Help Building College List

College Search & Selection
1

Hello, so now that junior year is coming to a close for me I’m trying to form a definitive list of where I will be applying next year, but I’ve been struggling. I don’t want to apply to more than 15 schools, but right now I can’t seem to narrow the list down, so here are my stats:

GPA: 4.0 (uw) 4.71 (w)
Rank: 1/300
SAT: 2380 (superscored 800 M, 790 R and W) highest sitting 2310
PSAT: 1480, with selection index of 222, but I’m in Mass, so not assuming anything regarding NMSF
Have taken 4 APs so far, taking 5 more next year (only score so far is a 5 on microeconomics)
ECs: Theatre (go to outside performing arts school several days a week and have had a lead role at my regular high school past two years), volunteer at local hospital where I work the front desk on Sundays, elected VP and student council rep for my grade, spent last summer and will spend this summer aiding in biochem research at local college, won honorable mention in Mass Scholastic Art and Writing Competition for photography, founder/copresident of Physics Club at my school, member of some other clubs

Prospective major: Pre-Med (neuroscience), economics, not entirely sure yet so I want to go to a school where I could change my mind and still have good programs

What I’m looking for:
-city or near city (not essential, will make exceptions), but still with a traditional campus
-mid-sized (again, not essential, but I would like a school larger than 2,500 at least)
-East coast, no further South than Virginia or North Carolina, preferably New England or Mid Atlantic as I’m from Boston
-Non-denominational, but still considering some catholic schools because my family kinda wants me to

List so Far:
Reaches:
Harvard (hometown draw)
Columbia
Penn
Princeton
Brown
Cornell?
Yale
Duke
Johns Hopkins
Tufts
Georgetown

Matches:
UVA
UMich
NYU
Northeastern
BC
Villanova

Safeties:
PC
UMass Amherst

Which schools should I remove? Replace? Add?

Sincerely,
a very anxious junior

2

I’d dump NYU (u want traditional campus)
I think Michigan ,BC , Tufts, Villanova, & Northeastern are your safeties, so I’d drop at least 1 of those. Also dump PC ,& umass.
Hopkins for pre-med?
Hasn’t that cliche been exposed as overdone & overrated? I’d also dump Cornell.

3

Tufts is a safety for no one! The other may waitlist you is they feel you are using them as safeties.

4
  1. Drop 4 of the schools you over sampled from the same athletic conference
  2. Duke fails your current geographic constraints
  3. If you broaden your horizons there are fantastic schools you can add (Rice, Vanderbilt, Emory, Tulane)
  4. Drop NYU, Northeastern, Villanova, Johns Hopkins, PC
5

Why drop these three for the others? By the OP’s criteria, these are great fits.

I agree on dropping some of the Ivies.

The OP is looking to narrow his lists - I don’t think he needs to broaden his criteria.

Overall, I think you’ve got a good list - a few cuts probably wouldn’t hurt - try ranking your current list and giving weights and ranks for your criteria and schools - some outliers should eventually pop up, and you can eliminate those. You’re doing a great job and will have plenty of good options with your stats.

Good luck!

6

Also, since you’re out of state, UVA and UMich may be a little harder to get into, so you may want to take that into consideration.

7

@PengsPhils - you are an NEU student / grad?

Rice sits next to the largest medical center in the world. Possibility for significant merit.
Vanderbilt has a major medical school / medical center. Competitive full tuition merit.

Emory has a significant medical system. Solid merit opportunities.

Those are great replacements for the extra Ivies to remove.

NEU, NYU, Villanova wouldn’t be picked if the OP was accepted into any of the top 10 choices.

Therefore they are wasting space on the list.

8

Thanks everyone for this advice! I do agree about having a bit too many ivies and I don’t plan on applying to them all, I actually had removed Cornell but my dad wanted me to add it back in, and I’m not sure about applying to Yale, Princeton and Brown, but Harvard, Columbia and Penn I love. I don’t really have interest in Rice or Emory because they’re a bit too far south for me, and Vanderbilt I actually toured and didn’t enjoy very much. Also conflicted about Villanova because my brother goes there, so I have that in and the convenience that would come with me going there.

