<p>So my college counselor told me to apply to six schools (I know, I wanted to apply to 8-10) and I'm having a little trouble narrowing it down. At first I had 12 schools, but I have it down to 7. Here's the list:</p>
<p>Princeton
Harvard
Yale
Brown
Amherst
U Chicago
Boston University</p>
<p>I'm definitely applying to the first four (Princeton is my first choice), but I'm not so sure about the last three. Amherst, U Chicago, and Boston University are my easier-to-get-into schools, but I don't know if I would actually like to go to any of them. Can anyone suggest any other safteyish schools? I'll take pretty much any suggestion that would help make my list better. THANKS! :)</p>
<p>Amherst and U Chicago are not easier-to-get-into schools. Amherst is tied with Williams for the #1 liberal arts rank, and U Chicago one of the top 10 universities in the country. Boston U is the easier-to-get-into school, but everything else is a reach (for anyone). In my opinion, I wouldn’t apply to U Chicago (but that’s just my personal preference).</p>
<p>Also, did you counselor limit you to only 6 schools, or did he/she just encourage you only apply to 6? If he/she is limiting it to 6, then that’s not right. It’s a pet peeve of mine when college counselors do that.</p>
<p>Actually, she didn’t limit me to 6. It was just her suggestion. I go to the number one boarding school in the country (Exeter), I am in the top 15% of my class (of 310 students), and this is how our college counseling office works. </p>
<p>No matter who you are, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, and Stanford are category 4 (this means reach)</p>
<p>Your college counselor rates all of your schools 1-4 (4 being the hardest to get into and 1 being easiest). The numbers are different for each individual, and U Chicago was a 2 for me. Our college couseling office is very good, and I trust my counselor, so if she says U Chicago is a 2, then it’s a 2. </p>
<p>Okay, well your description makes better sense. If it were me in your shoes, then I would cut out Wesleyan. That would leave Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Brown, U Chicago, and Boston U. You should be accepted to Boston U, and you probably stand a good chance at U Chicago.</p>
<p>Work on this. There is a good chance that you won’t get into Princeton, Yale, Harvard, or Brown, and you NEED to be able to be happy about where you are going to end up.</p>
<p>Thanks for your suggestion WishWashy. Your so right. There is a chance that I won’t get into any of my ivies, but my college couselor, (who worked in an ivy league admissions office) thinks that I have a better shot than most of my classmates. If you read the sentence after the one you copied you will realize that I wrote </p>
<p>“Can anyone suggest any other safteyish schools? I’ll take pretty much any suggestion that would help make my list better.”</p>
<p>I posted this question because I’m trying to solve the problem that you brought up.</p>
<p>Well, what exactly are you looking for in a school? This list seems a little scattered, especially on the lower end – BU is very different from Wesleyan, for instance. It would be easier to help you with safeties if we knew what drew you to these schools. Which schools did you have but cut?</p>
<p>sorry to bring back this thread but i think its funny that sailormoon is so convinced that ivies (or even hyp) are always 4s for ppl. this is completely untrue, i know this for a fact. tho sailormoon does seem very sure of his/herself, perhaps it is better to deal with these things with healthy doses of humility. i understand that might be hard because exonians seem to have a problem in that area.</p>
<p>Why Boston U? Dramatically lower quality from the other schools. Just take it out completely or change it to another match school (Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Duke, these should all be well reachable if HYP is half of your college list lol). </p>
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<p>Not true at all. There are students who can have Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, and sometimes even MIT as a safety. If you went to RSI, have publications, participated in USAMO/USABO/IMO/IChO etc, are a minority, have great essays and recommendations, and are a good interviewer, then HYP are safeties too. If you’re the best applicant, you will not be rejected. </p>
<p>I think applying to only 6 schools is really freaking stupid and limiting.</p>
<p>I think 6 schools is a major mistake. Guidance counselors can be wrong. Our Valedictorian only applied to 6 schools (from a TOP prep school) and he got rejected from HYP, Amherst. Attended Haverford, a great school, but for a while he really beat himself up that he didn;t apply to more places. HYP are always a challenge and I agree that perhaps Wesleyan and Chicago might be semi-safeties for you. But I would highly advise adding a couple more “reach” schools like Dartmouth, Columbia, Amherst, whatever - to hedge the bet. Regardless of what your guidance counselor says. </p>
<p>You don’t need more safeties (BU is a 100% safety) but you need more “safe reaches.”</p>
<p>SailorMoon- do you have any interest in Duke? Could be a a nice safe reach. </p>
<p>While I think it’s good to be humble and wary in the process, if you are in the top 15% at Exeter, your chances are verrry good, assuming you have excellent ECs. You may as well toss in Dartmouth and Penn if you like those options. </p>
<p>Do GCs suggest limiting the number of apps for their benefit or your benefit??</p>
<p>^^why would anyone just “toss in” two such different colleges as Dartmouth and Penn to apply to? Just to round out the Ivy League schools to which he didn’t apply? Someone with Sailor’s bio (stats and potential feeder school combination) should be able to afford themselves the luxury to think about what kind of college experience they really want, not just rank ordering a bunch of schools based on prestige.</p>
<p>Exactly, Slipper. Reach for as many options as possible.</p>
<p>Penn has an urban setting like some of the OP’s other choices (H,Y,B & Chic.) Dartmouth I suggested because I like it. Perhaps Columbia would have been more in the OP’s original vein.</p>
<p>Despite popular opinion, I think there are not such radical differences in the education at the different Ivies. Geographical, climate, architectural, differences, certainly. But the student populations are similar, the professors are on similar levels (see how many have taught at a number of Ivys). The core curriculums are similar (sans Brown), as are the basic concentrations or majors. Perhaps the social scenes vary the most (compare Dartmouth’s frat scene with Columbia’s lack of a campus social scene, as an example.)</p>
<p>If a student is exceedingly talented, wants an east coast top school, it seems s/he should be able to adapt to any Ivy without huge culture shock.</p>
<p>So I was browsing CC as usual and I came upon this thread. I was like, Exeter… what’s that? So I googled it up and I think I fell in love with the school.</p>
<p>Sorry to hijack the thread, but what do I need to do if I want to attend there for senior year (or perhaps even transfer in the middle of junior year- I’m a junior right now)?</p>
<p>All the more reason to expand the OP’s options beyond the same trite choices; four Ivy League colleges are enough.</p>
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<p>The OP isn’t the subject of a controlled experiment and there’s no reason to test their tolerance for second and third tier Ivy League schools. Why “adapt” when they can have pretty much what they are looking for?</p>
<p>JamesChang if you want to transfer you must apply before some date in january (the 10th?) and you would probably want to repeat 11th grade (pretty much everyone who transfers in after 11th grade repeats.) As for it not being worth it, for some it is and for some it isnt. Just make sure you do your research and visit. If you’re a good fit it’s an amazing experience.</p>