Are these Ivies safeties, matches, or reaches for me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
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<p>I'm trying to put together my college list for the fall, and I am aiming to organize my safeties, matches, and reaches. Please help me categorize these colleges:</p>

<p>HYP, UPenn ED, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Duke, Brown, UVA, UMich, Wash U and Vanderbilt </p>

<p>SAT I: 1st time (800 CR, 700 M, 770 W), 2nd time (760 CR, 790 M, 800 W)
GPA: 3.95 UW, Rank 7/230 at private school; schedule is most rigorous with 11 APs</p>

<p>ECs: Founded a soup kitchen community service organization that cooks/funds full meals for soup kitchens and also has raised about 1K over 3 years so far - I hope to raise more money and make a micro financial loan senior year</p>

<p>-Sports Journalism (9-12) : sports editor of school paper, founded my own successful sports website with google advertising, write for numerous online blog sites, won local writing awards</p>

<p>-Coach Youth Basketball for my city rec. league multiple times a week
-Student Government (9, 11, 12) (have a major leadership role)
-Varsity Golf (10-12)
-Model UN (10-12) club president, few small awards there</p>

<p>Plan to enter 2013-14 Intel STS for my major research paper on economic effects of civil war</p>

<p>Intended Major: Econ/International Relations</p>

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<p>Ivies are NEVER safeties.</p>

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<p>1sparkle2 is right Ivies are never safeties. Your numbers and stats are impressive but an unattractive essay could jeopardize everything.</p>

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<p>Dont’ expect anything for STS. They might accept your research but unless it is extremely innovative/ original your chances are super low. From my quick skim, none of the semifinalists last year were pure humanities (some were history/ demographics + research and some were psychology).</p>

<p>Your SAT and GPA are good but there are inevitably applicants out there with better stats and your near perfect stats aren’t entirely what these colleges are looking for anyway. No SAT II’s, but hopefully they are/will be 760+. </p>

<p>ECs are good. 1k over 3 years doesn’t sound like too many meals, so I wouldn’t over-tout your soup kitchen service. Sports journalism is really interesting, the rest is pretty standard. I hope you have more mini ECs or some more awards, though. I assume you have AP scholar with distinction? Have you ever done olympiads?</p>

<p>None of the ivies or these other schools are safeties for anyone that is not a Bush or Kennedy. You will probably get in to UVA, UMich, Wash U, NW, Duke, and Vandy, but they might not have a lot of money to offer. </p>

<p>HYP and the other ivies are reaches. I think you will probably get in to at least one (provided your essay is good and you actually have other little ECs and semi-big awards). Since you are applying UPenn ED for what I assume is wharton, make sure you emphasize your sports journalism and any other money-related things.</p>

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<p>This is how I would classify safety schools, match schools, and reach schools. </p>

<p>Safety- a school where your test scores and GPA are significantly above the average. It is also a school where you know the vast amount of students are accepted (like 80%).</p>

<p>Match- a school where your test scores are in the ball park or slightly above. This school may accept about 50% of candidates. It is a school where you are confident you could be accepted.</p>

<p>Reach- A reach is a school where either your stats are on the lower side or the acceptance rate is so low that your chance of admission is unlikely. Some people might feel differently, but I classify all schools with under a 20% acceptance rate as being reaches no matter how strong the candidate is.</p>

<p>With this in mind, I think you can classify your schools. In my opinion, most of the schools on your list would be reaches for everyone. I would add a couple more safeties.</p>

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<p>Thanks for your responses…I also plan to apply to my state flagship where I can attend basically for free (my state has a pre-funding program and scholarships for my test scores). Some other safeties I will add are GWU, Northeastern, BU, and Tulane. </p>

<p>The 1K I raised was separate from the money used to fund meals. We’ve raised 1K profit, and cooked 4 meals for 250 people each with money donated from my family and my partner’s family, as our parents believe is it a great cause. </p>

<p>One concern is money. We are upper-middle class, so don’t expect to get much aid but may need some. My dad has encouraged me to apply ED to Penn because he “can make it work.” Aside from my state flagship, can I expect any merit based aid from Michigan, UVA, or GWU?</p>