Difficulty finding target schools?

College Search & Selection
1

Hey guys! So I was looking through my college list and I realized that most were reach schools. I have two safety schools but I’m not really keen about them. Based on my stats, what are reasonable target schools?

SAT I: 2230 (720 reading, 750 math, 760 reading)
ACT: 35 (36 reading and english, 34 science and math)
SAT II: 770 USH, 740 math II
Unweighted GPA: 3.79
Rank: ~top 10% (school doesn’t rank)
AP: 4 Calc AB AP, 5 Gov AP, 4 French AP
Senior Year Course Load: AP stat, AP econ, AP comp sci, AP eng lit, AP euro, orchestra, and study hall

Extracurriculars: Debate 3 yrs, Youth symphony 6 yrs (concertmaster 2 years), MUN 2 yrs (VP 1 yr), Student Council 5 yrs (I’ve been secretary, VP, and overall president), NHS (president), French club, Rec soccer 2 yrs, Piano 13 yrs, Violin 10 yrs
Job/Work Experience: waitress at restaurant 2 yrs (~ 5 hours a week)
Volunteer/Community service: teen court 2 yrs and resource center (helping underprivileged kids in the summer) (total: 70 hours)
Summer activities: nationals debate, debate camp, working
Major awards: twice-qualifying debater for nationals, best musician for orchestra for 3 years in a row, and state-qualifying for state science fair

State: IN
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: ~200k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): N/A

Edit: Oops forgot to add! My reach schools are currently Pomona, UChicago, Williams, and Princeton. (I’m applying to Haverford and Bowdoin but I’m not sure if it counts as a target school??)

2

If you live in a state with a good public school, UCLA, Berkeley, UCSD, UVA, UNC, or Texas for example can be your backups. I would also look at schools like Emory, Notre Dame, Rice, Boston college, Carleton, Kenyon, oberlin

3

@couplemoreweeks Thank you! I’m not really sure like what level of acceptance rate is considered a target if that makes sense? Like does 20+% acceptance rate mean that the place is a target school?

4

Target schools are usually 50% acceptance and above. It really depends upon your competitiveness but still anything below 30% acceptance is still pretty selective.

5

Well it really depends on your stats. UCSD for example would be a low target, while Notre Dame would be a high target. However your GPA is on the low side so I woul look more towards schools in the same caliber as UCSD or a school like Emory or Oxford of Emory.

6

@Gumbymom Isn’t that considered safety? Like I know this university where I live (Purdue) has a 60% acceptance rate and I’m definitely making it in.

7

@couplemoreweeks Thank you!

8

It really depends upon your Stats which are very competitive, but when my son’s went through the application process, Safeties were schools in which their Stats were above the 75th percentile and the acceptance rate above 60% or more. Targets were around 40-60%, that is why I said 50% acceptance as an average. Anything below a 30% acceptance was considered a Reach. Again different situation for each individual. Also make sure any safety on your list is a school you are willing to attend and is affordable. No point to apply to safety if you really do not want to attend. Good Luck with your applications.

9

What are your safety schools? IU-B and Purdue? If you don’t like them then why are they on the list? What do you intend to major in? If you liked your safety (which is a REQUIREMENT to be a safety) then you could apply away to any reach you wanted because you had your safety you’d be happy to attend. If you want to go into engineering then most LACs won’t work. Kenyon was a good suggestion, Oberlin, Macalester.

10

@“Erin’s Dad” Yeah, my safeties are probably IU, Purdue, and maybe Depauw? And it’s mainly because my parents just want me to apply to a safety. I’m trying to see if I can get my school do calculate my weighted GPA so I can get into IU honors college, which I’d be ok going to. My parents aren’t really keen on any other state colleges because it’s so much cheaper in-state so if I don’t get in anywhere else, I’d probably end up going to IU. I’m going into political science/history and then law school. Preferably, I’d get into one of my reach colleges (pomona!) but I also need some target schools.

