Finalizing College List - Engineering Undecided - Help with Match/Safeties/Size of list

College Search & Selection
1

Son is a science geek. He wants a career in chemistry, material science, or chemical engineering today. That may change as he experiences more. He is applying to engineering undecided.

Stats:
HS: Attends private, regionally known prep school in Michigan
GPA: 3.97 UW , UC GPA 4.27
ACT: 36:C (36:E 36:M 35:R 36:S 8:W 32:Combined EW)
PSAT: 221 (NMSF qualified in state)
SAT: 2070 (> NMFinalist in state)
SAT 2 Math 2: 800, Chem:780
AP: 5: Calc BC and Chem, 4: USH and Spanish
Rigor: 60-70% honors or AP classes
Senior AP: Physics C, CS, Economics (Macro/Micro), multi-variable calc.
Class rank: top 10% (school does not release rank beyond that)
Cum Laude Society

Demographic: 2 or more races (White, Asian, Hispanic)
Legacies: Michigan (Parents, Grandparents) , Stanford:Grandparent, Georgia Tech (parent)

EC’s: School orchestra (cello), piano (10 yrs) , Science Olympiad captain, Ocean Bowl Captain, Volunteers on breaks at local food bank, tutors calculus and chemistry during school year, research intern (full time) in summer on Micro-Fluidics and Green Energy (CO2–> Methanol catalysts) projects.

Sports:Recreational sports (Ski, Mountain bike, etc…). Bleeds maize and blue.

Financial: In-State for Michigan, would prefer school where he would qualify for some need or merit based FA if private or OOS.

(Naviance admit rate in his GPA/ACT band)
Safety:
Alabama - Tuscaloosa - EA
Michigan CoE - Ann Arbor - EA (100% EA admission from his school last year. 96% Naviance including RD)
Georgia Tech -EA (100% Naviance admit with his stats)

Match:
Rice RD (100% Naviance admit) (does this make sense, given lower ranking then UMich CoE ?)
Caltech-RD (100% Naviance admit)

Reach:
Stanford (his dream school) SCEA (25% Nav admit)
Princeton-RD (liked the undergrad research aspect) -
Yale-RD (not 100% sure because engineering program is under development) -
Harvard-RD (liked combined science/engineering + MIT class option) -

His plan is to apply to the safeties and Stanford in Oct, then the others later in the fall.

Questions

  1. Is the list too large?
  2. Too many reaches?
  3. Rice?

thanks all!

2

How is Caltech a match?

3

Your list is not too large. CalTech isn’t a match for anyone even though your son has extremely strong grades and test scores. His SAT is a liability and he might want to consider retaking. My D had a 2040 and a 36 this year and in a few cases that was a problem, Stanford will require all test scores. Naviance is a useful tool but it doesn’t capture the nuances of ECs or course rigor. Carnegie Mellon would make sense. Your son would get an awful lot of merit aid at many schools but the Ivy League do not offer merit aid at all