^The problem is that you can not step down the safety ladder too much without compromising the strength of the program!
I just don’t know how far down the “safety ladder” is really safe enough. In the same vein, I’m not sure that the schools that I considered matches are actually matches.
u should definitely get into all those schools except for University of Chicago, Columbia University, Brown University, and Carnegie Mellon(if ur applying for some engineering/computer science)
I’m not applying for engineering/compsci 
Thank you!
@dr0wning I think you are on the mark for your assessment of what schools would be reaches, matches, and safeties. The only match i think is questionable is Carnegie Mellon. It’s one of those schools that is a reach for everyone.
@pdubs97 Would you change your assessment if I told you that I wasn’t applying to CMU for engineering/compsci?
@dr0wning I don’t know enough about CMU tbh. You’re a viable applicant for the school and I think you have an excellent shot of acceptance, but it’s not guaranteed.
@pdubs97 Thank you! Of course I don’t expect guaranteed acceptance at all, but I thought that match = good chances, reach = crapshoot? So I was a little confused. Or do you mean that CMU is a high match/slightly lower reach?
@dr0wning I really don’t know enough about CMU to evaluate your chances. Going by your SAT score, GPA, and whatnot, you’re a solid candidate, but we know that’s not all they consider.
@pdubs97 Thank you!
@dr0wning You are definitely a match for CMU in terms of economics since its at Dietrich college of social sciences and humanities that has a mean admit rate of 27% plus your sat is at the 75th percentile for the school and your gpa matches the mean.
I got the data from their official website: http://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/undergraduate-admission-statistics
UCLA has an 18% admit rate for social sciences so your chances are better than at other more competitive programs. Individuals with your SAT score and gpa have a 60%-70% admit rate at UCLA.
I would suspect you have similar chances at Berkeley and USC.
In terms of Columbia, Brown and Chicago these universities are true reaches but I believe your chances of getting to at least one is around 20%. The more Ivies you apply to the higher your chances of admission. I would also recommend Princeton(were people with +2300 have a 14% chance of admission) and Pennsylvania were I believe your chances could be as high as 20%-30%.
I would advise you to aim high and not worry too much about safeties, keep applying to top selective schools and you would likely get into possibly an Ivy. You don’t need to worry about safeties.
Good luck :-bd
@Ali1302 Econ is a joint program between Dietrich college and the Tepper school of business though, and Tepper has a mean admit rate of 17%.
Where did you get the data for UCLA? I hadn’t thought to compare my stats to social science-specific data, so thank you!
@dr0wning That’s odd I thought economics would be considered a social science I guess you’re right but I still believe you have a good chance of getting in.
The UCLA data is from the freshmen admit profile 2014. Individuals with a 2100-2400 sat score had a mean 52% admit rate although I believe this has gone down to 45% in 2015 and would possibly get lower this year. Your sat score is higher than the 75th percentile of admits so your chances are +60% at least.
Here is my source from 2014:http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_fr/Frosh_Prof14.htm
In terms of Princeton I got the data from their freshman profile. Students with sat scores of 2300-2400 have a 14% chance of admission. The university for some reason deleted the admission profile page but last I checked it was 14% for your sat score and 12% for those with your gpa.
Your chances at Upenn are probably higher than Princeton since they are less selective so someone with your gpa would most likely have a 20%-30% admit rate.
I also have the class profile of cornell a school that is similarly selective to Upenn. According to cornell’s class profile someone with a 2300-2400 sat score has a 29% admit rate for the freshman class of 2017. I have a pdf of the class profile which was deleted by the university. I could possibly send it to you if you want.
Basically 17% of applicants(6,800/39,999) had sat score between 2300-24000 for cornell and around 32% of admits have that score(1,991/6,222). This means 1991 students were admitted from a pool of 6800 students who had a 2300-2400 sat score giving such students a 29% admit rate. I doubt that cornell is more selective now so you basically have a 29% admit rate at cornell and Upenn. If you want the class profile I’ll have to send it via email. I’m not sure how else to send the pdf file?
@ali1302 Wow, that’s really interesting! I had only ever looked at average SATs and GPAs, so this is pretty enlightening. I hadn’t thought about applying to other high reaches but I’m starting to consider it! I’ll PM you with my email?
@dr0wning It’s best to have a strategy that maximizes your chances of getting into one top school, so if your applying to 3 Ivies might aswell apply to all 8 especially with your test scores and gpa. Universities such as Cornell, Dartmouth and Upenn have a 25%-30% admit rate for someone with your test scores and gpa so it’s worth applying to these schools to maximize your chances of getting into an ivy.
