I Need Help Narrowing down the 27 Schools on my List!

College Search & Selection
1

I need help narrowing down which schools I am applying to. I currently have 27 schools on the list and really need to narrow it down. I’ve done a spreadsheet comparing all the schools but I still can’t narrow down the schools although it was previously around 38 schools. I really need the perspective and advice of others to help me narrow it down.

Right now, I have 2 schools Oct 15 deadline (EA), 6 UC schools Nov 30 (RD), 9 Nov 1st (EA), and 10 schools Jan 1st and after deadlines (RD). and I’m not sure if I’m going to ED to any school yet (I’m looking at UChicago, Cornell, Northwestern, UPenn, or Columbia because they are high reach schools and might improve my chances for admission.

I’m interested in majoring in business or maybe economics. I tried to look up schools with best programs for undergraduate business but all sites have different rankings and I’m not sure if they are accurate.

For Purdue, UTexas, UMichigan, UVirginia, Indiana Bloomington, and UIUC they have good business programs, but I am applying to see if I can get a lot of financial aid/scholarships since I’m out-of-state. For UCD, UCI, UCSD, and UCSB, they are not ranked that high and I’m not sure if they are ranked high in business but I really like the UC schools because of their location and area, but it will still depend on scholarships for these schools because I’m out-of-state.

In general, I like larger schools in an urban/suburban area and overall school ranking is also important to me (preferrably top 30 or so otherwise I would settle for OSU).

I would really appreciate if you could chance me for any of these schools and let me know which schools are or aren’t worth applying to!

OSU (if I get full ride)
NYU (aiming for Stern program)
USC
Berkeley
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UCLA
UCSD
UCSB
CMU
UChicago
Columbia
Cornell
Emory
Georgetown
UIUC
Indiana Bloomington
UMichigan
UNC
Northwestern
UPenn
Purdue
UTexas
Vanderbilt
UVirginia
WashU in St. Louis
Georgia Tech

SCORES:
Unweighted GPA: 3.73
Weighted GPA: 4.122
High School ranked top 5 in Ohio, top 200 something school in nation
School does not report rank.
Asian (Chinese)
Income >100k

ACT: taken 4 times. Highest score in one sitting: 33 Composite, 36 Math, 35 English, 32 Reading, 30 Science, 7 Writing (messed up Science and Writing)
Superscore: 35 Composite, 36 Math, 35 English, 33 Reading, 34 Science, 9 Writing

SAT Subject: Math Level I (760), plan to take Math Level II again, Literature, and Chinese but not sure if Chinese will make if for Early Action since it’s only offered in November every year. I also took Chemistry (620), US History (560), and Math Level II (640) but will not be reporting those scores.

AP Scores: AP Bio (3), AP Calc AB (3), AP Government (4), AP Chinese (4), AP U.S. History (2), AP Chemistry (3), AP Psychology (4)
Plan to take: AP Lang, AP Env. Science, AP Lit, AP Stat

HIGH SCHOOL COURSES IN MIDDLE SCHOOL:
Honors Algebra 1: A
Honors Geometry: A
Physical Science: A/A-

9TH GRADE:
Honors Algebra II: A/A-
Modern World History: A/A-
French I: A
Biology: A
Honors English I: B+/A-
Orchestra: A

10TH GRADE:
*I really messed up sophomore year…:confused:
Honors Precalculus: B+/B
French II: A
AP Chemistry: B/B
Orchestra: A
Honors English 2: B/B+
AP U.S. History: B+/B+

11TH GRADE:
AP Biology A-/A
AP Calculus AB B-/A-
AP Gov & Politics A-/A
French III A-/A
Honors English III A-/A-
IB Psychology SL A

12TH GRADE (taking dual enrollment college level classes at OSU through College Credit Plus Program):
1430 Statistics for the Business Sciences
1100.01 First Year English Composition
2001.01 Principles of Microeconomics
2002.01 Principles of Macroeconomics
2100 Intro to Environmental Science

EXTRACURRICULARS:
Girls JV tennis (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, Co-Captain 2017):
Extremely competitive to get into team, Varsity tennis team placed top in our state. Played for 7 years since middle school tennis. We are often undefeated against other high schools

Freshman Cabinet, Sophomore Cabinet, Junior Cabinet, Senior Cabinet (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017):
Help plan multiple school dances, and social activities for our class.

