Identifying Reach, Target, and Safety Schools

College Search & Selection
1

Hi! I decided I’d make another thread like this once I had a new ACT score.
I want to do something in the field of global studies and government, so obviously the major/minor options for programs like this vary by school. Ultimately, I’m very interested in human rights, so see humanitarian work as a viable option; honestly, I’m also interested in teaching and writing, so having all around strong social sciences and humanities programs (ie journalism, english, history, ir, polisci, even complit) would be ideal.

Schools I’m semi considering (very reach heavy right now, but a) I have no idea where I can get in- I feel like having mostly As but then a C in math junior year is abnormal and b) if I can’t get into a top school, my parents are going to push me to attend a SUNY (which is super valid)

This is the list (it will be shortened to between 8 and 12 schools) Please advise
Reach:
I like uchicago but those are such reaches I shouldn’t even list them LOL (just ignore these two)
Georgetown (top choice I love it too much)
Claremont McKenna? Or Pomona?
Cornell (most kids from my school just apply. I probably won’t but I’m throwing it out there.)
Williams
Amherst
WashU
Tufts
Middlebury

Target:
NYU
Hamilton
Skidmore
American
William and Mary

Safety:
Binghamton
JMU

[ b]Objective:[ /b]
[ list]
[ *] SAT I (breakdown): 1400 (will not submit)
[ *] ACT: June 2019: 35E 31M 33R 34S 9Writing (SUPERSCORED 34 (35 on reading in July)
[ *] SAT II: 690 (world) 680 (lit) 670 (bio- took this one twice but bombed it the first time) 640 (USH) math 2 (580? eeeep)
[ *] Unweighted GPA: 93.05. Weighted: 98.5
[ *] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): i’d assume top 10%. we don’t rank.
[ *] AP (place score in parenthesis): Seminar (5) Lang (self-studied 5) world (4) humangeo (4) USH (4) psych (4) research (4) bio (3)
[ *] IB (place score in parenthesis): school doesn’t offer
[ *] Senior Year Course Load: AP gov, AP macro, AP micro, internship in world history class, French V Honors (no AP offered), AP Lit, orchestra, physics (don’t want AP and no honors offered), AP Calc AB (cannot handle BC LOL), science research Honors
[ *] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):[ /list]
NYS History Day award
Competed in a varsity level science research competition? didn’t win but went haha.
AP Capstone Diploma (Received July 2019)
AP Scholar with Distinction (Received July 2019)

[ b]Subjective:[ /b]
[ list]
[ *] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): field hockey (grades 10-12 varsity), student gov (officer 10-12), participated in an online course through stanford on the US and China (grade 11- received an A), in seven of eight offered academic honor societies (English honor society VP, Social Studies honor society president), robotics (member in grades 9 and 10, head of outreach grade 11, head of business grade 12), history day/social issues club (member grades 9 and 10, president 11 and 12), science club (member 10-12, historian-11), envirothon (member-10, 11 (maybe 12) captain grade 11), school literary magazine, small leadership in rotary youth program, attending several retreats and leading at one.
[ *] Job/Work Experience: summer intern at local historic site. volunteering as tour guide this fall.
[ *] Volunteer/Community service: ^ + mixed honor society, student gov, and robotics activities
[ *] Personal Statement: apparently i’m a good writer and I have a an idea having to do with pulling my childhood passions to the present which should be good
[ *] Teacher Recommendations: should be good- all of the teachers I asked know me very well
[ *] Counselor Recommendation: don’t really know her, but seems to write great recs for everyone every year!
[ *] Interview:[ /list]
Interviewed at William and Mary- thought it went well

[ b]Other[ /b]
[ list]
[ *] Applied for Financial Aid?: maybe? income bracket may be too high, but at some point I will have a sibling in college
[ *][ b] Intended Major [ /b]: global studies/IR etc
[ *] State (if domestic applicant): NY
[ *] School Type: Public
[ *] Ethnicity: mostly white
[ *] Gender: female
[ *] Income Bracket: idk prob 150 or 200k?
[ *] Hooks (URM, first generation college, research, etc.):[ /list]
None
[ *] Strengths: humanities grades
[ *] Weaknesses: I have some Bs in STEM and a C in math from this year (precalc H- please advise! I had a B until the final!)

2

Looks good. You need to figure out what you’re looking for…city vs rural, big vs small. Maybe add George Washington. What about some of the Jesuit schools like Fordham? Nice school and big on humanitarian work.

3

@chmcnm With mixed grades and good extracurriculars, do you have an opinion on which reaches are just too high?

I might add GW- didn’t get as good of a vibe as at American and Georgetown, but love DC. Would that be a target or a safety?

