Is this list of colleges realistic? Suggestions?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Is this list of schools too unrealistic for my stats? Any feedback/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!</p>

<p>Schools I am hoping to get into: Amherst, BC, Columbia, UCONN (Safety), Duke, Georgetown, MIT, ND, Northwestern, Middlebury, Stanford, Tufts, Vassar, Swarthmore. Ivies?</p>

<p>Stats:
ACT with Writing: 33 (Math - 34, English - 34, Reading - 33, Science - 31)
SAT IIs (only to be sent to the schools that require them in addition to the ACT): 740 Math I, 600 Bio -probably not sending, 700 chem, 640 spanish
Weighted GPA: 4.28
Unweighted GPA: 19.52/20 I think. I can list my grades if that helps?
Rank: Class doesn't rank, but I know I am ~top 5% because they give awards for it
AP: Bio (3), English Language (projected 4, hopefully 5), Chemistry (projected 4, hopefully 5), US history (projected 3, hopefully 4) I know they're weak...
Senior Year Classes: AP English Literature, AP Spanish 5, AP Physics, AP Statistics, AP Psychology, AP Economics, AP Calculus AB
Awards: St. Anselm College Book Award, McLean Award (for Geometry), NHS, School scholar award, Piano competitions</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: Debate Team VP, Field Hockey, Lacrosse, Tennis, Key Club Pres and Founder, FBLA, Principal's Leadership team, Piano lessons
Job: Summer Camp Counselor, Youth Lacrosse referee, looking for another job
Volunteer: A bunch of stuff- Nursing/retirement home, HARC (Retarded Citizens), Special Olympics, Relay for Life, Kids for paws, Local Marathon volunteer
Summer Activities: Work at summer camp, took Health/Civics online to fulfill graduation requirements so I don't have to take them during the school year, Brown Leadership Lessons</p>

<p>Ethnicity/Gender: Asian, Female</p>

<p>Writing (for essays): Probably decent enough.
Teacher Recs: They have the potential to be really nice, but might turn out to be the opposite... I'm not really sure. One for sure will be good.
Guidance Rec: Expecting nothing special since my first guidance counselor retired after having her for two years. He could pleasantly surprise me though!</p>

<p>Feel free to ask any questions.</p>

2

<p>OK, what is your state of residence? </p>

<p>What is your family’s EFC? Have you done an EFC (expected family contribution) on one of the EFC calculators online, either Finaid dot org or the collegeboard website? If you use the Collegeboard’s website, select “IM” and “FM” and keep hitting “Save” so you can refer back to it. </p>

<p>There is no sense in looking at $50,000.00 plus schools if you cannot afford them.</p>

3

<p>I am from Connecticut. I haven’t done an EFC yet, but I don’t think the money will be a problem because of grants/scholarships, loans, financial aid, etc. I am really more focused on the schools right now and will focus on money later.</p>

4

<p>If I lived in Connecticut, I would go to UCONN…</p>

<p>My D#1 graduated from UCONN in 2007. My parents graduated from UCONN in 1948 & 1950. UCONN is ranked #27 in USNWR’s National Public Universities.</p>

5

<p>Although your list is rather top-heavy (and thin in the middle), it is not so much unrealistic as it is incoherent. Georgetown, MIT, and Swarthmore are three very different schools. So are Columbia, Middlebury, and ND. What is the common thread, aside from the fact that they are all very selective and prestigious?</p>

6

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<p>Different schools are different in generosity with need and merit financial aid. Make sure that your safety schools are financial safeties as well as admissions safeties.</p>

7

<p>@tk21769
I’ve visited Georgetown, MIT, Swarthmore, Amherst, Duke, and Columbia and liked them all for different reasons. I like both liberal arts colleges and Universities, so I have a variety of schools. I could see myself at either one. </p>