11

Might look at Holy Cross in Massachusetts.

1 Like
12

Your stats (based on ACT, unweighted GPA, course rigor) and Extracurricular activities (orchestra and student council) are very strongly. You’re a competive candidate for the reach colleges on your list. If there’s one college on your list that stands out apply ED. This will very likely significantly improve your chances, especially if your preferred college is one of the LACs on your list.

Insofar as target colleges are concerned look at universities in the 20-40 range on the USNWR list. These could include Georgetown, John Hopkins, etc.

13

Have your parents told you the price limit, and have you run the net price calculator on each school?

If you choose a lower cost school, would they contribute the money saved to your law school costs?

Your safeties should be schools you will be admitted to, you can easily afford to attend, and which you like. These are the most important schools for your list. If you do not like your current “safeties”, they are not safeties, so you need to find new ones.

14

If your family income is ~$200K, then (absent special circumstances) you’re at the outer limits of eligibility for need-based aid. However (again, absent unusual circumstances) your income isn’t so high that your family can easily afford the ~$60K/year sticker price for the most selective private schools. These conditions (and your high stats) mean you’ll probably want to pursue merit aid.

To find target schools, check out the Kiplinger’s “best value” lists:
http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php
http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php?table=lib_arts

Click-sort on the “avg non-need-based aid” and “%of non-need-based aid” columns. Look for schools with relatively high numbers in both columns.
Examples (LACs):
Grinnell, Davidson, Smith (women only), Richmond, Wooster, Centre, Rhodes, Lawrence
Examples (research universities):
Rochester, Case Western, Tulane, USC, GW, Wake Forest

You might also want to check out schools that guarantee large merit scholarships for your stats. Example: University of Alabama.

15

Note that the midwest does have some low cost (even for out of state) public LACs like University of Minnesota - Morris and Truman State. These might be worth looking at for safeties or low matches if you would rather go to a smaller school than IU or Purdue.

Depauw is known for lots of fraternity and sorority participation, so you may want to consider whether that is what you like.

16

Think about some schools that have non binding EA or rolling admission so you can hopefully get in before December.

Consider a school like UMichigan or Tulane.

17

You seem to prefer traditional, smaller colleges for your reaches. Why not opt for Earlham or one of the other midwestern liberal arts colleges like Ohio Wesleyan or College of Wooster as a safety, and a school like Bucknell as a match?

18

With respect to admission selectivity and costs, many state schools could be good targets.
The UCs, Michigan, UVa would be almost as expensive at OOS rates as some private schools, but
many other state schools have OOS sticker prices between ~$25K and ~$45K.

A student with the OP’s stats could be looking at net prices in a similar range, after merit aid, from private LACs such as Wooster, Earlham, Centre, Rhodes … or possibly Grinnell, Smith, and Bryn Mawr. These colleges are more similar to Pomona, Williams, Haverford, and Bowdoin than the typical large state university. A few public LACs (such as St. Mary’s College of Maryland or New College of Florida) might also be worth a look.

19

I agree with @fogcity that if one of the LAC’s stands out to you (I.e., Pomona or Williams) you will enhance your chances by applying ED. For example, at Williams the ED acceptance rate was 41% versus 17% overall. Furthermore, Williams filled 44% of its class with ED admits. http://communications.williams.edu/news-releases/12_12_2014_earlydecision/. With Pomona the ED admit rate was 19.1% versus 9.76% overall. http://tsl.pomona.edu/articles/2015/2/21/news/6011-5cs-release-early-decision-results. Pomona admitted 138 through early decision out of a target class of about 400 so they filled about 34% of their class through ED.

20

Okay so my parents say that if I get into other state universities, I might as well go to IU/Purdue since it’ll be a lot cheaper and IU and Purdue are decent. There’s also the honors college at IU so i think I’d be fine going to IU if I end up going there as a safety. Also, IU has rolling admission so I can apply and get my results by the time ED comes out probably? I’m planning to do ED1 pomona.