Does my list look good?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m a home-schooled student in NYS enrolled in a college preparatory correspondence school program. I’m going to graduate with an accredited diploma and a LSE from my school district (NYS legal stuff). I have also supplemented my education with some self-directed home school classes during junior and senior year.

I don’t qualify for financial aid so I’m looking for merit money from most schools. I realize that some of these are insanely expensive and don’t really give aid (I’m looking at you, NYU and Sarah Lawrence) but I still want to apply and see what happens. The rest (save for my dream school, NU) will hopefully throw me some merit money.

SAT: 1930 (620M 640CR 670W)
GPA: 89.25/100 (93.5 if you forget 9th grade)
Class Rank: Top 25% / 1400 (my school doesn’t release exact rankings, they just separate everyone into 4 percentiles)
AP/Honors: My school does not offer any AP, honors, IB, or advanced classes - just two programs, each of which have their own specific and unique courses. They offer a general high school program and a more rigorous college prep program. I am enrolled in the college prep program. However, this “rigor” won’t weigh into my GPA.
Essays: “Terrific” according to the adults who reviewed them - one of them is a published author and a writing professor. I wrote my CA essay about how being employed at a travel plaza style McDonald’s has make me socially “tough” in a sense… it’s a lot more in-depth than that, but ya know…)
Recs: Good. I have a rec from a guidance counselor (rare for a homeschooler), a rec from my dad (as my teacher), and a rec from the published author/writing professor which I mentioned earlier, as my employer (I babysit her kid).
ECs: ~3500 paid work hours throughout high school. Started a website for a popular music festival (Warped Tour) which got a lot of attention, even from bands and companies and the tour itself. Written some articles and done a lot of research on gerbils, rabbits, and hamsters. I’ve rescued multiple pets first-hand, which one of my recs mentioned in her letter. I’ve been to dozens of concerts, I enjoy mountain biking, amateur photographer, and I’m involved in the LGBT community.

Intended major: Something along the lines of biopsych. It depends on what each school offers, but I’ll likely either major in behavioral neuroscience, psychology with a concentration in cognitive neuroscience, or biology with a concentration in biopsych.

Now… drumroll please… here is my list!

Northeastern University (reach, but totally my dream school)
NYU (also a reach but it’s kind of socially required that I apply here… if you lived in NY you’d understand)
Smith College (low reach?)
Sarah Lawrence College (another low reach? My essay for this school is KILLER)

Simmons College (match)
Ithaca College (match)
Lesley University (low match)

Pace University NYC (safety - but hoping for their honors college)
SUNY New Paltz (financial safety)
SUNY Purchase College (financial safety)

I applied EA to four of them (Ithaca, Pace, Simmons, Lesley) and have also applied RD to Northeastern and NYU. I’ll be applying to New Paltz and Purchase for Rolling Admission soon, and I have yet to apply to Smith and SLC - their RD dates are Jan 15 so I’m holding off and taking time to get essays done. I’ll admit that Smith and Purchase are both new additions to the list - Purchase because I wanted another state school as a financial safety, and Smith because I wanted another women’s college option on my list.

So anyways, I’m sorry for the looooong post, I just wanted to give enough insight into what my chances might be at these schools. Are there any red flags on my list - schools I should forget about, or schools that I’ve incorrectly ranked?

2

Bump & update - accepted at Lesley with their presidential scholarship and an offer to join their honors program :smiley: Still wondering about chances at my other match & reach schools though!

3

I think your list looks really good! I’m also applying to Smith :slight_smile:

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Congrats on acceptance to Lesley btw!

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@asenioradvice Thank you x2! It’s really exciting to have been accepted to what I decided was a match school with such a great offer. However, I don’t want to let it raise my confidence too much! I’m still nervous about my other match and reach apps, but not as much as I was when I had 0 acceptances :stuck_out_tongue:

6

So exciting! I still have to send in more applications in January

7

Good list categorized about right. Smith has gotten more competitive in recent years. Have heard great things about mount Holyoke as well. To get an idea of your merit aid chances look at each colleges common data set and where you would fall relative to other admitted students in term of stats

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@Wje9164be Thanks for the feedback! I looked into Mount Holyoke but didn’t fall in love with the location. Being in a busy college town/city is very important to me. I know it’s close to Smith but it’s in a much more sleepy part of Northampton than Smith.

In fact, I’m considering eliminating Smith and replacing it with the incredibly reach-y Barnard. Probably not a smart choice but I honestly don’t know if I’d attend Smith, and I would definitely attend Barnard… though I doubt I’d get in, and be able to afford it.

Oh, and don’t worry; I have been stalking the common data sets. That’s how I went about categorizing my list. I think I’d be able to afford all of my non-reach schools which is why I chose them :smiley:

9

NYU is a huge reach based on your SAT score. If you got into the 2100 range, you’d be a lot safer. Hence the reason I’m not bothering applying there anymore.

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@LilRussian I can’t speak for you since I don’t know your scores, but with my 1930 it’s not a “huge reach,” more of just a regular reach. Their 25th percentile SAT is 1900 which means I’d be within the middle 50% (though at the very low end). Their 25th for CR is 30 below my score, 25th for writing is 30 below mine, and 25th for math is only 10 above mine. That’s why I classify it as a typical reach - though financially, it’s a “huge reach,” I suppose.

With a score in the 2100 range, NYU would be more of a match :stuck_out_tongue:

Edit - sources: https://www.nyu.edu/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/fast-facts.html and https://www.nyu.edu/ir/pdf/cds/CDS_2013-2014%20UPDATED.pdf