Is my college list balanced?

College Search & Selection
1

I’m looking for some help with my college list. I would appreciate feedback if I should add/eliminate any schools or if a specific school on my list should be placed in a different category (Safety, Match, Reach). I don’t plan on applying to all of these schools, but I am interested in them at the moment. I’m most interested in studying Business or Economics.

Safeties:

Clemson
NC State
Elon
UGA

Matches:

UNC (In-state)
Wake Forest
University of Richmond

Reaches:

Duke
UVA
Georgia Tech
Emory
Penn - Wharton
Yale

Here are my stats and ECs:

SAT I (breakdown): 2240 (730 M, 780 CR, 730 W 10 E) Single-sitting
ACT: 32 w/ Writing (34 E, 33 M, 29 R, 30 S, 11 Essay)
SAT II: Plan on taking Math II and US History (Possibly World History too) in October
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 9/600+
AP (place score in parenthesis): Psychology (5); Took Junior Year: US History, Language & Comp, Environmental Science, World History
Senior Year Course Load: AP Econ, AP Calc AB/BC, AP Computer Science, AP English Literature, Ceramics, Honors Leadership, Honors Physics

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
DECA (2 years; possible officer)
Varsity Soccer (3 years)
Club Soccer (10 years; captain)
State Level Soccer team (3 years prior to HS)
Research/analyze/write about business and finance of professional soccer
NHS, Freshmen Council, Junior Marshall, BETA Club, Chemistry/Math Tutor

2

Your SAT is better than your ACT so I recommend you use that. Your list seems somewhat balanced but a little reach heavy. Kudos to picking out GOOD safeties and match schools. A lot of kids don’t do that. Penn and Yale are heavy reaches but you have a decent enough shot at the other reaches.

3

@TheDidactic Thanks. I don’t think I will apply to all of the reaches. Probably 3 of them max.

4

You have picked really good reach schools so it’s down to personal preference. 3-4 reaches isn’t obnoxious seeing as you’ll have 3-4 matches and safeties each.

5

I think that’s a great list in my opinion

6

@virsha24 Thanks. Any suggestions for any possible schools I should check out for business/economics that may have slipped under the radar?

7

You could give a look at University of Michigan, maybe NYU but it’s very expensive. I would’ve also recommended UC Berkeley but since you’re OOS it wouldn’t be worth it.