<p>I see you have UMd College Park as a match. I think that would qualify as a safety and could be a great fit for her. I’d check with her guidance counselor about it being a safety. </p>
<p>You can see SAT scores of Harvard enrolled freshmen by ethnicity here:
<a href=“The Harvard Crimson | Class of 2017”>http://features.thecrimson.com/2013/frosh-survey/admissions.html</a></p>
<p>I agree to aim high if there are high level schools she feels are a good fit. I don’t know what your thoughts are about finances, but as to chances, if she applies to a few top schools, I would guess she’ll get a couple of acceptances, at least.</p>
<p>OP, my D just started at Pitt if you’d like to PM me about it. Great money for someone like your D. I’m also partial to UMD-CP since S went there and it’s a great value and as good an education in STEM as your D wants to get.</p>
<p>@ somuch2learn college park suffers from being ‘too close’</p>
<p>@jkeill911 what is your daughter’s major?</p>
<p>she doesn’t have one yet, so she was looking for schools with strengths in neuroscience, Italian, and linguistics, maybe with some philosophy or at least philosophy of mind focus. Hence, Pitt.</p>
<p>Given that list, you would think she’d be interested in MIT - it’s not just for engineers and it’s really strong in some of those areas. It’s not unrealistic and worth a shot. She could even do MIT EA - no restrictions!</p>
<p>Also check out the DC Tuition Assistance program. It gives you money toward the difference of instate/outofstate as a DC resident.</p>
<p><a href=“DC Tuition Assistance Grant (DCTAG) | osse”>http://osse.dc.gov/service/dc-tuition-assistance-grant-dc-tag</a></p>
<p>FYI Case considers “interest” important. See this link on how to show interest.
<a href=“How to "Show Interest" in CWRU - Case Western Reserve University - College Confidential Forums”>How to "Show Interest" in CWRU - Case Western Reserve University - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Case is also known for good merit aid. It is great in that it has the liberal arts and a STEM focus, unlike some of the other engineering oriented schools.</p>
<p>Also look at SUNY Binghamton…top 5 for out of state value.</p>
<p>Tulane University is not reachy and has tons of students from DC and north to New England. Southern location with northern culture.</p>
<p>However, Tulane does not like to be treated like a safety. Approach it with seriousness and your daughter should get in. Should get excellent merit aid too.</p>
<p>Nor does Tulane like to anyone to think that they are situated in a northern culture. Northerners in a Southern buffet is more like it. </p>
<p>Is Tulane more liberal or conservative? </p>
<p>@Iwonderwhere too close is understandable. </p>
<p>In this thread, the OP lists Tulane as slightly left of center. <a href=“Which Colleges/Uni's are the Most Conservative/Liberal ? - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/451069-which-colleges-unis-are-the-most-conservative-liberal.html</a> I didn’t read all the way through if someone offered up a different viewpoint.</p>
<p>I would consider Case a strong match. In my lexicon a safety is both an assured acceptance and I would say that while it is highly likely she would be accepted, it is not assured, and one you can afford regardless of the financial aid. Case does typically give pretty good merit aid and does a good job of getting you enough financial aid to make the school affordable based on your need. Only you can decide if it’s affordable however. I do think that if you are looking for a private national university with a strong science program Case is an excellent choice. </p>
<p>The best thing about Pitt as a safety is that she can apply now and hear back in a few weeks. Both my D’s used Pitt as their safety for that reason. Merit scholarships go to the early applicants also.</p>
<p>If everything were equal, my son would apply ED at a reach, and apply RD at a bunch of reaches and at least two safeties. Cappex and Parchment have both helped us get estimates on his chances.</p>
<p>If there is a school that Parchment says your daughter is 99% chance of getting into, it is highly doubtful she would need more than that one school as a safety. Maybe she can call a few potential safeties and see if she can apply for free.</p>
<p>Rolling admissions help in such situations too, as long as they don’t want acceptances early. And honestly, there are a LOT of state schools who are flexible about deadlines for a great candidate (which your daughter sounds like). That is, if everything hit the fan, she sounds like someone who could get into many schools past the RD deadlines.</p>
<p>My brother applied to college in July, and got into a decent private university. It was all arranged with phone calls and my parents explaining how “he messed up about deadlines” - which he did. Everything was fine for him to start freshman orientation etc. on time.</p>
<p>If your D can get her applications out for rolling and EA colleges, she’ll have a better idea where she stands, not to mention having some safeties. Then she can just apply to her heart’s content just to reaches. That’s what my one son did. With a BC acceptance early, he could do what he wanted since he had that as an option along with State U. Bases all covered.</p>
<p>“here are plenty of sciences where she could excel with that math score, but physics is not one of them.”</p>
<p>ACT is a measure of what was learned (and thus a surrogate for what was taught). From the other ACT scores the OP has a smart kid on their hands. I have a BA Physics from Berkeley and had to teach myself a fair amount of math that I didn’t get before I got there. So just to say straight away that the student has no chance is not at all based in fact.</p>
<p>Unless you are a physics professor at a highly ranked university and have had many more data points to make that generalization. But I sort of doubt that.</p>
<p>She will be sending both ACT scores right? Even with schools that don’t superscore, they may note the higher math score and realize that the 28 math was most likely a bad day (especially given the 5 in AP calc AB).</p>
<p>Update: final list is Pitt, URochester, Berkeley, UCSD, StonyBrook, Case, Caltech, MIT, Brown (maybe if she has the energy left), CalPolySLO, Stanford, Ohio State, UMich, USC.
She decided against Rice after a visit (I wasn’t there, she said the kids seemed like they’d just been let off a leash and didn’t know how to self-regulate 
) and I could not talk her into Delaware :’(
Got an acceptance to Pitt so that bumped Delaware
Just realizing she’s really been trough the wringer with this process</p>
<p>Would Pitt only bump Del? What about some of the other schools? Does she like all of those schools better than Pitt? </p>