Looking for More Safeties/Matches

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi! I'm a junior working on finishing my college list for next year. I have plenty of reaches, but only a few matches and barely any safeties. My main criteria are strong academic schools with good biology programs in warm weather(or at least not awful winters). Cornell is on my list due to the fact that both my parents went there, and would be heartbroken if I didn't at least apply. I also know Cornell is a fantastic school, and my only reservations about it are Ithaca's awful winters. I know most people rely on their state flagships as solid safeties, but I honestly have absolutely zero interest in attending the University of Utah, as it's extremely close to home and my mother works there. I'm very interested in animals, and am really considering the path to vet school. I moved the summer before my junior year across the country, so if my EC's look a bit disjointed that's why. Money is not an issue. I'm looking for any advice on additional colleges I should look into and if my rough classifications of the schools on my current list are accurate. Also any advice on what I can do to improve my app. Thanks in advance for any and all responses!</p>

<p>College List:
Reaches-
Stanford
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UVA
Emory
UNC Chapel Hill
Duke
Cornell
Rice</p>

<p>Matches-
UCSD
USC
UCD
Wake Forest (possibly more on the reachy side)</p>

<p>Safeties-
UCSB
University of Washington</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2230- 760 CR, 770 W, 700 M (I know, my math score will hurt me)</p>

<p>SAT II: US History 800, taking Bio E at the end of the year, possibly Math II as well</p>

<p>GPA (out of 4.0): 3.99 UW; 4.23 W (school uses very strange weighting system)</p>

<p>Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 11/326, should move up a couple spots by the end of the year</p>

<p>AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH (5); taking Micro, Macro, Bio, Calc BC, English Language, Psych, and Human Geography this year, should be 4's and 5's on all</p>

<p>Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, AP Calc BC, AP Chem, AP Physics B, AP Gov, Yearbook, Aerobics</p>

<p>Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Projected National Merit Semi-Finalist (PSAT 223), Presidential Volunteer Service Gold Award, hoping for National AP Scholar, misc. school awards</p>

<p>Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Volunteer at local animal shelter, walking dogs, cleaning, interacting with perspective adopters, ect (~10 hours/week) [11-12];
dog fosterer at same shelter (varies) [11-12];
Yearbook Editor-in-Chief (varies) [member 10, page editor 11, EIC 12];
School Tutor (varies) [12];
Big Brothers Big Sisters (1-2 hours/week) [11-12];
Docent at local nature center (3-5 hours/week) [11-12];
Varsity Softball (15 hours/week in season) [9-10];
JV Volleyball (15 hours/week in season) [9-10]</p>

<p>Job/Work Experience: Work at the back dog/cat boarding kennels at our local vet (3-6 hours/week) [11-12]; pet-sitting (varies) [9-12]</p>

<p>Summer Activities: Service trip to Caribbean (summer before 9); Service trip to Peru (Summer before 10); Moving across the country, working, volunteering (summer before 11); possibly another service trip, possibly getting an internship at the vet's office where I work (summer before 12) </p>

<p>Essays: should be fairly strong, writing has always been one of my strong suits</p>

<p>Teacher Recommendation: AP Lang teacher (should be great, I'm one of the strongest students in the class and she's also the Yearbook advisor); AP Bio teacher (should be alright, I hear he writes good letters and I work hard in his class)</p>

<p>Counselor Rec: she loves me, says I have the highest PSAT score for my grade</p>

<p>Additional Rec: I well be getting one from the director at the shelter where I volunteer, I'm one of the best volunteers and work extremely hard there</p>

<p>Other
State : Utah</p>

<p>School Type: strong medium-sized public, multiple HYPMS acceptances this year, 4 NMS</p>

<p>Ethnicity: white white white</p>

<p>Gender: female</p>

<p>Income Bracket: upper class, no FA necessary</p>

<p>Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): legacy at Cornell, possibly tiny geography hook</p>

<p>Thanks again!</p>

2

<p>UCSB and UCD are generally thought to be similarly selective, so you cannot count on one as a match and one as a safety (it is likely that neither is a safety, although selectivity varies depending on which division you apply for).</p>

<p>By “no FA necessary”, you mean that you and your parents can afford up to $60,000 per year?</p>

<p>Solid safeties would include the University of Alabama campuses that guarantee large merit scholarships for your GPA and ACT/SAT score.</p>

3

<p>For a safety, maybe University of Puget Sound? or any others where you are solidly in the top 25% of applicants or higher. I found the Parchment list website does a pretty good job of predicting acceptance at various schools.</p>

4

<p>For matches, take a look at Georgetown in DC and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. JHU is especially strong in the biosciences and Baltimore has it’s charms if you like your urban to be a bit gritty. As for Georgetown, DC is a great place to go to school - decent weather year round, vibrant city with lots of free stuff to do, pretty campus along the Potomac River, and you won’t be competing for admission with the thousands upon thousands of political science/IR majors. Although Georgetown is Catholic, I believe half the study body is not Catholic and the religious-ness is barely noticeable unless you seek it out.</p>

5

<p>HMMM - you pose an interesting scenario…one that I will offer an Alternative suggestion. Biology and Writing are thought to be different spheres as far as academics is concerned. One way to get a well rounded education is to go Liberal Arts.</p>

<p>Think about if you are looking for being a part of a huge institution or if you want that college to recognize and nurture you as an individual…</p>

<p>Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA is an exceptional school that would offer a prestigious spring board to an advanced degree in your chosen field. It would offer Strong support for your writing and open up the world a bit more than the typical 17 or 18 year old has had exposure to.</p>

<p>The Claremont schools (Pomona, Harvey Mudd College, etc) are known to be as happy a student body as can be…they are 5 small colleges that share a large campus, thus giving both individual attention AND large school opportunity. Their work real hard and their playfulness match up well for those that can get in…</p>

<p>If an outside the box solution comes to you, don’t shrug it off just yet…</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>PS - UW is a very selective school - not really a ‘Safety’</p>