Balanced College list?

Just wanted thoughts on my college list.I’m currently a junior. I live in the New York metro area, instate. Public high school with approximately 350 students in my grade. I rank in the top 1% in my school.

SAT: 1490, plan on retaking for 1500+ (780 English, 710 math. 7/5/7 essay)
ACT: 32 (10th grade; plan on retaking; 34 English, 34 reading, 32 science, 29 math, 10 essay)

Subject test: World History:800
Plan on taking us history and math level 2

9th:
No APs allowed
bio honors
Geometry honors
World history honors
English honors
Spanish honors
Band

10th grade:
AP World: 5 (only AP allowed)
Advanced Science Research (Working on political science/economics project with mentor at local university)
Spanish honors
Algebra 2 honors
English honors
Chemistry honors
Band

11th grade:
AP Stat
AP Us history
AP Chemistry
AP Lang
Precalc honors
Spanish 4H
Advanced science research
Band
Self studying AP micro and macro

Senior year TBD
AP lit
AP Spanish
AP calc bc or ab
AP physics 1 or honors physics
AP gov and politics
Health
Band

Safe:
SUNY Binghamton
George Washington

Target:

Northeastern
U Michigan
UVA
NYU
Boston college

Reach:
Harvard
Princeton
Yale
UPenn
Dartmouth
Stanford
Georgetown
Columbia

Wants in a school:
Preferably in The northeast
Preferably Residential college system
Medium to large size university ( if large, want a large number of small classes)
Good politics extracurriculars
Preferably surburban or with physical campus

Major: PPE or Political Economy or Public Policy.

Based on your preference for a suburban setting, this Newsweek article could be helpful: https://www.newsweek.com/25-most-desirable-suburban-schools-71867.

Congrats on your hard work and success in HS so far!

This is a very reach heavy list and even the targets are pretty reach-y. I think of a a target/match as when you are both at or above 75 percentile in GPA and standardized test scores AND the college has an overall 30% to 50% acceptance rate. (Safety is at at or above 75 percentile and about a 50% or greater acceptance rate, or guaranteed admit based on stats.)

Based on above, I also don’t think GW is a safety. I’m not familiar enough with SUNY Binghamton to know. Overall, you need more safeties and targets if you want to know for sure you have options next Spring.

Remember to run the NPCs for the reaches – most these colleges don’t offer merit and if you can’t afford it it doesn’t matter if you get in.

Good luck!

Yes, congratulations on your hard work and success!

The BIG question: Can you afford all of these schools? All, except SUNY Binghamton, will have exceptionally high sticker prices. A few will meet full financial need, but some are much dicier in terms of offering substantial financial/merit aid to students who need that (most of them). So please be sure to consider the financial side very seriously and run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) for these schools.

Assuming you can pay for them,

You have six Ivies and Georgetown and Stanford and reaches. I would never discourage anyone from applying to a school where they are qualified.

That said, a couple of things to think about. Penn and Dartmouth are completely different environments. Penn is very urban. A student is never more than a block or two from gritty city streets. That’s fine but not for everyone. Dartmouth is in a small, bucolic college town in the middle of mountains and dairy farms. I love it, but it is far from anything. Someone could love both schools, but when I see these together, I always wonder if they are just there because they are Ivies. If you really love Penn, there MAY be better choices than Dartmouth. And vice versa.

The other is odds of acceptance. Several of these schools have RD acceptance rates well down in the single digits. You are qualified for all of them, and would probably succeed, AND the vast majority of fully qualified applicants will not be accepted. I like this example: we visited an absolutely tip-top LAC. They said 70% of applicants were fully qualified, and admissions was confident they could be successful academically and otherwise at the school. At the time, it accepted 14% of applicants. So 4 in 5 fully qualified applicants were denied admission. Assuming that 70% number for Stanford, which is a reasonable assumption, then think about the odds at Stanford, which accepts about 4%. And I know something like a half dozen local students who’ve gone to Stanford in recent years. Every single one was a recruited athlete. So that 4% number is probably high for an unhooked RD applicant. Odds are not long because you are not qualified to study there–you are–but simply a matter of supply/demand.

I love the schools on your target list. You are well qualified. But again great candidates are denied admissions at these schools. You may well be accepted at any or all of them (and I hope you are). But none are sure bets, at all. So what if they did not work out?

Here’s the key question? Would you be happy at GWU or SUNY Binghampton? They are excellent schools, and I definitely think it great to have at least one, maybe more, state publics on almost any student’s list. AND would you be happy at them. I’ll add that GWU has a very urban campus.

Just some things to think about, you should do what you think best: So what if you removed one of your reach schools, the one that is least appealing, and add Rochester, which has outstanding academics, and is extremely competitive, but not so much so as most of these? What about Holy Cross, which is a little small but absolutely outstanding academically, especially in your areas of interest, and definitely offers smaller classes. Worcester is second or third largest city in New England, and Boston is a commuter train trip away. Also, it claims to meet full financial need. What about William and Mary? Expensive OOS, but medium size (6500 undergrads), excellent academically, especially for your areas of interest (alums include James Comey, Robert Gates, Jen Psaki, Jon Stewart, Serge Kovaleski, and Thomas Jefferson), lots of small classes, very competitive also, but better odds if you are male (more female applicants), and not as crazy as acceptance rates as your reach schools. There are the best of the best students at all these schools.

And how about the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a target/safety. Similar to Michigan. Located blocks from the state capitol building. Like Ann Arbor, a great college town. Excellent reputation.

Just trying to throw some things out to think about. You are asking great question and being diligent. These things themselves are great predictors of success when you get to college.

Good luck!

Just throwing it out there that NYU is urban and has no real campus, things you say you prefer.