2350 SAT single sitting, 4.75 GPA (top 2% in grade), 780s on Latin and Bio SAT subject tests, took four AP exams and two more subject tests but have yet to receive my scores, perfect papers on the National Latin Exam and a few Certain (Latin Quiz Bowl) awards, national writing awards/read my poetry on a radio show/poems published in literary magazines, a few leadership positions in school clubs, 200 hours of volunteering (children’s museum docent, Math and English tutoring, etc.)
At this point, I’m thinking of majoring in comparative lit, classics, or economics.
Is it foolish to apply to so many reach schools? Are some of my matches actually reaches? I’m so confused—I know my list is very haphazard, but my college counselor hasn’t been very helpful; she’s suggested only reaches so far even when I specifically asked for help selecting safeties and matches.
Reaches:
Harvard (SCEA)
Princeton University
University of Pennsylvania
Dartmouth College
University of Chicago
Amherst College
UC Berkeley
UCLA
Williams College
Matches
University of Michigan
Boston College
College of William and Mary
University of Virginia
Tufts University
Safeties
University of Massachusetts Amherst (state flagship)
University of Maryland College Park
Northeastern University
UMich, UVA, Tufts, and the VA publics OOS are reaches. Northeastern and BC are high matches.
I would cut some reaches and add some matches.
What do you want in a school? Some of those schools are very different. Dartmouth and Williams are small and rural, while Northeastern and UMich are large and urban/suburban. They don’t strike me as 4 schools which all belong in the same list.
UCLA is probably more of match. Also, Northeastern might waitlist/reject you if they suspect you are using them as a safety. UCB is more of a high match as well as UVA and Mich. If I were you, I would cut a few reaches and some of the matches.
I’m sorry to hear that your college counselor has not been very helpful. I agree that it’s important to decide what size of school is best for you. (UMich and UMD are absolutely humongous, for example, while I had to strike Amherst, Williams, and Dartmouth off my own list for being too tiny.) The overall population of a university really does make a big difference. Have you visited any of the schools on your list? In what environment did you feel the most comfortable?
UMass is a great safety for you! Personally, I have no idea how UMD handles out-of-state applicants. I know that if you were in-state, you’d be a shoo-in. Sorry, I know that isn’t very helpful.
I’ve been given the advice that having one safety you really like is fine. If you would be truly happy at UMass, it’s perfectly okay to aim high from there. On the other hand, it would be good to have a few more matches. Is it important to you to stay in Massachusetts?
This website has been enormously helpful to me: colleges.niche.com
It might help you pinpoint what qualities make a school especially appealing. Check out “The Best and Worst” for each of the places on your list.
@bfc2017 at this point, I think I’d prefer a larger school. I don’t really care about the location of the campus—i.e. urban/suburban/rural or geographical. Staying in Massachusetts is definitely not important. Although I really like the Northeast, I’m open to schools in the Midwest or on the West Coast. UMass is a fine school, but I dislike it—my dad went there (for grad school) and says that UMass has a reputation as a party school (“ZooMass”). That said, I do know that some of my friends have gone to the honors college there, and they seem pretty happy. In any case, though, I definitely want some more safety schools that I like, but I have no idea what schools are considered safeties.
Starting next year, the UCs won’t give any financial aid (merit or need-based) to non-California residents, so if paying roughly $60,000 a year would be a problem, you can safely cross UCB and UCLA off.
Williams and Amherst are probably too small for you. Try visiting one of the smaller medium-sized schools, like Dartmouth, Princeton, Tufts, or W&M to see if that’s too small.
I know it’s another reach, but I’m surprised Columbia is not on your list.
@educateddarcy I love love love Columbia, but no one from my school has gotten in in the past four years.
That doesn’t mean your chances are any worse than Harvard, Princeton, etc. If you love Columbua, apply there.
Larger schools that are more urban and would be closer to matches would include Emory, Tulane, George Washington, American – demonstrated interest to show you are serious about them would be essential. Also, if you are willing to consider Catholic schools – presumably an option since your have BC on the list – Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, Villanova in suburban Philly, as well as Dayton, Xavier, Marquette in the midwest would be matches/safeties, again, with sufficient demonstration of interest.
What is your family’s financial situation? Are you comfortably full-pay ($65,000 a year), have your parents run the Net Price Calculator to determine what type of financial aid you will be eligible for? If your family cannot afford to pay the Expected Family Contribution shown by the NPC, then you need to look for schools which will award you merit aid because of your high stats and accomplishments. The Ivies do not give merit aid, only financial aid (though it tends to be the best financial aid available, awarding aid to families who might not qualify for aid at other schools). Amherst and Williams, as members of the D3 NESCAC conference, do not give merit awards either. While UVA and Michigan (I think, someone else would need to confirm) do award financial aid to out of state students, admission for out of state students (and this would also include William and Mary), is much tougher than instate. While UVA, Wm & Mary and Michigan might appear to be “matches” in terms of stats of admitted students, for an out of state student, the acceptance rate is much lower and would be reaches for UVA and Michigan and perhaps match for Wm & Mary.
I guess there are certain out of state high schools that are feeder schools to Michigan, mine being one of them. With your stats, you would be admitted from our high school. For our HS class of 2015, they deferred a lot of our top kids but then ultimately took them. Re Columbia, sometimes it takes someone high up in the administrative food chain to make the call as to why their qualified kids are being turned down year after year. If you love Columbia, I say go for it, maybe the tide will turn.
@Midwestmomofboys at this point, I think my parents can pay slightly more than $50k/year. Our household income is just over $200k/yr.
I don’t think your matches are actually reaches. Tufts and UMichigan (OOS) are higher matches, but I still think they’re matches. Also, UCLA and UVa both have an OOS admission rate of 23%, so I’d say they’d be in the same tier for your list as matches. U of Washington is a great safety with an awesome classics department too! UNC-Chapel Hill would also be a higher match/lower reach, and my Latin teacher recommends it for classics at least. Another lower match is U of Rochester. If you’re a likely NMSF, USC (SoCal) is a good alternative to UCLA with merit as well as the large school atmosphere with the smaller school attention.
You have an impressive record, OP. Please be sure to talk with your parents about the amount they could and would actually pay per year for 4 years. Just because they have an income of over $200K does not mean that they can or will pay $50K per year and come April there are many sad stories on CC about kids who realize they can’t afford the lottery school to which they were admitted.
Once you settle on that amount you can spend, start looking for colleges that might give good merit awards to you. There are many threads on CC dealing with schools that give merit awards.
@GnocchiB the 50k/yr estimate actually came from my parents, but merit aid would definitely be nice.
Have you run NPCs at a variety of schools on the list? Some,'like H and so, are likely to be affordable. Others, like Tifts, may be out of the budget and give no merit. And some, like NEU, are likely to be outside the price range after need based aid, but may come down to within the budget after merit money.
Have you considered USC? Might be within the budget with merit aid (which requires an early deadline of December 1 for your app), and seems like it might interest you.
Tufts is absolutely a reach for anyone. It has an acceptance rate of 14%, and often rejects even students who have stellar stats. It isn’t a “high match.” I’m saying this as someone who was accepted, while 18 of the 20 other people who applied from my class were rejected.