So I am a junior and am starting to build my college list. I am valedictorian of my class as of right now, with a 2380 superscored SAT (2310 highest sitting) w/ 800 Math. Will have completed 9 or 10 AP classes by the end of senior year. Have won several awards for photography and business competitions (DECA 3rd place at states) and spend summers completing research at a local college. I also do theatre at a separate school of performing arts and at my high school.
With that brief summary of me, I was wondering if I could get some help on prospective match/reach schools for my prospective major of Biomedical Engineering (Not dead set on this, thinking of business too, so I want schools that I wouldn’t be stuck with engineering at). To give you an idea, some of my reaches include UPenn (top choice), JHU, Duke, etc. I would like to stay in the Northeast, but would be willing to go down South as far as North Carolina, or to California (because California is just amazing).
My current “matches” are:
Northeastern University
University of Michigan
University of Virginia
Villanova University
(Don’t expect acceptance from all these amazing schools necessarily - just saying that my stats match up with their stats based on what I have read)
My safety is UMASS Amherst.
Do I have enough matches? Do I need more than one safety? I’m planning on applying to a bunch of reaches, so do I need so many matches/safeties?
HELP!
Thank you!
If you are certain you will be admitted to your safety, certain that you can afford it, and like it well enough that you will attend with no regrets if you do not get into any other school (or all others are too expensive), then you are set in the safety department.
But if you may second guess any of the above characteristics, then you may want to add more schools in that category.
Be sure to talk to your parents and check net price calculators to see if schools on your list are likely to be affordable.
We have no idea if you have ANY safeties on your list because you need to tell us how much your family will pay each year.
A safety MUST be affordable.
ASK THEM…how much will they pay each year towards college.
Do you need financial aid? If so, will you QUALIFY for the aid that you need? Do you have a noncustodial parent?
A UC school in Calif will cost your parents about $56k per year. No aid is available. So, will your parents pay? If so, then super. If not, take off the Calif UCs.
If your parents expect you to get need-based aid, then have them run the Net Price Calculators on schools’ websites. Have them start with schools like USC (calif) and maybe a UC (to see the cost), and so forth.
If your parents expect you to get large merit scholarships, then apply to the schools that will give those awards.
I would most likely be able to pay for schools without aid. Don’t quite want to put how much my family makes on here, but we do well enough. I may qualify for aid while my brother and I are both in college, but aid isn’t going to be a major factor.
I am in state for UMASS, and I will receive a scholarship because of my MCAS scores that will make it very affordable for me anyway, so that is one option that DEFINITELY would be fine money-wise.