Hi I’m going to be a senior next fall applying for the class of 2021. I just wanted to know if my list is reasonable. Here’s some basic info on me:
Private catholic all males school in MD. 3.72/4.00 UW GPA 4.22/4.50 W GPA. 2180 on old SAT (760 CR, 720 W, 700 M) and a 33 composite on act (36 r, 33 w, 32 m 31 sci). for sat IIs 740 US history, 760 Chem, 750 lit, 740 Spanish.
Will graduate having taken AP euro, apush, ap Lang, ap lit, ap Chem, ap bio, ap Spanish, ap calc Ab, and ap psych.
Senior year course load: ap bio, ap psych, ap calc ab, ap Spanish, ap English lit, honors theology iv.
ECs: 4 seasons varsity soccer, 4 seasons varsity indoor track, 4 years of baseball 3 varsity one JV. Will be Captain of all three senior year. President and cofounder of young men for change basically bring in speakers to talk about what it means to be a man in today’s society. Class vp 4 years in a row. A few national honor societies. Acapella group for my school 4 years. Work outside of school. Tutor kids in Spanish.
Not applying for financial aid and am a URM (Hispanic). Undecided on major probably something in science likely bio or Chem
The list:
Reaches:
Duke (thinking ED here but not positive will visit campus again early fall)
WashU
Dartmouth
Vanderbilt
Georgetown
Northwestern
Notre dame
Matches:
Emory (not sure if low reach or high match)
University of Southern California (not sure if low reach or high match)
Villanova
Northeastern
Boston university
University of Miami (low match?)
Safeties:
UMD college park (in state)
Loyola Maryland
Elon
I know this is a lot of schools to apply to and I might cut a few of the reaches but does this look reasonable given my profile? Any feedback is great! Thanks in advance.
I think you sound like an extremely impressive candidate, but I also think that you have WAYYY too many reaches. I graduated this year, and something I didn’t realize about applying to college until I did it was just how EXPENSIVE those application fees are! Especially with prestigious schools like that, it’ll really add up.
Also, you’ll probably get tired of doing applications after a while. I think 8 schools is a reasonable amount, with 2 reaches, 3 at levels and 2 safeties- 12 at the VERY most. Personally, I applied to 5 reaches and 3 safeties because I didn’t mind going to a state school. But after having done that, I would advise against it. You should narrow it down based on location, programs, and where you truly see yourself at. I think you should apply to Duke (or wherever) ED because it really increases your chances.
Good luck! And I hope everything goes well 
@IvyGirl27 thank you for your response. I don’t want to apply to all the schools on that list to be honest Dartmouth and Notre dame are being forced on me by my parents. I was hoping if I picked one for ED then I’d be done or at least if I didn’t get in ED anywhere EA decisions would allow me to cut my RD list. I definitely don’t envision applying to all 16 this is just tentative I hope to get it down to 12 at most ideally 10.
I think it’s a good list. I’d probably drop down to just 1 safety school since affordability isn’t an issue just pick the one you would actually be willing to attend if nothing else works out. If you have time and money applying to a number of reaches isn’t a terrible thing especially if EA lets you adjust in December. My son started out with 12 schools that he completed apps for but once EA was said and done he only actually submitted 6. Definitely get your counselor’s input because some schools have great relationships with private schools and others not so much so they can tell you if there are any schools on your list that are less or more reaches than you think from the stats plus they know what kind of rec they will be giving you and where you fall in your class.
Say you apply to 5 reaches and get shut out.
Which of your match and safety schools would you attend if admitted?
@ClarinetDad16 I would honestly be fine attending any of my match schools as I have already visited all and really loved their campus and the general environment. I spent a lot of time deciding on matches because I know there’s a good chance I get shut out cause top schools are so competitive these days. As for safeties I actually really love UMD college park it’s my instate option so it would be cheaper and I would have absolutely no problem attending there.
Agreed that you have a ton of reaches, but if you are OK spending the time to do each application really well and your parents are OK spending the money on application fees, then that is your decision. Just don’t overwhelm yourself with supplements to the point where you don’t have time to do a really thoughtful job on each one. Other than that, if you would be fine attending your match/safety schools then the list seems fine.
