How are these colleges?

<p>I’d say you’re looking at something like this. The number in parenthesis is the target number for each category, for your risk tolerance. So it looks like you have a pretty good balance as it is. You’ll want to cross-check it, as always.</p>

<p>Hi Reach (0): Brown University.
Reach (2): Tufts University, Bowdoin, Haverford.<br>
Match or Semi-Reach (3): Wesleyan University, Hamilton, Middlebury, Macalester.<br>
Lo Match or Good Fit (3): Bates, Colby, Boston University, Holy Cross.
Likely (1): Trinity University, Fordham University.
Safety (1): City College of NY, Brooklyn College.</p>

<p>Try to eliminate the unaffordable schools, as ucbalumnus said, according to their calculators.</p>

<p>As for merit aid, it’s really tough to bank on it at all. If you’re in the top 3%? of the incoming class in GPA/SAT/ECs, you’ve got a great shot at it. If you’re in the top 10%, yes you can get some, but how much depends on the type/amount of awards available, particular to each school. There might be a few awards at a school that have unusual criteria that you fit, and perhaps other higher SAT achievers don’t fit.</p>

<p>So unless you’re in, say, the 95th percentile of an incoming class, the merit aid available to you probably won’t make a big difference to your cost of attendance. You probably won’t be in the top 5% of a class except for your safeties and (perhaps) likelies. So unless you plan on attending one of those schools, don’t count on merit aid. However, you need to check each school for their own merit aid peculiarities. I’m talking in general terms which, when dealing with merit aid, can be faulty. You never really know.</p>

<p>You could also look at these, especially for Language Studies.</p>

<p>Reach: Georgetown University.
Match or Semi-Reach: Washington and Lee University (VA).
Lo Match or Good Fit: George Washington University (DC), Dickinson College ¶.</p>