College List help next cycle

College Search & Selection
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I am a junior who is starting to build a college list. I don’t think there is anywhere in US where my stats are not within range. My issue is knowing which schools would still be considered reach schools and how many I should I apply to.

Some background:
I am interested in applying to law school after college, but I don’t want to close off my career options by picking a liberal arts major. I am interested in majoring in STEM/Chemistry and possibly minoring in political science.

Some stats:
1540 sat
800 bio sat
800 chem sat
UW GPA 3.9 W 4.6

Some EC’s:
I don’t have too many leadership positions in clubs. Most of what I do is shown through competitions or awards.
I don’t want to get too specific, but I have done/been (awarded) several State/Regional competitions/awards in business, music, and science.

Some clubs:
DECA
Mun
Scio
Wind Ensemble
Orchestra
Marching Band
NJHS
French Club
Leadership positions in French and Marching Band.

Some school types:
I am looking for an average sized school that is located anywhere in the US. I don’t care much about weather.

Some schools I like
*Brown
*Northwestern
*Vanderbilt
Obviously these are all very selective. I am wondering how many of these top 20/30 schools should I be applying to.

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Congratulations on your achievements so far.

I agree your stats are inline with selective schools, but your essays, LoRs, ECs will also be important.

Generally you can consider any schools with a sub 20% acceptance rate to be a reach.

Everyone’s admission journey is unique…but a reasonable way to build a list would be 2-4 reaches, 4-7 matches and at least one affordable safety.

What is your budget? Do the fafsa4caster with your parents and see if that is affordable: https://fafsa.ed.gov/spa/fafsa4c/#/landing

Then, run each school’s net price calculator to get an estimated COA. If law school is likely in the future, you should minimize undergrad debt.

What state do you live in? In some states the flagship could be a good, affordable safety.

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Thanks for the advice. I will definitely apply to state schools.

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“Liberal arts” includes sciences like chemistry.

Chemistry by itself does not have that great job prospects, although when combined with law does open up avenues in patent law.

No specific major is required to apply to law school.

Law school admission is heavily LSAT and college GPA based.

Law school is expensive.

Some information about law school application:
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/application-prep/ugraduate

Some information about law school employment outcomes:

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To quote Princeton University:

"What Does Liberal Arts Mean?

By exploring issues, ideas and methods across the humanities and the arts, and the natural and social sciences, you will learn to read critically, write cogently and think broadly. These skills will elevate your conversations in the classroom and strengthen your social and cultural analysis; they will cultivate the tools necessary to allow you to navigate the world’s most complex issues.

A liberal arts education challenges you to consider not only how to solve problems, but also trains you to ask which problems to solve and why, preparing you for positions of leadership and a life of service to the nation and all of humanity."

Employers are always interested in hiring people with great critical thinking skills. Science and mathematics are liberal arts. Liberal arts won’t close off your career options.

To address your post, the question isn’t how many, but rather, what schools might be good for your list. Your list needs to be balanced, which is not the same as saying “Apply to all the top 20 according to USNWR and one safety.” A good balance might have several each of reach, match and a safety or two, bearing in mind that a safety is somewhere that you are all but certain you can get into, would be happy to attend, and can afford to attend.

I think you need to give us a little more information. It’s fine to not care about the weather, but do you care about sports, Greek life, intellectual vibe, social activism, urban, rural, preprofessional atmosphere, arty, nerdy, etc…? What matters to you apart from ranking?

Edit: Saw your post; humanities doesn’t necessarily close off options. It would be just as easy to argue that only studying STEM closes off options.

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My bad. I meant humanities, not liberal arts. I am very sorry about that. I was thinking about liberal arts colleges vs research schools. I think that a STEM degree could be more useful than a political science degree.

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I don’t care much about greek life, and a school in a big city like nyc, Chicago, etc. would be pretty low on my list.

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Political science is usually considered a social science, not a humanities.

STEM majors with better major-related job and career prospects tend to be in engineering, computer science, math, and statistics, though not always, depending on industry ups and downs. Chemistry and biology tend to have lower paid major-related job and career prospects.

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I think I made a lot of false claims in this thread. Thank you for correcting me about the social science vs humanities. I think I have received great advice about how many reach, match, and safety colleges I should apply to, as well as taking vibe, greek life, and general atmosphere into consideration while applying to colleges.

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Good to hear you’re considering comments.

Not into Greek life, no big cities. Evanston is a suburb of Chicago, Brown is in Providence, and Vandy is in Nashville. So do you mean no very urban campuses, like Northeastern and Boston U?

What kind of person are you, and who do you like to hang out with? Are you very conservative, liberal, somewhere in between? Do you want a relaxed environment, or very studious, or…what else?

It seems that you are interested in music and business. You want a school with good STEM, but I suggest you also think about a school with good business connections. Without knowing a bit more about you, it’s hard to pinpoint. Here are a few ideas though. Lehigh U could be a high match/low reach, also Lafayette. Case Western might be a good match, also University of Rochester. U Mich Ann Arbor could work, but it’s big and hard to get in, especially if you are out of state.

Compromise will be important for you I think. Most students have ideas about their dream school, but you need reality schools too.:blush:

What about budget?

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True. It is certainly possible to major in any of these fields and then go to law school. Most of the lawyers that I have worked with over the years got their bachelor’s in either engineering or computer science. At least one worked as a software engineer for a few years before returning to law school.

“What about budget?”

If you are serious about law school, I would try to budget accordingly. I would for example try to avoid debt for undergrad.

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Note that U.S. News, for example, doesn’t include a category for research schools. You appear to be referring to “National Universities.” Undergraduate-focused colleges, such as those in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category, can, of course, offer superb opportunities for faculty-mentored research.

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I think that your safety school really drives your list mix. In my DS’s example, his safety was our state flagship (Ohio State). His safety dominated almost all “match” schools. Because of this, his list was reach heavy. If you are more lukewarm on your safety, match schools become way more important.

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