Help me with building a college list?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi! I am currently a rising senior and I am not sure which colleges I should apply to. I want to build a college list with 2-3 reaches, 2-3 targets, and 2-3 safeties, but I don’t want to base my list completely off the admissions rates at each school. If anyone could provide some suggestions based on my stats listed below, that would be awesome. Thank you for your help in advance!

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): Will take in October
ACT (breakdown): 33 → retake in September
SAT II (place score in parentheses): Bio M (750), Math II (790)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 1%
AP (place score in parentheses): Psych (5), Japanese (5), APUSH (5), Bio (4), Chem (4), Micro (5), Gov (4) and Lang (5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics C, AP Lit, AP Spanish, Linear Algebra, AP Human Geo, AP Enviro, Band
Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

  • National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament Speech Quarterfinalist (ranked top 20 in country)
  • 3-Time Speech Octofinalist at the NCFL National Tournament
  • 6th Place Speech Finalist in State
  • 2nd Place Best of Category at regional ISEF-affiliated science fair
  • Numerous 3rd and 4th place medals from regional SciOly events
  • Several ‘Superior’ ratings at state music festivals for flute
  • School award for outstanding leadership (3 students get this per year)
  • AP Scholar with distinction, national AP scholar
  • National Merit Semifinalist (very likely, based off previous cutoffs)

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Science Club (exec member), SciOly (team captain), Speech/Debate (team captain), pit crew (first chair flute), HOSA, NHS
Job/Work Experience: Lab intern, barista
Volunteer/Community Service: Japanese community club (200+ hours since middle school), library (20+ hours), hospital volunteer (45+ hours)
Summer Activities: Worked at small coffee shop, interned for lab for a year before it shut down, founded and instructed free summer STEM day-camp for underprivileged inner city kids, volunteer at a hospital, volunteer for Japanese community club, volunteer at library, shadowed doctors

Other:
Apply for Financial Aid: Yup
State (if domestic applicant): Iowa
School Type: Public (2,000+ students)
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: <65,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None except that I am a first-gen immigrant but lol that isn’t really a hook

2

Tentative academic interests?

3

First Gen is actually a thing, at many super-selective schools. On the Common App, be careful to fill out the drop down box asking for highest level of education completed by Parent #1 then Parent #2.

4

@merc81 I want to go into the medical field, so ideally I would be majoring in pre-med (if possible) or biology-related

@circuitrider Thanks! Will do. But doesn’t this apply to first gen college student rather than first gen immigrant? Or am I wrong?

5

^My bad. In reading your post too quickly, I thought you were saying you were a First Gen college aspirant.

6

For a relatively quick cost estimator, you can use this resource for many excellent colleges: https://myintuition.org/.

If you would like extra opportunities for faculty-mentored research, which might help you in preparation for medical school, then you could emphasize schools from this USN list: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/undergrad-research-programs.

As suggestions for matches and reaches, you could consider geographically varied options such as Amherst, Mt. Holyoke, Colby, Hamilton, Haverford, Swarthmore, Pomona and Carleton.

7

The problem I see is you don’t list a single thing you want from college. LAC, small U, large U? In a city or suburb, rural? Distance from home? College community feeling (for example Chico) or dispersed in the city (for example NYU)? Vibe of the school (artsy, preppy, career-focused, many going on to grad school, etc)? Quarter or semester? Opportunity for study abroad? Small classes or large lectures? Diverse student body? Assigned faculty advisor, or just drop into the College/Career advising center? Ease of changing major, or changing to a different academic unit (for example Letters & Science to Engineering), or not a factor? Large core curriculum, or easy-to-satisfy GE requirements? Pre-med advisor, ease of finding lab & volunteer opportunities? And so on. Some are general concerns, some apply to you more specifically.

Ideally students in the spring of junior year visit nearby colleges of various types (LAC, big U, urban, rural, etc) even if they aren’t the ones they plan to apply at to start to get a feel for what is a fit for them; visiting in the summer isn’t as effective because it is the students that give colleges their feel.

Before you start putting together lists of where to apply I suggest spending some time reflecting on what you want in college. Perhaps talk to some current students about what they like and don’t like about their college. From what you’ve posted you’re going to have plenty of colleges to choose from, but not every college that will accept you is equally good as a fit.