Thoughts on current list? Will visit this summer and narrow down to hopefully about 10. Should everything be applied EA or can safety be left to regular decision typically?
Not many targets on list due to geographic limit (about 4-5 hours driving distance)
State: MD
UW GPA: 3.75 to 3.83 (currently 3.82/ estimating range depending on how this year goes)
W GPA: 4.5 to 4.7 (Est)
SAT: 1470 single attempt last year; will take again; aiming for over 1500
Commended PSAT (1460 will likely miss index by one point)
11 APs by end of senior year (most other classes honors)
heavy music focused EC with leadership/regional awards 4+ years
Internship STEM
Leaning towards CS or Physics but flexibility in major would be best
Safety:
UMBC
Rutgers NB
Drexel
Univ of Delaware
Penn State
Lehigh
Pitt
NC State
Target:
UMD College Park (really almost safety as nearly 85-90% of kids at our magnet program accepted each year; counselor shared acceptance stats with me)
Boston University
Reach:
MIT
CMU
U Penn
UNC Chapel Hill
Northeastern
A word of caution that many of the out of state publics you listed are no ones safeties anymore, especially for a popular major like CS. I’d also push your GC to see what the intended majors were for the students who got into UMD CP. My understanding is that CS if very competitive entry.
Also, schools like Lehigh fill a good chunk of their class in binding ED rounds so its much more competitive in RD. Definitely not a safety for any student.
BU had an 18% acceptance rate last night. That makes it a reach in my book for even the strongest students.
IMO, finding a safety that is loved and gets your student excited should be the main goal and that school should absolutely be applied to early. Bonus points if they have rolling admission (like Pitt) so you have an answer early. I would actually suggest those are the applications that should go first, like in early August!
CS tends to be a more competitive entry for schools that admit by major, so keep that in mind.
Also, a lot of merit based scholarships are awarded to students who apply earlier. So I would suggest applying to Pitt early on in the cycle to maximize your scholarships.
Agree with others. Lehigh is a match and BU is a reach.
There is no need for more than a couple of safeties, unless the student really likes them all and wants choices. By definition, a safety is all but assured.
This student has strong music ECs. Does he/she want good offerings in music? What’s the plan if CS doesn’t work out? There are a lot of students who don’t end up majoring in CS. Is this student interested particularly in NE’s coop program? It’s real and many students rush to graduate in four years by taking courses in the summer. Mind you, there’s no reason not to stick to their five year plan, but it’s something to be aware of.
Thanks.
So I do have stats on UMD by academic area they were pursuing - 30 out of 88 students accepted over last 3 years were CS (30 out of 35 CS students were accepted over same period so still about 85%). Granted that’s over 3 years. The data I had for 2022 was only 4 out of 7 CS students accepted (57%). My understanding for UMD is that it doesn’t accept on major. Still, to be safe, I put it under Target.
Per student: marching band would be nice, but not a deal breaker or major deciding factor.
Initial list is really more narrowing down to go visit and then will narrow down more. Picked more safety just to have options. More than likely, reach is very unlikely and there are so few target options based on geographic limit placed so we had to add a bunch of safeties.
Thanks – that one is def a priority EA
From UMD site: " Students who are admitted to UMD but not their preferred LEP major are placed in Letters & Sciences, where they will work with an advisor to meet the gateway requirements to earn admission to that major" – that’s what I was basing my understanding on. That you may not get your major right away, but can be admitted to L&S and then work to get into major later by meeting gateway requirements. Is that not the case?
The challenge with that is, there is no guarantee the student will ever get into their desired major. CS is super competitive, and your student could be in UMD and never get admitted into the CS major.
I think it’s the start of a good list. Get Pitt in ASAP, they are rolling and getting an early acceptance can help you focus your list. Also keep in mind Rutgers dates are earlier than most schools.
I would take look at your reach schools and get a little more targeted. UNC is tough for OOS and in the end you have a much better option with UMD. CMU is almost impossible to switch into CS, and chances of getting into their CS program are slim
Case Western and Rochester would be nice target schools that give the academic flexibility you are looking for (although outside of the geographic limit)
Villanova has a good physics department and flexibility within the school of Arts and Science (Hard to switch into Business). Richmond and William and Mary might also be worth a look.
Thanks - I do understand that. That’s also why there’s lots of other options. Even moving UMD to reach (for CS), there’s basically a lot of reaches and lot of safeties, but not much in the middle (other than I guess Lehigh).
Yeah, I sympathize. That’s the challenge with the CS major. It’s one of the hardest admits.
I wouldn’t feel compelled to have too many schools on the list though. If you have one or two safeties that you really like (it’s the most important school on your list - a safety that you like and can afford), then don’t worry too much about matches. You can swing for the fences on some reaches.
No budget really. We’ll consider it after all options are on table but it’s really not a limiting factor.
VT unfortunately is not only 6-7 hours, but no good flights.
If a school offers EA (not talking about ED), apply EA. The only exception would be if your student is hoping to pull up some grades in Fall Senior year to show a stronger trend. Otherwise, EA will always show more interest in the school, and spots, worms, and merit awards will go disproportionately to the early birds. EA schools are concerned with filling a good class, not being exactingly fair to the student who applies at the last minute.