Help me find match and safety schools!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>It's a long post, but I'd appreciate it greatly if you make it all the way through.</p>

<p>I've already decided on a list of reaches (Harvard is my top choice, and I will be applying early there. Others include Princeton, Yale, Stanford, and Columbia)</p>

<p>I'm currently in California, which means California public schools will be a lot more affordable for me. However, I really prefer the East Coast; I have family there, and I just love the fast-pace vibe of the East Coast more than the laid back style of the West.</p>

<p>That being said, our family income is around ~$35k, so my parents don't expect to be able to contribute much. Obviously cost is a huge factor and aid is important. All my reaches guarantee 100% of need, but if I don't get into any of my reaches, I'll have to settle for whichever gives me more aid, even if it's in the west coast.</p>

<p>I'm split between chemical engineering and pre-med with a chemistry major. I know for sure I want to pursue chemistry, but not sure if I want to do engineering or pre-med afterwards. So I'm looking for schools with reputable chemistry/science departments.</p>

<p>Like I mentioned before, I prefer colleges in the East Coast, but I'll settle for the West Coast depending on circumstances. I prefer medium size schools, not too big like UCs (though if that's my only affordable option I'll attend) and not too small like Cal Tech. Around 5-6 thousand is perfect for me. </p>

<p>I don't have strict weather preferences though it'd be nicer if it wasn't super hazardous. I can deal with snow/rain though. Another important is that I want the full college experience. I want to experience the "full package", so I prefer schools like Harvard and Yale over MIT or Cal Tech. No religious preference, and I don't really care about Greek life.</p>

<p>My GPA is 3.98 UW and 4.44 W. I'll have taken 11 AP classes by end of junior year, 15-16 by end of senior. F|or reference, my UC GPA uncapped is 4.63 and capped 4.33 I believe (could be wrong on capped). I've gotten a 36 on all sections of the ACT in one setting, and 800's on both Math II and Chemistry SAT subject tests. I'm planning on taking US History this year. I've also gotten a 5 on all 5 AP exams I took last year except one in which I got a 4.</p>

<p>I have decent EC's, AIME and NChO qualifier, leadership role in 3 clubs, couple of regional awards, president of a nonprofit that does homeless sleeping bag drives (got published in local papers), work as a tutor at a school for mentally disabled, and started my own foster tutoring program. I do quite a bit of community service, I got the Gold PVSA last year (250+ hours) and will get it again this year. Little bit of research experience: I interned for a local chemistry professor last summer, and applied to SIMR/Clarks/etc so hopefully will attend one of those this summer.</p>

<p>No big major awards but if I make IChO this year (which is gonna be very tough) that'll be my big hook I guess. I'm also a first generation college student and first generation Asian American.</p>

<p>Again, all of my listed preferences aren't that strict (except cost) and can be worked around.</p>

<p>I'm looking for matches and safeties, so schools I can rely on to fall back on in case I get rejected from all my reaches.</p>

<p>As a side note, I'm still undecided on whether I should apply for Questbridge College Match later this year. Any opinions on that topic?</p>

<p>Anyway, thank you so much if you made it all the way through this grueling post. I really appreciate any help and/or constructive criticism!</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>Apply to a bunch of CSUs and UCs; go to whatever place will guarantee you a full ride. </p>

3

<p>Have you thought about Brandeis or Tufts? Both are in massachusetts. Cornell, possibly, and George Washington University too. GWU has a smaller Mount Vernon campus you can go to if you don’t want to be right in the city, I think you have a choice of campus. Brandeis gives good merit aid. Tufts and GWU both have direct entry into med school if you decide that is your path, Brandeis too I believe. I would see them all as matches.</p>

<p>PS I am only a sophomore, but I do have a LOT of experience with colleges as I have two older sisters- I’ve been to a ridiculous amount of info sessions/tours, all on the east coast, and already planned out where I want to apply and such. I know all about what it takes, that being said I would double check and look into these schools more before I applied.</p>

