Help w/ Matches/Safeties

College Search & Selection
1

<p>So I've got all the reaches I need, but I need help deciding what schools might be matches rather than reaches. I also need help coming up with more matches/safeties.</p>

<p>Gender: M
Location: Missouri
College Class Year: 2015
High School: Public
High School Type: sends few/some grads to top schools
Will apply for financial aid: Yes</p>

<p>GPA - Unweighted: 4.00
GPA - Weighted: 4.33
Class Rank: 7/415</p>

<p>SAT I Math: 710
SAT I Critical Reading: 730
SAT I Writing: 710
SAT I Composite: 2150
ACT: 33</p>

<p>APs: AP Euro (5), AP Lang (?), AP U.S. Gov (?), AP Comparative Gov (?), AP Calculus (?)
Next year I'm taking six APs</p>

<p>ECs:</p>

<ul>
<li>Fall/Winter Strength Training (9-11)</li>
<li>E! Crew Leader/Ambassador (11-12)*</li>
<li>NHS Member (11-12)</li>
<li>Baseball 13+ years (started when I was 4 years old - also played soccer and basketball, but didn't continue them in high school)</li>
<li>Played on school's summer baseball team (9-10)</li>
<li>Representative for my school during Curriculum Advisory Council meetings (district meetings - only two people from each school take part)</li>
<li>Guitar (2+ years)</li>
<li>Missouri Scholar's Academy Alumni Association</li>
</ul>

<p>*Our school's branch of Link Crew - Google it if you don't know what it is please =)</p>

<p>High School Sports:</p>

<ul>
<li>Freshman Baseball (9)</li>
<li>JV Baseball (10)</li>
</ul>

<p>Volunteer Work:</p>

<ul>
<li>Volunteer at School Baseball Fields (10-15 hours)</li>
<li>Volunteer at Fundraiser for Baseball (21 hours)</li>
<li>Planned/Worked Trivia Night to Raise Funds for MSA (15+ hours)</li>
<li>Volunteer at Crisis Nursery (6+ hours)*</li>
</ul>

<p>*I am going to an orientation next week that will enable me to volunteer regularly - planning on accumulating many hours there</p>

<p>Honors and Awards:</p>

<p>Top 10 of Class (9-11)
EHS Renaissance (9-12)
Best Male German Student (9)
Best German Student (11)
Missouri Scholar's Academy '09
John M. Kastner Board of Education Award</p>

<p>College Summer Programs:</p>

<p>Missouri Scholars Academy '09*
Lion's Pride Summer Youth Leadership Summit '10</p>

<p>*VERY prestigious - top .5% of my class across all of Missouri attends, using GPA, class rank, and IQ as criteria</p>

<p>The colleges I'm looking at include:</p>

<p>Safeties - Clemson, Iowa State, ... No idea, not really excited about either of those and I don't have any more
Matches - I don't know of any right now. Some of my reaches may be matches, but I don't know for sure
Reaches - Washington University in St. Louis, Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Vanderbilt, Emory, NYU, etc. Think CC's Top Universities / Liberal Arts Colleges</p>

<p>Overall, the only colleges I really know I want to apply to are WUSTL, Yale, Harvard, and Cornell. I'll apply to Clemson because I was already provisionally accepted, but I'm not too excited about it.</p>

<p>Could anyone "fix" my college list for me? Move any reaches that should be matches, suggest more safeties/matches, etc. I'm somewhat lost. It doesn't help that I have no idea what to study and am looking for colleges with a broad range of academic majors.</p>

2

<p>Usual follow up question; what kind of college or university do you want to go to? What is it that attracts you to WUSTL, Yale, Harvard, and Cornell? What turns you off about Clemson?</p>

3

<p>WUSTL is flat out amazing in all aspects; the academics, the dorms, the campus, the activities, I love it all.</p>

<p>I really like the other three not only because of their prestige, but also because of their campuses and various other things such as the residential college systems, etc. On top of that, these four colleges are all really strong in a wide variety of majors, so if I ended up wanting to go into architecture, or say, psychology, these colleges would have incredibly strong programs for each.</p>

<p>Clemson, on the other hand, is really strong for architecture, but if I chose to go into a liberal art instead, I would not be getting as good of a college experience. Plus, Clemson can be a bit of a party school, and although I’d like that to be available I won’t be looking to party every night.</p>

<p>Sorry, I knew I was forgetting something when I made that long post, and it was a description of why I like/don’t like each college. Thanks!</p>

4

<p>How about Vanderbilt, UNC Chapel Hill, UWisc, UIUC? They are all good schools.</p>

5

<p>Based on the description of what you like about these schools, you might like Rice.</p>

6

<p>I was looking at Vanderbilt and Rice briefly, but I wasn’t sure if they would be considered reaches or matches. I don’t really need any more reaches. (Although I might as well apply to them anyway lol)</p>

