be helpful.
For his major, Illinois, Wisconsin, Washington (Seattle), Virginia Tech might be reasonable match/safeties to add to your list of Northeastern, BC, etc. Then, whittle those down as to his preferences. You don’t need a long list of safeties and matches.
Sounds like a good cv.
Try to apply early to one or two of those match/safeties that he’d set as a high floor, then focus on the elite/reach. Fingers crossed he is accepted to Notre Dame, since that is his #1.
Wake cares deeply about visits, in person interviews, and demonstrated interest, so if you haven’t done that, you may be disappointed regardless of your stats. UNC cares deeply about in state residence, which you do not have. Both Northeastern and Boston College are quite focused on their yield and sensitive to being used as backup. And U Mass may have a high overall admission rate, but I bet the computer science rate is quite low-for reference, UT Austin has an overall admit rate of around 40%, and a computer science admit rate of 5%. Caveat emptor.
Probably a match, not a safety. Some schools will practice yield protection, and deny admission to students with top stats because the college does not think the student will attend if offered admission. Make sure your S is demonstrating interest at the schools that consider that in the admissions process–check each school’s common data set to see whether and to what extent they value demonstrated interest.
Generally it is best to use the school’s website and common data sets for current admission rates, test score ranges and other relevant data…stay away from secondary sources which are often outdated or just plain wrong.
Any school with below 20% admit rate is a reach, some consider anything under 30% reaches. 30%-70% are targets, some only consider affordable, auto-admits as safeties. And as lookingforward says we only know your S’s stats…not the strength of his essays, LoRs, ECs, etc.
Is your S applying to any schools ED? EA?
For more highly likely schools and CS beyond GMU and Marist suggestions, perhaps VCU, U Delaware, Ohio University, and U Vermont.
Admissions reality check. I know this varies by yr but keep this in mind. We’re in FL. Lots of high stat kids apply to UNC. Have never met one, including my son, who was accepted. OOS is competing for 18% of the spots. Very hard get. Another reality that goes beyond the stats you read about - S attends Wake Forest. Wake is test optional so hard to figure where that fits in the mix. He was / is a high stat kid. Everyone around him is the same high stat kid - top of the class, high test scores, class pres, val / sal, multiple sports captains, debate captain, etc. It was a target for him and a target for your son. The val in his HS class did not get in to Wake but she was not as impressive outside of academics (pretty much what she did). It is truly holistic.
Sure, top stats at a 60+ % school is a good safety.
But the best of the rest are holistic. Some regions of the US have lots of kids with marching band in their ECs. Fewer drum majors, but that may not be enough pull if he applies stem, with no stem ECs.
Eagle, same issue and depends on the project.
Add in geo factors. And competition for majors like CS. If he’s the umpteenth applicant from his sub area, if the others have “more,” it changes chances.
OP, behind what seems like a diss are the many factors that make “match.” Many families look at what their child wants in a college, then stats comparisons, and miss what the colleges themselves look for, what makes one a compelling applicant, in the college’s eyes.
Have you considered University of Maryland, College Park? It should be a high safety for your son. However, UMD is not small. November 1 is the deadline for priority admission; all who apply by this date will be considered for Honors College and the Banneker Key scholarships, with NO separate applications required.
UMD CS is not a safety for an out of state applicant.
That’s part of the problem here…CS is a hot major right now. Any program that has limited enrollment is very competitive. The overall school’s acceptance rate and mid range scores are not reflective of what they are for the major. Purdue and UIUC are other examples.
Someone suggested the University of Washington in Seattle for CS as a match / safety. For CS, UW-Seattle is a reach & should be considered as among the very best CS programs in the country.
“If his stats put him in the top 10% of accepted students and the school accepts 64% of applicants that seams pretty safe.”
Not for CS. There are several colleges that have 60%+ aceptance rates for the college as a whole, but acceptance to the computer science programs are <20%. Purude and UIUC come to mind, possibly UF too. Even UM with a lower acceptance rate has an even lower rate for CS.
Agree with @bloomfield88 's strategy. Both of our kids applied to our state flagship early and had a school they were more than happy with in their back pocket before Jan 1 and only applied to their top schools (all reaches). If you don’t have the luxury of a great state flagship (or other match safety) that your kid would be happy to attend and can apply early to, or he fails to get in early or rolling, you probably need a deeper bench of match schools in his major. I would agree with other posters that the “hard targets” are reaches.
The reason I think this list is not very good is this…the only calculable fact in college choice is money. That’s your foundation. You take that out, everything else is opinion and fluff. My advice, I would treat finances as a precondition before even applying. Worse than getting rejected is getting a list of acceptances to schools you can’t afford. If you have $250,000 saved, then that would be a different story. Most people don’t. $250k is more than medical school. If you don’t, you would have to take out substantial debt, or far worse, co-sign that debt over to him. That’s no small chunk of change even for well-to-do people. If that’s the case, it’s not worth it for a bachelors degree at an entry-level salary.
If he’s looking to do CS, as a programmer myself, you’d be wasting your money sending him to those schools. CS is ridiculously employable and the entire industry is based on experience. I’ve interviewed for big companies like Amazon, Google, Target Corp, etc and none of them asked where I went to school. I went to a local state university.
I see a bunch of reach schools with one likely…Stony Brook. UNC and Boston College are not target schools, and Wake Forest is not a safety. From what I understand, UMass is not a safety for CS.
Additionally, NY is an overrepresented state, and there are lots of impressive students living there.
I would move the “hard target schools” and “target” schools to the reach category. I would put Wake and UMass in the “maybe” category, and Stony Brook in the “likely” category.
Your son needs match and safety schools. Take a look at some of the Rochester schools.
@lobrim Is this your first child to go through the college application process? The reason I ask is your reasoning and assumptions sound similar to mine before our first time through. The reality was that I just didn’t know what I didn’t know. There is a wealth of accumulated knowledge and experience on these boards which, if you are open to considering it, can help to smooth out what will be a bumpy experience. A lot of people come to the forums to ask questions similar to yours and get defensive when they don’t receive unanimous validation. Since you asked the question I’ll assume you actually want people to provide their input rather than just provide a stamp of approval. Just observe for a bit and themes will emerge that will eventually prove helpful. You came to a good place to help you polish up the good work you have already done!
If I was looking for CS in NC, I would first look at NC State. They are numbers driven, more so than UNC. It often baffles me that people (OOS) who say they want engineering or CS will list Duke and UNC and completely ignore NC State.
I guess it’s because it doesn’t have that ranking or sports teams that win championships, but their program might actually be better.