4

I’m no expert but think your stats are fine. Your ACT is top 1-2%. Please keep that in perspective. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when it seems like every kid on here has a 4.0 and 1600 SAT.

After spending some time on here and seeing how competitive and quirky admissions have become we stopped and did a reset. I see kids on here with lesser stats accepted or receiving scholarships over higher stat kids. I’m thinking that schools are taking a more wholistic approach vs stats alone. Here’s what we did. YMMV.

Find 2 good safety schools that you’ll attend. Probably state schools like SUNY or CUNY. Next do lots of research and find 5 or so match/stretch schools that have your major, are good at it and meet your likeability criteria. Lastly throw in 1 or 2 reach schools for fun. Swing for the fences. You never hit what you don’t swing at.

The key is knowing what you want to major in and then drilling down into what you want out of a college and finding the ones that meet your criteria. If GW didn’t do it for you then cross it off. Do the colleges on your list have what you want and meet all your likeability requirements? If not, cross off and move on.

It’s always good to seek good advice. Maybe talk to your guidance counselor and visit some college fairs or see when colleges will be visiting your school.

5

Frankly, all of your reach school are very high reaches. Some of those schools have very few seats left after accepting athletes, development, alumni and they want good diversity in terms of URMs, geographic, first generation. You have a mixed academic record. I don’t see how those schools like Middlebury, Williams

6

@cptofthehouse What would be more optimal reach schools then?

7

Frankly, all of your reach school are very high reaches. Some of those schools have very few seats left after accepting athletes, development, alumni and they want good diversity in terms of URMs, geographic, first generation. You have a mixed academic record. I don’t see how those schools like Middlebury, Williams , Amherst, Pomona etc are anything but lottery tickets. They are even reaches for kids who are top 5 in their class with no Cs, no weak parts of their academic record.

More importantly, can your family afford to pay for you? These schools are edging towards $80k a year in price . Run NPCs from their websites and find out what financial aid you can expect. Ask your parents what they can and afford to pay. Many of the schools offer no merit money st all so if you can’t qualify for enough aid, they shouldn’t even be on your list. For those that do give merit money, getting it is very very difficult.

Some directed advice here—if the fin aid numbers don’t work out, contact CMC and see if you qualify under a program, the Student Imperative, where they are targeting families in your income range with financial aid. Get some particulars about it to see if it can be affordable. Apply ED there which has a ~30% accept rate, and you have a geographic advantage. If they don’t accept you, it’s a pretty good indicator that the schools you’ve picked are unrealistic and if they do not give you enough financial aid, you can get out of the ED contract if accepted. That’s your optimal chance of getting anything—all straight numbers here.

Your match schools are reaches IMO. And can you afford them? Run the NPCs on them and find out if you need merit from them. I don’t see much coming from them. NYU is notoriously tight with funds. They don’t guarantee to meet need st all. Getting much from Wm&Mary is also very high risk. Especially OOS. You really need to know what you can afford

Fortunately, you have the SUNYs. Apply to Bing EA is my advice. Maybe Fordham too Tulane maybe. I’d add University of Denver, Hofstra EA too DePaul and Loyola, if Chicago interests you. Look for some well regarded schools out side of your geographical. You like LACs, how about some Texas ones, and UTDallas? Some in Midwest Look for merit money possibilities. University of Tampa too in FL.

8

What is your unweighted gpa on a 4.0 scale, core courses only? If your school doesn’t calculate, you can do so yourself.

Do you have access to Naviance? That will be a good way for you to categorize your school list…but right now it does seem that all your reaches are high reaches… it seems your goal may be prestige rather than fit as the reach/match schools on your list are very different.

You have some good achievements, however, I don’t think you will be a competitive candidate at Georgetown with those subject test scores…I certainly wouldn’t apply EA as you have to give up too much (ability to ED anywhere or EA at private schools). Hamilton, NYU and OOS William and Mary are also reaches, not matches. For American, make sure you demonstrate interest, and remember they fill a significant proportion of the class in ED.

What about U Richmond, U Maryland, U Delaware or Virginia Tech?

Run the NPCs on the schools on your list and see if the numbers are in the ballpark of what your parents can/will pay.

9

Be very careful to show lots of interest at your match schools. If you can, visit and interview at Hamilton, Skidmore, and American. These colleges do NOT want to be used as safeties and look for demonstrated interest. American in particular is notorious for protecting its yield by rejecting strong applicants who have not demonstrated sufficient interest.

BTW, I think Hamilton is in a different class from American— a much harder admissions target and a different student body.

You are aiming high. Consider an early decision application to one of your favorites. At the same time, apply early action to Binghamton, so that if you are rejected or deferred from Georgetown or wherever else you apply ED, you will know you still will be able to attend a great four year college; it will make the wait until March less stressful.

