Hi fellow CCers! I’m a rising senior in a public school in WA. College application season is coming up and at this point, I’m totally lost at which colleges to apply to. My parents have limited me with a max of 7 colleges to apply for. However at this point, I’m afraid that I’ll end up choosing colleges that I’m not “good” enough for and just end up with rejection after rejection. I will apply to a safety (University of Washington), but I don’t know which other 6 schools to apply to… All the Ivies, Stanford, JHU and Duke have captivated my fancy, but I’m afraid that I’m overshooting… So that considered, which 6 schools do you believe I should apply to with the stats I have? I don’t want to end up spending half a grand to get a rainfall of rejection letters, YET I don’t want to miss out on a solid chance… I am scared sh*tless… Thank you for all of your time!
Gender: Male
Race: Asian
Prospective major: Earth Science (Geology) or Biomed
GPA: 4.00 UW
ACT: Composite = 34 (English: 29 Math: 35, Science: 35, Reading: 35: W:8)
SAT II: 800 US History, 750 Math II
AP: Calc AB (5), USH (5), Lang (5)
ECs:
NHS: (President in 9th Grade, Treasurer in 11th Grade, Vice President in 12th grade)
City Youth Court Member: (Served as prosecution/jury/defense for actual traffic infractions for teens in our city)
Science Olympiad Member: (6th Place in Nationals at event in 9th grade [Team won 1st in State], 8 individual 1st Place State wins in 10th and 11th grade), Team Captain & Secretary 12th grade
Founder of High School chapter of Amnesty International (11th and 12th grade Co-President)
All-National Orchestra Violinist 11th and 12th grade (Principal 2nd Violinist in 11th grade)
All-State Orchestra Violinist (9th, 10th, 11th, probably 12th grade)
Founding Member of String Quartet Group - Play at Weddings, Art Venues and donate earnings to Seattle Children’s Hospital (So far raised 2k?)
Founding Member of non-profit focused on targeting acts of social inequality (Proposed Summit in December)
National History Day (11th grade: State finalist in website category, 12th grade: President)
Link and WEB Leader
Curriculum:
I took the most rigorous courses that were available in my high school - However, my school doesn’t offer too many AP courses…
Again, thanks to all of you that spent the time looking over this.
You have clearly articulated your issue – you have all reaches and 1 safety. You seem like a well qualified applicant for your reaches, but so are thousands of other applicants. No one can tell you whether you will get into any of your reaches: you may get into none of them and end up at your safety. You can mitigate this risk by maybe applying to a couple of the easier to get into Ivies (Cornell, Dartmouth), and picking some schools that are matches so you potentially have more choices in the spring. Maybe 2 high reaches, Cornell, Dartmouth, and a couple of match schools not on your current list.
@NASA2014 Never heard of WUE before! Thanks for putting that in my radar! As to your question, the only state school I’m really interested in is UW… (At least in WA state where I’d pay an in-state tuition). There’s something about private institutions that I find really appealing, such as the smaller class sizes.
@NASA2014 My mistake - Regardless, WSU never really appealed to me. I live in Western WA, so the thought of having to go all the way to Pullman (especially if I know I can get into UW) doesn’t seem like a good decision! Plus WSU is known to be a tad conservative for my taste!
@NASA2014 The University of Washington is a state school as is Washington State University since they both receive substantial funding from the state of Washington. Washington State University is Washington’s public land grant institution.
OP, University of Washington is a fantastic school for both biology and earth science. I will ask if you’ve looked into liberal arts colleges, and if so, what do you think of them? With your stats, you’re not overshooting although the odds of getting into any of the schools you listed are obviously very small.
If you’re looking for a private university where your odds of admission are substantially better than Stanford, Duke, etc and offers both biology and geology (btw UW has a phenomenal undergraduate department), consider the University of Rochester. Lehigh, Case Western, and the University of Miami are all substantially less selective, but still quite good universities which offer solid programs in both of your fields of interest, although the location of Miami isn’t the most geologically interesting unless you’re not into mountains in so much as oceans.