<p>I would group them like this:
Amherst, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Vassar,
MIT (The one engineering/technology institute l I am applying to)
Columbia, Stanford, Duke, Georgetown, Northwestern, Tufts, ND, BC
Safety- Uconn</p>

<p>Does that help? If you still think it is incoherent, could you provide some suggestions on what I could do to help it be less disconnected?</p>

8

<p>@ucbalumnus Thanks for the good point. I live in CT, so that means in state tuition at UCONN! As for the others, all I know is that most of the schools are need blind, and most also guarantee to meet 100% of a family’s demonstrated need.</p>

9

<p>Might look at Holy Cross and Colgate. Holy Cross has beautiful campus and like the Ivies is need blind for admissions. HC also has very good alumni network.</p>

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<p>You’re the one who has to convince the adcoms that you’re not just dating their sons for their money, so to speak. If you believe you can sincerely, convincingly answer both “Why MIT?” and “Why Vassar?” in the admission process, then fine. Even so, you might want to consider a few less selective “match” schools. So would you be more attracted to engineering/technical schools (Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Rose Hulman) or to small liberal arts colleges like Vassar (maybe Bryn Mawr, Macalester, or Skidmore)? If the latter, are you looking for a school with a heady intellectual atmosphere like Swarthmore, or someplace more preppy and athletic like Middlebury? In those respects, Reed and Grinnell are relatively Swat-like; Connecticut College and Trinity are a bit more like Middlebury. </p>

<p>If you aren’t interested in “fit” at all, and prestige is the overriding concern, then you might want to consider Barnard College as a match school. Barnard is much less selective than Columbia College, but Barnard students still get to take most Columbia courses (outside the “Core”) … and still get a diploma that says “Columbia University”.</p>

11

<p>“most also guarantee to meet 100% of a family’s demonstrated need”</p>

<p>That means the schools decide what they believe your family can afford to pay and provide support up to that amount. Your family may have very different ideas about what it can afford. </p>

<p>And I agree that your list is top-heavy. Reaches: Amherst, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Vassar, MIT, Columbia, Stanford, Duke, Georgetown, Northwestern, Tufts.</p>

<p>You might want to pare that down a bit and look for some additional matches. Macelester, Oberlin, and Grinnell would be some LACs that fit the bill. If you like preppier schools (a la Amherst and Middlebury), take a look at Bates and Colby in Maine and Davidson in the SE. Grinnell offers merit aid by the way and as an Asian, you have an advantage in the midwest, where you are a URM.</p>

12

<p>^^^agreed.</p>

<p>What a college decides your “need” is might not be anywhere close to what your family thinks. </p>

<p>Sit down with your parents and use this calculator:
[EFC</a> Calculator](<a href=“http://www.aie.org/managing-your-money/finance-tools/efc_calculator/]EFC”>http://www.aie.org/managing-your-money/finance-tools/efc_calculator/)</p>

<p>The number you end up with will the minimum a school like Amherst will expect you to pay. MINIMUM.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

13

<ol>
<li>Your ACT score and SAT Subject scores are not that high for an Asian</li>
<li>I don’t see anything unique about your ECs</li>
<li>You do not have any “major” award</li>
</ol>

<p>MIT, Stanford and Ivies (other than Cornell and Brown): MAJOR Reach
Duke, Swarthmore, Georgetown, Northwestern, Amherst: Reach
Middlebury and ND: Better chance due to low Asian population (What about Vanderbilt?)
Vassar and Tufts: No idea</p>

<p>“Is this list of schools too unrealistic for my stats?”
I don’t think so. Apply to many selective colleges and see what happen.</p>

<p>Remember! You have 0% chance if you don’t apply.</p>

14

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<p>As another poster noted, what the school thinks is your family’s ability to contribute may differ from your family’s idea of its ability to contribute. Also, different schools offer different proportions of loan versus non-loan aid – a large amount of loans tends to be a bad idea from the student’s point of view.</p>

