Congratulations on your achievements. As an international student all of your reaches have low single digit acceptance rates. Rice and USC are also reaches.
Are Oregon State and Pepperdine affordable? Pepperdine seems to be an outlier on your list…what do you find appealing about it?
In your title you mention piano and soccer. Do you have a music portfolio? Are you being recruited for soccer?
You are an international student. Can you pay for these schools or will you be eligible for need based aid? If you need financial aid, you need to also understand that some of the colleges on your list are need aware for international students. This means your financial need will be considered when your application for admission is reviewed.
Neither Oregon or Pepperdine meet full need. Can your family fully pay for these colleges?
You could submit a music supplement with recording/video/youtube link, with a music resume and letter from teacher(s). This can help with admissions in some cases.
I am aware of the costs at these schools… being in-state (meeting residency requirements as int’l student), Oregon State should definitely be affordable.
I will be putting together a music portfolio over the next couple months. As for soccer recruiting, most likely will not happen at this point.
Pepperdine isn’t similar to CMC, IMO. Pepperdine is a Christian school that requires students to take 3 religion courses and attend a certain number of spiritual events each semester, I think 14, but check into that.
You need a portfolio for BM programs. If you are not applying to a BM program, you probably don’t need a portfolio. You can submit a music supplement, with a video/recording, music resume and letter(s) of rec. But the supplement can have just one piece, and you can even cue it for the best 3 minutes. You can ask admissions about this to make sure.
We toured both Pepperdine and CMC. These schools are VERY VERY different.
Pepperdine is a Christian college with a conservative bend. Religion course requirement is set in stone. Not a liberal campus for the most part, although I’m sure there are students of varying opinions.
Some of your schools have you apply directly to the CS department. How strong are you in math? Math is weighed heavily for CS majors. CS is super competitive and if you apply in that area, I think your targets become reaches as a male applicant.
I think you will have to ask questions to yourself. What is the most important to you?
Is the school ranking and prestige status important to you? Or your fit is important to you? Competitive rather than collaborative important to you? Diversity important to you? Location important to you?
Knowing that you can not visit all these schools, you can not see it for yourself. But sometimes if you talk to the admissions office or even financial aid office, if they are not really responsive or not supportive, I would scratch off that school no matter how prestige that school is. You can tell that they won’t be supportive even if you get accepted.
This is what happened to my son, and we scratched a few prestige schools, because some are not responsive.
Agree with @compmom about not judging based on what admissions is saying right now. Many colleges actually just about close their admissions offices the two weeks before classes start so that their staff can have a vacation. Or they run on a skeleton staff. Most also don’t have student workers the first week or so of classes.
To tell you the truth, in our case it was coach’s responsiveness. (My son is a student athlete)
These staff are representing their schools. If their attitudes are bad and it is considered acceptable by the school, I consider it as a school culture. I would have a bad impression about this school. Some schools think students are just numbers.
Just to be sure of your situation, you are an unhooked, ORM, male, international student that needs FA going for THE reach schools and one safety that gives Oregon state residency tuition. Perhaps, researching schools that could be safeties and matches that complement your situation and profile would be a good backup plan.
CMC is “conservative” within 5Cs, which of course doesn’t put it next to Liberty University - or Pepperdine. But within the Consortium, its vibe is unmistakable - they even have an indoor rifle shooting range!