Check My College List

College Search & Selection
1

I’m a current senior and would desperately like to know if there are specific schools that yall think I should add or remove from my list, so anything helps!

Stats:
WA resident
Female
Caucasian / Native American (not registered in a tribe, but for complex reasons that I am trying to convey within the application)

33 Composite ACT, with best subscores being 35E, 34R, 31M, 34S
(Don’t know if I should include this in the extra information box on applications, but I was diagnosed with ADHD (sound-related, I don’t remember the proper term) the day prior to my second test, so I had no time to attempt to get any accommodations & ended up overall getting easily distracted due to the noise level within my test center, which may have affected my ability to put my best effort into the test.)
720 on the Chemistry subject test, taking Bio and Math 2 in October
Top 10% of class
3.94 UW GPA, school doesn’t provide weighted GPA
Senior year APs: Literature, Physics 1, US Government & Politics, Calculus AB, Chinese, and Physics C Mechanics and E&M
Planning to be a Physics major
Participated in Stanford’s 8 week long High School Summer College Program, took 2 physics classes and a neuroscience class, got 2 A’s and a B (these are genuine college classes, not ones intended purely for high schoolers)

Science Olympiad captain, brought the team back up from the ground after it took a toll from 2017-18
School leader for STEM academy, we go to a middle school monthly and teach sixth graders about a different science concept in a fun, exciting way in hopes to spark an interest in science for them.
Chinese Club/National Chinese Honor Society President
Interact Club Secretary

125k income, will need financial aid

Wants:
I want to go to a school with a decent social scene, but would like the ability to have time alone if necessary.
I would prefer to be near a decent sized city (preferably around 70k+ people) - do NOT want to be in a rural area (as long as there is a Walmart and boba I will settle for the town)
Indifferent to temperature and seasons
Not really interested in a competitive environment, want to bond with my peers and be able to work together to get things done.
Also trying to avoid schools in the SW Washington / Portland area, want to try something new

School List:
MIT (dream school)
Barnard
Columbia
Boston University
Brown
Caltech
Carleton
Cornell (although this one is rural, I find the campus to be so beautiful and I love hiking so much that I can let it slide)
Dartmouth
Harvard
Illinois Institute of Technology
Johns Hopkins
Northeastern
Northwestern
Princeton
RPI
Tulane
UChicago
UPenn
University of Portland
Wellesley
Yale
UW Seattle
UW Bothell

Please suggest colleges to add/remove!!! I appreciate any advice :’)

2

Of the many ways you might trim, perhaps keep just one from the rather dissimilar UChicago and Northwestern.

With respect to schools not appearing on your tentative list, you may want to consider Rice.

3

This is a very, very reach heavy list.

Dartmouth is in the absolute middle of nowhere. Not sure why it’s on your list.

If you don’t want a competitive environment, many of these schools shouldn’t be on your list either - MIT, Caltech, JHU, NU, Cornell, etc…

This looks like a prestige list to me as there is no rhyme or reason to it. There is no way that all 8 Ivies are a fit for any student. Other than sharing an athletic conference, they are all very, very different.

Another way to cut down your list is to run the NPC for each school and see what your family can afford. Generally speaking, instate options will be your most affordable. You can always go out of state for grad school or your career.

4

Looks like you have four schools with probably a good chance of getting in: Illinois Tech, Portland, UW Seattle and Bothell. Definitely keep the in-state schools, but check to see if the other two are at all likely to be affordable. If not, you can possibly find an out-of-state public school that offers enough merit to be a better choice.
Seven schools look to me like they could go either way (though several are quite tough to get into): Barnard, BU, Carleton, NE, RPI, Tulane, Wellesley. Check affordability (I don’t think BU, RPI, or Tulane promise to meet full need) and consider dropping one or two.
Then you have 13 more, about half of them very hard to get into, and the other half very, very hard. I’d say to go ahead and apply to your dream of MIT, but I’d consider whether it would save a lot of time, effort, and money to just determine which 4 or 5 of the other 12 are best in terms of what you like and where you have a shot to get in. All of those 12 should be possibly affordable, with the least likely admits generally being the most affordable.

5

You need to run the Net Price Calculator on each school’s web site. With $125K of income even some schools that meet full need may not be affordable.

6

Thank you! This whole time I thought that the issue with my application was that I needed to add more safeties, it somehow didn’t occur to me that it is more of a proportional thing, if I have a lot of reaches, then they should be matched by a lot of safeties and matches. Of the 12 hard ones, I think I am going to keep HYPM, as my research has shown that these will likely be the most affordable from my income (and by eliminating so many others, I can put a lot of my focus into polishing these apps), and I’ll probably keep one more based on what the NPCs show me.

7

That’s probably the most top heavy list I’ve ever seen. Even if you got into 1 or 2 of those schools, you wouldn’t be able to afford it. Your parents income is too high for generous financial aid, but too low to pay the overpriced tuition. It pretty much means you’re going to to UW whether you want to or not. There’s nothing these schools offer that UW doesn’t, except paying more money for it. Have you thought about scholarships. Those are a far better deal.