15

<p>To be brutally frank, if things don’t fall your way at a couple of places, you could easily emerge from this list with admission only to UConn. It’s not that you aren’t a legitimate candidate at most of them, it’s that they have very low acceptance rates and from what you say here you will be in the middle of the candidate pack at many.</p>

<p>Your SATIIs and 3 in AP Bio aren’t going to help you: the top two are okay, but below what one sees from successful candidates at many schools on your list. Taken as a whole, they make your school’s prep look rather weak and hint of grade inflation. (Really, what was up with that Bio class?? A 600 for a kid with your GPA?) I think that some 5s on the exams you take this year would help dispel that potential concern.</p>

<p>I’m trying to discern a pattern in your ECs and not finding one. It may be just a matter of how you listed them here. Why did you do the things you chose to do?</p>

<p>I think there are two things you need to do.</p>

<p>1) You definitely need to put together applications that tell a coherent story about you. Recommendations are, of course, out of your control, but a couple of good essays are essential. Definitely consider getting an additional recommendation from someone who knows you well from one of your volunteer activities.
2) You need to add a couple of match/low match schools to your list. If that means you need to trim the upper branches a bit, so be it. (Personally, I don’t think you have any significant chance at MIT or Stanford or the Ivies, except Cornell. Even without them, you have a lot of reaches on your list.) Good suggestions have been made: Skidmore, U of Rochester, VT, Colby, maybe some of the NY schools like Colgate, some of the Midwest LACs would be places to consider.</p>

16

<p>As an Asian, I don’t think you have a chance at the ivies, MIT, Stanford, Duke, or Northwestern. Your weighted gpa is low and your act scores are low. In addition your extra currs are not impressive. Every Asian is on debate team. I know this because I am Asian and I have a lot of asian friends more qualified than you who were disappointed with the colleges they got into. Apply to schools like NYU, USC, UCLA, UMICH, JHU, Emory, WUSTL
Also your sat scores are low. Math 1 as an Asian?</p>

17

<p>Thank you for all the responses!! I am no longer considering any ivies except for Columbia because I really liked it there. I know it’s a major reach, but you never know what will happen. I have taken off schools that were too much of a reach, including Stanford, Northwestern, etc.</p>

<p>I have added: Bowdoin College, Harvey Mudd, College of Holy Cross, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, and Washington University in St. Louis.
^Thoughts on my chances at these schools?</p>

<p>Also - BC and UConn: Any chance I’d get into the honors colleges here?</p>

<p>My top two choices are Swarthmore and Georgetown - Realistic?</p>

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<p>@jengajenga117 - Will the fact that I’m asian with my stats really have a negative effect on my chances?</p>

19

<ol>
<li><p>Stanford and Northwestern are totally different schools in terms of selectivity. Even the LACs like Amherst, Swarthmore, Middleberry have acceptance rates lower than Northwestern. My stats were lower than yours and I was still accepted into NU.</p></li>
<li><p>I thought your old list was fine if you really liked them.
The only “real reaches” in your list are Amherst, Swarthmore, Middleberry, MIT, Columbia, Stanford, and Duke. I’d say you’ll get into at least 50% of the remaining schools in your list which includes Georgetown, Northwestern, Tufts…</p></li>
<li><p>Your new list of schools seem kind of incoherent. Vanderbilt, JHU, WUSTL, Bowdoin all have acceptance rates lower than 20%, similar to the Ivies. Holy Cross is the odd one on your list.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Pick the schools you genuinely love regardless of acceptance rates and financial aid. You already have UConn as a safety. You will have plenty of time to deliberate with your parents about which school to choose.</p>

20

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<p>Top 5%, 19.52/20 GPA (~3.9), 33 ACT (~= 2190 SAT), are not “low”. Those stats, by themselves, will neither make nor break an applicant’s chances at most of the Ivies, Duke, Northwestern, Swarthmore or Georgetown.</p>

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<p>If there’s an issue here, I agree this is it (in the choice of ECs as in the choice of schools).</p>