Does this list have too many Reaches?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Brown
Cornell
University of Pennsylvania
Yale
Johns Hopkins
Emory
Haverford
Lehigh
Rochester
Stanford
Chicago
Notre Dame
Northwestern
NYU
Michigan</p>

<p>GPA: 3.45/4.00 6.4/7.0 W
Class Rank: Top 10% [around 7%] out of 550
School Type: Public, Sends many students to top schools
State: NJ
Ethnicity: Mom is half white and asian. So I'm half-white/asian [jewish]. I'm not sure what my dad is [but he went to yale, as did his step-father]</p>

<p>SAT: 2120/2400
760 Math
640 Critical Reading
720 Writing [11 Essay]</p>

<p>ACT: 36 [36 Science, 36 Math, 36 English, 35 Reading, 11 Essay]</p>

<p>Subject Tests:
Bio-E: 710 [got a b in spysics honors]
Math2: 780 [Got a C in precalc honors]
Chem: 800 [Got a C in honors chem]
Physics: 800 [got a b in physics honors]
US: 800 [got a b in us history ap]</p>

<p>Other: AIME Qualifier, Cum Laude Society, Honor Roll [lol]</p>

<p>Senior Year Schedule:</p>

<p>Physics AP
European History AP
World History AP
Biology AP
French AP
Multi-Variable
Psychology AP
Spanish AP</p>

<p>AP Tests:
Calc BC: 5 [AB Subscore: 5]
Statistics: 4
[6 more senior year]</p>

<p>Schedule: Most Rigorous (9 AP, 14 Honors)</p>

<p>Financial Aid: Not necessary, but welcomed
ECs:</p>

<p>Theater (Musical and Drama): Lead Roles in all but 1 show
Habitat for Humanity (President of local chapter): Have been on mission trips
Tutor an Autistic Child in Math [he's learning calculus right now]
Organized a concert in a third world country, raised $16,000 which was donated to charity [I sang 5 songs as well]
Helped special needs children at a school
Organized a cultural show [about my culture] in my area a few times to raise awareness [I was the MC, $10,000 raised to charity]
Also Organized a tolerance awareness thing concerning the Israel Palestine affairs [I was the main speaker]</p>

<p>Work Experience:
Worked at Penn as a research assistant
Website Designer
Graphics Designer</p>

<p>Other ECs:
Chemistry Club, Biology Club, Medical Club, Debate, Choir, Green Hope Ambassador, Gay Straight Alliance, Badmitten Club</p>

<p>Teacher Recs: Great
Additional Rec [research mentor]: Excellent
Guidance Rec: Excellent
Essay: Great</p>

2

<p>The only time anyone has too many reaches is if they don’t have any safeties. NYU and Michigan are yours? Do you have a financial safety?</p>

3

<p>Rochester would be a safety for this candidate, too. Yeah, there are a lot of reaches, but so long as you could be happy at a Rochester, a Michigan, or an NYU, you should be fine. Financial safety? That’s a personal family finance decision. Make sure Mom and Dad will be just as willing to pay $52,000 per year for Rochester as they would for Yale. Other than that, good luck.</p>

4

<p>I think the point about a financial safety is an excellent one. You can have all of the reaches you want, and you do have many, as long as you have a safety you can afford.</p>

<p>If you can afford Michigan OOS and the $50K privates, you should be fine.</p>

5

<p>Michigan doesn’t use weighted GPAs. OOS 3.45 GPA makes it a reach though the ACT helps.</p>

6

<p>Brown
Cornell
University of Pennsylvania
Yale
Johns Hopkins
Northwestern
Stanford
Chicago</p>

<p>they are all reaches for you. 4th house is correct. In my opinion you should try to find more saftey rather than trying to apply all those schools. Research and cut down the list above in half.</p>

7

<p>You are superjew. Impossible is nothing.</p>

8

<p>^kwu beat me to it…</p>

9

<p>If application fee is not a problem, definitely apply to all your reach schools! Sometimes there’s certain amount of luck involved in college admission. Even if you’re rejected, at least you know you’ve tried!</p>

10

<p>I think the list is too long, with too many reaches. Keep in mind that it’s not JUST the application fees you’ll have to pay- it’s the price of sending your test scores AND your css PROFILE and so on. This list will put a thousand or more dollars down the drain easily. It’s a waste of money, and your parents could be saving more for the college itself. Trim the list a lot, add a few more foundational schools (I hate the term safety, because it implies that it is the last place you’d want to go. My ‘safety’ is my Aunt’s Alma Mater, and I know I would love my time there.) to the list. </p>

<p>I don’t know what subjects you’re interested in, but perhaps you should take that into consideration. If you can afford all the applications, by all means, add a safety or two.</p>

11

<p>I agree with Yurtle. I would think about the subject area you’re interested in, the environment and atmosphere you want to live in for 4 years, etc, and cut down the list. I’d definitely add more safeties, also.</p>

12

<p>You should add TCNJ as your financial safety.</p>

13

<p>NYU, Rochester, and Michigan are not academic safeties for this candidate, let alone financial safeties. Especially with that GPA. If anything, wouldn’t Lehigh be the closest thing to a safety on that list? Also, congrats on the 36 ACT, but it doesn’t guarantee you admission anywhere. The aforementioned schools would be matches, with everything else on your list ranging from low reach to high reaches. All that said, you’re a great candidate and will probably get into a handful of schools from your list. </p>

<p>Rutgers and TCNJ would be good academic and financial safeties for you.</p>

14

<p>^You guys all seem very pessimistic. This person has amazing ACT score, tons of AP classes and great SATII scores, some extracurricular involvemnet, and probably comes from a very competitive high school. His GPA is a little low but that may be because his classes were rigorous. What made you think he won’t get into at least one of those schools that he has listed? Lol, if superjew gets rejected from ALL the schools he’s applying to, then I probably won’t even get into college.</p>

15

<p>The 36 ACT will show that you go to a very difficult school and have challenged yourself. Personally, I think you have a chance at all of those schools with those test scores.</p>

16

<p>You have too many reaches and not enough true safeties. </p>

<p>I’d recommend cutting your list in half and adding a true safety. TCNJ sounds like a great suggestion to me.</p>

17

<p>Brown
Cornell
University of Pennsylvania
Yale
Johns Hopkins
TCNJ
Rutgers
Northwestern
NYU
Michigan</p>

<p>Could somebody state percentages, instead of saying reach (because I don’t really get what that means)</p>

<p>There I removed four schools that I wouldn’t waant to go to as much: Chicago, Notre Dame, Stanford, Emory.</p>

<p>I replaced Rocester with Rutgers and I removed Haverford and Lehigh and added TCNJ</p>

18

<p>That is a much more reasonable list and, believe me, you’ll really appreciate having cut it down when you start filling out all those applications. Good luck.</p>

19

<p>“I’m not sure what my dad is.” </p>

<p>You’re like 17 years old and the topic never came up? Maybe it’s time to ask somebody.</p>

20

<p>You probably don’t need both Rutgers and TCNJ on your list, as they should both be safeties for you. Figure out which one you would prefer - large research University (Rutgers) vs. smaller LAC-type environment (TCNJ). </p>

<p>TCNJ has rolling admissions, so if you apply early you could know early if you have at least one acceptance in your pocket. I don’t know if Rutgers has rolling admissions - my S prefers the smaller environment of TCNJ.</p>