I’m a rising senior and I think I’ve finalized my college list. I wish to major in business analytics/information systems. Does this seem like a good list? How good are they for business majors? Also, if you could, please classify them as safeties/matches/reaches. I’m a Maryland resident.
List:
- UMD College Park
- UVA
- William & Mary
- George Washington
- Villanova
- Salisbury
Stats:
UW GPA - 4.0
W GPA - 4.64 (weights honors and AP classes)
SAT - 1450 (730 CR, 720 M)
SAT2 - Took Math 2 + Latin this June; expect 750-780 on math, don’t know about Latin
Course rigor: good, but not the hardest. 5 APs by graduation, lots of honors classes.
APs: World history (5), calc BC (this year), Lang, Latin, Stat (senior year)
Also a dual-enrollment psychology class senior year
ECs/Work experience/other:
- Academic team (11th-12th)
- Theater tech crew (11th-12th)
- Will apply for Latin honor society, possible NHS & math honor society
- Paid internship this summer at my Dad’s marketing business doing analytics/data work (related to major)
- Starting job at Roy Rogers this summer
- Have played bass for ~6 years, make my own music (no organized activites to show for this though)
- Likely national merit commended, possibly semi-finalist (haven’t been officially notified, but scored 220)
This is the weakest part of my application, I know. Sadly, 9th-10th grade me didn’t do anything extracurricular and wasn’t thinking about college. Is there any thing I could do now to strengthen this?
To recap, I’m asking whether this seems like a good enough list of colleges (particularly for business), and I’d like to know how you’d classify them in terms of safety/match/reach.
Thanks!
Oh yeah, and class rank: I’m top 5% out of 300.
I think you have a decent shot at each of these. The tougher ones to get in will be UVA and William & Mary because you are out of state. For this reason I would say those two are low reaches, Villanova and GW are matches, and UMD and Salisbury are safeties.
Careful…if you’re a rising senior, your junior PSAT should’ve been the new format, and so your score should be out of 1520, not out of 240. You’re not allowed to use sophomore or freshman year scores to qualify for National Merit either.
@bzhang42 My actual PSAT score was 1460, but my national merit score was 220/228, which is what they use for the national merit commended things
Alright, that’s fine. I was just concerned because of how you worded it in the original post (“scored 220”). 
You have definitely made commended (cutoff is 209) and are on the cusp for NMSF (compass prep’s estimate for MD is 220 +/- 2 points). UVA looks like the biggest reach, given that you’re out of state, but I think your chances are good. Are you looking to expand your list or keep it as is? Your profile looks quite competitive to me.
@mamadefamilia I was looking to keep it as it is, but I am willing to take any sort of suggestions
Business Analytics is different than business. I’ve been researching degrees in this field and data science and several of the national merit scholarship schools have programs. UCF, OU, OSU, & Alabama - all are free rides or nearly free rides.
With your stats, UMD and Salisbury are definitely safeties. I’d be surprised if you didn’t get into GW, but the people I know who have gotten in have received pretty sucky financial aid packages so I wouldn’t expect much from them. I’d suggest you apply to maybe two or three schools that you like. You are a pretty competitive student- maybe you could get into some more?
Add Temple for the guaranteed full tuition scholarship in place of Salisbury
Have you considered adding higher reaches to your list?
Don’t think because your sat is not 1600 that you can’t get into top schools.
It’s also hard to recommend because I don’t know some of the filters your are using in your college search.
The idea is, I think you have a solid list of schools, and you will almost certainly get into one of them.
It is for that reason that I would consider looking at schools that are reachyer for you. Of course only apply if you like it, but you are very likely to like at least one of the schools with a <20 acceptance rate.
@ClarinetDad16 Full tuition scholarship? What qualifies one for that
You could add some higher reaches since your application is somewhat competitive. I recommend adding in Cornell and NYU Stern and Williams as high reaches. Another school to look at also is CMU as a reach. Your stats are high, but your list is very safe. If you want to add more matches, you could also look at BU and Northeastern.
You have a high enough SATs/GPAs where you should consider some competitive business programs as well.
Here is a list:
Cornell AEM
NYU Stern
ND Mendoza
Michigan Ross
Temple Presidential Merit Award is 1420 SAT and 3.8 GPA (recalculated core academic unweighted)