Difficulty Finalizing a College List

College Search & Selection
1

I graduated high school this year but am planning to take a gap year for 2016-2017 with AmeriCorps NCCC. I applied to college this year but made a lot of mistakes in the process and don’t plan to defer anywhere meaning I will have to apply to different colleges this year.

Stats: 33 ACT, 3.9UW 4.65 W GPA, ECs including various club leadership positions, Congressional Black Caucus essay winner, job at elementary school after school and at summer camp, AmeriCorps NCCC (Doesn’t start until October though).

Location: Mississippi

Income: 110,000

Primary desires for my colleges: Urban location, not particular about size, good in CS and Engineering, prefer more well-rounded as opposed to completely focused on CS or Eng, LGBT friendly

Last year when I applied my list included out of state public universities that are (as I’ve come to discover) basically the most expensive colleges you could apply to (no financial aid, high OOS tuition). I applied to UIUC, UT Austin, GTech, Rice, and MS state. I was accepted to all except Rice (I didn’t schedule an interview or spend much time on this one.) This time I plan to apply to private colleges that meet full need and public universities in which I could get decent merit scholarships.

Reaches:
UPenn (top choice - planning to apply ED to NETS)
Harvard
Columbia
Duke
JHU
UChicago

Probably too many reaches, so will probably remove some from this list.

Low Reaches/Matches?
WashU
UNC Chapel Hill
UVa
Case Western
Colorado College
Wesleyan
Fordham

Safeties:
Wake Forest
LSU
Lewis and Clark
Rutgers
Boston University

This list is definitely too large, but I was having difficulty finding safeties that 1. I would like to attend 2. were financially feasible. Hopefully, I can be accepted to UPenn with good enough aid to attend. UPenn is my primary choice because I’ve very interested in their NETS program and urban location in Philadelphia. Also, they are considered one of the best universities for LGBT people. My EFC for this year was 15,000, so that would be what I would pay to UPenn but that obviously isn’t certain. I’m a little concerned about how the CSS Profile might affect this FAFSA EFC.

2

Forgot to include rank, which is 4/255

3

Some of those colleges don’t offer an engineering major. You should probably cut those. Also, each college has a net price calculator on their website. You should run all of them.

4

How much can your family afford? As @intparent says, you should run NPCs.

WashU is pretty much the same reach as an ivy. UNC-CH OOS, UVA OOS, Wesleyan, and Colorado are all near that, because although they don’t all have the same level of median test scores, they reject a lot of qualified applicants.

Wake Forest also has too low an acceptance rate to call it anything other than high match/reach.

BU would be a low match (again, lots of apps, so it’s not a sure thing), but won’t necessarily be affordable. Lewis & Clark, Rutgers, and LSU are all safeties for admissions, and likely to give you merit aid, but I’m not sure any of them would definitely be affordable. I believe Ole Miss or Bama would both give you automatic full tuition, bringing COA down to your 15k budget.

Do you have another sibling in college? 15k is a very low EFC for a 110k household income.

5

Agree with usual hopeful. BU, CWRU, Fordham, Lewis and Clark, LSU and Rutgers are your safeties and matches. Wesleyan, Wash U and Colo College are reaches, not low reaches, but reaches, as are UVA and UNC OOS. Wake Forest has a 28% acceptance rate. At best, it’s a low reach, because IMO, anything under a 30% acceptance rate should be considered a reach. Your list, by my count, has 12 reaches of varying reachiness.

Anyway, you have six safety/ match schools, and given your stats, that is reasonable. You can easily pare down your reaches. Are you actually interested in each of those? It is going to be a LOT of work, and expensive to apply to 18 colleges. Think in the region of close to $2k by the time you send all,your tests scores and file your CSS forms, etc…

6

Why are you applying to Rutgers if you’re from Mississippi? Seems like a very curious choice.

7

I will definitely be lowering this list across the board; this was more of a starting point with colleges I am most interested in. I listed Rutgers because I was concerned I didn’t have enough safeties but will likely end up removing it and apply to 2 safeties, 3-4 matches, and 4-5 reaches.

8

A few random commnets:
Take off schools that don’t have your major.

Run the net price calculator for all schools and take off ones that appear unaffordable.
I would classify WashU, UVa (OOS) and UNC (OOS) more as reaches.
I’d probably apply to 2 safetys, 4-5 matches, and 2-4 reaches.
Also it is a good idea to add your state flagship as a safety (both academic and financial).

9

If you haven’t already, do plenty of research on each school to make sure (as well as possible) that the “fit” factor is high at each one. Also, make sure you can afford them. You wouldn’t want to take a chance of only being accepted to schools you either are lukewarm on fit-wise and/or would be difficult to afford or which would require you to take on serious debt.

