Hi everyone!
I need some help narrowing down my college list. I liked all the schools although I haven’t visited any of them. I live in New England and I don’t intend to do a road trip across the country to visit these schools.
I know I’ll be accepted at any of them but it doesn’t mean I’ll apply to all these schools on my list. Help me please!
Any help or advise is greatly appreciated
Reach:
Columbia University
Harvard University
Princeton University
Stanford University
Yale University
Match:
Amherst College
Brown University
Caltech
MIT
Pomona College
University of Chicago
University of Pennsylvania
Safety:
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Emory University
Johns Hopkins University
Georgetown University
Grinnell College
Middlebury College
Northwestern University
Rice University
Smith College
Swarthmore College
Tufts University
UCLA
UC - Berkeley
USC
University of Notre Dame
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt University
WUSTL
Wellesley College
Williams College
Only someone completely ignorant/naive/out-of-touch put those schools as safety or a fool! But I like to think that your the naive!
You need to seriously reconsider your classifications. There is no way MIT or Caltech is a match or pretty much any of the schools you listed are safeties. Get an actual balanced realistic list of schools you like for something other than the rankings (it’d be nice to know what you like in a school: big, small, urban, etc.) then maybe we can help you narrow down your list.
Agree with above poster. UCLA/UCB/USC/Cornell/Dartmouth to name a few, are some of the most selective schools in the country and could never be considered a Safety.
What are your stats? GPA/test scores/HS course rigor/EC’s/Awards…
I think this must be a joke post
Let me stop you right there. In no known universe are schools like Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Swarthmore, Williams, and Wellesley Safety schools. All of your “Match” schools are likewise probably Reaches. Every single one of these schools turn down amazing students every year. Especially students who misspell “advice” 
But you need to come up with a list of characteristics you like in schools and narrow down from there. Examples:
- Urban, suburban, and rural campuses. You have all three kinds on your list.
- School size. You have everything from giant universities to small LACs on here.
- Geographic location. Likewise. You want to stay in New England?
- Dorms. What kind of a living situation would you like?
- Clubs and Sports. What do you want to do while not in class?
- Greek system or no greek system
etc.
Make a list of the characteristics and start narrowing from there.
Those schools are all reaches for the average person.
Smith or UVA (in-state) are matches for some. The others are completely wrong.
Basically every school you listed is a reach for everyone…
You’re a genius. Did you copy the top 30 universities and top 15 LAC from US news or Forbes and paste them here? If these schools are really matches for you, you should be able to figure this out. I’d say go to Caltech if it’s really a match for you.
Someone was having some fun before the debate started