Help with finalizing list and safeties?

College Search & Selection
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<p>Hello everyone! I'm a senior at a fairly decent public high school in Long Island, NY. The guidance department at my high school is not on top of things at all and the whole college admissions process is pretty much left to me. My parents did not attend college (in fact, my mom didn't even graduate high school), so they aren't much help.
My stats:
93.5 Weighted GPA. It should definitley be a 94 or higher with senior year grades. My school does not do unweighted. I am in the 6-10% class rank of a class of around 350.
SAT: 660 CR, 580 M & 620 W. So 1240/1860. Am retaking in November, aiming for a 2000+ but I can't be too sure that will happen. Also taking Subject Tests in Literature & U.S. History in October.
Definite increase in grades. About a 90 Freshman year with no honors/AP courses, 92 sophomore year with 3 honors/enriched classes. 96 junior year with 2 enriched classes (Physics & English) and 1 AP (U.S. History) . This year I am taking 3 AP Classes (AP Biology, AP Comp & AP Gov.) & 1 College Level (Italian). Have taken 4 years of math, science, english, s.s. & foreign language. Maintained 1st honors throughout high school. </p>

<p>EC's: Secretary of Italian Club for 2 years & member for all 4. Italian Honor Society, National Honor Society, School Newspaper, Journalism Club. Have tutored. Babysat throughout high school. Have held a job for 6 months working pretty much all summer sometimes 40 hours and week during breaks and 28 during school year. Won numerous school awards for academics for highest average, outstanding achievement in various subjects. </p>

<p>SO, schools i'm applying to:</p>

<p>Reaches:
Boston University (Seems like a hugh stretch since the average GPA of kids admitted from my school is around a 99)
Fordham University
Binghamton</p>

<p>Matches:
Ithaca College
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Syracuse University (Or is this a reach?)</p>

<p>Safeties:
Depaul University
SUNY New Paltz
Hunter College or Loyola University Chicago (not too sure which i'd rather go to)</p>

<p>((I plan on applying as majoring in English but might choose to double major in Journalism or minor in Journalism)). Originally, I wanted to go to school near or in a city (like NYC, Boston or Chicago) until I fell in love with schools not in cities. However, I do like the opportunities cities offers with internships and such. </p>

<p>I would like to have a myriad of options to choose from so getting into at least half of these colleges would be amazing. So, how is my list? Does it seem pretty accurate or should some schools be moved into different categories? Do I have enough safeties or should I add 1 more? Honestly, any help whatsoever would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>BTW, Boston, Fordham & Ithaca are my top choices. (:</p>

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<p>Do you know your EFC? What can your family afford for school? You have some OOS publics and privates on your list that will not be inexpensive.</p>

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<p>My EFC is pretty low at $10,000.</p>

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<p>Just some data for you. At our HS school in Massachusetts, with a (Unweighted GPA,SAT)=(3.5,1240)</p>

<p>Match (50-50 chance of acceptance):
Boston University
Fordham University </p>

<p>Likely (all students got in around this point)
Syracuse
Ithaca
UMASS Amherst</p>

<p>By the way, I’d ditch UMASS because they only want OOS students for their cash. I doubt they’d give you enough money to attend. I suggest that you be a little more aggressive and apply to a few more reach schools. Regardless, I’d apply to some schools that meet full financial need. The one’s you have don’t meet full need. </p>

<p>The following seem like plausible schools that will meet your full financial need (from the full need list on [Need-blind</a> admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission]Need-blind”>Need-blind admission - Wikipedia))</p>

<p>Beloit College (match, almost a likely)
Boston College (reach)
Brandeis University (reach)
Carnegie Mellon University (reach)
Denison University (not a lot of data, but person with worse stats than you got in)
Knox College (match)
Lawrence University (likely) - This is a great school that should be on your list because it’s the only likely that meets full need.
University of Miami (match)
University of Richmond (reach - lots of people near you got waitlisted, but NONE stayed on the waitlist)
University of Rochester (reach)</p>

<p>If you’re female, definitely add Mt Holyoke which is a likely and is in the same consortium as UMASS.</p>

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<p>Thanks so much. Yes, I am female. Those were some interesting options that i’ll definitley check out. So you think I should apply to more reach schools, not more safety schools?</p>

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<p>That’s not exactly what I said. Given your EFC, I think you should apply to schools that tend to provide good financial aid. </p>

