<p>I'm extremely undecided for potential majors (probably math/science-related though)
which makes it very hard for me to find a "match school,"
so I'm honestly feeling a little lost :(</p>
<p>Stats:
Asian and female in Tennessee, top 5% rank at public high school
SAT: 2340 M/R/W 800/740/800
SAT 2: Math2 800 Physics 720 (will retake this year)
ACT- 35
unweighted 4.0 GPA
I've taken 8 aps (+7 more this year) averaging 4.6 ish</p>
<p>EC's are average, I think.
not anything particularly exciting though, worked part-time 2 years, and mostly
just volunteering and club stuff</p>
<p>Family makes ~90k a year</p>
<p>Definitely applying to UTK as a safety school (in-state), but I could really use more suggestions for all categories
of safety/match/reach. </p>
<p>Here's a small list I've come up with so far, but it's not exactly heavily researched or balanced yet.</p>
<p>UT Knoxville
Washington University in St. Louis
MIT
UChicago
Northwestern
USC</p>
<p>Any suggestions for more schools, or advice for dropping any I've listed would be highly appreciated!</p>
<p>Have you visited any? Any subjective opinions of what you liked about colleges that you have seen? With test scores this high, many phenomenal schools are within reach, and many lower tier schools would be free due to automatic merit aid. But for the elite schools on your list have you run the cost estimator for MIT, Princeton, Wash U to verify if you are close to free ride tuition at those with your family’s particular financial situation?</p>
<p>Were you national merit finalist?</p>
<p>Presumably you didn’t like Vanderbilt (it is not on your list and it is not that far)?</p>
<p>Are you trying to stay “relatively” nearer (CMU, Wash U) and avoiding schools other than USC and MIT that are farther?</p>
<p>Uhm, yeah with your stats you could definitely apply more reach schools. It depends on what you want though. Do you want to go to an east coast school, a southern school, a northern school, a research uni, or a LAC?
Do you want a big school or small school? Do you want it to be urban or more suburban?
You have to decide what you want from your college experience.</p>
<p>Might look at Holy Cross or Tufts both in Massachusetts. Holy Cross-top25 LAC has strong science programs and offers good financial aid including some merit aid.</p>
<p>To RiceParent and Marshmallow,
I am a NMF, and I don’t have any preference for any particular location for colleges. I do like more secluded college towns, but I would like to be near a large-ish city. Since I am undecided for major, I think I would rather go to a larger school where there are more options to explore what I like?</p>
<p>Sorry this is so vague. I did visit lots of “high- tier” schools but never really fell in love with any of them. Some schools (like Vanderbilt and Columbia, RiceParent mentioned) kind of turned me off because of the social atmosphere though. But then again this was pretty much a 1 hour tour, so I don’t know how much my first impressions count. </p>
<p>Restricting to those near Large cities (the 9 US cities with 1 million or more ie Dallas or larger) rules out a lot</p>
<p>For those elite schools which are “National Merit friendly”:
Chicago, USC</p>
<p>For safety school with chance of free ride National Merit UT Dallas and University of Arizona</p>
<p>For other great schools for science (leaving out Columbia) near very large cities (all of which have great financial aid for your family income range)
Caltech
Stanford
Harvey Mudd
Rice</p>
<p>Going to the next smaller cities you add MIT, JHU, a few Ivies, etc. and the list gets much bigger as you add smaller cities</p>
<p>Have a look at Swarthmore. It is a beautiful campus in suburban Philadelphia. A small LAC (1600 students) which is part of a consortium of colleges that include Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Penn. You won’t run out of classes! The school is so serious about encouraging students to explore that you can take a number of classes pass/fail to encourage kids to take classes outside their comfort zone. It is filled with extremely engaged, intellectual students. The school goes to extraordinary lengths to level the playing field for all students (no charge for any on campus entertainment, a single cost for meal plans and housing-doesn’t matter if it’s a single a double or a triple). </p>