Mock Trial (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017):
Advanced to Regionals Competition (2015, 2016)

Key Club (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, officer: Welcome Warehouse Chair, 2016, 2017 )
I helped organize volunteering at local warehouse to provide clothing for those in need, fundraisers for the Mid-Ohio Food Bank & a canned food drive for a local food pantry

Interact Club (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017):
volunteering club

Wee Folk Room Volunteer (2 years) (2016, 2017):
I help care for little children, I find various entertaining activities for them at my local rec center

Biology Olympiad (2016, 2017 involved in making of first year, Secretary 2016, Vice President 2017):
Secretary of Biology Olympiad and involved in the making of the club’s first year at my high school. I helped prepare students for the prestigious Biology Olympiad Competition & the National Biology Competition by helping them build critical thinking in laboratory skills and biological reasoning, using resources created by top universities many other stimulating activities

Student Council (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017):
We planned numerous fundraisers and service projects that helped benefit organizations and our school a great deal. Also, we organized several events such as the district wide Dodgeball Tournament, American Cancer Society fundraiser, and another fundraiser which helped to raise over $10,000 for pediatric cancer research at a nearby Hospital

Teen Institute (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, Co-Leader 2017):
Club promoting drug-free choices and healthy lifestyles. I helped plan multiple events and retreats. In addition I help lead the Teen Institute of all the high schools in our entire community.

Figure Skating (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017)
Skated ever since I was 7 years old (skated 10 years now). Originally skated competitively, now skate to complete all levels (there are 8 levels total for Moves in the Field and Free Skate each). I’m currently Junior Moves (one more level until Gold/Senior level) and Juvenile Free Skate (4 more levels until Gold/Senior)
*btw, Gold/Senior is the highest level you can reach (thats Olympics level)

Youth Ambassadors (2014): Not a club anymore after my first year

American Cancer Society (2017, first year at my high school)

Volunteer often with one-time events at local Rec Center (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017)

Worked at El Vaquero (summer 2016 and beginning of 11th grade):
Hostess & Busser

USG (2017):
OSU Undergraduate Student Government

Medlife (2017 at OSU)

NAMI (2017 at OSU):
Helping mental health illness

There are also some more clubs at OSU that I’m interested in but not sure if that would be too many. They offer some important clubs but not sure if it would add anything since I would only be a member and have done it for one year. In general, do I have too many extracurriculars?

HONORS & AWARDS
Honor Roll (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017)
AP Scholar with Honors Award (2016, 2017)
Future Valedictorian, Summa Cum Laude, Diploma with Honors
Advanced to Mock Trial Regionals Competition
NHS (2016, 2017)

2

You say you need financial aid? I think that pretty much knocks the California publics off your list, and probably UVA. Most public U’s don’t give much money to OOS students. From what I gather on here, California gives none. What exactly is your budget? Running the NPC for all these schools is probably a good first step in figuring out which schools will be out of reach financially even if you get accepted. You have good stats, you’ll have many options. Good luck!

3

If you need FA take UTexas off you list.

4

Well, clearly you have great stats…but which of these schools are your safeties? You have way too many reach schools.

As NJWrestlingmom pointed out, I’d cut most, if not all of the California schools. Texas is probably not going to give you any money either and frankly while your stats are good, there are many, many in-state kids that out pace you. Why Purdue? Also not likely for good $$$ for OOS and certainly there are other schools on your list better for business. I’d actually add Syracuse. If you are an only child and your family income is >100k, you are only going to qualify for merit,

5

Apply early to OSU and your instate publics. Those will be your safeties. Apply early to IU Bloomington, as it gives merit awards to out of state students and does direct admission to Kelley School of Business based on gpa/test scores, but merit awards only go to students whose applications are complete by Nov 1. Take the California publics off your list, period, as they will not be affordable to someone who needs financial aid. Same goes for Texas and Illinois. I understand from others (have never researched independently) that Michigan and U VA (maybe North Carolina as well?) are about the only public universities that do give financial aid to out of state students. Run the Net Price Calculator for those schools and talk with your parents to determine whether those are affordable. NYU is notoriously bad for financial aid, and would be a likely candidate to pull from your list.

