is my list weird???

<p>i want to major in finance/economics in college. perferably a selective medium suburban-urban college in the northeast. i plan on applying to U Penn ED, but if i dont get in what are some colleges i should apply to? a little background: SAT M-800, CR-720, W-740. I play lax, volleyball, and ski competively. i play the flute in NEC and GBYSO... and i have a w gpa of 4.6, and an uw of 3.6...</p>

<p>Reach:
-u penn
-harvard
-columbia
-brown</p>

<p>Good/Match:
-georgetown
-lehigh
-cornell
-dartmouth
-mcgill
-carnegie mellon
-buckenll
-lafayette
-emory
-williams
-amherst
-wellseley
-duke
-tufts
-wake forest
-bc
-nyu</p>

<p>Safety:
-syracuse
-villanova
-hofstra
-elon
-babson
-northeastern</p>

<p>-all the safty, good, and reaches are based on PR... if it for me, a lot more of the schools would be reaches...</p>

<p>like 10 of your matches would be reaches</p>

<p>i kno... i stated that on the bottom... thats y my list is weird...</p>

<p>Unless your rank is high, Georgetown's a reach. Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams, and Duke are also reaches. Cornell's probably a slight reach. Carnegie Mellon's most likely a safety. Good luck.</p>

<p>im in the top 5% in my class... sry if i was not clear... i was wondering if ppl help me shorten my list???</p>

<p>i like your optimism....that is important in this process...however, some of your safeties had thousands+ applicants in the last few years...and cannot be considered anything more than 50/50....as in villanova, lafayette...it does not really matter that you were in the top 5%, as many, many others were too....just so you know, there are waitlists at numerous schools like rollins and stonehill...that USED to be safeties!<br>
Go for it tho, if you don't apply, you can't get in!!!!!!</p>

<p>Duke's like Columbia or Brown in terms of academic student body, are you an alumni off spring or something?</p>

<p>Top 5% and 1520, there's no place you shouldn't try. It will come down to recs and ECs. Nicole, are you kidding about Villanova and Lafayette???? Lafyette???????????????? Stonehill? (I thought I knew every college but seriously never heard of this one)?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Yeah maybe top 5% and 950.</p>

<p>Nicole is being extra cautious because her talented daughter ran into the new order of safeties. So I can't blame her for being wary of old safeties not being safeties any more.</p>

<p>Stonehill is a beautiful Catholic school near Brockton, Mass. It went from easy to get into to hard to get into in recent years--trickle down effect from BC and Holy Cross, I'd imagine.</p>

<p>I'd dump Hofstra, Elon, Babson, Emory, and Northeastern. I'd pick whichever you like best among Bucknell, Lehigh, and Lafayette--you'd probably get into all 3.</p>

<p>I'd also ask myself if Wellesley and NYU are really contenders (in other words, can you really see yourself at an all-female college or a big-city university with no campus?--neither fits in with the rest of your choices). The rest look like a wonderful cross-section of well-rounded East Coast colleges. (Are you aware that Cornell, Dartmouth, Bucknell, Amherst, and Williams do not really meet your "suburban-urban" criteria because they are all quite isolated?)</p>

<p>There is, and never has been, a safety for all. So here we should just focus on fact. a 1520, top 5% will be looked at seriously by any college. BTW, Stonehill isn't in Fiske.</p>

<p>Reach:
-u penn
-harvard
-georgetown
-duke</p>

<p>Good/Match:
-lehigh
-carnegie mellon
-emory
-tufts
-bc</p>

<p>Safety:
-syracuse
-northeastern
-your state school (?) You might as well apply to it, but I'm not sure where you live so....</p>

<p>THAT would be my list. A lot have your schools were in the middle of no where, and some of your safties had little to no prestige; why go to those schools when you can easily get into syracuse and northeastern? Also, based on the fact that you had a lot of conservative/catholic schools on your list, I removed the really liberal ones (i.e. Brown, Columbia, NYU). I also took off Wellseley just because it's all girls--c'mon. I don't know if my list is the best, but it's what I would do.</p>

<p>There are a lot of decent colleges that aren't in Fiske (Washington College (MD), U of Mississippi, Seattle U, Loyola of Chicago, Niagara, and Wayne State University are a few that Fiske didn't have room for). I used to live near Stonehill and drove by it many times. Beautiful buildings--red brick, etc.</p>

<p>Reach:
-u penn
-harvard
-columbia
-brown
-georgetown
-cornell
-dartmouth
-carnegie mellon
-emory
-williams
-amherst
-wellseley
-duke</p>

<p>Good/Match:
-lehigh
-mcgill
-buckenll
-lafayette
-tufts
-wake forest
-bc
-nyu</p>

<p>Safety:
-syracuse
-villanova
-hofstra
-elon
-babson
-northeastern</p>

<hr>

<p>thats for a top student...a 3.6uw gpa isnt a good thing for most of those reaches and matches...</p>

<p>Plus, you have too many schools. 12-15 maximum. You dont need 6 safeties, 2-3 good ones are all you need.</p>

<p>OK, but you're saying it's hard to get into. Staying real is important.</p>

<p>Your list isn't weird, but it's so long that it doesn't seem well thought out. But, that's fine for an early list. I agree- top heavy, unless you are so outstanding at the sports and music that it will be a hook for the top schools. I would drop Hofstra, Elon, and Babson. Babson is too narrow. Elon-too far south. Hofstra- well, I've heard that it doesn't have a high rate of student satisfaction. How about Barnard- you could take classes at Columbia. I would drop McGill. Duke, Georgetown, Cornell, and Dartmouth are not easy to get into. You would have a better chance ED at Cornell than at Penn. It sounds as if you live near Boston- geography is not going to help you with most of this list.At Wellesley, you can cross register with MIT, so that may be a good choice. University of Chicago is good for economics, so you might want to take a look at it although it's not in the Northeast. I went there from the Boston area. Not a bad trip if you fly.</p>

<p>one more wary opinion about safeties...northeastern had 28,000 apps this year and put 7000 on the WL....It is extremely popular...a friend's son got waitlisted and both his parents attended!! (tons of EC's but prob. not 1520!)</p>

<p>thanks for the feed-back everyone... heres a little more info if that helps... my dad is an alumi of upenn, and my mom is a prof of MIT... ummm i live in Wellsely, MA, my house is a 4 minute walk from Wellselely college. the reason y i didnt consider that is becasue i would perferably major in finace verses business... also i dont kno if this helps but my bff's dad is the biggest donor at Harvard??? and i have meet the administraors...</p>

<p>If you apply ED to Penn, you have a good shot. I'm not sure how much having a parent teach at a university will help, but a friend of mine has a mom teaching at Stanford - and that's where he'll be attending in the fall.</p>

<p>I think you have WAY too many schools on your list. It is almost as if you simply picked schools for their names and reputation rather than if they are "good fits" for you. I am a senior in high school, and I applied to three schools - two matches/safeties and one reach. For me, it really was the reach school or nothing; there was no place in the country I would rather attend, as it offers the academic environment I want. I think I expressed that well in my essays, and I was accepted.</p>

<p>If you really think about which schools to which you would like to apply and why you want to go there, you most likely will have a better shot at being accepted, as the colleges will be able to tell whether you are serious about them. A school with a big name does not necessarily mean it is a school where you will be comfortable.</p>

<p>i say go to upenn and check it out as a potential student....
i fell in love with that campus and the atmosphere...fabulous academics...
wellesley is too close to home...but an EXCELLENT school and beautiful campus..
could not get my d1 to get out of the car at wellesley, no boys!!!!!</p>