The issue with this strategy is you could possibly end up spending a lot of money on university applications possibly hundreds of dollars to even a thousand dollars? But in return you increase your chances of getting into an ivy or a selective school. It may also be hard demonstrating interests to all your universities so I guess you have to take as many interviews and visit as many schools as possible? This is a common strategy among students who want to get into atleast one top school.
It’s odd that someone with your credentials is worrying about safeties at all. You could almost consider UCLA, USC and UC Berkeley as safety school as I could almost guarantee you’d get into one if not all of them. If you PM me your email I’ll send you the Cornell class of 2017 profile that shows that they have a 29% admit rate for students with +2300 sat scores. They had a 15.5% admit rate back then and in 2015 they have a 15% admit rate so your chances barely change that much. Other schools with a 12%-15% admit rate your chances would range from 20%-30%, for universities with a 5%-9% admit rate your chances range from 10%-15%.
I would recommend you apply to Georgetown aswell as Washington university in St. Louis. Maybe Johns Hopkins too.
@Ali1302 I was actually considering Dartmouth since I could recycle my EC/activity essay for “We believe it is critical that your candidacy reflect the interests, experiences and pursuits that are most important to you. To this end, is there anything else you would like us to know?” What you say makes sense, and I never knew that the admit rate was that high based on the stats.
To me, the biggest issue with the strategy of applying to as many ivies as possible is not the money (it would be worth it if I got in), but the supplements. I can do Dartmouth’s and have completed Brown’s, but both Cornell and UPenn have un-recyclable essays (why college essays).
My major weakness is my GPA, though. 3.8 UW seems to be considered pretty low around here, so my only “outstanding” stat is my SAT score, and possibly the sheer number of AP tests. Even UCB’s average GPA is 3.9. As a result, I was basically thrashed in my other thread (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1838531-might-need-safeties-p1.html) and I was told to look for schools with >50% admit rate for safeties.
From what I’ve been told, USC/UCLA/UCB are matches, but the posters in the other threat didn’t think so and said that they were all reaches. I PM’d you my email but part of it got starred out, so I resent it! Also, my score is on the lowest end of the 2300+ category, so should I really categorize myself as 2300+?
I was considering Georgetown University as well, but I couldn’t see the supplement question. I go to a counseling place and they offer help for 10 schools (UC counts as one) maximum, so I had to spread my choices out, and I ultimately chose to apply to UChicago, Columbia, and Brown as my super-reach schools. If you’ve applied, could you tell me what the supplement essay prompt is? I applied to WUSTL already, and I’ll look at JHU as well.
Does “safety school” mean a school that you’re really likely to get into, or a school that you’re practically guaranteed to get into? I consider UCB/UCLA/USC as matches but I get how you would say that they are my safeties with the first definition. With the second definition, though, they probably aren’t.
You’re on the Columbia ED thread. Good Luck:) I know you’ll make it!
@kkumar haha, I recognized your username from that thread! Thank you very much, and best of luck to you as well
@dr0wning Your class profile is more important than your gpa so how do you think you rank among your class? The individuals that discourage you probably are unaware of the class profile and chances of students with your test score and gpa. You definitely don’t have to aim low or worry about safeties at all.
Moreover, UCLA/USC/UC Berkeley are definitely matches and pretty close to safeties if you ask me. I could bet that you would get into at least one if not all of those universities. None of them are reaches but since the admit rate isn’t 100%, I guess you can never be certain but you have a very high chance of getting to atleast one if not two of these universities.
Have you considered other top universities like Duke, Vanderbilt that are pretty much ivy level schools too? 10 schools is a huge restriction and could lower your chances of getting into a top 20 school.
My district doesn’t officially rank. Out of 625, I am in the 30s, I think around 33. I’ll check tomorrow, but I’m in the top 6% for sure. I go to a public magnet school in California. Is there any more information you want about my school/class?
I’ve considered Vanderbilt, but since there is no supplement I didn’t put it in the list of schools that my counselor would help me on. Vanderbilt would be a match, right? The only aspect that might deter me from Vanderbilt is the location, but I’ll probably submit anyway.
If I don’t add other schools, I’m applying to 6 top 20 schools: Columbia, UChicago, Brown, WUSTL, Rice, UCB (+ honorable mention to Emory, ranked #21). The schools that I will most likely add are Dartmouth and Vanderbilt. What do you consider a reasonable amount of top 20 schools to apply to?