<p>Hey everyone I'm a rising senior and need some help deciding what schools are good for me, especially in terms of safeties, matches, and reaches.</p>
<p>I'm not too picky about location, or climate, but I'd like to go out of state. Admittedly, I won't go out of state (and pay more) unless I find a better college than UMich. I'd like a decent sized college, not too small, but not too huge. Preferably a suburban campus (don't mind being close to a big city), with a decent social scene. I'll also need financial aid.</p>
<p>MI Resident
Indian
Public High School - sends quite a few kids to UMich
Probably going to be a premed</p>
<p>GPA (both out of 4.0)
Unweighted: 3.9
Weighted: 3.98
Classes are honors whereever possible, school doesn't really offer APs until junior year.
Will have taken 8 AP classes by end of senior year
School doesn't rank</p>
<p>AP: 5's on Chem and USH</p>
<p>SAT: 1480/ 2280
1540/ 2340 Superscored</p>
<p>SAT II: Math II: 800
Chem: 770
USH: 710</p>
<p>ECs (weak point...how much will they bring me down?)
-Varsity Hockey (20 hrs/wk, 40 wks/yr) (10-12)
-Internship at a Research Lab (12)
-Volunteering at local hospital
-NHS
-Tutor
-Guitar (should I put this? - I've played for 9 years (mostly self taught) and I was in a band
and recorded some songs at one point, but other than that, nothing of note)
-Minor Awards - (3rd at regional science fair, academic all-state...)</p>
<p>All I know at this point is that I'll apply to UMich early response and hopefully use that as a safety if I get in. I'll also apply to Michigan-Dearborn as a safety.
I'm a little interested in WashU and Duke, but other than that I'm not sure.
Could anyone suggest some matches and good reaches for me?</p>
<p>You could put your guitar recordings as a supplement or something if they’re decent and tasteful (I do screaming and metal and whatnot in the songs I write so I wouldn’t send that off to admissions haha)</p>
<p>Try Notre Dame, Cornell (this would probably be best for you), Swarthmore, Rice, Tulane, Berkeley, and Northwestern for a good helping of reach schools.</p>
<p>Still, you got UMich, arguably the best value in the country as an in-state resident (would love to go there myself, but OOS tuition is way prohibitive and my own stats are borderline), so I would take that and run with it, if I were you.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses everyone.
dshinka: I wouldn’t say my recordings aren’t decent but I also wouldn’t say they’re exceptional, which is usually the criteria for supplements right? Also my parents do make over 100k but are also putting my sister through college, and I’d like to put as little financial stress on them as possible.
I looked into Cornell a little bit, it’s a beautiful campus. The thing that worries me about schools like Cornell and Duke is my ECs don’t seem up to par.
And yes, UMich is a great value, but I’d rather get away from most of the people I’ve spent the last 4 years with…
I never really looked into Rice or Vanderbilt, how is the diversity in Southern schools?</p>
<p>i’d say that you are definitely in the range of duke and cornell. it won’t hurt to apply, and if you like one of the schools and you get in, it’ll always have been worth it duke definitely fits your criteria :)</p>
<p>i’d also look into brown and dartmouth (duke and dartmouth are very similar schools)</p>
<p>Thanks again for the replies.
I don’t mean to sound too self conscious about ECs, but I want to be realistic about my chances with them.
Dartmouth is a little smaller than the other colleges I was looking at. I’ve liked what I’ve read about it so far though.
Does anyone have any suggestions for any match schools?</p>
duke definitely fits your criteria :)</p>