Could you help me make and refine my college list?

College Search & Selection
1

9th: 3.17UW 10th: 3.87UW 11th: 3.87UW, 4.53W

Estimated Cum. UWGPA:3.7, WGPA:4.1

At graduation I will have taken these AP/dual enrollment classes: CHS (college in high school) statistics, AP Calc AB, CHS Anatomy and Physiology 1-2, APUSH, AP Chemistry, AP Calc BC, AP Biology, CHS Physics E&M.

AP: Calc AB-5, Chemistry-4
SAT 1: M740, CR710, W700-9, may retake this fall to try to break 2200

SAT 2: Math 2-800, Chemistry-800

EC’s: golf team (not competitively good), Gifted (many competitions), chess competition, Academic league, Relay for life (cancer event), march for parks (park fundraising event), non formal tutoring of piers in STEM classes, NHS.

I live in Pittsburgh, PA. I would like to stay somewhat close, but if a school is good enough, I can travel. I plan to do either Biomedical, chemical, or materials engineering with the long term goal of going to medical school. There’s not a constraint as far as tuition goes. Some schools I have come up with so far along with my chances would be as follows; PSU-safety, Pitt-Safety, Lehigh-match, CWRU-match, CMU-high match. From this list I hope you can get an idea of what I am looking for. Another thing is, if there is a college thats pretty far away and is similar in renown and rigor to something close, I would pick the closer school over the far away one. Please help me come up with some more schools that would fit into my “match” group, where I would have a pretty solid chance of getting in.

2

The University of Rochester fits all of your criteria and is even a shorter trip than Bethlehem. By USNWR selectivity rankings it would be second in your group, which would still place it easily as a match for you.

3

thanks you!

4

CMU engineering would be a low reach because it’s just so competitive. Also, for Lehigh, visit the campus, talk with admissions people, do whatever you can to let them know your interested. They list interest as “important” and will not let you in if you don’t show it because they want to keep their yield rates up. You should look at Bucknell, solid engineering program, match for you but it’s another one where they want interest demonstrated.

5

I would look at Cornell, may be a reach but I don’t think it is out of the question.

6

Is there any harm in applying to like 10 Common App schools? If I applied to like the Ivy’s along with CMU, JHU would I still probably get denied to all of them?

7

I recommend finding some good match and safe schools first. Conventional wisdom now is to build your list from the bottom up. Nobody needs to suggest the reaches to you; it’s much more challenging to find schools where you will definitely or probably get in, can afford to attend, and will be happy to go. I always suggest choosing matches and safeties with rolling admissions and/or non-binding early action. You will have some good news by Christmas which will make the waiting more endurable. You can use any criteria you choose to identify solid matches and safeties. They can include academic interests and strengths, but also non-academic preferences (e.g. weather, sports, local cultural scene, etc.). Just remember that a school is only safe if you know that you will get in and that you will be able to afford it (based on automatic scholarships, in-state tuition, massive trust fund, et al).