This is mostly common sense, but some of the main “fit” variables are:

  • Academic (Do they have classes and majors you like most? Are class sizes acceptable? How are the ease of entry into, or exit from, specific majors? etc.)
  • Social (social vibe/party & sports scene)
  • Cultural (cultural opportunities nearby -- music, art, restaurants, things to do in the city/town. This may also include the political activism scene, viewed from a different angle...)
  • Cost (including travel cost)
  • Environment (rural vs. city/suburban, weather, the look and feel of campus, etc.)
  • Housing & Food

Try to find schools that are acceptable (or better) in each of these factors, unless you believe yourself to be malleable – a seed that can sprout anywhere. Even if that describes you, it still makes sense to choose a place where you’ll be likely to enjoy things from the get-go.

10

No engineering school at UNC-CH.

11

No engineering at UNC-CH, Colorado College, Lewis and Clark or Chicago. I agree with others UNC-CH, UVA are reaches to OOS applicants; and Wash U and Colorado College have very low acceptance rates so while your stats may lie well within the middle 50 percentile, they aren’t matches. It’s too bad you didn’t try harder for Rice because it’s a good school for you.

What about NC State (which does have engineering)? Temple can be a safety that has engineering.

12

If you’re doing Americorps, have you looked at their list of matching institutions? You could probably find safety and matches there.

http://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps/segal-americorps-education-award/matching-institutions

13

Case Western is a safety for you (and a good one). I agree with the Rutgers question – I thought you said you wanted to avoid out of state public schools this time?

14

Since you were rejected from Rice, it might be better to focus on schools that are less selective than Rice. Your reaches are even more selective than Rice.

15

Temple or Howard might be good safeties with free tuition.

16

You should take a look at Tufts - it could be a good fit for you.

It is one of the top LGBT friendly schools:

http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/back-school-which-ones-are-lgbtq-friendly-n413181

It is located in an urban/residential environment (Somerville) with a very high density of young people and artists, two miles from Harvard (Cambridge), which is across the river from Boston. It may or may not be the “Brooklyn of Massachusetts” depending on who you ask :slight_smile:

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2015/07/30/sorry-but-people-in-somerville-dont-feel-like-theyre-in-brooklyn

Based on its Carnegie Classification, among selective research universities that are “Arts and Science Focused” for undergraduate education it has one of the larger engineering schools - including a full complement of engineering majors (Vanderbilt has the largest - Harvard is really small and UChicago is virtually non-existent).

http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/lookup/srp.php?clq=&limit=50&unit_id=168148&start_page=lookup.php&ipug2005=8&ugprfile2005=14&submit=FIND+SIMILAR

Tufts engineers do well in mid-career salary rankings with exposure to the “liberal arts environment” assisting in crossing into the ranks of management.

http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/best-schools-by-majors/engineering

Its most popular majors are International Relations and Computer Science (which spans both Liberal Arts and Engineering schools with two different degree programs). There is no NETS-like program, but the CS department is very applied/interdisciplinary in its research. Last winter Tufts hosted their first social-themed hackathon along with MIT and Harvard.

http://www.cs.tufts.edu/About-CS/cool-facts-about-cs-at-tufts.html
http://www.tufts-ten.com/events/2016/1/14/the-international-development-hackathon-2016

Selectivity was about 14% for Liberal Arts and about 11% for Engineering last year, so it is a reach school, but not as crazy as some of the schools on your list. Tufts probably doesn’t get as many applications out of Mississippi as some of the other schools on your list, so that would also work to your advantage. Community service weighs heavily in the admissions process, so depending on what you do during your gap year, that could also be an advantage.

Tufts meets full need for financial aid, but there are no merit scholarships.

17

Don’t know about the LGBTQ aspect, but U of Alabama might be a great financial safety for you. With your stats, you’d qualify for substantial merit aid.

18

Thanks everyone for all of the help. I will definitely add Tufts to my list.

I was denied to Rice, but I feel largely that was because my application was sort of uninspired, and my teacher recs came well after the deadline. Also, I heard they place importance on the interview, and I was too late to set up one. It was sort of a last minute application.

Case Western matches the AmeriCorps scholarship, so I’ll definitely apply there as well. UNC-CH does have a computer science major, which is what I would major in if I went there.

I don’t necessarily want to avoid OOS publics, but I want to make sure I know potential costs before focusing on them and applying there.

I have a spreadsheet right now with 31 schools on it, so it is kind of daunting to decide which ones to remove, but I’ll eliminate costly ones and ones without my major first.

19

UIUC would not give much merit.

But at University of Pittsburgh or Ohio State you might have a very good chance for merit with your high stats and high GPA/class rank. Apply early.

20

You are adding Tufts,with a 14% acceptance rate, but not adding a match or safety? You don’t need more reaches my friend. And isn’t Tufts need aware?