Building my List

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi, I am a rising senior who will be applying to college this fall. I have been building my list of possible colleges to apply to in Naviance, and I have about 25, which I will definitely narrow down before sending out applications. I wont post my list here because I want some suggestions for colleges to see if I am on track and to get some new ideas rather than a yes/no vote on my current list.</p>

<p>This is my relevant info-
I am a white male who attends a private school in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts
ACADEMICS
GPA: UW-3.5-3.7 W-4.25
Courses-Total, I will have 10-15 Honors classes, depending on what will be counted
I will have 10 APs- Euro, Lang/Comp, Lit, AB Calc, Stats, US Gov/Pol, Econ, US Hist, Physics-B, and Chinese
SAT-CR:670 M:790 W:680
SATII-Bio:750 Chem:740 Lit:620 USH:660 Math I:710
--I will probably not be submitting the USH and definitely not the Lit
NHS and Chinese NHS member</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULARS
Vice Pres of Jewish Student Union (will be pres this year)
Set construction crew and properties design/master for theater
Photography Club
100+ hours of volunteer work at my synagogue
--I have done everything from Hebrew tutoring to historical archiving to cooking for events
Counselor in Training at summer camp
--20ish hours of volunteer work, plus a lot of leadership experience/activities
Taiwanese exchange program-hosted students in Fall 2009 and 2010 and stayed with a host family in Spring 2010
Jewish Historical Society Oral History Preservation project-several hours of tech work in editing and producing video interviews
Hobbies/other activities-Photography, Coin collecting, cooking, tennis, disc golf</p>

<p>Please suggest colleges that you think I should take a look at. I am not looking exclusively at, but would prefer a smaller college (under 10K), and for now, finances are irrelevant.</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

2

<p>So give us the list. People will help you narrow down the list and will certainly add their suggestions. But if we have your list, at least we have a base to start from.</p>

3

<p>OK, this is my list, in alphabetical order. Also, I will go ED to a school that I have not decided on, and will apply EA to any school that accepts it.</p>

<p>Amherst
Babson
BU
Bowdoin
Brown
Bryant
Carnegie Mellon
UChicago
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
GW
Georgetown
JHU
UMass-Amherst
MIT
NYU
Northeastern
Nortwestern
UPenn
Princeton
St. Lawrence
Stanford
Swarthmore
Syracuse
Trinity
Tufts
Vassar
Wash U-St. L
Williams
UW-Madison
Yale</p>

4

<p>I think your biggest reaches are Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT and Columbia. </p>

<p>I think you have a good chance at BU, Carnegie Mellon, U- Chicago, Cornell, Dartmouth, JHU, Northwestern, UPenn, Williams. Most of he rest of the schools are not a safety but more within reach.</p>

<p>I think you have a better chance at GW, U-Mass, Amherst, Northeastern, St Lawrence, Syracuse.</p>

5

<p>Thanks. I know that my scores, etc place me as a good match for schools like Dartmouth and Northwestern, but the selectivity of those schools works against me. Also, last year, BU and BC accepted about 170 kids from my school, so I have a good chance there. Also, nobody has been accepted to MIT or UChicago from my school in the past 8 years.</p>

6

<p>3.6 UW GPA
2140 SAT</p>

<p>You have a lot of highly (<20% admit rate) selective schools on your list. I’d suggest cutting out 2/3 of the current list before adding any more.</p>

<p>FWIW:</p>

<p>Lottery Ticket Schools (you have little or no chance of acceptance without a hook) Pick 1: Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Yale, Columbia, Amherst, Chicago, Brown</p>

<p>Reaches (Pick 2-3): Dartmouth, Swarthmore, Williams, Wash U, Cornell, Penn, Tufts, JHU, Northwestern</p>

<p>Matches (Pick 3-4): Babson, Bowdoin, Bryant, GW, NYU, St Lawrence, Trinity, Vassar</p>

<p>Safeties (Pick 2): Syracuse, UMass, BU, UW-Madison</p>

<p>A couple of those may need to be shuffled but you need to realize that admissions have gotten increasingly more difficult over the last decade. Naviance results from even five years ago aren’t great indicators of current possibilities.</p>

<p>Other possibilities: BC, UMiami, USC, the Claremont Colleges, Colgate, Michigan</p>

7

<p>I’ll take a look into the Claremonts. From what I have read, they seem to offer what I want, although they are on the opposite coast from me. The reason my list is so large is specifically because of the selectivity of the schools I am interested in. </p>

<p>I know that Stanford and Princeton are total lotteries, and I would definitely select one of those two to submit an application. My school does very well placing students in NE LACs, so Amherst is more of an upper-match for me, rather than a lottery school.
I dont have BC on my list, because it is a lower-match/safety for me, and I will be submitting an app. BC took 170 kids from my school last year, and even if 1/2 were athletic, I am still in the top 40 in my class, so I am not worried about it. I really dont want to go to UMass, but I have to look at it because it’s a financial safety for me.</p>

<p>If it helps, I am interested in International Relations, International Business, Government and Politics, and Economics.</p>

<p>I also will retake the SAT this fall, and I hope to get around 2300 superscore.</p>