Junior looking to expand list of match and safeties

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Gender: Male
State: VA (Not NOVA)
Major: Economics & Finance
School Type: Average Midsize Suburban School
Race/ethnicity: White
Income bracket: upper class

SAT I (breakdown): 1450, planning to retake in fall
SAT II: None
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.96 (only B in eighth grade algebra)
Weighted GPA: 4.22
Rank: somewhere between 10 and 20 in a class of 240
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Human (5)
Junior Year Course Load; APUSH, AP LANG, AP Physics 1, AP Latin, AP Micro and Macro, Calculus, Latin 4
Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, AP Gov, AP Comp Gov, AP Calc AB, AP Calc BC, APES
Considered the most rigorous course load possible
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

FBLA national champion in finance related event (2019)
1st place in state economic challenge (2019)
15th place in national economic challenge (2019)
State baseball championship (2019)-not sure if this really counts lol

Other various economic and FBLA regional awards

Extracurricular:
Colonial Marching Band (7th-Current) Highly selective program that admits kids while they are beginning middle school and trains them to play an instrument. I have public performances three times a week (10-12 Hours a week year around.)

Golf Team (9th-current, will be team captain this year)

FBLA(9th-present, president since Junior year)

Economics Club (President and Founder, 10th-present)

Statistician/Manager for school’s baseball team (10th-present)

Math Honor’s Society (11th)

Latin Honor’s Society (11th)

Club that helps freshman get acclimated to the school (10th-current)

Planned LORS:

  1. APUSH Teacher: 8-9/10, I excelled in his class and we have a really good relationship.
  2. AP Lang Teacher: 7/10, I did well in her class and she liked me but doesn’t know me as well, was hoping to cultivate this relationship more before the pandemic.

Current List of Schools I plan to apply to:
Instate
Safety:
CNU

Matches
UVA*
William and Mary*(Double Legacy)
Wake Forest
Villanova

Reaches:
Notre Dame (Top Choice, plan on applying REA)
Georgetown

Reaches for Everyone:
Duke (Second Choice)
Northwestern
UPenn

I know my list is really reach heavy right now and would love to expand my list of match schools. I would like schools with a similar culture and size to Notre Dame, preferably east of the Mississippi. Cost is not an issue.

I appreciate any help.

2

First, congrats on a strong record!

Some questions:

= 2 Latins in Jr year?

= WF is more bit more of a reach than a match, b/c it’s acceptance rate is so low these days. You are a stat match- but they turn down a lot of those

=Do you like CNU in particular? You have a lot of instate options that are pretty much safeties for you. You want to be sure that if that is your ONLY choice you won’t cry!

=agree that UVa and W&M are solid matches

=Can you afford your private match & reach options?

Given your great in-state options, and that you have a clear reach favorite I don’t know that you need more safety / matches- as long as you are genuinely happy with your safety (or safeties if you add a couple more in-states- GMU? JMU? VCU?) IMO you are in pretty good shape

3

University of Dayton has a ND feel.

4

The obvious match in terms of high quality academics, size, and campus culture is Boston College. Any reason you didn’t include them?

5

For more matches, how about University of Richmond, BC (as mentioned), University of Rochester, or Fordham (excellent internship opps in Finance)?

How many have you visited? Preference for city vs. rural? Big vs. small? Also curious if you plan to try ACT as well and/or take subject tests. Georgetown, for example, does not require but “recommends” 3 subject tests. Of course, testing requirements might shift next year due to test cancellations due to Covid-19.

You’ve got a nice, varied resume.

6

1)My school runs on a semester schedule: I took Latin 4 in the Fall and then AP Latin in the spring. However, we have been learning the AP curriculum since the fall.

  1. I would have no problem attending CNU. It’s place I know with 100% confidence that I would be happy and successful at. I find a lot of the other instate safety options a little bit too big in terms of student body for my liking.

  2. I have discussed finances with my parents and we have no problem paying for my private matches and reaches.

7

I think you have a good list here.

Since you are looking for more matches and/or safeties, I would recommend checking out Holy Cross (MA) and Fairfield (CT). Both really nice schools.

8

@4Gulls @collegemom3717

So far, I have been fortunate enough to officially visit ND, Northwestern, Duke, UVA, and W&M, along with UMich and UChicago (neither of which I liked after visiting). I also took an unofficial tour of Georgetown over the winter and plan to spend a weekend this summer in Philadelphia to officially tour Villanova and UPenn.

I was scheduled to take the USH and Latin subject tests in June before they were cancelled. With many schools beginning to waive these requirement for this admissions cycle, I am unsure if I will still take them especially since Latin is only offered twice a year. If Georgetown doesn’t waive their policy, I will probably end up taking the USH, math, and maybe lit subject tests in the late fall.

9

If cost is no issue, then consider expanding your geographic area. Colleges like to have representation from a wide variety of locations, so this will also help with admissions. Here are some suggestions:

Claremont colleges (Pomona, Claremont McKenna and Pitzer)
USC
Wash U St Louis
Rice
UC schools (UCLA and Berkley)

10

I think a decent match/safety would also be the College of the Holy Cross, like @AlwaysLearn pointed out.

11

If your safety, and strong matches are fine with you, you are good. Just understand that you will likely be going to a match or safety school. That’s why it’s important to have good choices there. Too many applicants spend the vast majority of time, thought, Research, wishes, imagination, on the rewa h schools when the FACT is that they are most likely to end up in their matches and safeties too often just thrown on the list. Just put the time and emotion in seeing yourself at those schools That is where you are likely going.