<p>A safety is one where you will definitely get in, can afford, and would be happy to attend. Is New Paltz a safety for you? It may be. Apply early and you should know pretty soon. However, you might get a better education at a private school with more resources that provides good financial aid. </p>

<p>Your EFC is $10,000. The cost of attending the private schools that you mentioned without aid is around $55K. When they do give aid, they do not guarantee to meet full need. The schools I mentioned are very good schools that meet full need. I would investigate them to see if they appeal to you and apply to a mix of likelies, matches and reaches. It’s really hard to know if any of them are true safeties because they don’t let you know until after other’s deadlines, but based on our schools Naviance the ones that I listed as likely seem to take a lot of promising kids with high grades and lower SATs. The others range from around 50-50 chance (a match) to “difficult but not impossible” (reaches). </p>

<p>I would apply to Binghamton, New Paltz, BU, Fordham and Ithaca just to see if they come through with the cash. Then I would investigate the schools that I mentioned and perhaps apply to a few likelies, matches and reaches. The two Wisconsin liberal arts colleges, Beloit and Lawrence both offer Early Action so you might want to apply by Nov 1. I doubt that they would outright reject you, but they might defer you in which case the November exam scores might help. </p>

<p>Because you need so much aid, it may be worthwhile for you to file more applications than average, like maybe about 10ish. If you get the applications for the SUNYs and schools that offer EA completed by Nov 1, you will very likely have some idea of how many more applications you will need to file.</p>

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<p>for Journalism…Emerson…good Boston city location, excellent internship opportunities
for English…UChicago…decent southside city location, excellent internship opportunities</p>

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<p>Some safeties may not be safeties because they probably won’t be affordable. A real safety is also known to be affordable.</p>

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<p>Because of the above you need REAL safeties. </p>

<p>Will your parents pay their efc or more. Most safeties don’t give much need-based aid.</p>

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<p>Even if a school says it meets full financial need, loans will usually be part of that need, unless the school has a “no loan” policy. </p>

<p>Beloit, the first school in the Wiki list, for example, clearly states in its FA section that loans are part of the full need package.</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>Very true…</p>

<p>Typically only the top elite schools (which would require higher stats) have “no loan” FA policies. </p>

<p>A bigger concern is this… The OP’s M+CR SAT is 1240 which is respectable, but may not be high enough for many schools that meet need.</p>

<p>I do agree that Mt Holyoke (women only) would be a good choice since they are generous.</p>

<p>Revolt…have your parents said that they can pay at least $10k per year? Can they pay more than $10k per year?</p>

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<p>Thanks for the replies.
Paying $10,000 or even more wouldn’t be a problem, but good financial aid would definitley be a plus. I’m not sure how I feel about a Women’s college, co-ed is definitley preferred. </p>

<p>I figured Binghamton and New Paltz would be safeties as even if I didn’t receive much financial aid, the tuition and room & board is still very cheap. I do feel like I need more safeties as Binghamton is competitive and New Paltz wouldn’t be a top choice for me. I’m really not a fan of the other SUNY’s which is unfortunate because of their low tuition. Any other schools that would be safeties financially?</p>

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<p>The CUNYs would be.</p>

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<p>Am retaking in November, aiming for a 2000+ but I can’t be too sure that will happen.</p>

<p>If I were you, I would take the SAT in both October and November and take the SAT II in December (if possible). </p>

<p>You need to raise your M+CR SAT to increase chances for admittance to better schools and to get more MONEY. </p>

<p>Which of your schools require SAT IIs??? can you take the Nov ACT instead? Will your schools take the ACT instead of SAT IIs?</p>

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<p>As much as I like the CUNYs, their dorming is very competitive and I live way too far from the city to commute. </p>

<p>I think it may be too late to change my SAT, plus I haven’t studied for the SATs anyways, so November would probably be my best bet. Also, that was the first SAT i’ve taken, so i’m pretty sure I can easily improve. But at the same time, I don’t want to add too much pressure to myself. I wasn’t going to even take the ACTs, as I have been preparing for the SATs, not ACTs so i’m not sure how well I would even do. </p>

<p>The only school that technically requires the subject tests is BU, but some of them say they are recommended.</p>

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<p>Misread the previous post. Ignore</p>

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<p>Ok. Anyone else? I’m going to try to make an appointment with my school’s college counselor but it might not be for a while as she has over 300 kids to help.</p>