College List Suggestions help

College Search & Selection
1

As I’m finishing my junior year, I’ve put a lot of thought into what schools to apply to next fall. Below is a list of 15 schools I’m most interested in applying to, but I know I need to narrow the list. Also, not sure if any of these schools could be considered safeties? Are my goals realistic? Any suggestions for schools I should add or remove (if you don’t think any are not a good fit for me?) would be much appreciated. I plan on majoring in political science or government and going to law school, but am also interested in economics. I am definitely not interested in hard sciences or most math classes. I’d prefer a mid-sized college near a city, and have mostly stuck to the East Coast (with a couple exceptions). I need a pretty campus!! Financial aid will not be an issue. I attend a private school in FL.
I am Mexican-American.

My Stats:
SAT: 2360 - 800 CR, 770 M, 790 W
PSAT: 229 (so expecting NMF/NHRP)
GPA: 4.0 UW, 5.5 W (6.66 scale lol). Have never gotten an A-
Rank top 10% which is the highest bracket my school will report
4 year varsity athlete - HS Team went to State finals and ranked top 20 nationally
Club soccer travel team ranked top 10 nationally, captain
Some national recognition in my sport… Just a step below the national team.
However, I will NOT be playing soccer in college.
A few clubs with leadership roles, nothing special besides a challenging Pre Law program - I’ve taken 5 law electives and will be doing an internship through the program my senior year.
I like to sail and am US Sailing Certified. Have taught, and raced semi-competitively.
** my one possible weakness: my school offers A TON of AP classes, and I could have taken more. I took one freshman year (scored a 5), one sophomore year (scored a 5), three this year, and will be taking five next year - totaling 10. There are probably 20ish kids at my school that will have taken 12-15 or more by the time they graduate.

My current list:
First Choice: Penn
High Interest: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown
Medium Interest: Duke, Vandy (~15 kids from my school get in every year), Northwestern, WUSTL, Georgetown, UVA
Others: Tufts and Boston College (love the Boston area), USC (50% national merit aid), GWU

All comments appreciated, thank you!

2

Your list is very top-heavy right now, but you have the stats for it, as well as URM.

About fit, Georgetown and Boston College are Jesuit schools, just something to keep in mind if you didnt know.

Theres also Boston University if you want to add to the Boston area. Another is Northeastern, which is on the safer side.

UVA, Georgetown hover around match/reach. Tufts, USC, Boston College should be match. GWU is pretty safe.

3

@phospholipase‌ thanks for the reply!
I agree it is top heavy, which is the reason I know it needs some alteration. About the Jesuit schools, I went to a Catholic school for K through 8th, so that’s not a concern at all. I loved BC when I visited and think I will be happy there - it has the most beautiful campus I’ve ever visited.
I didn’t really like BU. Not much of a campus, and I’ve heard of grade deflation which is a concern for law school.

4

You have a really good list of schools…

GWU would be a safety for you. If you want a couple more safeties, consider American U. and Fordham U.

5

Northeastern’s average SAT scores are 150 points higher than BU. BU is a backup school nor northeastern hopefuls.

6

Any more opinions?

7

You’re a great applicant. I’d probably just say to add a university with over a 35% acceptance rate (your state school possibly?) just to be totally confident that you’ll get in some place. Although I do think it’s extremely likely that you’ll get into many of the schools that you’re applying to. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest that you shorten your list. If you have the time and the money to apply, then applying to all those schools would actually be beneficial. You’ll have more options and possibly a great choice to make.

Good luck!

8

Bump!