<p>What schools are good matches for people not in the top 5% of their class? (But still within the top 10%)</p>
<p>Hmm, it can vary so much depending on what you want to study...</p>
<p>WUSTL
Emory
Boston U
Reed
Amherst
Williams
Wellesley (or is it Wesleyan? I always get them confused)
Haverford
Georgetown
Rice and Vandy, perhaps?</p>
<p>Reaches: (reaches for everyone, even valedictorians)
Ivies
Duke</p>
<p>Also, perhaps UVA and UNC depending on your stats.</p>
<p>In the west, Claremont and Pomona, Cal and UCLA, UCSD, and USC.</p>
<p>Hmmm, Rice was actually the reason I posted this. It seems the acceptance at Rice is lower than average for the top 6-10% while it is higher than average for the top 5%.</p>
<p>The whole "top 5%" thing is really over rated. It depends on the size of your school. I go to a really small school and the top 5% of the class is 2 people. So far in my class we've had 3 Ivy acceptances and none of them were for those two people. So they don't just look at your percentage. They look at the school size, too. Small schools would have mnore leeway while large schools would probably have less.</p>
<p>How does the part class size plays lead to the top 5% being overrated?</p>
<p>Because it isn't always as important as people amke it out to be.</p>
<p>For the record. Wellesley: all-girls, in Massachusetts. Wesleyan: once all-boys, long since co-ed, in Connecticut. (Not so hard, is it?) Either would fit the OP -- unless OP is male, in which case, Wellesley not so much.</p>
<p>Top 5% also depends on the academic strength of your high school. The school profile is quite important. At some of the schools in our city you can be in the top 5% and not be particularly strong academically.</p>
<p>Without knowing about your other credentials (such as test scores and ECs) it is hard to position you as a candidate and say what schools might be matches. I do think, though, the schools listed by the first responder are not matches, but reaches, though perhaps realistic if you other credentials are very strong. You probably need to do a little more research to get a sense of what kind of applicant pool is out there at different schools. Being from Arkansas might help a little at northeastern schools looking for geographical diversity.</p>
<p>I believe the schools would be considered more match than reach, if the poster has the stats and writing capability that generally goes along with a top 10% candidate.</p>
<p>austinj, Amherst and Williams WLs are filled with top 10 percenters--and better. Wesleyan blows hot and cold on who it favors. (Wellesley is a women's school and the toughest in that category to get into. WUSTL is generally iffy; Georgetown seems to change in difficulty from year to year. Rice and Emory are by no means easy even for the top 10 percent and would only be matches if everythign else fell into place. BU is obviously in another category. So is Vanderbilt--seen as less selective in the North than it really is I think. Again, where you are from plays a role here. A comfortably middle-class top-10-percenter from a northeastern suburb is not finding a match at Williams, believe me. Read this years results threads and I think you will find that even in the past two years the admissions world has changed.</p>
<p>This is an imposaible question to answer without knowing your school so ignore most advice given. At some schools the top thirty plus percent go to ivies, at others only he val and sal seem to have a chance. We need to know average school SATs to really get a grasp of how your school is seen.</p>
<p>Books such as "The Best 351 Colleges" by The Princeton Review are good guides for people in the top 10% or 25% of their classes.</p>
<p>Amherst, Williams, and Georgetown are arguably as hard or harder to get into than most of the schools in the Ivy League (and Duke). Labelling them as matches without knowing more about the poster is just silly.</p>
<p>My school ranks #205, I'd say it isn't an ultra-awesome school, but it isn't a bad one by any means. The rankings are done by weighted GPA, and no one with less than a 3.9W is in the top 10%. We send kids to ivy leagues (not that many, but we send 'em). I am a male, so an all-girls college would be out of the question. I'm not sure about specific stats of my school, but I'd say it was halfway between mediocre and perfect.</p>
<p>No opinions? My test scores (I predict based on practice) will range from 2180-2300.</p>
<p>Middlebury, Colgate, Tufts, Colby, Bucknell and Johns Hopkins</p>
<p>With your stats and location, you can apply anywhere, but the top schools. HYP Amherst,Swat etc are always a crapshoot. You probably be a pretty safe b et at schools outside the top 15 or so in the USNEWS.</p>