<p>Your post is full of misunderstandings about colleges, applications, merit, the process, etc. </p>
<p>Let me mention some. They range from the nature of outside scholarships (many of these have to be competed for each year of college and so aren’t always a reliable source of college funding) to a misunderstanding about how much merit any of these colleges provides people with your resumé. Many of the schools on your list are very expensive and/or don’t offer much merit (or need-based aid) to applicants with your scores. Colgate gives practically no merit aid to first-year applicants but may give some to students who prove themselves at Colgate. Bucknell is party- and frat-central, and the way I read your post you don’t seem to be the party type; in addition, Bucknell is not a school that offers a lot of merit. </p>
<p>At 680/770/690/2150/4.0, </p>
<p>Academic Safeties: Scranton, UMD-CP, American, U of Delaware</p>
<p>Matches: Colgate (demonstrate interest), Bucknell, Franklin & Marshall, NYU, George Washington, Dickinson</p>
<p>Reaches for Everyone: Penn, Chicago, Duke, Cornell, Harvard</p>
<p>I take it UMD is your flagship? It will cost you 23K minus 5K in merit (probably). Why would you even consider Scranton, American, GWU, Delaware or any of the non-reaches when they aren’t as good as UMD or are at best UMD’s equal in some things but certainly not business–and they will cost you at least twice as much as UMD (and your budget could be 15K)? There’s a reason your brother went to UMD.</p>
<p>The schools you’ve listed as safeties are so far below your resumé as to be avoided if at all possible. I suggest that if you want to grow matches and safeties-beyond-UMD, you follow @ucbalumnus’s advice and look for automatic full tuition scholarships which would leave you with “only” non-tuition to pay.</p>