<p>Hi, so I'm a rising senior trying to finalize my list, so can you give me some feedback on how it is? I'll rank them as reaches, matches and safeties as I see them, so could you tell me if you agree and if you think it's an ok mix?</p>
<p>My Stats: GPA: 4.36 W, ~3.85 UW (they don't really tell us every year) SAT: **2350
**SAT IIs: 800 Math 1, 800 US History ECs: **GSA (4 years), Amnesty International (2 years), Chorus (3 years), Photo Club (2 years), A Capella Group (1 year, starting next year b/c quit chorus)
**Leadership: Copresident of GSA (2 years), Urgent Actions Coordinator for Amnesty (1 year + half a year as interim secretary) Awards: French Honor Society, Community Service Award (50-100 hrs), George Washington University Book Award</p>
<p>My College List:
Swarthmore (R)
Georgetown (R)
Middlebury (R but legacy)
Pomona (R but partial legacy, grandmother)
Claremont McKenna (M/R?)
George Washington (M)
Tufts (M)
American (S)
Bard (S)</p>
<p>[I'm also thinking about Johns Hopkins and NYU as well as Dickinson and Gettysburg for other safeties, but I'm not totally sure about those yet]</p>
<p>I know the balance is a little more toward reaches, but do you think that's ok if I still have 2 matches and 2 safeties?</p>
<p>Thanks for letting me know what you think!! :)</p>
<p>these are all private[ i.e.expensive] colleges. Can your parents afford to pay for your education [approx $200,000 including room and board] at these schools? Do you need FINANCIAL safeties? With your GPA and SAT scores there are lots of larger universities[ not including NYU] which have generous merit [ 1/2 to full tuition scholarships]and/ or financial aid programs that would likely be very interested in a student with your abilities.
What areas of study are you interested?
what is the largest size university you might consider?</p>
<p>Thanks for your feedback, but I’ve checked out larger universities (I was considering umass and umaryland) but they’re just really not for me. I’m hoping that my safeties will give me merit aid (maybe I just need to add more safeties to up those chances?) because I’ve looked at a good few public schools and I just haven’t found any where I can picture myself.</p>
<p>And to answer the rest of your questions, I’m interested in IR and Middle Eastern Studies (that doesn’t need to be a major option but the school needs to offer Arabic, and preferably Hebrew and Persian), and I’ve found that schools over 10k are probably too big for me.</p>
<p>if you NEED any kind of aid to go to college[p FA or merit], then yeah, you should up the number of safeties. Do your PSAT scores qualify you for NMF? If so, then that opens up lot of possibilities for you. The NMF awards them selves are not large, but many colleges or universities that want top students will throw $$ at NMSF’s. Here’s a list of colleges with generous merit programs.</p>
<p>You may want to order a copy of Rudd’s Recommendations[ availaible online only] which lists colleges by the programs / majors they offer. In the back, its lists colleges by the average SAT scores of accepted students, and the majors offered. We found it to be a very helpful “filter” to finding top colleges with strong programs in 2 very different majors that interested my son. Universities will often have stronger foreign language programs[ more profs in a particular program and more classes offered ] , than LAC’s.</p>
<p>The University that has one of the strongest middle Eastern studies program is the U of Chicago[ the UG college at Chicago has only 4000 UG students] BUT, their FA office is not known for their generosity, unless you are really low income. And they offer a relatively few merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for all your suggestions!! I will be a national merit finalist (229), so I’ll look through those schools to see if any of them will make decent safeties. And I’ll look more into UChicago, though if they don’t give good aid it might not be worth the application since my parents want me to only apply to 10 schools.</p>
<p>GW seems like a major misfit here. They are not known for great aid, and your seem to want a personal/ intimate education which is very far from what GW offers. I would probably eliminate it(along with NYU). </p>
<p>You really seem like an ideal UChicago application. I think you will absolutely love it, I think its worth seeing the kind of aid they will offer you if you get in. I’d make sure you apply there, just seems like the perfect fit for what you’re looking for academically and socially.</p>
I get that, but I just visited GW not expecting to like it and I was really impressed, especially by their strong Arabic program. And I think I agree about NYU, with its reputation for aid it’s probably not worth it. I’ll look around UChicago’s website and seriously consider it since I’m getting so many suggestions for it (I’m just wary of adding schools since I have a limit, especially more reaches, but I’ll definitely look into it). Thanks for your help! :)</p>
<p>
Thanks! Do you think if I apply to one or both of those in addition to American and Bard, I’ll be ok financially? My family can probably afford a college with just meeting financial need, but it would just be a stretch- so I’m just looking for a school that gives me decent merit aid (like 10k+ would be awesome) just to take some of the burden off my parents.</p>
<p>Since your SAT is 290 points above Gettysburg’s 75th percentile, your GPA is outstanding, and your ECs are good, I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t qualify for substantial merit aid. But, disclaimer, I do not sit on Gettysburg College’s admissions committee, nor does anyone else posting on CC, so there are no guarantees.</p>
<p>Futher disclaimer: I have a warm spot in my heart for GBurg, since my dad taught there for 32 years and I basically grew up on the campus (though I did not go there myself).</p>
<p>FYI, I wouldn’t call Tufts a match. Once you get to top schools, it becomes more on essays with scores and GPA as a given.</p>
<p>I mean, in the most recent USNWR, its acceptance rate tied both JHU and U of Chicago (rounding it tied, but if you don’t round I believe it beat both…either way the decimals are immaterial).</p>
I’m hardly saying I’m in or anything, just that I think I have a decent chance. I’m going off my school’s naviance system rather than just acceptance rates- it shows the GPAs and SATs of students from my school who got rejected, waitlisted, and accepted, and the people in my range got waitlisted and accepted so I just think that I have an ok shot. And I am planning on working a long time on my essays and I’m a pretty good writer, so while it’s probably a high match, I just think based on all the information that I have that I’m in a pretty good position for Tufts. Do you think that my school info could be misleading and I should look more into national averages?</p>
<p>OP,
ever heard of “Tufts syndrome”? I’d be VERY careful to be VERY enthusiastic about letting each admissions office know that you would LOVE to attend their college, particularly your “safeties”. No college wants to feel like the “safety” option to a top student, who would likely be accepted at higher ranked colleges and end up NOT attend their college, if they accepted you. Hence the reputation that certain lower ranking colleges often reject top students [Tufts syndrome] .</p>