<p>Just a preliminary warning to anyone who is going to read this I am willing to face rejection and bust my butt on applications. I also have the financial means to support this list. I also genuinely like every school and can't really get attached to any before I'm accepted or not.
Overview of me:
White girl from a small private school in CT (~10/45 to top colleges every year)
3.95 UW w/ most rigorous schedule top 15%
SAT : 2340 (790 CR, 800 M, 750 W)
SATII: waiting for US, MII, and Chem scores
EC's
4 years of school Drama Club (2 plays/year)
4 years of school Musical club (1 full musical and 1 song only musical/ year)
4 years of chorus
3 years of weekend/ summer waitressing
4 years of school people to people student chapter (VP in 10, P in 11 +12)
4 years of being an admissions tour guide for school
4 years of varsity volleyball
1 year of JV and 3 years of varsity basketball
4 years of varsity softball (captain 11 +12)
NHS (since spring of 10th)
Recs: know both teachers very well and have had them as teachers from 7th-11th grades
Schools: </p>
<p>Long Shots:
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
Columbia</p>
<p>Super Reaches:
Duke
Dartmouth
Penn
Brown
Reaches:
Cornell
Johns Hopkins
Tufts
Georgetown</p>
<p>Matches:
BC
Villanova
Lehigh</p>
<p>Safeties:
Fordham
Holy Cross</p>
<p>I think you could use another safety, but as long as you have money, don’t care about rejection, or filling out tons of supplements you’re okay just make sure that you would be happy and like specific actual things about each school. Don’t just apply because of the name or prestige. Make sure you would fit in, like the feel of the school, and that they have what you want. I would look a little more into each school because you still have a lot of time to decide on everything before applying. I had a long list before, but narrowed it down based on that i felt were important to me. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Thanks! I’m going to visit all of these schools so that should probably help trim the list!</p>
<p>Yeah it definitely should! It helped me a lot. Look more at each college website and their corresponding departments for your intended major and the requirements as well. I think you would be happier and better off if you got your list down to like 12 schools even 10. As long as you are willing to put all the time, work, and money into it.</p>
<p>I don’t think you should bring your list down to 10 or 12 with those schools. Since all of them are longshots, you need to have numbers AS WELL AS top-notch essays for each of them. </p>
<p>My only suggestion is to include as many early action as possible, if any of these schools have it. Then, if you have acceptances in early December, you might be able to prioritize those acceptances over some of the schools you haven’t actually applied to for regular decision. My son ended up not applying to four or five schools in December when he realized that his EA acceptances were better than some of the schools left on the list.</p>
<p>Thanks, @GeekMom63! I’m definitely considering applying to a few (BC, Villanova, Georgetown… I’ll check other schools’ policies) EA and then, if accepted, I won’t have to apply to some of my safer schools (Lehigh, HC, etc.), which should trim down my list.</p>
<p>Might I ask what you intend to study? If you know, for example, that you want to study something like Nursing, you may find that only a couple of these actually have nursing departments (An extreme example)…</p>
<p>As long as you would be perfectly happy to go to one of your safeties (and sure that they really are safeties from an admissions and cost point of view), then you can have whatever other schools you want in your application list, subject to the amount of time and money you want to spend on applications.</p>
<p>The limit on the number of reaches/super reaches any student applies to is generally your tolerance for essays and fees. With the cost of applications plus test scores, it generally costs around $75 per school.</p>
<p>As a parent who has been through this once, and has a younger high school student in the wings – what I suggest is spending time exploring and understanding the differences among some of the top schools instead of just applying to all the Ivies. For instance – and this is my pet peeve – Columbia has a strong core curriculum, with very specific requirements whereas a school like Brown does not. Come fall, when it is time to write essays, a student should have a better sense of what type of school they want and will flourish at. </p>
<p>Similarly, the location/feel of a place: with schools like Columbia, Penn, Brown, Hopkins, Georgetown, Tufts, Fordham, etc – you have schools with strong urban connections. Is someone who is drawn to that environment also going to flourish in a remote setting like Dartmouth or Cornell? </p>
<p>The next several months is the time to examine those preferences and priorities with visits and other research. </p>
<p>Good luck with your search, and enjoy your summer!</p>