First step really should be sitting down with your parents to run the NPC on several school’s website to see if the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) is do-able for your family. If it is not (as is the case for many families), then you need to focus on schools with merit awards. If your EFC is manageable, then a bunch of privates can stay.

Other than Ohio publics and possibly IU Bloomington, you don’t really have any match schools. Consider swapping out some of those super reaches (like Columbia) for matches like Case Western, which gives good merit awards, or Miami of Ohio (in state public). Notre Dame would be another reach, but they like high test scores. Wash U reportedly likes high test scores and superscores so keep that one on the list.

Hopefully others will have suggestions about what to cull out. In the meantime, have the money talk with your parents and get clear on whether you can afford to pay your EFC.

6

Write each college’s name onto a separate index card.

Sort the index cards into three piles: reach, match, and safety.

The ‘rules’ of this game are that:
1- You must have at least 2 and no more than 6 or 7 schools in each pile when you have finished, and
2- You may not have more than 20 cards total at the end. (20 is the number of colleges allowed on the Common Application. Decrease the number allowed if application cost is a factor.)

Within each pile, compare the cards and sort them into an order. The ones you are most excited about go on top, the least on the bottom. If you need to do so, compare just two cards at a time until you have compared every college against every other one.

Who was eliminated the most often? Eliminate that college from its pile. Keep going until you are at the correct number of colleges as per the rules of the game.

Which colleges kept getting preferential treatment compared to all the others? Consider these for early decision or early action.

In December, if you were not chosen for ED, compare remaining colleges to your early action acceptances. If you will choose your early action school above another school anyway, eliminate that other school.

Good luck!

7

Remove ALL of the UC’s. There is no financial aid for OOS students. No exceptions.

Your stats are on the low side for the Ivy level schools and applying to many will not increase your chances.

8

@TheGreyKing love that game…can you post it in it’s own thred in the parents forum?

9

Which of the places on your list is your flat-out true safety? That is to say, you are absolutely guaranteed admission for your grades and test scores, and you know for dead certain that you can pay for it with nothing more than the guaranteed federal student loans and/or any guaranteed state money (if you are in-state) and/or any guaranteed merit aid?

No idea yet about the money issue? Then talk with your parents and run the Net Price Calculator at each website. Once you know the financial parameters, you will know how deep and hard you are going to have to dig for a true safety.

After identifying at least one truly affordable guaranteed safety, eliminate any place that you don’t like better than that one from your list. Eliminate any that aren’t likely to be made affordable by aid as predicted by the NPCs as well as all the UCs and NYU which is famous for dealing out lousy financial aid.

This should get your list down to a better size.

Probably not big enough for you, but worth looking at with your stats if you are more interested in economics than in business: Wellesley, Mt. Holyoke, Barnard.

10

I would remove the OOS public schools – except Michigan, UNC and UVA, which do give some aid – and NYU if you need much financial aid.

That leaves:

UChicago
Columbia
Penn
Cornell
Northwestern
Emory
Georgetown
Vanderbilt
Washington U
Carnegie Mellon
USC
Michigan OOS
UVA OOS
UNC OOS
Ohio State in-state?

You said you’d prefer an urban or suburban (small city) environment, too, so remove Cornell.

That leaves you with 14 reaches and one low match/safety (OSU, assuming it is in-state). I would cut the reaches in half (down to seven or so…) and add a few matches.

Do this:

  1. Run the NPC on every school still on your list. If it is not affordable without taking on a lot of debt, remove it.
  2. Decide what you are looking for in terms of the academic, social and environmental fit.
  • Academic: Majors and courses you like, acceptable class sizes, ease of declaring and changing major, acceptable distribution requirements (UChicago and Columbia feature heavy core requirements…), and academic vibe.
  • Social: Party/Greek scene, things to do around campus and the city, sports scene, clubs, etc.
  • Envirinmental: Campus layout/size/beauty/convenience, weather, ease of getting around, size of town/city, and location.

Setting preferences in those categories should help you narrow down those reaches to a manageable number and identify some matches.