4

<p>Shotgun the UC and CSU campuses that have chemical engineering and look for safeties with chemical engineering from this list: <a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;

<p>Check external accreditation for chemical engineering through ABET and for chemistry through ACS.</p>

5

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<p>I’ve never seen the UCs mentioned as good targets for full ride merit scholarships. For 2012-13, Berkeley awarded 111 merit scholarships to students with no demonstrated financial need (out of 4127 full time freshmen). The average grant was only $2,756 (according to the 2012-13 Common Data Set.) Maybe some of the other UCs or CSUs give bigger average awards.</p>

<p>For need-based aid, you won’t get 100% of your costs covered.
According to IPEDS data, for a California resident with a family income of $30,001-$48K receiving Title IV Federal financial aid in 2011-12, the average net price to attend UC Berkeley (after need-based aid) was $9,835. For comparison, here are the average net prices to attend other schools the OP mentioned:</p>

<p>$8071 Yale
$7504 Princeton
$6895 Stanford
$6719 Columbia
$3647 Harvard</p>

<p>Here are the average net prices paid by students in the OP’s income bracket for a few somewhat less selective schools that might be of interest:</p>

<p>$15015 University of Rochester
$12642 Johns Hopkins
$12312 Tufts
… (Berkeley average) …
$9638 Wesleyan University
$9219 Cornell
$8465 Cal State - Long Beach
$6784 Vanderbilt
$6495 Cal State - Bakersfield</p>

<p>YMMV. $30,001-$48K is a fairly wide band; each of these schools presumably has a slightly different distribution of students within that band. Use each school’s online Net Price Calculator to get a better-tailored estimate.</p>

6

<p>How about Washington University in Saint Louis? I know that’s not really the east coast but I’ve heard they give full rides. How is their chemistry department and could it be considered a match or safety for me? Could Berkeley be considered a match?</p>

7

<p>I see Vanderbilt gives really nice aid also. How’s their chemistry?</p>

8

<p>I know lists exist for schools that offer full rides, but I need more indications of which can be considered matched and safeties since many of them are really selective.</p>

9

<p>UCSB should be a safety for you. Excellent chemical engineering and it has an interesting program called the College of Creative Studies which you might want to look into should you pursue a chemistry major.
<a href=“http://www.ccs.ucsb.edu/”>http://www.ccs.ucsb.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If you show interest in Lehigh, you shouldn’t have a problem getting in. Rice could be a solid reach although it’s in the Southwest. </p>

10

<p>Is it too ambitious to consider UCLA a safety? After all my objective stats are well over their 75th percentile</p>

11

<p>Yes it is - not because of your stats, which are exceptional, but because the process is so competitive with subjective criteria that change from year to year. For all top universities, ‘holistic admissions’ means objective stats are only one element they consider. All kinds of other elements come into play. For this reason UCLA can’t be considered a safety. You’re an exceptional student so I think you’re one of the few who could consider UCSD a safety though. </p>

12

<p>I see. So I really can’t assume I’m gonna get into WashU or Berkeley. I can’t assume anything I suppose haha</p>

13

<p>No you can’t. Absolutely not. When selectivity is 30% and under, it’s a crapshoot. Each year, there are perfect stats kids who get turned down. You need to bring something that nobody does and for top schools there’s really not much of a difference betwen a 34, a 35, or a 36 (and in fact, anything 32 and above). If there’s a really interesting kid with a 32 and a kid with a 35 who doesn’t sound like he’d add something special to the class, the interesting kid gets in.
UCLA and UCB can never be considered safeties due to the holistic process, although the odds of your getting into one of the two are pretty good.
Considering your stats, you probably want to have 1-2 safeties in hand before sending out your SCEA or ED app. I’d suggest sending your application to UAlabama’s Honors College as soon as it’s up (August), plus any rolling admission college that interests you (note that SCEA limits your applications to public universities). This way, you’ll secure a spot in honors colleges somewhere as early as October and you’ll be able to relax a little while you send out all your applications to every crapshoot on the USNWR national U/national Lac list. :slight_smile: Based on your accomplishments, it’s very likely you’ll get into a few of your schools, but you can’t assume anything. Play it safe.</p>

