I am a rising senior from MD. Im looking for a medium school (3,000-20,000) that is not too far away. I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA and around 4.3 weighted and am also enrolled in many AP classes. I am also top 10 in my class of 300 with an SAT score of 1550. Im also in most of the honors societies, a community service club, mock trial, model UN, and SGA.
I recently made my list of schools to apply to:
Safety;
Towson, University of Delaware, Syracuse (maybe safety maybe match??)
Match
UVA, William and Mary, Case Western, University of Rochester, Villanova
Reach
Cornell, Tufts
My question is, is this a good balance of reach/safety/match schools? I’m also probably not going to get much from FAFSA, so I’m looking for schools that would give me good merit aid. It seems like most of these schools could (besides UVA, W&M, and Cornell, but I loved those schools so I’m applying on a long shot). Would I be eligible for good merit aid from these schools? Thanks!
Syracuse classification will depend on which school you are applying to. UVA is a reach, with a sub 20% OOS acceptance rate. The rest of your matches all have acceptance rates in the high 20s…some would call those reaches too.
Regarding your safeties, will you be happy to attend any of them? And, a safety is only a safety if it is affordable…what can your family pay per year of college?
For merit aid, go to each school’s website to see what merit scholarships they offer, and the requirements. Some may require extra essays and earlier application deadines. Take a look at each school’s common data set (CDS) to see how many incoming freshmen receive merit (non-need based) aid, and how much they receive on average.
You need to add Tufts to your list of schools that you will not get merit. For CWRU, regular merit tops out at $30k. Is $40k/year doable for your family? Have you run any net price calculators at any of the full need schools on your list to see if you qualify for FA? Also, make sure that you understand how merit and FA work together at each school.
No UMD? I take it that you’re not a CS or EE major.