help with match/reach schools? new SAT 1550, 3.9 UW gpa

College Search & Selection
1

These are my stats:
unweighted gpa: 3.9
weighted gpa: 4.7

only 2 b’s i’ve gotten were in freshman year, haven’t gotten any b’s in sophomore or junior year (rest of the grades = all a’s)

ap scores: ap psych (5), ap compsci a (5), ap lang (5), ap statistics (5), ap chem (4)
current ap classes for senior year: ap biology, ap calc ab, ap literature, ap french, ap comparative gov

sat score: 1550 (out of 1600); essay: 6/6/7
sat ii subject test scores: sat math ii = 780 (out of 800), sat chem = 730 (out of 800), sat bio = 720 (out of 800)

I also have extracurriculars, but I’m wondering about reach/match just based on stats.

I’m wondering which of these are reach schools, and which can be considered match schools:

upenn, cornell, cmu, uchicago, ucla, johns hopkins, emory, umich, tufts, nyu, unc

I know for sure that the ivies will be reach schools since their acceptance rates are so low, but what about the other schools?

2

All those schools are reach schools for everybody. Seriously. You can look up statistics, but at this level the stats don’t tell the whole story. Plenty of students were rejected from all of those schools who had higher stats, and plenty were accepted with lower ones.

Think of it as a lottery. You get a ticket for the lottery because of your test results, challenging curriculum, etc. But you cannot proceed with the expectation that you will win, and it is no reflection on you if you don’t.

The two state schools you list, UNC and Michigan, have different stats for in-state and out-of-state. And I think Cornell has some admission variance depending on which program you apply to.

You need to find some matches and a safety you geel good about. I recommend looking for public universities with honors colleges for that. Good luck!

3

NYU is a match.

4

I already have 3 safety schools that I didn’t include because I know that they are definite safeties for me (and I feel good about them & going there if I don’t get into my reaches).

5

I’m out of state for UNC and UMich, and Cornell I’m applying to their college of arts and sciences

6

If you can pay $60K/year to attend UCLA, then you have a chance but still consider it a Reach. Little to no FA for OOS students.

7

The last 3 are probably matches, but I suspect you’ll be accepted at several of these.

8

NYU does not meet full need, so it is a “match” only if you do not need financial aid. Not sure if it offers merit scholarships.

9

Agree with @Mastadon as NYU likes full pay.

10

You’ll almost certainly be admitted to a few of those schools. If you are a NY resident, there are different prices for different schools at Cornell, though the COA is on the high side for a full pay student. That may be irrelevant if you receive FA. What can you afford?

11

Thank you all for the help! My sister is in college right now and she applied to some of the schools that I’m looking at, like NYU. They offered her a fair bit of financial aid after she got accepted (she’s ended up going to another college though) so I think if I got accepted into NYU, they would offer some money to me as well because we obviously have the same family financial situation. I’m not an NY resident though.

12

@strawberry99
imo

Reaches: Penn, Chicago, Cornell, Hopkins

Matches: CMU (but it is a reach if you are applying to the SCS), Emory, UMich, Tufts, UNC

maybe UNC could be a safety?

13

UMich is a low reach for OP from OOS. GPA is right above admission average and SAT slightly above 75th percentile. But their OOS admission rate is 20% or below, so it still cannot be a match. Note that the admission stat include instate students (~1/3 of admitted and 1/2 enrolled students are instate). Average admitted OOS students would have above average stat.

14

@billcsho just in case anyone is interested, i got into umichigan two days ago!

15

@strawberry99 Congrats! Have you signed up for Campus Day if you have not visited the campus yet. It is thru the end of March.