To keep it short: I am a white, male senior at the highest performing public school in Los Angeles (based off of Smarter Balanced scores).
GPA: 4.0 UW 4.79 W (hardest course load offered)
Class rank: 1/97
ACT: 34 (36E 33M 31R 34S 30W)(two sittings) 32 X2 single sitting
My ECs are pretty niche (one in particular) and if you want to take the time to look at them you can find my old chance thread. I have good leadership (president of school in 9th grade, senior class president, president of some clubs). I have a year round job too.
For my list, I’ll put an asterisk next to schools that super score the ACT or only consider highest sub sections. I’m sending both scores to all of the schools to which I’m applying.
High reach:
-Brown* ED (highest sub-sections)
-Harvard (legacy from parent who interviews for the school; apparently the regional interview advisor gave my name to my app reader)
-Pomona* (super scores)
-Northwestern (no rules for ss)
Reach/Low reach:
-Tufts* (super scores)
-Williams* (super scores)
-WashU* (super scores)
Match:
-Berkeley (in state)
-Northeastern* honors college hopefully (super scores)
Safety:
-University of Vermont
I may apply to Stanford* and Cal Poly SLO but I have to see how my apps go.
I think it is a fine list and for the most part I agree with your categorizations. However, I might suggest adding another safety/match or two. If the worst transpires and you only get accepted to UVM, are you going to be happy with that? Are you applying EA to UVM? I don’t think any of the others offer EA?
@doschicos I plan to apply early to Northeastern and UVM along with Brown ED.
Sounds like a good plan. I think you should be fine with both. Make sure you are demonstrating interest. The Common Data Set for both schools indicates they consider “interest” as part of the application decision.
Hopefully you’ll get some merit money from both as well.
Can anyone else give some input?
I don’t think it’s a smart choice to put UCB as a match school, especially if you only have one safety school. I agree with the previous poster that you should maybe apply to one more.
@ramennoobles based off of Naviance, I’m confident that I have a good chance at Berkeley. No one with the same GPA and test scores as I was rejected last year.
Basically what everyone else has said- maybe cross off one of the reaches and add a safety/match.
OP, would you attend every single one of your reach schools over Berkeley with in state tuition?
@doschicos it depends what my financial aid packages are, but I would likely attend any one of my high reach schools over Berkeley, along with Tufts and WashU over Berkeley. I would have to sit and think for a while if it was Berkeley vs. Williams, but money isn’t of major concern.