Comment on college list

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I am a rising senior, looking to do some type of science/math (not fixed on anything, but not likely to go into the humanities). Relevant stats:
4.0 UW (1/900) with 5's on 5 APs, 3 more next year
2320 SAT, 800 SAT II physics/math2/spanish
EC: debate (president of the team for 2 years, member for all 4), and periodic bouts of karate and instrument playing that I probably won't bother listing on the app
I can't stomach anything south of the Mason-Dixie line other than Maryland, and I can't fly all the way to the West coast, so I'm primarily looking at the Northeast, Midwest, and mid-Atlantic areas
My folks can pay full tuition (won't qualify for need based), so there are Ivies on the list, but even partial merit money would be nice for paying off grad school more easily when that time comes.
I want to do research at some point, as well as have pre-med advising since that's a possible career path right now.
I like having lots of opportunities and the ability to take very high-level classes in and around my major, and I want to carve out a social circle of people with similar interests while still being able to hide in the crowd occasionally (especially when filling distribution requirements), so I am focusing on larger schools (but if there are LACs that do that too that would be fine). I want accessible professors, but from searching though old threads here it seems that's not too much of a problem at most of these schools. </p>

<p>The list, in rough order of preference (though merit money or a guaranteed spot in med school, which I am applying for at some of these schools, would change the order):
Harvard
Brown
Yale
Princeton
WUSTL
JHU
UChicago
Northwestern
UPenn
UMich
SUNY Binghamton
BU</p>

<p>MIT left the list after I visited and it felt too dystopic, and Tufts was here for a while but since they don't have merit aid and are weird about admitting people with high stats I thought it wasn't worth the effort. Reed is too far away but would have been on here otherwise, and I don't want to do engineering. </p>

<p>I fear 12 schools might be a bit much to apply to, but they all look good on paper, I can't fly out to visit most of these until I get accepted and have a smaller list to visit, and since there are a bunch of reaches on there it might not be wise to remove any. </p>

<p>So: am I overlooking anything important? Is the balance good? Are there schools that aren't worth applying to on the list? Any other thoughts or suggestions for my search. </p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>A few with merit aid + a medical school: Case Western, U. Rochester, GWU, Drexel, U.Pitt…
Not sure about Georgetown.
Of course you may have already eliminated them for other reasons such as location…</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the suggestions! I did look into most of those schools, but I will research the rest.
Any other thoughts?</p>

4

<p>Looks like a good list to me, given your stats. I would have mentioned Pitt and Rochester as possible merit aid safety schools if BeanTownGirl hadn’t already done so. Regarding your Ivy selection: I assume Brown is there because of their auto-med-school-acceptance program. I also assume that you prefer a fairly urban environment, but don’t want a core, which is why Columbia, Cornell, and Dartmouth aren’t there but Penn is. Which brings me to the U of C: if you want to be able to evade/slide through the humanities requirements to some degree, it may not be the best choice. I love the U of C, but I question whether it belongs on your list. (It is true that they do have a few large merit scholarships, though.)</p>

5

<p>Thanks for your feedback! I think between BU’s merit aid and Binghamton IS I’m set with lower-cost safeties, though I may consider adding Pitt if I have time left at the end.
Brown is there for med, no distribution reqs, and the general academic environment. Columbia, Cornell, and Dartmouth are not there because of location more than anything else.
Though it’s true I would rather not have a core and excluded some schools because of that, UChicago made it because there are only one or two core classes I don’t look forward to so its research opportunities, academics, and merit aid made it still seem like a good choice. Given distribution requirements at other schools, the change is not all that large and the school seems almost universally loved by alumni. That is definitely something I will keep in mind though.</p>