I Need Help Narrowing Down My College List!

College Search & Selection
1

Hi everyone! I think my college list is kind of long and need help shortening it. I think I have a lot of reaches, so I’m interested in learning about more match schools. I don’t really want to be chanced, since I think that no one can accurately predict anyone’s chances at top schools.

Academics:
Unweighted GPA: 3.895
Weighted GPA: 5.053
SAT: 1400 (740 Math/ 660 Reading) - Essay: 6 (Reading), 4 (Analysis), 6 (Writing).
SAT Subject Exams: Math 2 (710), Physics (690).
Class Rank: Top 7%
AP Classes:
9th grade: AP World History (3).
10th grade: AP Human Geography (5).
11th grade: AP English Language and Composition (2), AP Physics C: Mechanics (3), AP Psychology (4), AP Calculus AB (5).
12th grade: AP English Literature and Composition, AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism (self-study), and AP Calculus BC. I plan on taking the AP exams for these subjects in May 2019.
My school does not offer IB.
I’ve taken an Honors Engineering course since freshmen year.

Honors/Awards:
Pre-Calculus Mathematics Department Award (10th grade)
NHS Inductee (10th grade)
Math Honor Society (11th grade)
AP Scholar with Distinction (11th grade)
MITES '18 Participate (Summer 2018)
MITES '18 Most Spirit in Electronics (Summer 2018)
MITES '18 Most Spirit in Calculus 2 (Summer 2018)
Miami Herald Silver Knight Nominee - Business (12th grade) [I won’t find out if I win this award until May 2019.]

Summer:
Summer 2015: Volunteered at a local animal shelter for 100+ hours.
Summer 2016: Took a chemistry course at my community college.
Summer 2017: Took a probability and statistics course at my community college.
Summer 2018: Took a college algebra course at my community college and I participated in MITES.

Extracurriculars:
Interact Club (I contribute to the drives and I even hosted my own diaper drive and collected over 4,000 diapers)
Engineering Club (I was the secretary in 10th grade, then I chose to just be a member afterwards)
National Honor Society - Inducted 10th grade, member in 11th grade, Senior Representative in 12th grade
Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honor Society) - Tutor and I participate in Math Competitions

Job Experience:
I’ve been working as a bagger/cashier at a grocery store since July 2016. I work both weekends and after school. During the school year, I work about 15-18 hours a week and during breaks I work between 20 - 25 hours a week.

Other:
Sex: female
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Race: white
Income: low-income
State: Florida
School: public

School Preference:
I do NOT want any religious schools.
I prefer a school in the city or a suburban area. I don’t really want any rural schools.
I prefer schools with an open curriculum, but I will look into schools that have a specific/core curriculum to see if it fits me.

I know for sure that I want to major in something in the STEM field. At the moment, I’m considering majoring in mathematics and minoring in economics/business, although I am open to majoring in engineering (specifically civil or electrical).

My College List:
Safety Schools: Florida International University (accepted), University of Central Florida (accepted), Florida State University
Match Schools: University of Florida, University of Miami (accepted to UM Summer Scholars program and offered a full ride but I couldn’t attend because I chose MITES over this)
Low Reach Schools: Harvey Mudd (accepted to FAST fly-in but couldn’t attend), Amherst College (attended DIVIH fly-in).
High Reach Schools: MIT (my dream school), Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia (wait-listed from CE^2 fly-in), Brown, CalTech

I have fee waivers on the Common App so cost isn’t a factor when it comes to applying to schools.

Thank you for taking the time to read this! I’m open to any opinions on any of the schools that I’m applying to and I’m open to new school choices! :slight_smile:

2

I would probably scratch Cal Tech as it is a more focused school then what you seem to want. Harvey Mudd could be a real good option as you could take a class or two at the other Claremont colleges. It is in a suburban area and a good drive from the action in LA. I think you could probably eliminate one or two of your Ivies as those schools differ from each other (you just need to research and figure out what you really want).
Have you looked into either Emory or Rice? Those could be possibilities.

3

Look into Case Western Reserve University – “single door” admissions policy, so once you are admitted to the university, you can major in whatever you choose.

4

@JBSeattle thank you! The main reason why I have Caltech on my list is because no one from my school has ever been accepted there, so it’s common for a few students from my school every year to apply to see if they could make it in. I know that Brown & Columbia are like on two different ends of a spectrum, since Brown has an open curriculum while Columbia has a core curriculum. Idk like it’s weird in a way because I feel like I have to apply to Columbia because they showed some sort of interest in me by waitlisting me from their fly-in, & then giving me a few waiver to apply since they fly-in was full so they couldn’t offer me a spot. I’ll look into Emory. I’ve kinda looked into Rice before but I’m not sure with how I feel about attending school in Texas.

@gandalf78 oh, I think I’ve heard of that school before. Like every single high schooler on here, I receive emails from a lot of schools that Idk about, & I don’t have the time to go through all of them so I just kinda trash it lol but I’m pretty sure I’ve received emails from Case Western before, so now I’ll definitely look into it now that you mentioned it. Thank you!

5

Something that I forgot to mention in my original post:

I also applied EA to Georgia Tech, but I’m not sure if I should consider that school a match or a low reach since I am OOS.

I also applied EA to MIT and UMiami. As for the other reach schools, I will apply to them RD. I’m not sure if this has any effect on my admissions or not, so I’m just throwing this out there.

6

Smith: less reachy than your reach schools, good financial aid.

7

Georgia Tech is a reach for OOS students.

8

MIT, Columbia, Caltech, and Harvey Mudd have extensive core or general education requirements.

Brown is open curriculum, except that ABET accredited engineering majors must take some humanities and social studies. Amherst is similar, but does not have engineering at all.

GT is a reach because you need to aim for scholarships for affordability.

9

I actually think you’re applying to too many schools as is, and don’t need to look at any new prospects to apply to.

10

Case Western is a good STEM school, in a city (Cleveland), with a nice cooperative atmosphere. A very good option for you. They like to see demonstrated interest, so if you have any of their emails that you haven’t deleted, open them and click through links to their website (they track that, I heard last year). You can go to their site and request information, which shows interest: https://go.case.edu/register/requestinformation
If you apply, you can request an interview, which also shows interest and will give you a way to learn more about the school. https://go.case.edu/register/alumniinterview

11

If you want to drop some of your reaches, I would say drop one or two of these: CalTech, Stanford (the lowest acceptance rate of the bunch), Princeton, Harvard.

12

Thank you everyone for answering! I will look into all of the colleges you guys suggested and I’ll look more into my reach schools to see which ones I want to remove from my list :slight_smile:

13

@Schuh07 Where did you end up applying? I would have given my thoughts, but it is too late now. Good luck hope you let us know what you decide.

14

@CAEngineer I ended up applying to FSU, UCF Honors, UF Honors, FIU Honors, UMiami, MIT, Harvard, Amherst, Columbia, Harvey Mudd, Case Western, and Brown.

I was deferred in MIT EA but that’s better than a rejection! :slight_smile:
I was accepted to FSU (I have to apply for the Honors Program now), UCF Honors, FIU Honors, and UMiami. I’m currently waiting for the rest of my decisions.

15

You’re in-state and are looking at LACs? Apply to New College of Florida. It’s a public honors LAC in Sarasota, Florida and it has a really good STM department (I say STM because there isn’t really engineering per se but you can learn all the skills for engineering in a good LAC). I STRONGLY recommend it.