Help!! I don't know what to do

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Lately as I have been trying to decided where I will be applying this fall. As I continue to go through my list of schools, I feel as if I only have reach schools that I would actually want to attend.

Do I have a shot at any of my reaches? Please suggest match schools at rank my chances at each of the schools below. Which ones should I take off the list? Should I add any other ones?

So far I have looked at:

Harvard
Wash U in STL
Duke
U Chicago
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
Columbia

My problem is that these are all reach/high reach schools for me.

I have also considered:
UNC Chapel Hill
UVA
Boston U
Tufts
Wake Forest

These seem more like matches, but I’m not sure.

My Stats

Currently a high school junior at a mid size public school, one of the top schools in MN

GPA: 3.89(will go up after this semester)4.0 UW 3.95/4.2(will go up as well)

ACT: Composite 32 one sitting, no study, I took it again in April through school, hoping for a 34/35, otherwise I’ll take it again in the fall.

ACT breakdown: 31 English, 29 Math(I have no clue why math is my best subject typically, (34) Reading, (34) Science

SAT Subject Test: I will take Chemistry, Math 2 and literature in June.

AP Classes (9 total by graduation): APUSH (4), APLAC (this year) AP Calc AB (this year) AP Chem (this year) APLIT (Next year) AP Calc BC (Next year) AP Macro (Next year) AP Stats (Next year) AP Physics (Next year)
I am expecting mainly 5s on the tests but APLAC/AP Macro may be 4s

Advanced/Honors/Dual Enrollment: By graduation I will have 4 Dual enrollment classes through the UofMN. All classes except for 4 have been advanced/honors/AP/dual enrollment. (the classes that weren’t honors were only offered as ‘regular’ classes

Ethnicity: Caucasian (First Generation)
Gender: Female

Extracurriculars:
Basketball 10th grade, couldn’t play in 9th due to ACL injury, never healed properly so i can’t continue
Softball 10th-12th, injury 9th grade
Science Bowl Junior-Senior
Interect Club-10th-Senoir, will have a leadership position next year.
Jazz Band-self taught the saxophone in 7th grade
Symphonic Band-have played the clarinet since 5th grade
Volunteering at local hospital
Shadowing an orthopedic surgeon( I want to be an Orthopedic Surgeon)
I will be able to join NHS at the beginning of second semester this year, hopefully I will have a leadership position.

Recommendation Letters
Next year I should receive great recommendations from my AP Chem and AP Calc teachers, Possibly dual enrollment Anat&Phis teacher.

I think My safety schools would be UofMN and UW Madison but i really don’t want to stay in MN or WI.

Please tell me if I have any shot at my any of my reach schools. Also if you could, please suggest more match and safety schools.

My intended major would be biology or biochemistry, on a premed path.

2

A 2-3 point jump in ACT score is pretty big. You need to have been studying a lot to get that. If you don’t get a 34/35, I would cross off pretty much all your reaches except maybe Northwestern. Also, how are you determining what your matches are? I would consider most of the “matches” you listed reaches for you.

3

bump

4

Your extra curriculars seem somewhat superficial

5

What type of school are you attending (IE., Edina or msp public)?
What’s your parents ’ income and budget for college?
Matches for you: St Olaf, Skidmore, Mount Holyoke, Bryn Mawr, Sewanee, Dickinson, Denison, Occidental, Rhodes, Whitman, Emory-Oxford.
Safeties: ASU Barrett, Alabama Honors, Truman State, Drake, Hendrix, Muhlenberg, DePaul, Agnes Scott, St Lawrence, Hobart and William Smith, UScranton.

6

A 32 ACT score is on the low range of most Ivy’s, including Harvard, but it won’t completely take you out of the game. Try re-taking it. My older sister got a 4 point increase in the ACT without studying. She went from a 30 to a 34 without studying; everything she learned in the school year naturally helped her knowledge grow. Your EC’s are a little superficial. You still have time until college app’s so try focusing on two or three of those EC’s over the summer. Remember, colleges want to know that you have a passion, not that you’ve done everything.

7

You haven’t narrowed your choices at all, really, you’ve just got a list of famous top schools from the right half of the map. There are many paths to medical school, and you only seem to have picked one type of place. But there are hundreds of other excellent schools where you won’t nearly be the smartest person in the room and will be challenged and entertained.

Do yourself a favor and try visiting a handful of schools right away while there are kids on campus, either this week or first thing this fall. And not necessarily schools you are considering, but a mix of places and types to help you figure out what sort of school you might like. In a good weekend you could hit the U of MN (huge, public, urban), Macalester (smart, private, in town) and St Olaf (small, religious, good pre-med) and you’d know right away a lot about city vs town, huge vs small, LAC or Univ, and that’ll help you quite a bit.

The feel of a campus makes a big difference, more than you might imagine. Realizing that you hate the mass of a flagship, for example, eliminates pretty much every school you named above. Once you spend some time on a couple tours you’ll have a different set of criteria when you go back to make your next list.

8

@StPaulDad I have actually visited all the schools on my list(with the exception of Columbia, we’re going in September), as well as many more. So I have narrowed my list to the ones that I actually like. I know that I don’t want a small school, so I have crossed the majority of the LACs off the list. I know I want to get out of Minnesota and be near a city, or at least within an hour or two. I’ve done plenty of research into colleges, but I need help finding some that are considered more match/safety schools for me.

9

I retook the ACT in April, through my school so I’m still waiting for the results. I’m expecting at least a 33, but hopefully a 34 or 35.

10

Can you answer the questions in #4?

11

Tufts UNC and UVA shouldn’t be considered matches unless you’re in state for one of the last two.

12

What about Midwest Student Exchange Program and Truman State?