If I cut Dartmouth Notre dame and northwestern from the reaches and drop Elon and Loyola from safeties how would that look @happy1 @dcplanner @IvyGirl27
I would definitely keep at least 2 safeties. Oftentimes college admissions are a crap shoot, and you need to have multiple safeties in order to put yourself in the best position. One person at my school has to go to either community college or no college at all first year (he hasn’t decided) because he only applied to Ivy Leagues and one safety, and got rejected or waitlisted from all of them. I don’t think the same will happen to you, but honestly you can’t bank on an acceptance from one of those reaches or even mediums- no matter how qualified you are. But you should cut your reaches, so I would recommend that.
If you were looking to narrow down your list and you don’t have a particular affinity for it, the first school that I would toss is Georgetown. It requires all students to do an interview, does not allow you to do score choice, and has a separate application that is not on common app. You can apply to it of course if you really like it, but it just seems like a lot of extra work.
@shawnspencer As a senior who applied to Georgetown, I would absolutely agree. The 3 essays and completely separate application took up a LOT of time.
@IvyGirl27 Hahahaha I know right? The school was appealing to me but required too much extra effort. The only school that I even had close to that level of craziness was Wake Forest, which required students to submit something like 8 essays. Even for a student who loved writing essays, when I saw that I was like “heck no!”
@shawnspencer thank you for the advice I do like Georgetown but hearing how much extra work it is from you and @IvyGirl27 has me rethinking it because it does sound like a lot especially with UMD on their own application. @IvyGirl27 definitely don’t want to end up with nowhere to go and you’re right admissions are very unpredictable I think I will keep Loyola and drop Georgetown along with Elon Dartmouth and ND thank you so much for the help!
I don’t mean to discourage you from applying if you intend on applying, as I have no personal experience since I did not apply, but do be aware it won’t be as streamlined since it is not on common app and there is the extra interview component which many people don’t realize is mandatory until after they apply. Good luck!
First off congratulations on having excellent High School credentials! That doesn’t come with out significant effort.
I think your list is fine. You should cull schools that you would actually have no desire to attend though. I would not cull a safety school. " Love your safeties" is always sage advice!
Respectfully your GPA will be a bit lower than mid range at the majority of the reaches. Your essays and letters of recommendation will be very important.
If being at a reach school is important to you, I wouldn’t reduce the number. You may opt to replace them with others but I wouldn’t reduce the number. No two students are alike but you will be competing with the top students in the country. Our daughter applied to eight reaches and was accepted at three, and with two of them she came off the wait list to be accepted. Her academic credentials were quite a bit higher than yours. I will make mention again that your essays and your Lor’s will be very important.
I would be extremely surprised if you were not admitted to BU and to Northeastern, we know a number of
students who have been admitted at those schools.
I love your balance and think you will be a great candidate for many of the schools on your list. The reaches are just to hard to predict in my opinion.
Best Wishes!
I think that Georgetown, BC and UVA should be on your list. They all have intentionally tried to reduce the number of non-serious applicants by making their apps a little harder than average. They are popular with full-paying Hispanics. You should ask your parents if they would be willing to hire an independent college admission counselor to help you. About 20% of private schoolers have an outside counselor.
@DamarisS that’s an interesting idea I’ll talk to them about the possibility of getting a counselor. Good suggestion I’ll definitely look into UVA and Georgetown; however, I have very little interest in BC because I’ve had a few family members there and I want to do my own thing and my grandparents have been putting pressure on me to go there since freshman year so that’s out for me, but I’ll definitely take a look at UVA and Georgetown. If I were to apply to UVA should I consider It a low reach since I’m OOS?
Just a thought, but I would imagine reaches like Georgetown and Notre Dame already have many high achieving Hispanic students. That doesn’t mean you won’t get in, but I’m wondering if you have even better odds at reach schools with very small Hispanic populations and who are very interested in increasing diversity. Every little edge/hook you have can help. I would go to the Common Data Sets for all your reaches and even others that you may discover and see what percentage of the students are hispanic.
You said that you play 3 sports. Do you want to play in college, and are you good enough at any of them to be recruited?