I’m a rising senior from a small town in NY, just north of New York City! I’m getting a little antsy about the college process, and was wondering if my list was ok!
some things about me: White female at highly ranked small public school and my financial need, which I’ve discussed with my parents, is not significant.
GPA: 94 average (I would have nearly a 97 if you took out my math grades though )
ACT: 33 (36 E, 36 R, 32 S, 29 M. 10 on essay)
SAT2: 740 on World History, taking Lit in August
AP Scores: (I self-studied all of these APs with the exception of Environmental Science, which I took at school.) AP Human Geo (4), AP World History (4), AP US Government (4), AP Comparative Government (5), AP Environmental Science (5). Will graduate with 10 APs.
Extracurriculars: President of Quiz Bowl, Secretariat of Model UN, selected for a program where I shadowed New York State legislators and then founded a youth civic education/engagement club due to my genuine horror about how uninformed we are about politics, singer-songwriter, in select and regular chorus, high school theater, volunteer tutor, National Honors Society, etc.
Intended Major: Poli Sci, maybe psych or anthro also?
THE LIST:
Wesleyan University (ED1)
Bates College (maybe ED2?)
Kenyon College
Oberlin College
Barnard College
Skidmore College
Dickinson College (triple legacy, EA)
Connecticut College
Scripps College
Macalester College
American University
University of Vermont (EA)
Maybe Beloit also? I might also apply to Brown for fun and games, but am not sure.
Congratulations on your hard work and success! It looks to me like a great list. It appears you know what you like. The schools are all terrific. They seem very reasonable in terms of admissions for you. I think you will have some choices and will be able to compare prices if you don’t end up accepted ED. Does it look like it will be affordable to attend Wesleyan or Bates if you are accepted ED? That would be my only question/concern. Good luck!
The big issue is that your list is match-heavy, with some of those matches being more like low-reaches (Wesleyan, Skidmore). Your only real “safety” in the usual meaning of the term is U Vermont, and as an OOS applicant you are not a sure thing. Now, if you are 100% on board with going to Vermont in case the others don’t work out, then that is likely fine. It is just that Vermont looks like the only college on your list about which you can feel relatively safe. The odds are certainly in your favor that you will get into several of those others on your list, but do you really want to roll the dice on that chance?
Even if you love U Vermont, there is another argument in favor of having more than one “safety” on your list: merit aid. You say your financial aid situation is not a real concern, but even so your stats are good enough that you would likely qualify for merit aid at many of the usual suspects of “safeties” discussed on these boards, like Alabama that gives big merit packages for a 33 ACT (full tuition-plus), or even a midwestern state flagship like Ohio State that gives merit awards that lower its OOS tuition to a level comparable to many in-state options. I am also curious why you don’t have a NY state school on your list as a safety/match.
My son’s list is very similar. We’ve only visited a few on your list but he loved Kenyon (and Denison). I think Dickinson is a safety for you in addition to Vermont and American. And our son really liked Beloit. If you think you’d like Kenyon, you should take a look at Beloit. It would be a safety for you.
Great list! (Though the cautions about it being “match heavy” may be apt of course. Personally, however, I think match heavy lists to be *generally/i superior to “balanced” lists.)
In terms of your interest in anthropology, Wesleyan, Barnard, Skidmore, Connecticut College and Dickinson all appear below, which would seem to be a good indication for your selection criteria up to this point:
Beyond your above choices, your profile and academic interests would also be well suited for Haverford, Vassar, Hamilton, Pitzer and George Washington.
If you are planning on applying to Wesleyan ED I hope you are familiar with their admitted class profile with respect to courses taken in HS. From Wesleyan’s site:
HS Preparation:
90% have taken calculus
84% have taken biology, chemistry and physics
82% have a fourth year (or equivalent) of one foreign language
For another safety school you could look at Lawrence University in Wisconsin.
@Hellofagal - I have all except physics, I’m taking regular level calc next year, took french 4 last year, and have taken earth science, bio, chem, ap enviro, and will take ap bio next yr!
@BooBooBear I was considering Dickinson to be a little bit more of a safety due to my legacy there, but have anxiety about lack of safeties. I was thinking of adding Beloit, Puget Sound, or Wheaton (MA) as an additional safety.
I view the process more from a bottom-up perspective–pick a safety you like/love, pick a second backup safety (especially if there is any desire or concern about merit aid), then just throw darts all you want for any remaining applications you choose to make. If your safety(ies) are truly safe and you would be happy there, then all of that “balance your matches and reaches, then divide by the square root of your SAT score” advice is not that relevant.
My S19 has a resume similar to yours and seems to really love a school that would be considered a match (a solid one). My primary goal now is to make sure he has a safety school or two in addition that he would be happy with, and then ease up on the pressure for adding more matches and more reaches, etc. My guess is that he will end up with two safeties, a couple of matches (including the school he seems to be focusing on), and a couple of reaches (schools similar to his match but more selective). I really doubt he will create a list longer than a half-dozen or so when it is all said and done. In addition, the strategy will be to apply EA to his preferred match and his two safeties (merit aid usually requires early application anyway), with maybe an ED to his first choice reach, then sit back and see whether he will need to apply to any RD schools.
really great list! i can see that you are not caught up with just the name of the school, but rather choosing schools that will meet your academic and social needs. that’s great! best of luck. i think you are going to get a lot of acceptance letters.
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