HELP!!! Which of my reach schools should I apply to?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I have have 7 reach schools... WAY too many. I only want about 4ish. I am from Oregon, so Stanford (if at all possible...) or USC would be nice as they are close to home. But really, if I am accepted to any of these I would go in a heartbeat. </p>

<ol>
<li>Stanford University</li>
<li>University of Southern California</li>
<li>The University of Chicago</li>
<li>Washington University in St. Louis</li>
<li>Duke University</li>
<li>Cornell University</li>
<li>Northwestern University</li>
</ol>

<hr>

<p>Some background:</p>

<p>*GPA: Unweighted-- 4.0 Weighted--4.162 (rank 7/392; top 1.8%)
*ACT: 29 (I know, I know, this is on the lower end (but it’s better than my SAT). I am taking the ACT again in a week and am aiming for 31+)).
*Essays: have started with brainstorming and hope they’ll be great!</p>

<p>*Financial Situation: struggling
*Race: Asian and Pacific Islander</p>

<p>*Freshman Classes: Biology, Spanish II, Adv. Algebra, English 9, World History, Wellness, Weight Training, Web Design I</p>

<p>*Sophomore Classes: Chemistry, Spanish III, Pre-Calculus, English 10, US History, Geology, Marine Biology</p>

<p>*Junior Classes: AP Chemistry (score: 4), AP Calculus AB (score: 5), AP Government (score: 3), English 11, Honors Spanish IV, Honors Physics</p>

<p>*Senior Classes: AP Biology, AP Physics, AP Statistics, AP Spanish V, English 12, Web Design II, World History II</p>

<p><em>Extracurriculars</em>: </p>

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<p>(Freshman-9th)
Honorable Mention in Microbiology at the district science fair, qualified for statewide science fair </p>

<p>(Sophomore-10th)
1st place in Microbiology at the district science fair, Award for Best Representation of Field Knowledge, 2nd place in Microbiology at the statewide science fair, Award for Best Use of SI, qualified as student observer at the Intel-International Science and Engineering Fair </p>

<p>(Junior-11th)
1st place in Microbiology at the district science fair, Best In vitro Project Award, Scholarship to Oregon State University-$2000 for 4 years, Best in Fair at the district science fair (11), 1st place in Microbiology at the statewide science fair, Scholarship to University of Oregon-$5500 for 4 years, Best in Fair at the statewide science fair, </p>

<p>*3rd place in Microbiology at the Intel-International Science and Engineering Fair</p>

<p>*Will also be applying to Siemens and Intel STS competitions this fall.</p>

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<p>*Career Interests: Pre-Medicine; Major in Biology related studies, preferably Microbiology & Immunology, or Biomedical Engineering</p>

<p>*Personality: Reserved, humble, studious, hard-working, conservative, diligent, self-motivated, and meticulous</p>

2

<p>If distance from home is a major factor for you, then Duke and Cornell would be the first to go. Then cut either Chicago, NU, or WUSTL. Although, once you’re on an airplane, there’s not all that much difference between flying to the Midwest or to the East Coast from Oregon.</p>

<p>Other than geography and academic reputation, what is important to you? Do you care about sports? Weather?</p>

3

<p>I am not too concerned about sports being a big part of the school. I am slightly concerned about weather…I don’t want to go somewhere with extremely harsh winters, but I’m from Oregon, so I’m acclimated to gloomy cold weather. </p>

<p>Another big factor with these reach schools is my chances of acceptance. I will most likely apply ED to one of these schools (besides USC and UChicago which don’t have ED) and want to make sure I would have a reasonable shot by doing this! </p>

<p>Thanks so much for the advice</p>

4

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<p>Remove any which are unlikely to give sufficient financial aid. Find out their reputations for financial aid from their web sites, in the financial aid forum here, and in the school-specific forums here. Given your intended biology major (poor job and career prospects at the bachelor’s level) and desire to attempt to get into medical school (expensive), pay careful attention to minimizing debt.</p>

<p>Remove any which you would not choose over your safeties.</p>

5

<p>Financial aid rating from 2012 Princeton guide (higher is better); Wash U. 97, Stanford 96, Cornell 95, U. Chicago 94, Duke 94, USC 93, Northwestern 93. Those are all good, so I don’t think that helps make your choice easier, unfortunately. If it were me, Cornell would be first to go, because it’s significantly harder to get to than the others and it’s cloudy <em>a lot</em>. But many people think “Ithaca is gorges”.</p>

<p>For what it’s worth, I asked a friend of mine, a very accomplished scientist who grew up in upstate New York, why she went to Duke as an undergrad. I assumed she would have some well-considered academic reason. She said she was tired of the New York weather.</p>

6

<p>Thank you very much lukemeister, I will look into the financial aid reviews on my schools. In addition, which schools would you recommend I have the best shot at with respect to my background above?</p>

7

<p>scscience,</p>

<p>They’re all selective, so my advice would be for you to pick the four that sound most appealing to you and hope for the best. At any of the top schools, they try to balance the class by admitting students with a wide range of backgrounds, so it isn’t necessarily true that you have the smallest chance of getting into a school with the lowest overall acceptance rate. Stanford is the most prestigious of the colleges on your list, and is very strong in biomedical sciences. Duke, Cornell, Wash U are also strong in biology. If you’re going to apply to one of the Chicago-area schools, Northwestern sounds like a better fit for you than U of C.</p>

8

<p>Why does Northwestern sound like a better fit than UChicago? </p>

<p>And do you think I should just apply to all of them then?? Or would that be too much?</p>

9

<p>The capsule summary of Northwestern in the Fiske Guide says “Much more preprofessional than its nearby rival University of Chicago”. Northwestern also has a somewhat more conservative student body. </p>

<p>I don’t think you <em>have</em> to cut down your list from 7 to 4, but I’d guess that you can probably eliminate 1 or 2. If you have a safety school that you can apply to Early Action, you’ll probably know you have somewhere to go before you have to submit your applications to the reach schools.</p>