Safeties:
Auburn
Alabama
UAH
Targets:
RIT
UMD
Ohio State
Cal Poly Slo
UNL
U-W Madison
Reaches:
Georgia Tech
Purdue
Michigan
UIUC
USC
CMU
Cornell
Duke
Vanderbilt
Columbia
UPenn
Johns Hopkins
WashU
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That list seems realistic enough. But thatâs a LOT of reach schoolsâŠmeaning a lot of essays, and a lot of money to apply and send the CSS Profile. But the list seems well varied.
UMD is only a target if you apply early action.
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I was thinking the same. Iâd personally cut the reach list down to ~4 schools. You should have plenty of options with your safeties and targets.
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I think UIUC and Purdue might be targets for if you apply EA.
I agree you may have too many reaches, making it challenging to write effective essays. A couple of them arenât even particularly strong for engineering.
For all these schools on your list, plan which ones youâll apply to EA/REA/ED/RD.
Thereâs of course the question of affordability but since you and your parents donât want to discuss it, I wonât go there.
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Yes I plan on it.
Most of the safety and targets donât have essays. That is why I feel comfortable with that number of reaches.
Thank you for the input. I will start putting which round I will apply in and post it in here.
How many reaches should I have?
Thereâs no hard number, but 13 seems too much (or 11, counting UIUC and Purdue as targets). 6-7 might be more manageable, but itâs really up to you and how much you can research each school in detail. Youâll need to know each school thoroughly so you can write meaningful âwhy school?â essays and not write generic lines like âI love the unique research opportunitiesâ (without saying what exactly is unique and why those opportunities are a good fit for you).
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For how many can you write thoughtful, well-researched, and personalized essays? Ditto for various short answer prompts. And then for the schools that consider the level of demonstrated interest, how many can you show significant demonstrated interest for (opening the emails, attending virtual tours and meetings, visiting campus representatives when they come to your area, posing specific questions that canât be answered via info on the website)? Combine all of those factors with the number of schools that your family is willing and able to pay both the application fee and CSS fee.
So the number of reaches really varies depending on the drive and willingness of the student. With respect to your reaches, I would suggest that you start applying to the schools that you care about most and then work toward those that youâre less interested in. That way if you realize that youâre done with the process, the schools youâre most interested in will already be completed.
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Be aware that some schools will have extra essays for honors and merit scholarships that you will be invited to apply to after you submit the common app.
My D applied to 8 schools and had to write 19 unique essays.
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This is what I was planning on doing.
From my reaches list the only school that I found that track interest is WashU and I have been to a virtual meeting and asked about several different things.
Is this only after being accepted or in the middle of the process?
It varies from school to school. At one of my kidâs colleges, the honors college application was a doozieâŠI think there were 6 or 7 essays of varying lengths (University of South Carolina).
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WashU does not track interest. Common Questions - Undergraduate Admissions | Washington University in St. Louis.
You have to go to each schoolâs website to understand how to apply, the deadlines, what factors they value/measure, what essays they have and when those are due, etc.
Itâs best not to use 3rd party sites that often have incorrect and/or outdated information, which is probably why you think WashU tracks interest.
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It was school dependent but most of the schools had invites to apply to honors and scholarships a few weeks after submitting the common app. But, one school sent an additional scholarship invite in January which was months after she applied.
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My counselor told me that they track interest. I guess not.
To get one final answer. Is it worth it to take the ACT again or should I just not submit a test if I am not in the 75th percentile.
Iâm sorry to hear that. HS GCs are not infallible and canât know everythingâŠso my advice is to do your own research and also verify what your GC (and others) say.
If you are at or above the median submit your scores. Itâs a harder call if your score is in the 25th-50th percentile. Do not submit if you are below the 25%ile. (This is the general guidance, there can be reasons to deviate from this)
In the spreadsheet that you are using to track important information, use Class of 2027 test score data when you can find it. If you canât find that, use Class of 2026.
Once you have done that, let us know the schools where the 33 is above the median, between 25%-50%, and below 25%ile.
ETA: How many times have you taken the ACT and how much did you prepare? How do you feel about taking it again? Do you think you can improve your science and reading scores?
I took it 4 times and had to prep a lot for it. My best score came during this June where I studied for 20 days straight by just taking full timed test. IDK if I can improve science and reading. They have just been so hit or miss. 3 of my science scores were 26 and then 31. Reading was a 21 at one point.
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Youâve made great improvements, congrats.
I would not take it again, I donât think your test score will be the reason you are accepted or not to your reach schools. But Iâm not an AO.
IMO, your time can be best spent by working on college essays and apps, and enjoying the rest of the summer.
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I canât access UMDâs common dataset because itâs some sort of file. Could someone please try for me. Thank you.