9

I would say drop Princeton because of grade deflation and its suburban location. It also doesn’t have a med school nor is it super close to a hospital. Volunteering would be harder there. However, I would keep Brown because everyone seems to love it there, and it seems to be a very nice second choice if you don’t get into the other ivies. It’s also pretty close to big cities, so if you’re bored one weekend NYC and Boston are a bus ride away. Keep Hopkins, but only if you visit and like it there. I would also drop Villanova, NYU (if you’re not super rich), NEU, and even Tufts. If you want safeties, BC and UVA will suffice (UVA has a 23% OOS acceptance rate); there’s not really a point to adding Amherst and PC in there. Have you considered WashU? It’s a very common school for pre-meds, and St. Louis isn’t that far down south. I know quite a few that go there and love it, and it has a very good business school if you decide to go down that track. Also, I recommend applying EA to UMich and SCEA to Harvard (if you like it there the most) and see if you’ll need to add more safeties after that.

10

@ClarinetDad16

You know I am, and we both know you really don’t like Northeastern in particular of those schools, but that isn’t the point. The schools you mentioned all violate key constraints of the OP, and with his stats, there’s no need to take out 3 great schools for 3 other great ones that don’t fit the OP as well. I had the same geographical preferences when I was choosing schools, which is more where I am coming from.

Your 3 recommendations all hinged on doing medical (and throwing out the idea of fit) - on top of the fact that all 3 offer good medical opportunities themselves, the OP mentioned that pre-med is by no means certain. Replacing 3 great academic schools and great fits for the OP with 3 close to equal academic institutions that aren’t as good of a fit doesn’t make much sense.

11

@PengsPhils - it has nothing to do with NEU.

Rice is the Harvard of Texas.

Vanderbilt is one of the handful of top Southern schools.
Emory as well.
Duke seamlessly falls into that grouping as well. Arguably the best southern school and in the top handful nationally.

Those schools are not peers of NYU, NEU and Villanova. They are in a higher tier both in terms of selectivity, but also in terms of outcomes. And as indicated they offer significant merit opportunities as well.

With the OP having a solid safety wrapped up with a bow, isn’t it better to take bigger swings at the best options with the most opportunity of the lowest net cost?

And if the goal is some type of grad school - shouldn’t the OP seek the best feeder schools for the elite grad schools? Again that would point to Rice, Duke, Vanderbilt and Emory. Not NEU, not Villanova and not NYU.

12

@ClarinetDad16 - if this doesn’t, then why did you mention it in the first place?

Rice/Vanderbilt/Emory are not exact peers of NYU/Villanova/NEU, but they are close enough. Going a single tier up while disregarding fit doesn’t make sense. As the OP has said himself, he has no interest. College selection isn’t about what schools you think are the best - only what’s best for the person who will be attending. Your recommendations don’t make sense in that context.

13

Have you discussed with your parents what they are willing/able to pay? For example, if you seek need-based aid, you’re not likely to get much of it from OOS public universities.

14

You can get to great med & grad schools from any college. on the table. Not everybody is obsessed with attending the very highest-ranking U,S. News college that they could possibly get into, and to heck with all other criteria. Am I the only one who gets nauseous when the term “feeder schools” is used?

15

@PengsPhils / the OP put Duke on their list so their geographic boundaries perhaps are not set in stone.

The schools I suggested are the best in their markets and provide a very diverse opportunity to study their choice of many solid majors above and beyond pre-med.

And you keep leaving out the money factor - the op should swing for schools that if admitted can provide an affordable cost and an incredible outcome so they are picked over their safety. Although say NYU seems like a fit because of location - the anticipated cost probably would knock it out of contention.

Being a parent and having to write the check realizing the OP has more school beyond undergrad makes the cost a huge factor. Swing for the merit offers at the best feeder schools for the best grad programs. The schools I suggest connect those dots. It is up to the OP to build their list.

16

Since you stated a preference for neuroscience Brown and Penn have great neuroscience programs for UG. Princeton is trying to catch up and recently opened a Neuroscience Institute and made it a major. I found Yale’s lacking on the visit but they are investing more money that way and do have a med school if you are looking neurology. I assume JHU is great but haven’t visited. Columbia I’d rate along with Yale. This is all nitpicking but if you ar elooking for reasons to eliminate some of your reaches.

17

Thank you everyone for your advice thus far! I have noticed some back and forth so as for money: my parents have told me that they could pay for my undergraduate education, even full tuition, but I would need to pay for all higher education by myself. If I were to receive aid somewhere they would put that aid amount toward my higher education (whether it be for my MD or MBA or whatever). And as for the South, I have not ENTIRELY closed that realm of options, but I have just found through my samplings that the North is more suitable for me and my views especially (the few exceptions like UVA and Duke I have found to be exceptions and comparable enough to my home for me to be comfortable).

I am not completely shutting out the suggested Southern schools, and I will look into them, but as stated I would ideally like to be in the Northeast.