Are These a Good List of Schools for Me?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Safety: RPI, NYU, Vassar

Semi-Safety: CMU, Gtown, Tufts

Match: Cornell, Northwestern, JHU, Dartmouth

Reach: HYP, Columbia, Penn, Duke, MIT, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Chicago

[ *] SAT I (breakdown): 2320
[ *] ACT:
[ *] SAT II: M2 800, Chem 780
[ *] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.98 (97.7)
[ *] Weighted GPA: IDK out of 4 scale
[ *] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 3/220
[ *] AP (place score in parenthesis): World 5 APUSH 5 BC 5 LANG 5 Chem 5
[ *] IB (place score in parenthesis):
[ *] Senior Year Course Load: 5 APS
[ *] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Distinciton, National Merit, Science Fair

[ /list][ b]Subjective:[ /b][ list]
[ *] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Violin, Local Youth Orchestra, Pit orchestra, School concertmaster, Varsity Tennis captain (named all section player), FBLA, newspaper, math team, Student Government, Independent Research
[ *] Job/Work Experience: Intern at Columbia
[ *] Volunteer/Community service: Play violin at nursing homes, tutor
[ *] Personal Statement:
[ *] Letter of Recommendations: Average
[ *] Interview:

[ /list][ b]Other[ /b][ list]
[ *] Applied for Financial Aid?:
[ *][ b] Intended Major [ /b]:
[ *] State (if domestic applicant): NJ
[ *] Country (if international applicant): US
[ *] School Type: Average Public
[ *] Ethnicity: Asian
[ *] Gender: Male
[ *] Income Bracket:
[ *] Hooks (URM, first generation college, research, etc.):

2

Vassar is not a safety for you or anyone. Your semi safeties are also reaches

3

You have a bad list. Way too many reaches. Agree with above. NYU should be in the matches, also. I would spend some time giving yourself a reality check.

4

@jarrett211 the average GPA and SAT for cornell from my school out of 220 students is 95 and 2150. The average for NYU out of 230 students is a 93 GPA. Why would NYU be a match?

5

Same with Cornell

6

@JoeSmith15 You surely must understand that GPA and test scores will not guarantee admission nearly anywhere really good nowadays. You sound like a typical applicant, which means that NYU would be a match, and the rest would be reaches. Sounds to me like you are relying too much on your school’s stats and that you might be overrating your own application.

7

@jarrett211 So RPI is a reach too I assume

8

I didn’t say that. It’s not a reach. But with the kind of approach that has two ivy’s as matches (no one is a match for an ivy unless you have a stellar application, and are urm/legacy/recruited athelete), and three top 30 national schools as semi-safeties (c’mon man, really???), it will come back to bite you. I believe you have a shot at any of these schools, but you absolutely have to reassess where you stand.

9

@Jarrett211 so my semi-safeties would be reaches for applicants of my same demographic with lets say a 2350 SAT, a 98 GPA, 3 SAT2 800s and 7 5s on 7 AP exams?

10

I’ll say it again, your grades are not the problem. You have fantastic grades, but GRADES DO NOT MAKE APPLICANTS STAND OUT, even if your school is generally worse than you. I guarantee thousands of other applicants have your scores, gpa, or better. You can’t bank on anything academic because schools like that see that as for the most part typical. Your ec’s, essays, and recs, (and maybe interview) are what help distinguish an applicant. Looking at yours, I see an okay list of ec’s, but nothing I haven’t seen before. Rec letters being average won’t help but you can’t do anything about that, so forget about it. Point is, you should know that you have a chance to get into any of these places, but your chances are no better than anyone else’s. Sorry if this was brutal, but you seem like the kind of person who needs a bit of reality check. I’m only trying to help you.

11

What makes you special? I am the admissions committee - sell me why I should admit Joe

12

@jarrett211 so basically your saying that schools like CMU, and Tufts aren’t safeties for anyone but URM/Athletes, etc. If you think that you are completely mistaken about the admissions process.

13

@clarinetdad16 all Im saying is that Vassar and NYU are essentially safeties because I can be a recruited athlete at those schools, I talked to the coaches, its D3 but it still gives a bump. Also, for schools like Cornell, JHU, and Gtown and Tufts, my stats are way above the average from my school. My school is top ranked by US News

14

Same question, why should we admit you Joe?

15

They are not safeties for anyone. Carnegie Mellon is a hard school to get into. Tufts is a hard school. At this point, you should read up on other people’s posts, and you will see what kinds of things you are going up against. And those people aren’t overestimating themselves. Look at ClarinetDad’s post. Right now you are trying so hard to convince yourself that you’re a guaranteed standout with grades, but right now you are digging a ditch you will never be able to get out of with that mentality. And by the way, if you think I am mistaken, then you really have not been on this site long enough. Look at my chance thread if you want and you’ll see what a balanced list looks like.

16

Cornell, and dartmouth are both reaches for you. NYU is not a safety and neither is vassar just being blunt. A safety school goes by % accepted not your stats. Georgetown/tufts/cmu are all almost and if not as hard to get into than cornell dartmouth etc. please read up about what make these schools safeties, matches, reaches etc. because going into the process you will be deeply disappointed if you keep this mindset.

17

@jarrett211 Your going to be deeply disappointed if you think Northeastern is a safety with a 680 writing 8 essay and a 3.83 GPA. Also please take the time to look around this site to realize the prestige level of FBLA awards (especially in such a small state as MA). Do you do any sports in high school or have any awards for piano?

18

@JoeSmith15 I wasn’t referring to Northeastern. If you had actually read through my thread, you would have actually seen that I came to agree with everyone else that it shouldn’t be a safety. Clearly, you didn’t do that. And I had national standing in FBLA (and being an FBLA member you should know that that is not contingent on state). I have a 720 score in writing (680 is on single test). Here is the thing though. My school is also nationally ranked. 3.83 in my school is very very good, just as I imagine your GPA is good in your school. But I know that I can stand out with my essays and a unique background (plus I have legacy at my ED school). I didn’t do sports in high school, nor do I have piano awards, but that isn’t the point. That’s not why I sent you to my thread. You weren’t there to mull over and complain about how my grades are worse then yours. That’s simply a fact. I would not send you there for that. I sent you there to see for yourself what other people thought my chances were. How people would call Tufts a low reach, or how they would say for any Ivy even with legacy is a high reach. My grades and test scores are above average for every school I am applying to, but that doesn’t give me confidence in the slightest. What does is that, unlike you so far at least, I can answer the question: What makes me stand out/a good fit for these universities? You don’t seem to understand that, and I am sorry for you that when it comes decision time, you will be wondering why you got the results you did when your academics were so good when we’ve been telling you the entire time what you need to do. Until you can answer the question ClarinetDad poses, you will not get in to any reaches, matches, or “semi-safeties”.

19

Northwestern and Cornell cannot be matches. They reject more students that accepted with scores in that range.

20

@jarrett211 stop emphasizing your legacy to Penn, I have a legacy to Princeton, but I do not go around showboating it trying to make myself look special. My stats and ECs are also much better than yours so I do not understand your point. I have similar stats to my sister who is now attending Columbia.