<p>I'm hoping that some parents might have a bit more insight into some match and safety schools for me. Let's just say that I know all of my reach schools (HYPS, Penn, Columbia, Chicago.)</p>
<p>Some stats:
-3.9 unweighted GPA at a magnet school
-2280 SAT (800 CR, 780 M, 700 W)
-800 Math II
-750 US History
-waiting on Literature score
-newspaper editor
-5's in AP US History and US Government, 4 in AP Stat, waiting on scores for Calc BC, English Lit, Macro, Micro, European History</p>
<p>So far, my only safety school is UMCP. I'm thinking that Rice and UVA should be match schools and maybe Georgetown. Any suggestions for others? Preferably schools that offer merit scholarships.</p>
<p>"Preferably schools that offer merit scholarships. "
Well, if you are a NMF[ does you PSAT score meet your state cutoff?] U Southern Calif offers automatic 1/2 tuition scholarships. I’d say it could be considered a safety for you. With your Stats, you also might also be eligible for their Trustee [ full tuition] scholarships, but to be considered for any merit scholarship you HAVE to have your application in by the DEc 1 deadline to be considered. This deadline does not preclude you applying SCEA, or EDs somewhere, if that was under consideration.</p>
<p>I would look into The University of Rochester and the University of Pittsburgh. Both should be reasonable safeties for you, and would appear to be the size you favor.</p>
<p>Rochester is an excellent school across many disciplines, and has quite a few 4-yr merit scholarships. (Two kids I know with stats similar to yours were offered $7k and $10K per year merit scholarships.) Pitt has an honors college of very good repute, for which you would qualify, and I believe also offers merit scholarships that can be quite substantial. (You should look into this further.) </p>
<p>In the case of Rochester, it is reportedly essential to interview to boost your chances of being in the running for the biggest scholarships, which are about $30K, I believe. If you can’t go there, they have traveling admissions interviewers in the fall. Be sure to sign up to meet with one if you are interested.</p>
<p>In my experience, Georgetown admissions are rather idiosyncratic, so even if it is a solid match on paper, you never know.</p>
<p>If you’re from Maryland (as your choice of UMCP as a safety suggests), I think you should consider Georgetown to be at least as much of a reach as UChicago. Kids from nearby areas seem to be discriminated against in the Georgetown admissions process, probably because there are so many of them.</p>
<p>If you are from Maryland and you like UMCP, you need no other safety. With your statistics, you’re in – and almost certainly in the honors program (or even Gemstone, if you want it – but a lot of people don’t like Gemstone). You also have a good chance of getting merit money from UMCP.</p>
<p>Yes, I’m a national merit semi-finalist currently.</p>
<p>And to address the other question, I’m sure that I’ll get in to Maryland and in the honors/Gemstone programs (I hope this doesn’t come off as overconfident, but for my school, it’s almost auto-accept), but I don’t know if I’ll like it there. I’ve heard that other than the engineering program, it’s not too academically rigorous…</p>
<p>You should know that you are getting mail because of your PSAT scores.The collegeboard sells lists of top scoring students to colleges hoping to attract lots of applications from smart students. It is not a sign of genuine interest from Williams, only a marketing tool practice used by the enrollment management company that Williams, and dozens of other colleges use.
Yes, Williams is a small, tip top LAC, with a very low acceptance rate</p>
<p>I definitely prefer cities to rural areas…there’s a lot more opportunities. And I don’t really have anything against the mid-west, but I’m mostly trying to stay on the east coast.</p>
<p>Yeah, NYU should be a match, and Stern’s a great business program, but my parent’s won’t fork over 50k per year for NYU (they’ll only do it for my reaches).</p>