Good luck!

10

@cptofthehouse I don’t think I qualify for aid. I can afford to pay. My family’s policy is basically top school or SUNY. Is CMC ED that large of an acceptance rate?

@Mwfan1921 I’m retaking subject tests in August. What about NYU and WM make them reaches? I’ve looked at the stats, and although my gpa is lower, I have a high ACT score, strong extracurriculars, and class rigor. It’s still a 98.5 with an upward trend. I also had a great interview at WM and work for an NYU alum. Unsure about gpa. I’ll recalculate another time, but other than junior year’s math grade, high nineties in English and history (I also took additional courses in these areas than are core for some), mid nineties in French, mid eighties in math, high eighties/low nineties in science.

11

NYU’s acceptance rate for class of 2023 was 16%…that is a reach for everyone. https://nyunews.com/2019/03/28/nyu-acceptance-rate-drops-to-16-percent-for-the-class-of-2023/

I haven’t seen W&M OOS acceptance rate for class of 2023, but it is probably sub 30%. Maybe it’s a high match…Naviance would help you categorize, if you have it. And, I don’t know your UW GPA, core only…that’s what schools will look at, so I can’t adequately categorize for you, nor can I see your overall rigor and know whether your GC will rate it as ‘most challenging available’. Lastly, your ECs are good, but may not help you stand out. Good luck.

12

Looking at your schools you seem like you like small to medium LAC’s which is great. It also seems like you want to stay within a few hours of NY. I also noticed your senior schedule. Are you sure you want to take 5 AP’s including calculus? You’ll be busy with apps plus some potential senioritis. That’s a heavy workload.

Personally I like your list except too many reaches. Narrow it down to two reaches. Georgetown and your 2nd favorite. Maybe ED Georgetown and write excellent essays. Take a shot.

Your 5 targets seem OK. If you really like W&M then you should apply. Maybe look at Richmond or Fordham. The LAC’s in PA like Bucknell, Lafayette, Lehigh, or Dickinson might be a good fit. Bryn Mawr if you don’t mind an all-girls school.

Add 2 safeties like a Binghamton and James Madison as long as you would go there if you have to.

13

@chmcnm Georgetown doesn’t have ED. If I think I really have no shot, I will ED to Tufts or another reach instead.

I’ll look into the PA LACs.

I’m not trying to be obnoxious at all, but why do I need two more safeties? I always intended to have a reach heavy list and rely on a SUNY as a safety.

14

As long as you would be excited to attend one of your safeties than you are fine.

15

Yes. All you need is one safety but you had two: Binghamton and JMU. Perfect. I meant add 2 safeties to your reach/matches.

16

Look up CMC ED accept rate I know it was over 30% last year. It’s still a big reach because you get a lot of hooked candidates, but in most cases, it’s still favorable. It’s the ultimate show of interest. It’s also a fresh new admissions season and the room is empty , and all the essays and apps are new. That’s a tip you can take, You also have a bit of a geographic advantage that you won’t have with your east coast schools. Everyone applies to the same schools it seems and they tend to be within a 1-5 hour driving distance. I hear the usual suspects year in and year out. Droves of students applying to the very same school from the same area.

If you are fine with Ning as a safety, apply early there and if accepted, you are done in terms of a sure thing. Just play the lottery for the rest of your schools unless also accepted to CMC

If you have no regrets about going to CMC , that’s the way to go. If you really want a shot at some other schools you’ve listed, then go for one of them ED instead. If you want to wait and see your choices, just apply EA and RD.

17

With a family income of $150K or even $200K, commensurate assets, and 1 or more siblings, you may qualify for more-or-less substantial need-based aid from schools like Hamilton or Cornell (which claim to meet full demonstrated need, based on their own assessments – not yours). $30K to $40K in n-b grant aid. Maybe. It depends. You (or your parents) would need to run the online net price calculators to determine if the net prices are affordable. For some families, they aren’t (even after that much n-b aid).

18

For the colleges for which it’s available, this resource might serve as a more convenient cost estimator than NPCs: https://myintuition.org/.

19

Add Dickinson and Macalester as matches.
Why not add GMU rather than JMU for a safety - you’d be nearer DC and your stats would mean merit aid. Kalamazoo would be another safety with merit aid, offering something significantly different from Bing.

20

@cptofthehouse I can’t ED to CMC due to not being able to visit prior, which is unfortunate, but it’s just too risky.

@MYOS1634 I’ll look into Dickinson and Macalester. I know absolutely nothing about GMU or Kalamazoo, but I’ll try and research them as well.