13

I think your list of matches are really low reaches. You need to relook at your list so that you are not disappointed. @MYOS1634 has a good list of match schools for you although I now see you really don’t want a small LAC. UScranton is a great safety, medium sized school with good science department, take a look there.

14

I agree with others. UVA, UNC, and Tufts are likely reaches, not safeties. Remember, NC limits OOS to 18% of the student population, and UVA had always had a large OOS application pool. Also, if you ate not really happy with your safety schools, they aren’t safety schools. Consider Alabama and Arizona Barrett on @MYOS1634’s for possible safeties instead.

Right now, it looks like you have seven high reaches/lotteries, three reasonable reaches, two high matches/low reaches and two unsatisfactory safeties. You need to recalibrate your list and find acceptable safeties. Figure or what you like about each school, look for other universities like them. For matches, you probably want acceptance rates in the 30’s but don’t torn your nose up if the college accepts 40%+ of its applications. Start with finding two safeties you like - that will be the hardest part of the college search. Then work your way up to reaches.

15

Well, yes. They are all pretty and all pretty famous. Agreeing with @SlackerMomMD: the top end is always easier to fall in love with. You don’t have a safety or even matches that you like, so start there and build up.

Also, since @mom2collegekids hasn’t popped in yet, let me be her proxy! If your goal is med school, and this is a really serious thing for you, you want an undergraduate that will help you get there with minimal/no debt: it is much, much, much easier to get funding for undergrad than med school (of course, if money is no object, no worries). Also, prestige of college name matters much less to med schools than numbers- GPA and MCAT score are where they make their first cuts. So, if debt is part of the picture for you, look for colleges that you like well enough and they want you enough to give you great aid.

If debt is not part of the picture for you, be sure to consider how you are likely to do as a pre-med student at that school. You want a place where the committee who writes the recs for med schools will see you as a star. Look at the shakeout classes (stereotypically, bio and organic chem), and be chary of acceptance rates to med schools- in some colleges/universities, the % is high, b/c the system has shaken out or diverted students (sometimes you can see how many students come in saying ‘pre-med’ and how many actually go to med school).

Finally, you have strong marks in solid classes, but remember this about the high profile schools: your grades and test scores are expected, and your ECs/your ‘story’ are where you separate yourself from the crowd. Your list of ECs doesn’t leap off the page- but it’s just a list. People on CC don’t need to know the ‘story’ that pulls all your pieces together, but you need to be able to tell it to AdComms.

16

@collegemom3717 has good advice. Too many of your stats are still at the “expected” stage right now, including ACT and APs and Subject tests. Until you have real scores, it’s hard to judge your list. Agree with others that your Reaches are all VERY high reaches and that many of your Matches are really reaches.

A few schools you might look at that fit your not small LAC / near city criteria: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Univ. of Rochester, George Washington, American, Tulane, Fordham, Emory. You would have a shot at all these with your current stats.

IF your new ACT and Subject Tests come in very strong you can revisit. Univ. Minnesota and Wisconsin-Madison are fine safeties - but if you don’t like them you need to find a couple more safeties that you do like.

Good luck.

17

As everyone else has said, I find your ECs a little superficial, as if you’re only doing them for college. You don’t really have a cohesive story, but I’m also just a high school junior, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I would say you don’t have an outstanding, reliable, or likely chance at any of your reaches, but as always, there’s a possibility.

18

@MYOS1634
My school is similar to Edina, a bit smaller. Approx. 300 students per class.
Parents’ income is $200,000+ We won’t be applying for financial aid, so we understand the cost of all the schools I have been looking at.

19

I’m going to disagree with the superficial comments on ECs. Yes, I think the Ivies are even slightly more of a reach than they are for top students but HS basketball and softball is not a small commitment. One doesn’t have to be at the level of recruited athlete for the commitment to be significant. We don’t know OP’s competitive level but continuing softball in 10th after an injury shows commitment. Band since 7th grade including jazz band is also a commitment.

I constantly read comments about folks being spread too thin with a long list of activities. Band and softball can easily absorb 10-12 hours per week outside of class and you don’t play HS sports, even JV, unless you paid your dues in league or travel ball. No, it’s not going to make you stand out but that’s different than calling them superficial.

20

Harvard
Wash U in STL
Duke
U Chicago
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
Columbia
=====> all of those are super reaches. Add them once you’re done with your “reasonable” list. You may be competitive for them, but your odds are low due to not having regional/national recognition for something. Your stats put you in the running and your essay and skills may push you to the admit pile, but keep in mind the fact you’re very likely to be rejected, like 90-95% applicants.

UNC Chapel Hill => unlikely unless you’re a legacy, due to the cap on OOS students.
UVA => also a reach by virtue of selectivity, but you’re competitive for it.
Boston U => low reach
Tufts => reach by virtue of selectivity
Wake Forest => match/Low reach

You have a solid profile for LACs ranked 20-60 (LACs are harder for girls), universities ranked 25-40, plus the Seven Sisters. Depending on your interests, RPI and Case Western would be possible matches.

So, you need to find 2 safeties you like (and if you don’t like UW Madison and UMN-TC, they’re not real safeties - also, if you want strong schools that aren’t as big and in the Midwest, look at Drake, Truman State, Earlham, or, outside the Midwest, Hendrix, Goucher, St Mary’s Maryland, UScranton, Ithaca, Marist, + if you’re into Stem or business, WPI, Stevens…)
Then, you need some matches (low matches and high matches): Villanova, Dickinson, Rhodes, Elon, Butler, Rollins, RPI, Lafayette, Case, Denison, Northeastern, the Seven SIsters, Centre, Sewanee, Connecticut College, W&M, Tulane.
Look at USC-Columbia’s Honors College, ASU Barrett, Penn State Schreyer, as those have milder weather than UMN and UW, but have nationally-ranked Honors Colleges.