7

<p>FallenAngel9, I’m a Clemson student and if you have any questions let me know!</p>

<p>What liberal arts fields would you consider if you didn’t do architecture? We have some very good liberal arts majors but others are not so great. Just to let you know, architecture is a very demanding major here. I have 2 friends doing architecture and they’re always in the studio doing projects till the early morning.</p>

<p>Also, I don’t go to a lot of parties and I haven’t been bored on campus. There are tons of people (like everywhere) who don’t participate in the party scene that you can hang out with. Even students who go to parties only do so Thursday-Saturday. Students here are very serious about their work Sunday - Thursday at the very least so it’s definitely not an every day thing. Compared to most large schools, I would definitely not call Clemson a party school.</p>

8

<p>*
Will apply for financial aid: Yes</p>

<p>GPA - Unweighted: 4.00
GPA - Weighted: 4.33
Class Rank: 7/415</p>

<p>SAT I Math: 710
SAT I Critical Reading: 730
SAT I Writing: 710
SAT I Composite: 2150
ACT: 33</p>

<p>Safeties - Clemson, Iowa State, … No idea, not really excited about either of those and I don’t have any more*</p>

<p>Since you need financial aid, you need to consider whether your “safeties” are affordable. </p>

<p>Pierre can tell you what you might get from Clemson. I think you might get the instate rate. If that’s so, then you’ll still have to pay for the rest. I think the instate Cost of Attendance for Clemson is about $25k. You’d have to pay for all of that unless you’re income is so low that you’d get a small Pell Grant. </p>

<p>Most out of state publics do not give their aid to non-residents. So, you can only depend on scholarships to help pay for the costs.</p>

<p>With your stats, you need to apply to 1 or 2 financial safeties that will give you ASSURED big scholarships for your stats. That way you’ll know if the schools are affordable.</p>

<p>How much will your parents pay each year? </p>

<p>Do you know what your EFC is? If you need aid, you need to find out how much you’ll qualify for.</p>

9

<p>@pierre0913 - Thank you for the help! Do you know what your stronger liberal arts majors are? I am looking into a lot of different possibilities; everything from history to german to psychology or philosophy. I really do not know.</p>

<p>Good to hear it isn’t as much of a party school though. I guess that’s just the stereotype where I live.</p>

<p>@mom2collegekids - I’ll be taking money into account before I commit to any school. I have two schools that I am confident I could get a full-ride (or almost a full-ride) to should I not be able to find any more favorable safeties. They are good schools, but not my favorite. Although Clemson will be more difficult to afford, I should be able to do so, so don’t worry about that.</p>

10

<p>You would definitely get in-state tuition with your stats at Clemson (you would get what we call an “out-of-state tuition waiver” which is available to people in the top 10% of their high school class and a SAT score of 1350 (CR+M)/ACT score of 31 which you have). You can find the cost of in-state attendance here for last year: [Cost</a> of Attendance](<a href=“Office of Student Financial Aid | Clemson University”>Office of Student Financial Aid | Clemson University)</p>

<p>I am also pretty confident that you will get into the Calhoun Honors College at Clemson (accepted students typically have an SAT score of 1400 (CR+M only) and are in the top 3% of their high school class). One way that you can get a full ride is the National Scholars Program but this program is VERY competitive. The average stats for this program is a ranking in the top 1% of your high school class and a SAT score of 1500 (or ACT score of 34) as well as really good extracurriculars. Your stats are close but just a little bit under though. For more info, look here: [Selection</a> Criteria : Clemson University](<a href=“http://www.clemson.edu/academics/programs/national-scholars/selection/index.html]Selection”>http://www.clemson.edu/academics/programs/national-scholars/selection/index.html)</p>

<p>Our social sciences are pretty good such as economics, psychology, political science and history. However, English and languages etc… are probably not a strong point. Education majors are very good at Clemson too and are definitely strong majors.</p>

11

<p>I would pick a large public university for your safety school. It will have all the majors. Don’t pick one like UC Berkeley or UNC which will be reaches. Instead, you have the right idea with Iowa State. University of Kansas is a good choice. A lot of kids in CA choose University of Arizona and are very happy with it. For a match school, you need to choose your two most likely majors and make a list of schools that are good in both. Look at Rugg’s Recommendations when making your list. Your library should have a copy.</p>

12

<p>Thanks for all the help, pierre!</p>

<p>And ricegal, University of Kansas was actually one of the safeties I think I can get a full-ride at, according to the amount they give for NMSF/NMF (I will probably make semi-finalist). Thanks for the advice on choosing schools!</p>

13

<p>If you will make NMF, take a look at this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation.html?highlight=keilexandra[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation.html?highlight=keilexandra&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

14

<p>Colgate, Holy Cross, Bucknell.</p>

15

<p>Check NM for Kansas. I thought the big scholarship there was for in-state only.</p>