<p>I need a list to apply that will offer me generous aid without me having any outside scholarships.
Dartmouth
Cornell
Carnegie Mellon
Penn
Stanford (maybe)
Yale (maybe)
NYU
UNC Chapel Hill
UVA
Swarthmore
Boston College (HELL YEAH)
Lehigh
Wake Forest
Villanova</p>
<p>This is my plan if I don't get into Penn ED, and they offer great financial aid. </p>
<p>I may also need a few more safeties at the level of Villanova on the east coast. </p>
<p>Uh, what are your stats?? </p>
<p>2000 SAT (Probably a 2200 retake in October), 3.73 GPA, I think my ECs are strong though.
Yea, most of them are reaches…lol. </p>
<p>Dartmouth Out of Reach
Cornell Reach
Carnegie Mellon Reach
Penn Out of Reach
Stanford (maybe) Out of Reach
Yale (maybe) Out of reach
NYU High Match
UNC Chapel Hill Reach if OOS
UVA reach if OOS
Swarthmore Reach
Boston College (HELL YEAH) Reach
Lehigh High Match
Wake Forest High Match
Villanova Match—definitely not a Safety</p>
<p>NYU should go out- generous aid is a joke at NYU
Stanford, Yale- out of reach
List is pretty reach heavy. No Low match or safety</p>
<p>Yea I need some safeties…
I like Dartmouth after going to Dartmouth Bound 
Penn is possible because I’m a Philly resident and I applied for programs there. </p>
<p>I do not see Villanova as a “safety” with your posted stats. I would call it a match. Most of your colleges are reaches, and some are beyond-reaches (the difference is between “unlikely” and “impossible”). If your ECs do not include being the #1 quarterback or point-guard in the country, they probably won’t bridge the gap for the Ivies, et al. If your weighted GPA is well over 4.0, you might have a shot at CMU (unless you’re pursuing computer science) or Cornell. Otherwise, I’d say that Lehigh, BC, Wake Forest, NYU, Villanova, are all high-matches, and Swarthmore is a reach. UVA and UNC would be high-matches to moderate reaches if you are in-state for either, but big reaches from out-of-state. My son had similar stats to yours, and UNC-CH was his first choice reach. He did not get in, but didn’t really expect to. A 200-point score increase could alter your outlook somewhat, but not as drastically as you might hope, and bear in mind that it’s highly unusual for scores to rise that much. I have cited College Board’s own figures on the subject repeatedly in various threads. You will encounter individuals here on CC who report that sort of jump, but you also encounter numerous posts from people with perfect ACT and SAT scores. They are the exception, not the rule. The odds are in favor of your scores increasing; they are very much against your scores increasing by over 100 points.</p>
<p>Well I think I can get at least a 2100, been studying…
Anyways, how should I alter my list then?
All of the kids at my school who got into Penn this year did not get higher than 2000 on the SATs.
My school doesn’t offer much classes, so my weighted and unweighted are almost identical. </p>
<p>Should I not bother with UVA nor UNC?</p>
<p>
I doubt that</p>
<p>Dartmouth: High reach
Cornell: Reach
Carnegie Mellon: Reach
Penn: High reach
Stanford (maybe): High reach
Yale (maybe): High reach
NYU: High match
UNC Chapel Hill: Reach
UVA: Reach
Swarthmore: High reach
Boston College (HELL YEAH): Reach
Lehigh: Reach
Wake Forest: Match
Villanova: Match</p>
<p>It’s true, they all took the summer program at penn before their 12th grade year though and they all applied ED based on that, that’s what I’m doing. One kid applied RD after getting deferred during ED and got in, his 4th SAT was 1940. This other kid got a 2070 superscore and he didn’t get in for some reason. </p>
<p>So what colleges should I removed and what should I add?</p>
<p>Remove all but 1 or 2 of the reaches. add schools like BU, GWU, American etc. </p>
<p>BU is expensive isn’t it?
I’ll keep Dartmouth, Cornell, Penn and BC.
Carnegie is pretty expensive too…
What else? </p>
<p>Penn State? It’s pretty expensive though, my EFC is 0. </p>
<p>I got prioritized apps from Tulane and Pitt so the application is a lot shorter, but don’t they cost a lot? I might also do EA UMich along with Penn ED. </p>
<p>All 3, BU, GWU and American are expensive. </p>
<p>I thought GWU had the better merit aid of the three; plus don’t expect that much in merit money from Tulane either. Unless you have 0 EFC to Tulane’s eyes…</p>
<p>Temple University would be an admissions safety and you would likely get good merit aid there.</p>
<p>Sorry to say it but you are dreaming too high. </p>
<p>Yea, well I did NPC for all 3 and I have to pay over 10k for each. However, they do look like great schools. Any others? I am looking at the list of colleges that meet 100% need at the moment. </p>
<p>It’s Penn State but NPC says I gotta pay 15k. </p>