<p>It's really easy to figure out your reach schools and pretty easy to figure out safeties, but it can be a lot harder to know which schools are match. Could anyone help me out here?
SAT:2340
GPA: 4.0 unweighted
Class Rank: 1 (unweighted), maybe 2 or 3 weighted (we give a little extra weight to AP's)
SAT Subject Test: Math 2:800, US History:800, Physics: 780
AP: 5's on APUSH (self-study), AP World, AP Chemistry, AP Physics B (C not offered), AP Calc AB (BC not offered), AP Lang, AP US Gov
Current Classes: Calc 2 and 3 joint enrollment, AP Bio, AP Micro, AP Macro, AP Lit, Newspaper, couple of grad req's, self-studying AP Euro</p>
<p>EC's: Newspaper for three years and now managing editor, Founder and editor-in-chief of school literary magazine, NHS, French Club (VP junior year), Academic Team Captain and may go to nationals, 1st place state science fair, did research and have an abstract published in a professional journal, won a journalism scholarship to go to DC for a week, paid writer for a professional sports website</p>
<p>State: South Dakota (moved from Georgia after sophomore year)
URM: No</p>
<p>I’d like a medium size school anywhere in the US. Having merit scholarships would be nice. I’m not sure about major, but either something STEM or economics. I’m not really an art person. The school should have a newspaper, but the vast majority of schools do.</p>
<p>Your stats are high enough that virtually all matches will also be reaches due to acceptance %ages. For some safeties with great merit aid go to the Financial Aid forum and look at the stickies at the top of the forum. Even with great merit aid it may be tough to beat your in-state university costs.</p>
<p>Frankly, I don’t think you have many reaches. You are superstar student from South Dakota. You have significant state level achievements, and a publication. You have demonstrated passion and increasing responsibility in journalism. </p>
<p>I define a match as between 40-90% probability of acceptance when you round the probability to the nearest 10th. </p>
<p>I think most schools that people think are reaches for everybody are matches for you. </p>
<p>I think if the overall acceptance rate is 15% or higher, its no worse than a match for you. I might even lower that to 10%.</p>
<p>4.0 GPA with rigorous course choices, top end SAT scores, and state/national level EC achievements may make the reach-for-everyone schools less admissions-reachy for you than for most other applicants. However, most of those schools do not offer merit scholarships, so check their net price calculators to see if they are affordable to you.</p>
<p>If you need big merit money because you and your family cannot afford the more expensive schools on need-based aid alone, look in the financial aid and scholarships forum for the automatic (safety) and competitive (match and reach) full tuition and full ride merit scholarship sticky threads at the top.</p>
<p>Be sure that you have safeties in your application list that you know that you can afford.</p>
<p>Thanks. Any specific match schools though, leaving finances aside for a second? I have more than a few reaches on my list already. I’m thinking University of Souther California is a “safety” (I know it’s a good school, at least according to US News, but I’m not crazy about the college culture. It’s also not particularly known for its Econ program, but it has terrific merit aid).</p>
<p>Unlike most students, I think you can be somewhat picky as to geography, program, etc. What schools interest you? You should do some visits. I think you have an excellent chance at most schools.</p>
<p>A school that is match for admissions but reach for finances (because you would need a large merit scholarship that is a reach there) is a reach overall.</p>
<p>If you do not think USC is a good match academically or socially, then it would not be a particularly good choice for a safety (also, it is selective enough that it is probably not a safety for anyone, although you might consider it a low match for admission – note that if you need the merit scholarships, you need to assess it on the chance of the scholarships, not just admission).</p>
<p>Yeah that’s true. The good thing about USC is the automatic half tuition scholarship for National Merit. That’s pretty good, especially for a good school. It’s not that I dislike the school’s social scene; it’s just that it’s not ideal, which is why it’s kind of a back up, albeit a strong one. How about UNC Chapel Hill? And Vanderbilt?
Also, I don’t think U Chicago is a match for anyone anymore; it’s acceptance rate is below 10% now. It was top 5 in US News, which probably increased its appeal a lot and put in virtually Ivy territory. NYU (like Cornell and Brown) is expensive and doesn’t have much in fin aid.</p>
<p>UNC Chapel Hill is a reach for any OOS applicant despite your excellent stats. Is your school able to nominate you for the Morehead Scholarship?</p>
<p>Vandy is a high match. Richmond and Tulane are matches with a fair amount of merit aid; Wake is also a match but has less merit $ available. If you are willing to consider smaller schools, many LAC’s have great merit $. W&L has strong journalism and econ programs, and you would be competitive for their Johnson scholarships.</p>
<p>USC’s scholarship is technically competitive, but I think I have a strong chance.
Vanderbilt is a match, but Chapel Hill is a reach? Not according to OOS acceptance rates…</p>
<p>However, if you need the merit scholarship (which reduces the yearly cost from about $60,000 to about $40,000) to be able to afford it, it is not a safety if the scholarship is competitive. Besides, you indicated that you are not too enthusiastic about its academic and social aspects anyway.</p>