14

<p>I’ve always wondered. What’s considered " interesting"? Aside from academics I spend a majority of my time doing commubtiy service (I do 250+ hours per year) because I enjoy it and I find it worthwhile. Is that not something colleges are looking for? How unique can a high school student be?</p>

15

<p>How does the following list look?
Put it in order of preference</p>

<p>Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Stanford
Columbia
MIT
Cal Tech
Williams
Amherst
Boston College
UC Berkeley
Tufts
UC San Diego</p>

16

<p>After a certain point (which you certainly reached), it’s more a matter of self reflexion. Why do you do what you do? How do you learn from it? How does it bring you pleasure? etc.
When they read your essays, do they think “I want that kid on campus!”</p>

<p>These would be in your order of preference, no one can prefer for you :D</p>

<p>You need 1 more safety and 3 more matches (defined strictly as their % admissions, since your stats are above all possible medians :p. Your 3 matches would be in the 30-40% range and your safety would be in the 40-50% range).</p>

17

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<p>“Uniqueness” is not relative. Something or someone is either unique or isn’t. I hate to correct students’ grammar, but you are aiming high and this is a mistake you would be wise to avoid before you apply to colleges. :)</p>

18

<p>haha I meant the list is in order of my preference.</p>

<p>If I put CMU, NYU and U of Rochester as my 3 matches and UCSB as my safety, I guess the list would become</p>

<p>Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Stanford
Columbia
MIT
Caltech
Williams
Amherst
CMU
Boston College
UC Berkeley
NYU
U of Rochester
Tufts
UCSD
UCSB</p>

<p>that’s 17 colleges. Do you think I should cut some reaches/is it too many? My main concern is that my reaches are so selective that if I don’t apply to enough I won’t get into any of them. If I apply to 9 reaches like I am right now, my chances of getting accepted into at least one is decent.</p>

<p>I suppose if I were to cut some reaches I’d get rid of Columbia Cal Tech and Amherst/Willams</p>

19

<p>No it’s a good list :slight_smile: - you’re applying to the most selective schools in the world so of course you need to have a lot of colleges on it. If we take out the crapshoots, it’s only a list of 8 colleges after all…</p>

<p>The UC’s use the same application so really you’ll be doing 17 apps. Which is A LOT but not as scary as 19, especially since you’ll be able to recycle essays. Start with NYU and BC (good for practice), then the UCs, then HYPS, then let HYPS rest, and do Columbia, MIT, CMU, Urochester. (CMU and URochester will benefit from your previous experience and will thus expertly crafted, always good for “matches” – rushing through safeties and matches isn’t a good idea, you want to give the impression you spent time on your application.)
HYPS have A LOT of essays (long and short) so start ASAP on the short questions (like: what did you do last summer? What are your favorite books/films/works of art?) You’ll refine them 6 months from now but get them out of the way now. Work on your CommonApp essay during the summer.
The CommonApp essay topics won’t change, the UC topics won’t change, and I doubt NYU, URochester, or BC will change their supplements so if you can have all of these + commonapp + short answers done by the end of August, you’ll have a better senior year.
Keep CalTech, Columbia, Amherst and Williams for last, in case you still have time at the end of December. Then, enjoy the holidays for a whole week you’ll deserve it!</p>

20

<p>@MYOS1634
Thank you for all these great comments, they’re really helpful!</p>

<p>If it’s not too much to ask - and tell me if it is - could you just really briefly summarize the strong points, both academically and otherwise, of the reaches I’ve listed? You seem to really know your stuff (guessing you’re a parent or a graduate) and it’d be extremely helpful. The colleges I’ve picked for that list are mostly because 1) I visited them last year and really liked the campus or 2) reputation. Of course, it’d be foolish to pick schools just based on first impressions and reputation, and I can’t seem to find a good summarizing list of traits of each school (the specific school forums are largely biased).</p>

<p>Thank you so much!</p>