My daughter, like many juniors, has a long list of reach schools she likes, but is pretty thin when it comes to target and safety schools. She attends a top 25 high school in the country (if you believe those sort of lists to be true). Her school does not publish class rank but I suspect she will be somewhere in the top quarter, but probably not in top 10%. She has taken the ACT twice with a composite of 33 both times. Superscore is a 34. She has taken almost all honors classes, with 5 AP classes. Her UW GPA is 3.6 and weighted is 4.3. She is a varsity cheerleader and has been cheering for 8 years with an interest in cheering in college. She is deeply involved in two medical service organizations and is an officer in one. She is involved in an anti-bullying club at school and is a newly elected officer in NHS. She has participated in medical mission trips and will graduate with a seal of bi-literacy in Spanish. She plans to major in Spanish and biology.
She volunteers at a hospital and works a part-time job.
She is looking for a school where she can continue volunteering at a hospital that needs someone who can speak English and Spanish. She is also looking for opportunities to do more medical mission trips if possible with her school.
She prefers a school with a student population in the 5K to 10K range although it is more important to her that class sizes are small and taught by professors not TAs.
I would love to hear of any schools that any of you think might fit her wishlist and be one where she has a good chance of getting accepted. Thanks!
Tufts (Low Reach) and Brandeis (High Match) both sound like they would be excellent options for your daughter, given the strength of their science programs and focus on undergraduate education. Wake Forest might be a good pick, though I’m not sure about the opportunities for speaking Spanish at local hospitals.
“She attends a top 25 high school in the country,” should make Naviance a pretty valuable resource for picking matches and safeties. Keep in mind that you need to allow for legacies, athletic recruits and URM.
We are in IL. We have saved and she is our only child so we are luckily to be in a position to be able to pick a school without budget being the deciding factor. Of course we would love scholarships, but we aren’t counting on them.
Thank you! I will look at your suggestions. She actually had Wake on her list for Early Decision, but I thought it might be a reach given her GPA and class rank.
It might be a bit of reach. Schools are getting more selective. But keep in mind that most colleges will know your daughter has gone to a top 25 high school, and that will likely benefit her. It also sounds like she has strong extracurriculars which she can stitch together a stellar essay about if she’s a good writer, so if she’s going to apply ED she should go for a low reach/high match school.
How about Tulane? They are big on demonstrated interest, but her stats make them a match with some merit likely if she writes a convincing “Why Tulane?” essay. Lovely campus and the size she’s looking for.
I agree with tdy123 that Naviance will be a great way for you to be able to see the reality of you D’s chances at various schools. Hopefully they have a list of the kids without any hooks so you can fairly compare.
In addition to the above excellent suggestions, William and Mary and Rochester. Also mid-size national universities with tip-top academics, great research opportunities, and strong in sciences. W&M has about 6400 undergrads, beautiful campus, very nice area with restaurants, coffee shops, etc. very walkable from just about anywhere on campus. Wash U in St. Louis is certainly another option, extremely competitive but your D’s profile would make her a strong candidate (top high school, high ACT, etc.) Interest is important there.
A sleeper might be Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Nice campus in nice part of Worcester; U Mass med school is in Worcester; large Spanish-speaking population, I think. We loved the students and campus vibe. Program is very hands-on and project-oriented, if that appeals or not. Relative gender balance, which is not always the case for STEM schools. Favorable admissions/aid environment for female applicants. About 5000 undergrads. It has become considerably more competitive in recent years. It’s not that big of a name but is highly ranked and starting salaries are very high.
You can catch Case, Rochester, and WPI on a trip across I-90. We did that a couple of times. And Tufts too if you continue on to Boston.
Oh, and a cool, excellent, safety-type school (for her high stats)–University of Vermont. Burlington is a great town, right on Lake Champlain with beautiful sunsets toward the Adirondacks. Downtown (Church Street!) is walkable from campus (Ok, probably a cold walk.) Med school is adjacent to main campus. It has a little over 11k undergrads.
Oh, and maybe Boston College. Also mid-size national university, also beautiful campus in a nice suburban area near downtown Boston. Also, accessible off I-90, as is Brandeis, which we liked.
Most of those schools are in reach territory, IMO. No, not high reaches but certainly not safeties. I’d like to see some true safeties for her. University of Tampa, maybe? University of Denver? Assuming no financial restrictions here.
People on CC love the University of Alabama. People visit with low expectations, and come away loving it. It’s bigger than you want, but offers many advantages.
Another safety, Creighton University in Omaha. I was impressed by Omaha, certainly beat expectations, Creighton campus is a short walk downtown. Excellent students, University of Nebraska med school is in Omaha. Just a little on the small side with 4000+ undergrads. You’d probably be driving across Iowa a lot.