Hows my list?

College Search & Selection
1

Do you think my list has a good amount of reaches, matches, and safeties? Also could you recommend me some more matches and safeties because im not in love with all of them. Thanks!

heres some quick facts
ACT: 32
GPA: uw-3.9(one A-)
rank: 2/350
took 4 aps junior year and am taking 5 senior year
ECs: lots of volunteering, two varsity sports, club sports, babysitting younger siblings, leadership positions in some clubs

Reaches:
Vanderbilt ED
Duke
Notre Dame
UVA (oos)

Matches:
Boston College
Boston University
Pepperdine
Lehigh

Safeties:
Texas Christian University
Miami University (Ohio)
Chapman University

2

Seems pretty solid to me, and well balanced. Looks like you have done your homework. I would now spend time thoroughly researching them all to ensure that you are happy to attend any of them. If not, scrap a college and/or find another. Your list is long enough, IMO.

Have you thought about the financial side of applying ED? Your parents are okay with it? Are they okay with the finances of all of them? Are you looking for merit aid?

Your stats seem pretty solid. You might only consider retaking the ACT to see if you can raise the score by another point or two. It will help you with your reaches I think. Good luck.

3

List looks well balanced to me (as long as schools appear to be afordable). Perhaps Tulane, URichmond, William & Mary, Villanova, Fordham might be options in the match/safety categories?

4

@happy1 thanks for the options! I’ve visited Tulane and didn’t like New Orleans but I’ll check out the others!

5

Have you thought about Lafayette, Penn State, maybe George Washington for matches/safeties? I see you’re primarily sticking to the East Coast, and the above schools are all great.
Your list looks very well thought out, and just the right size.

6

Good choice in safeties. I’ve heard nothing but good things from Texas Christian and Miami Ohio.

7

You really did a good job picking schools:) also your class rank in great and should help with admissions a lot, not that you don’t have a good ACT

8

What’s your academic inclination?

Engineering? Business?

9

@honey15 How did your GPA go all the way down to a 3.9 with just one A- ?

10

That seems right to me. Maybe OP has all As and the one A- could certainly affect the UW GPA. Why is that relevant to OPs question?

11

You seem to prefer well-rounded places with a nice mix of sports & academics, so you can probably find better matches than BU & Pepperdine. Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Wake Forest, Miami-Fla.? Maybe even William & Mary.

12

looks pretty good to me; I would just suggest finding maybe 1 more match? Boston College and Lehigh aren’t known to be the best “match” schools with sub 30% acceptance rates. Your ACT is good though; 50th percentile for BC and 75th for Lehigh. For more matches and safeties, it would be helpful to list location (where you are in-state), financial state like Lindagaf said, and also intended major/program!

13

@LushLillies @Trisherella I’m from IL but I don’t plan on applying to UofI (too big and too many kids from my high school) as of right now I’m planning on applying undecided, and I don’t have huge restrictions on finances but obviously places with good merit aid would be great!

14

@HalfPastThree @Lindagaf at my school an A- is worth 3.7 so it lowered my uw gpa to like a 3.98

15

@Lindagaf I was just curious. If the OP goes to HS in America, takes the standard amount of classes, and has gotten all A’s and just one A- and nothing less, then it is actually extremely improbable that the GPA drops down to all the way to a 3.90

@honey15 Thanks for clarifying.