8

APPLY EARLY OT MIT

9

I am haha! I already submitted part 1 of my application

10

With these criteria, I don’t think that Barnard / Columbia would be a good fit.
They are also very highly competitive and the overall campus culture tends to encourage independence, rather than collaboration.

Actually, I think that you would find most of the schools on your list to be highly competitive – given how difficult it is for students to get admitted to these colleges, they naturally end up being filled with highly competitive students. It’s not like kids who are super-competitive high-achievers during their high school years undergo a personality change the summer before starting college. If anything, things get ramped up during college years.

So if you are looking for a more relaxed, collaborative environment, you might find that schools that you perceive as matches or safeties are more likely to give you what you want.

Also, run the Net Price calculators. With a $125K family income you’ll qualify for need based aid, but at most schools your family will still be expected to pay a considerable chunk of the money. It’s not just income – you also have to factor in assets and home equity. Can your family pay your FAFSA EFC? If not, you might want to shift your focus to schools where you would be likely to receive a significant amount of merit aid.

11

Agree reach heavy. Look at Reed for physics. Really strong, urban, not too far for you.

I would trim this list – better to do 12 excellent apps than 16 that you can’t spend enough time on.

You’re a strong candidate – good luck!!

12

UW is a fantastic school and WSU would be a very good option also (and probably your cheapest option after merit scholarships). I’d also check out a few of the WUE options—perhaps Montana State and a few others with potential for WUE discount or other merit. I would try to find 2-3 admissions and financial safeties from this group. Many students would love to have in-state options like you have.

It’s fine to apply to HYPM, caltech, Chicago as long as you understand the very low odds and the fact that a few of them don’t seem to fit your description. Brown seems to best fit the cooperative vibe you want if the FA would work. If you’re going to gamble anyway I’d probably throw Stanford in there given the great FA.

You have some smaller schools listed. In addition to Reed, as mentioned above, I’d consider one of the Claremont schools, probably Pomona. Carleton is a great school but fairly remote. That short list is very reach heavy but does have good FA. If you really think you’ll want a small school, consider adding a few like Whitman, Willamette, U of Puget Sound with higher admit rates (in the end I think you’ll find these more expensive and less appealing than your safeties).

RPI makes some sense if the finances work. Rice is also a good suggestion if the FA works.

I don’t see much reason to include these:

Barnard
Columbia
Boston University
Cornell
Dartmouth
Illinois Institute of Technology
Johns Hopkins
Northeastern
Northwestern
Tulane
UPenn
University of Portland
Wellesley
UW Bothell (unless as a financial safety)

13

“Not really interested in a competitive environment,”
“MIT (dream school)”

I am confused.

I spent four years at MIT (and did manage to walk away with a degree). It is excellent. However it is tough. There are tons of homework. I remember a few fellow students who would never offer any help of any kind nor discuss homework because they wanted to get better grades than me, and they considered every other student to be competition. It is possible that Harvard might be more competitive, but if I had to pick schools to be the most competitive in the US, I would have expected MIT, Caltech, and Harvard to be near the top of the list.

Based on the two classes that I took at Wellesley College, I would expect about half of the student body to have the same ultra competitive drive, and half to be more collaborative. This is however based on impressions that occurred a long time ago.

I have to wonder: Why is MIT your “dream school”? What attracts you to MIT?

I would leave the two UW’s on the list. Otherwise I would run the NPCs and see which schools seem most likely to be affordable.

14

MIT (dream school)
Brown
Harvard, Princeton, Yale → choose 1 or 2

Wellesley
Reed - added
Smith -added

Illinois Institute of Technology - if NPC works
RPI - if NPC works

UW Seattle
UW Bothell

15

The thing with Reed is it’s in the only region of the country that the OP regards as undesirable.

16

^ True, but for some reason U of Portland was on her list so…

17

Yep, I assumed 1 from that region was OK given U Portland.

18

I think your “wants” describe a rural school like Iowa State, Texas A&M.

You want a non competitive stem school in a city, where you’ll be left alone and have a good social scene… never heard of that.

MIT (dream school) … ha ha

I’ll bet you’ve never visited the campus.

19

I’d say definitely run the NPCs on your latest list. If any from your top 2 groups don’t work out, try Pomona, Carleton, and Harvey Mudd (HMC’s ACTs are similar to MIT’s, so it might also be a far reach). Pomona and Carleton are both also reaches for everyone, but at least your ACTs are in their mid-range. I’m thinking Smith just bearly meets your “decent-sized city” criteria (even if you combine Northampton and Amherst), but it does have a Walmart!

20

An update:
Survived the admissions process, lmao! Happy to announce that I’ve committed to Johns Hopkins University with a hefty amount of aid, making it cheaper than UW would be for me. I will be majoring in Physics along with either Applied Math or Electrical Engineering.
I’ll update this after every decision has come out if anyone cares, but I currently have 5 acceptances, 2 rejections, and one waitlist. Pretty happy with the results, and have already made many new friends at JHU.