Hello, I’m looking for target schools. I seem to have plenty of reach schools and safety schools, but I’m struggling coming up with target schools where I might fit in best. I live in New England and would preferably like a school in New England or somewhat outside of New England (I would go as far as Philadelphia or maybe even Washington, DC). My GPA unweighted is 3.969, my SAT 1 score was a 2130 (though I plan to retake it), and my ACT score was a 33. I will take the SAT IIs this weekend. I am very active in my community and school - I play varsity sports, am the President of 2 clubs and am involved with about 2-3 others, I volunteer, going to Boys’ State, chosen for a couple important committees, and I’m pretty confident my recommendations will be good, as will my essay. For reaches, I am looking at schools such as Tufts, Brown, and Yale (a far reach), and for safeties I am looking at schools like UVM or Northeastern. The only school so far that might be a target school is Bates - I didn’t like Bowdoin or Connecticut College. Does anyone have any suggestions on more target schools I should look at?
Seems like you like medium sized schools more than small schools. How about American or George Washington in the match/safety range? Lafayette? If you’re willing to go a little further south than DC, maybe URichmond?
What appeals to you about Bates if you didn’t like Bowdoin? The two are more similar than Bates is to the rest of your list.
“What appeals to you about Bates if you didn’t like Bowdoin? The two are more similar than Bates is to the rest of your list.”
There are lots of reasons kids like one school over another - even if they are similar. My S crossed Bowdoin off his list because the campus was too flat and he didn’t like that one of the dorms was a tower.
Colgate, Hamilton, Bucknell and Lafayette. The latter two would be easier to get in.
You are in a good position with Bates, Colgate, Hamilton but keep in mind in regular decision even early decision without a hook, you are looking at actual acceptance rates of well below 20%.
Also, I politely suggest that Northeastern may be more a target than a safety, depending what major you’re interested in. Similarly, UVM is a good choice for a safety but UVM Honors is more of a target. So you may already have more target schools than you thought.
William & Mary, Gettysburg, Haverford. Go ahead and work to improve test scores but your UW GPA is exceptional particularly if you’ve taken a rigorous course load
If you look at the Northeastern Decision thread here on CC you will see that it is a match, not a safety as many with stats superior to yours were denied.
Kids with your stats could consider Northeastern a safety when applying from the HS in my town. According to Naviance, no one has ever been denied with an SAT score over 2100, including kids with averages just above 90 who are in the third - fourth decile.