<p>I'm a rising senior interested in majoring in a hard science; I'm undecided whether it will be physics, chemistry or earth science, but I'm thinking about my interests and am leaning toward chemistry or possible chemical engineering. Hopefully a strong school will have decent programs in all three so if I switch it won't be terrible.</p>
<p>These are my basic stats:
35 ACT</p>
<p>2280 SAT</p>
<p>Haven't got my scores back for SAT IIs yet</p>
<p>234 PSAT (likely national merit)</p>
<p>10 APs throughout high school (I have only 5s so far, and am expecting at least 3s on the ones I'm taking next year)</p>
<p>Assorted leadership roles, extracurriculars including Key Club, National Honors Society and editor of newspaper, and volunteering at local non profit bike repair shop and women's shelter.</p>
<p>Anyways, I'm trying to finalize my list of colleges to apply to, and so far this is my list:</p>
<p>Reach:
Yale
Princeton
Stanford</p>
<p>What ever you call the mid level where it's a pretty good fit:
Rice
Washington U at St. Louis
Carnegie Mellon
Bowdoin
Case Western Reserve</p>
<p>Safety:
This is where I don't know what I should consider for this list. The only one I have for sure right now is the University of Arkansas, because I live in AR and I could get a full ride.</p>
<p>So how should I adjust my list, and what should be my safety schools?</p>
<p>Some of the better Catholic Universities (Santa Clara, Villanova and CUA) have v. Good Engineering programs. Also, Hopkins and Northwestern might be a match given your stats.</p>
<p>A lot of the top students where I live use UMichigan as a saftey since it has non-binding rolling so you should hear by Dec. if you get the application in early enough.</p>
<p>Michigan is a match and the admissions office has been moving away from rolling admissions for the last two years. If you apply early (by Oct 1) you may hear by December, but that doesn’t make it a safety. If you get rejected or deferred to the April decision you’re still in need of a Safety school. Furthermore, Michigan is known to be cheap with financial aid for OOS applicants.</p>
<p>Barrk123 has a very good list especially in highlighting the merit aid you would likely receive as a NMF at USC-Viterbi (assuming you list USC as our first choice).</p>
<p>jade…saw barrk mentioned uab…as an nmf you would receive a full ride (minus food) at UAB. you actually could cover that as well by applying to be a chem or biology scholar…for which you are paid a stipend up to 3600 per year. Need to consider the scitech honors program there…wonderful research program</p>
<p>Add the University of Alabama – the flagship in Tuscaloosa – as an academic and financial safety. You would receive at least full tuition with your current stats and a full ride if you are a National Merit Finalist. </p>
<p>At Texas A&M you would be an auto admit under the “Academic” admission standards assuming that you’ve taken the required course work. This is different than the top 10% rule (which applies only to instate students). Both in state and out of state students are admitted automatically if they meet the Academic admissions standards – so it does qualify as an admissions safety for these students. A&M gives very nice, but usually not full ride, merit scholarships to National Merit finalists.</p>
<p>I’m curious about Bowdoin. It’s a great school, but looking at your list it seems a little like that Sesame Street Game "One of these things is not like the other, one of these things isn’t the same . . . " You’ve got lots of midsized urban schools with engineering programs and one tiny rural school without.</p>