<p>I know what schools I want to apply to as "reach" schools and "safeties", but I am having some difficulty with finding "matches" for my stats.</p>
<p>I'm a Junior in high school (Massachusetts)
I have a 4.0 GPA unweighted. I don't know what it is weighted.
All honors classes. AP Biology and USH this year. 3 AP's next year
class rank- top 10% (school only does decile ranks)</p>
<p>E/C's-
very good, but varied. Look at my previous posts if you wish to know specifics.</p>
<p>PSAT score- 228 (probably National Merit Semifinalist)
SAT- haven't taken it yet, but expecting 2200-2400 based on practice tests</p>
<p>I'm looking at larger Universities I don't really like the small LAC's.
Looking for schools with good biology and political science programs. (not sure what I want to major in yet)</p>
<p>Division I Athletics, important? Like to see your school’s teams on national television?
If Greek Life dominates the social life, is that a big turnoff to you? </p>
<p>Will you require financial aid? Have you calculated your EFC yet?
Or are you full pay student? If so, are you looking for merit aid? </p>
<p>How far away? Are you willing to leave New England, would you look in NY, PA or other parts?</p>
<p>Thanks for the response. I am pretty much open to anything.
I am definitely looking for a school on the medium/large size. I’ve visited a few LAC’s and they seem way too small.
I would love to be either in or near a city. Or at least in a nice college town with plenty to do.
I am willing to look anywhere in the US even though I would love to stay in New England.
I love the traditional college feel of going to football games and other sporting events with classmates. However, this would be at the bottom of my list of important factors.</p>
<p>We hope to get something in financial aid; however my parents are not expecting this to be very significant. Merit Aid is a possibility but not a requirement.</p>
<p>Well, your grades are perfect and your SAT projects to be at or above the median for any college in America. You’re taking a challenging curriculum and your ECs are very good. Finances are not going to be a deal-breaker so I’d say that anywhere with a (legitimate) acceptance rate under 20% is a “reachable reach,” only because they have so many applicants per slot that they have to be considered a reach for anyone. The next level of selectivity would be good targets and just about everything else would be safe for you.</p>
<p>If you look at colleges on PrincetonReview.com and click on the “Admissions” link for each, PR will show an admissions selectivity rating between 60-99 for each school. I’d suggest that the 99s would be reaches, the 98s would be targets for you, and that most of the 97s and below should be safe (but be sure you have one school that’s much safer than that - just to help you sleep at night).</p>
<p>i think with your stats, there are very few “matches”, really only reaches and low to high safeties. i don’t have your UW gpa but i’m doing quite well at a competitive high school and all the schools i consider matches are really like safeties that i have a small chance of not getting into. so i think the reason you’re having trouble finding matches is that for you, there probably aren’t many. i can’t really make suggestions since i’m focusing on small LACs, but i think that if you can find a few low reaches and high safeties those are probably the closest to matches that you’ll get, and that’s totally fine. :)</p>
<p>USC [ Southern Calif] would be a good match for you, and if you are a NMF [ and you’re accepted] you’ll receive an 1/2 tuition scholarship .
“Entering freshmen are considered if they have been designated National Merit Finalists and name USC as their first-choice college with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.”-[ which you can do by the NMF May deadline]</p>
<p>Be SURE complete your college application to USC by Dec 1 to be considered for the full tuition Trustee scholarship</p>
<p>Thanks everyone!<br>
The Princeton Review tip is very helpful!</p>
<p>@SLUMom I’m actually going to visit BC later this week. So hopefully I like it. Thanks for the suggestion.
I think I am just going to focus on some “high safeties” as my match schools. I think that smwhtslghtlydzed is right, there doesn’t seem to be an exact “match” for me. Just safeties and reaches.</p>