@whenhen In regards to liberal arts colleges, I’ve been looking at the Claremont colleges - But again, their acceptance rates are so low I don’t know if it will be worth the cost to apply
I agree with the latest commenter. On a side note… How were you President of NHS in 9th grade? You’re not even supposed to be inducted until the spring of your sophomore year…
@tigerrocks13 Haha I should have clarified! Our schooling system has it so freshman go to school at Junior High (Where 9th Grade is the highest grade) - There, I was President of Honor Society at that specific JH! Sorry about that! Shouldn’t have grouped it with NHS!
Haha that makes a lot more sense. Yeah, it’s funny because I was accidentally inducted as a freshman, so I was wondering if it was the same type of scenario
What are your financial constraints? ie: do you need a scholarship? Are there other regions of the country/cities that appeal to you? What kind of fit are you looking for from a school? I think what you really need are a good set of matches–3-4 schools you have a really good shot of getting into–but whether or not you need financial aid/are shooting for scholarships and the school environment you want will effect your list. I definitely think you should pick at least 2-3 schools in a totally different region–Northeast or South–because you can use coming from WA to your advantage (schools have regional diversity quotas!). You are definitely a strong candidate, so there are a lot of options for you. It’s my alma mater so I’ll throw it at you–look at BU as a match school, if you’re interested. They have a good earth science/bio program and your GPA/ACT would make it a solid match, especially if you have good essays.
A few other schools to look at for earth science / geology:
University of British Columbia
McGill University
Colorado School of Mines
You’ve got solid stats and could potentially get some merit $$ from the Canadian universities. Mines also has a number of “full-rides” that you can’t apply directly for but that, with your stats, you would most likely be invited to apply for. Requires writing additional essays, etc.
As noted above, University of Washington is excellent for earth science, too.
@lonelyowl Also look into the [Keck Consortium](http://www.keckgeology.org/) member schools. There are some LACs good in geology not listed, but the list is still fairly solid. Additionally, if you are interested in Lehigh, the University of Tulsa shares some similarities to the school and offers much less competitive merit.
I encourage you to put your fear of a “rainfall of rejections” aside and not to worry about spending $1000+ on application fees. In the grand scheme of things both concerns will appear minor at the end of the application season. If at all possible “embrace” the application process rather than being scared by it. By doing so you will end up writing better essays, interviewing with more skill, making better application choices, and preparing yourself for college.
I assume from your post that you are not looking for merit aid. If you are your application startegy needs to be very different from what I propose.
From your stats you have the signature of a strong applicant to top universities. The reality of course is that many of these universities have low admissions rate. Still I encourage you to apply aggressively to some of the best universities. Instead of limiting the total number of applications to “6” increase them to a significantly higher number – something like 14 or so. Look carefully at possible reach colleges. But don’t yet limit your them by concerns of admissions chances. The reach colleges differ from one another in many ways – location, culture, education philosophy. They are probably not all equal from your point of view. Research them. Visit them. Then pick 6 or so from among these. Think carefully and consider if one of them stands out for you and apply ED (or possibly EA) to that one. In practice the advantage of EA (offered by Stanford, Harvard, Princeton and Yale) is less than ED (offered by many other top Universities – e.g. Penn, Columbia, Dartmouth etc.). It’s likely that UW is a safety for you. So you may not need another safety. Your high school counselor should be able to confirm that for you. So that leaves 5-6 choices that are in the match category for you. Spend time on this list. Some of the posts above suggested possibilities. There are many others.
Thank you for all of your time!
As to your question, the only state school I’m really interested in is UW… (At least in WA state where I’d pay an in-state tuition). There’s something about private institutions that I find really appealing, such as the smaller class sizes.
- Lehigh definitely looks like a good place to apply to. Thank you so much for your insight!