<p>*Are the top 10 liberal art schools possible with 2000-2100 Sat score and 3.8 gpa?
I know I have like a 85% of not getting into Penn but I'm applying early decision. I'm not banking on it at all but I would love to go. Basically all my other choices are colleges like Swarthmore (will apply but not in love with it), Williams, Amherst, Middlebury (top choice), Haverford. My safety is Macalester and I'm applying to Michigan because it's practically in my backyard though I sort of hope I don't get in. I'm also interested in Cornell. Are my stats too low for this. Should I do down another 10 rankings or so? I have quite a few b's and b+'s in AP classes junior year.</p>
<p>Using Macalester as a safety is patently ridiculous.</p>
<p>You need to think a bit more about matches and your safety. Macalester is a match or a match/reach depending on whether that GPA is weighted or not - it’s not a safety. The other schools you mention are reaches - all of them. It might help if you check the Common Data Set for each school (Section C - the academic data for the class admitted last year). </p>
<p>If you like New England LACs and preppy/intellectual/outdoorsy (which sort of seems to be the common thread), take a look at Colby and Bates in Maine - also match or match/reach depending on that GPA.</p>
<p>The stats you give above, bless 3.8 is top of class at your school (Val or sal) makes the top 8 or so LACs huge reaches. Without a hook, the SAT needs to go up considerably. If you’re female, try the women’s colleges for more bend, if you’re male try Vassar and the other female dominated school.</p>
<p>Well, they do have a 40% admissions rate which is double most of the schools I’ve looked at. I’m only a junior so I haven’t had a proper sit down and decided exactly what schools I’m applying to. I feel like safeties are especially easy to find, they’re of course not your first choice. For me it’s not too hard to find a school that I don’t absolutely love but like enough and is not too selective. None of my school choices, especially my safety pick, are set in stone.</p>
<p>Michigan is not really a safety because it (somewhat unusually among public schools) considers “level of interest” in admissions.</p>
<p>Also I’m a URM, and honestly that doubles admissions rates for many schools ([The</a> JBHE Annual Survey: Black First-Year Students at the Nation’s Leading Liberal Arts Colleges : The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education](<a href=“http://www.jbhe.com/2011/11/the-jbhe-annual-survey-black-first-year-students-at-the-nations-leading-liberal-arts-colleges/]The”>The JBHE Annual Survey: Black First-Year Students at the Nation’s Leading Liberal Arts Colleges : The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education)). I don’t know if that counts as a hook, but it does work in my favor a bit. I still think I was right and need to go down about 10 rankings or just apply to loads of schools.
So many people from my district are applying to Michigan that I don’t think I’ll get it. I hope I don’t, but I also don’t believe I will. I don’t think I’m ‘better’ than U of M, I just want to go out of state.</p>
<p>Still, you need to find a clear safety that you are certain of admission and certain to be able to afford, unless you want to use community college as your safety.</p>
<p>URM does count as a hook, but take caution on relying on it to get you an acceptance letter.</p>
<p>OP, the article you posted only showed three schools with an URM admission rate that was doubled. There were about 10 that were 1/3 or 1/2 more likely, and the rest were about even or lower. There’s no way to tell if there were any stat differences in the student sets from the report so no clear conclusions can be drawn. You do need to find a safety, that you can afford!</p>