Is this a balanced college list??

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I have a 32 ACT, 3.93 UW GPA, Valedictorian, ELC, solid extra curriculars.</p>

<p>Reach:
- University of Pennsylvania
- Harvard University
- UC Berkeley
- Brown University
- UCLA
- Ohio State Honors Program
- Villanova Combined BS/MD
- Colorado College</p>

<p>Match
- UCSD
- Tulane
- UCDavis
- Case Western Reserve University
- Reed College
- Boston College</p>

<p>Safety
- UCSB
- UCDavis
- UCSC
- Hofstra University
- Juanita
- Fairleigh Dickinson University
- Purdue University</p>

2

<p>Yea</p>

3

<p>Nice range but too many. It would be better to select your favorites out of each category. What kind of college experience are you really looking for? There’s a huge difference between Ohio State and Colorado College – one is huge and the other is small and teaches one class at a time. That is just one example. There are many such contrasts in your list. I recommend giving it some more thought and narrowing the list.</p>

4

<p>Are you planning to apply to all of them? What is your home state? Applying to that many schools will be time consuming and costly. I believe Common App only allows you to apply to 20 schools anyway. Coming from someone who applied to half as many, and thought that was a lot, you should really think about narrowing your list down. Not only will it save you time and money (average application fee $75, transcript, SAT score, CS profile cost = 150+ per school) but it will save you time when decision making comes around.</p>

<p>Pick your favorites off each list and scrap the ones you really have or vague or no interest in.</p>

5

<p>And have you checked the net price of each school?</p>

6

<p>Well the UC is one application and I think you should keep those, they recommend to apply widely withing the system to ensure admission. That leaves you with 14 additional colleges. Do you need 4 safeties plus UC? I suppose it is balanced in the way of having a little bit of everything. Are you still deciding what you really are interested in?</p>

7

<p>Yes, the extra cost for applying to extra UCs is less than for many other schools – just add campuses to the UC application (with the extra fee per campus), no transcripts needed, no CSS Profile (FAFSA only), only one set of SAT or ACT scores needed for the UC system.</p>

8

<p>Wayyy too many. Unless you are prepared not to do anything but apply to colleges for the next two months.</p>

<p>I would recommend 2-3 colleges in each category, reaches, matches, and safeties. Nine colleges is still a ton…</p>

9

<p>@BrownParent I am not dead set on a major, but I really like the idea of biomedical engineering.</p>

10

<p>Tulane is a safety for you, otherwise it looks about right. How did you do on SAT II?</p>

11

<p>I don’t think Tulane is safety, Case is. Case admits 40+%, Tulane probably 24% or even less this year.</p>

<p>The only limit on # of colleges is the time you are willing to spend. And the $$ you are your people are willing to shell out. Too many is better than too few.</p>

12

<p>Thanks everyone, your feedback it truly helpful!!</p>

13

<p>Tulane considers level of applicant’s interest, so using it as a “safety” without showing interest beyond applying may be risky.</p>

14

<p>I have to wonder about a list when I see Reed and Colorado College on the same list as OSU and Purdue. </p>

15

<p>Why? @Erin’s Dad . I like what all those schools offer.</p>

16

<p>Also, Im not a one-trick pony, I can thrive at both types of schools.</p>

17

<p>Quite a few on the list don’t offer biomedical engineering…</p>

18

<p>The choice of schools is…eclectic. I agree, this is fine for a preliminary list but it needs a lot of pruning. While you can have disparate schools on your list, having so many very different schools is probably not a good idea.</p>

<p>I’d get rid of three non UC reach schools. Any three schools. Keep the matches. Keep Purdue and the UC schools you listed as safeties.
That will give you choices and chances, </p>

19

<p>Reed is a very intense small LAC, Col College is a small LAC not nearly as intense which uses block scheduling, Purdue and OSU are big rah-rah schools. Beyond all being good schools there are no similarities.</p>