Help narrow down my college list!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>My school is limiting me to 5 private or OOS college apps.
I need help narrow my list down to try and get to the
best match colleges on my list. All comments are welcome!</p>

<p>Male
Asian Indian
Not URM, Not recruited athlete</p>

<p>Public school in CA
400+ in graduating class
highly competitive, 75% have unweighted GPA > 3.0
Top 100 school in the nation (USNWR) for what it's worth</p>

<p>GPA: 3.6 (uw)
SAT: CR:650, W: 650, M:780
ACT: 30 (composite)
SAT 2 Math 2C (750), Bio (650)</p>

<p>APs:
Stats: 4
Bio: 4
Calculus BC: senior year
Psych: senior year</p>

<p>EC's ... average?
Varsity Football, 3 years
200+ community service hours</p>

<p>Reach:
USC (Top Choice)
Northwestern
Cornell
Carnegie Mellon</p>

<p>Match:
???</p>

<p>Safety:
Santa Clara</p>

<p>High Reach:
Brown
Dartmouth
Notre Dame</p>

<p>I am also doing the UC app:
Reach: Berkeley, LA
Match: San Diego
Safety: Santa Barbara, Irvine, Davis, Santa Cruz</p>

<p>Is my private college list realistic? What should I drop?
What should I add? I need to turn in my list of 5 by mid Oct!</p>

2

<p>I’d put Cornell in the High Reach Department, and then remove Notre Dame and 1 of the Ivies.</p>

3

<p>School size
Intended major
School location
Political atmosphere
Weather
Etc.</p>

4

<p>Thanks! I am undecided about my major and fairly open about
out of state location … default is that I go to one of the UCs.</p>

<p>So my private college list now looks like this:
USC
Northwestern
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Plus one more</p>

<p>I’m still not sure about the 5th choice. I can apply to
Santa Clara as Safety but I may choose one of my UC safeties
over Santa Clara. I’d go to a private college only if it is
a better choice than UC San Diego. Suggestions for the
last spot on my list? Dartmouth because they don’t
need an essay in the supplement?</p>

5

<p>Maybe University of Rochester and Wake Forest.</p>