<p>People at my school keeping urging me to add more reaches to my list because I have what is considered to be at my school, really good scores.</p>
<p>The schools I'm applying to are Bates, Holy Cross, Smith, Villanova, St. Joseph's, University of Scranton, Bryn Mawr, American, and Fordham.
Some of my stats are:
SAT- 2100 (CR- 720, M-650, W- 730)
I have a lot of leadership positions and EC's.
My essay is pretty creative.
My one weakness is probably class rank. I have a really good GPA, but due to grade inflation at my school I'm about 30/270. It should improve after this quarter but still.... </p>
<p>I feel like my list of schools is appropriate, especially considering this year is going to be really competative. Should I add more reaches?</p>
<p>Why not? Also, due to the financial meltdown, privates may be struggling for applications compared to last year. There seems to be a catholic theme to your current list - Why not add BC and Georgetown? Smith and American (with no prior knowledge) seem to be as different as two schools could be. Just curious how these two schools made your short list?</p>
<p>I'm looking for a really good political science program and I kept hearing good things about American and I love the campus.
I also love the northeast and small LAC's. I interviewed at Smith and just got a really good vibe. I know they're different and if I had to pick between the two right now I probably couldn't do it. I just want my options open I guess.</p>
<p>Also BrainCramp, I've been thinking about BC. I visited and I liked it, but some of the students turned me off. Not that just a few students are representative of an entire student body.</p>
<p>Tufts and Georgetown?</p>
<p>I love Tufts, but I've heard Georgetown puts a lot of emphasis on class rank, which is not my strong suit.</p>
<p>Tufts and Bowdoin might be good reaches for you. But I'd say you have a good list. You could certainly add another reach <em>IF</em> the school really appeals to you, not just for the sake of applying to a "more prestigious" school.</p>
<p>That definately wouldn't be the reason. I'm not that concerned with prestige, more so with reputation I guess. I do like Bowdoin, I visited in the summer but wasn't going to apply because of my SAT scores (old score was a 1940).</p>
<p>What was the CR & Math portion of your "old" SAT I on which you scored a total of 1940? What do you plan to study? Also I would love to read more about your impression of Smith College. Any AP or SAT II scores?</p>
<p>I took it three times total and scored a 1250, 1310, and then finally a 1370 (1850, 1940, 2100). </p>
<p>I plan on double majoring (hopefully) in political science and international relations. I've taken three AP tests (Euro- 3, U.S.- 3, and U.S. gov't and politics- 4). I self studied for U.S. History and U.S. gov't and politics so that's why there a little lower.
I'm waiting on my SAT II scores, but I don't think they're going to be that great... U.S. History was horrible. Nothing was fresh in my mind. I also took literature and I think I did okay.</p>
<p>Also, I visited Smith and the campus is beautiful. My interviewer was really cool and I think it went very well. Unfortunately I didn't get to take a tour, but I talked to some students and they just seemed like such intelligent women, who were serious about their education but also laid-back. I want a school with students who are serious and passionate without the uber-competativeness that exists at a lot of top schools. The programs that Smith had and their financial aide program seemed promising. Financial aide is a big factor for me.</p>
<p>yeah u should have 2-3 reaches. based on your stats I think u should pick some of the top 20 schools</p>
<p>A 1370/1600 is outstanding. Wellesley College is also generous with financial aid (and Wellesley students can take classes at Harvard & MIT). I asked about Smith since most of your other choices are on the conservative side. If financial aid is very important to you, then applying to more reach schools may not be the best idea.</p>
<p>I was hoping they wouldn't look negatively upon the fact that I didn't start out with stellar SAT score. There's a pretty big gap between my first and second set. I'll definately have to look more into Wellesley. I need major aid.</p>
<p>I'm not sure why, but all the colleges I ended up liking were Catholic universities. I'm Catholic but I'm also a huge liberal (president of the young democrat's club haha), but I guess that's where colleges like smith, bates, and bryn mawr come in.</p>
<p>Holy Cross is very generous with aid (claiming to meet 100% of need), so that could be a good fit for you. It's a great school....I loved it there. </p>
<p>My husband also is an alum and got so much aid that the cost was the same as it would have been for UMASS.</p>