You can start your match search by looking at schools like these (all suburban or urban):

Wake Forest - High match
Boston College - High match
Tulane - High match
U of Rochester - High match
U of Richmond - High match
Lehigh - High match/match
Lafayette - High match/match
Northeastern - High match/match
Brandeis - High match/match
Holy Cross - High match/match
Case Western - High match/match
Trinity College - High match/match
SMU - Match
Miami(FL) - Match
Villanova - Match
Syracuse - Match/low match
Marquette - Match/low match
Providence - Low match
DePaul - Low match
TCU - Low match
Temple - Low match

Again, first set your preferences. Then apply them to your reaches and a bunch of match-range schools, like those listed above, to choose your list. I think if you end up applying to 5-7 reaches, 3-5 matches and your safety (OSU), you’ll be fine.

Once you have your final list, if you are interested in ED, use those same fit variables to choose your ED school from among your reaches or high matches/matches – the school you like the most.

So your final list might look something like this (as an example – you will decide the schools yourself):

Northwestern - ED
Penn
Emory
Georgetown
Washington U
USC
Boston College
Lafayette
Villanova
Providence
Ohio State

11

“Run the NPC on every school still on your list. If it is not affordable without taking on a lot of debt, remove it.”

Exactly right. That should by itself remove at least half of the schools on the list.

I think that you have 26 reaches (some low reaches, some high reaches), and one solid low match which is a very good school and almost a safety. I suppose that there isn’t much reason to add anything to the list unless you would prefer it to OSU, although I personally would be more comfortable with a second low match/safety.

12

Income is listed as $100,000+ and we don’t know if that means $104,000 or much higher. Significant need-based financial aid is unlikely (maybe if siblings overlap in college). even at the schools that meet a good portion of need.

OP, what does the NPC indicate for Columbia or Cornell, as compared to Michigan or Virginia? And how do those numbers compare to the annual cost you are trying to reach?

13

You may ED to Wharton to increase your chance. Otherwise, the chance is very small in RD round.

14

OSU (if I get full ride)<<<<<<<

     Is that even likely with the highest comp of 33 and 3.7 GPA? Does this school SS the ACT at all, does it SS for merit? Very few school actually SS the ACT. I suspect most of your list doesn't, you have been given a reality check already about the majority of your reaches, but this assumption about a full ride is something you might need to revisit. Admission, sure, with some scholarship, full ride? I doubt it.
15

Remove all OOS public schools as none of them are worth the OOS tuition, and very few will offer any significant FA. Some will offer decent merit aid to bring the cost down to in state but most are extremely competitive to get until you get outside of the top 100 or so. Privates are where the solid FA is if that is what your looking for which @prezbucky has narrowed down for you.

16

Some of those high match privates might be OK for admission but not for merit, and need is a moving target if income is 100K. As per luckycharms, the OP needs to have some NPC numbers. The COA is what counts, not that you get a scholarship/grant/fa of 30K a yr to a 60K plus a year school. Merit and need won’t stack.

17

Thank you all so much for your help! OSU is my safety school and I can pay for it whether or not I receive any financial aid. I’m interested in financial aid (need-blind, grants, merits, or scholarships, not need based because my family probably wouldn’t qualify) mainly for the OOS schools since my parents would not be as willing to pay higher tuition as opposed to in-state students and since those schools aren’t as highly ranked. For the private schools, I mainly just want to get in although any sort of financial aid would be nice. Could someone please rank how good these schools’ undergraduate business programs are? I’ve looked at a lot of sites but I always get different results at different sites. Thanks so much!

UC Davis
UC Irvine
UCSD
UCSB
CMU
Columbia
Cornell
Emory
Georgetown
UIUC
Indiana Bloomington
UNC
Purdue
UTexas
Vanderbilt
UVirginia
WashU in St. Louis
Georgia Tech

18

UCI/UCD/UCSB and UCSD will cost you and your family $60K/year as an OOS student ($240K/4 years) with little to no merit aid. Not sure why they are still on the list. UCI is the only UC on your list with a Business school and Business major.

19

Forget the UCs… please. Have you started on your common app and essays? There is only space on your app for 10 activities, you will have to pare them down. You will likely not get into any of the reaches so focus on finding match schools.

Columbia does not even offer undergraduate business majors.

20

So you can be full pay at desireable reaches? Will you pay full freight to UCD? UCI?