<p>How would you rank it in terms of reaches, matches, safeties? Should I pick up another safety? Should I pick up more?</p>
<p>Reach:
Caltech
Swarthmore</p>
<p>Match:
Harvey Mudd
Carleton
Wellesley</p>
<p>Safety:
Clark</p>
<p>Stats:
-Asian female, rising senior
-2230 SAT (750CR/800M/680W), taking again in November
-5 on AP Comp Sci, haven't gotten AP Chem, AP Bio, AP USH scores back yet
-GPA is funky at our school, but basically an A- student in all honors</p>
<p>Notable stuff:
-went to Nationals for Science Olympiad, came in 4th in one of my events at state level, 9th at national level
-AIME qualifier twice, AMC high scorer 11th grade
-indoor track and outdoor track captain, varsity every year
-went to CTY for 6 years (not really notable, but what I'm writing my college essay about)</p>
<p>My mom is taking me to visit the colleges around the Amherst area as well as Williams, so the list might be fluid. Still, I don't think any of the colleges around there are safeties, except for probably Hampshire, which is a bit too liberal for me. What others would you recommend?</p>
<p>If you haven't noticed, I like the small schools.</p>
<p>You might want to consider Carnegie Mellon, Princeton and University of Chicago. They are somewhat larger than the ones on your current list, but have excellent math departments and science facilities. Being a female with an 800 SAT math puts you in a pretty special category; I would think that most schools would be interested in you. Clark seems like too safe of a school, unless you are thinking that they they would give you a large merit scholarship.</p>
<p>You didn't list your SAT IIs. Have you taken them?</p>
<p>I was about to mention Chicago. We have an intense academic environment (with lots of overlap with just about every school you listed!) and even though we are a bit bigger (4400 ugrad) you can definitely get a "small school" feel here.</p>
<p>Chicago is particularly known for its quantitative majors (math, econ, physics) but it has excellent departments across the board: anthropology, linguistics, English, psychology, to name a few. Because of the small undergrad population and the large grad student population, undergrads get to use the same resources as the grad students and work with them on projects, yet still have that small-ish collegey feel.</p>
<p>PM me if you have any Chicago-specific questions.</p>
<p>Swarthmore only has a 19% acceptance rate, while Harvey Mudd has a 30% acceptance rate?</p>
<p>My SAT IIs are 760 in USH, 760 in Bio, and I'm taking Math IIC and Chem in October.</p>
<p>I got my AP scores back today, and I have all 5s. (Bio, Chem, USH)</p>
<p>CMC, Princeton, and UChicago seem pretty interesting, but do they really give the intimate feeling small schools give? I won't be visiting UChicago in any case, but I might visit CMC and/or Princeton if it will be worth it.</p>
<p>I'm not sure Clark is too safe. How would I rank colleges in terms of being safeties or matches anyway?</p>
<p>BTW, I am positive I will be doing something related to math and science, but I would really like for there to also be a strong humanities and english component.</p>
<p>UChicago is as intimate as you want it to be, and I think it's academically exactly what you want. Even though the undergrad is big, the dorms are split up into small houses (houses range from 36-110+ students covering all years with more first-years, as upperclassmen tend to move off-campus). Though every dorm treats the house divisions differently, (some have more cohesion than others), all of the houses have their own table in the dining hall, their own Resident Heads (grad students who do house programming and are paid to be cool), and their own intramural sports teams.</p>
<p>Since you can choose the dorm you end up in, if you're looking for intimacy, the Snell-Hitchcock Dorm, Burton-Judson, and Breckinridge Dorms have exactly that.</p>
<p>Also, beyond dorm setting, you'll be in small discussion classes with other students. This year, I only had one lecture, and even that class was capped at about 50 students. The others were all discussion-based, with a range of 8-20 kids. When I visited the school, I sat in on a 5 (!) person undergrad-level English class that was conducted in a converted dorm room. If that's not intimate, I don't know what is!</p>
<p>(Plus-- I don't know if I mentioned this before-- your reaches seem feasible enough to add more of them without worrying about being unrealistic).</p>
<p>
[quote]
Swarthmore only has a 19% acceptance rate, while Harvey Mudd has a 30% acceptance rate?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Acceptance rates don't mean everything. The applicant pool for HMC is very self selecting. If the same student applies to Swarthmore and HMC, chances are he/she will have a slightly easier time getting into Swarthmore. Look at the USNWR ranking for "selectivity" if you don't believe me (Mudd and Pomona are tied for first, but I can't remember what Swarthmore is). Selectivity is what you really need to consider, not just acceptance rates. Also, Mudd's acceptance rate is somewhere in the mid-20% range.</p>
<p>Impressive because it's so well thought out. Clearly you're looking for that fit with a small, science-strong, intellectual school and all your choices look great. You clearly also have a good sense of where you sit on the admissions selectivity scale but I think you're underestimating yourself (though slightly). </p>
<p>REACH Caltech (How can it not be?)</p>
<p>LOW REACH Swarthmore (your SAT score may still be above their 75th percentile but their diversity commitment and your sex and ethnicity may conflict)</p>
<p>"SOLID" MATCH Carleton and Harvey Mudd (Sorry, atomicfusion. I'd agree with you were the poster not female (HMC is 68% male and crying out for female companionship) and her SATs not at the 75th percentile for this very competitive school).</p>
<p>SAFETY Wellesley (all female student body means admission competition is less intense than predicted by the school’s remarkable academics) and Clark</p>
<p>So answering your 1st question: No, no need to expand the list if it feels right. 2nd: Only Caltech may limit your humanities offerings. HMC has 4 neighbors at your disposal to fill in its gaps. All the rest have strong offerings in their own right.</p>
<p>As others have said, your list looks good...obviously very well thought out! If you're interested in adding other schools, I would urge you to look at Pomona and Scripps along with Mudd (if you make a trip to the area). The former would be a reach (a reasonable one) and the latter would be a safe match, but both seem like they might hold a lot of appeal. Then again, if you've already looked all around Claremont, disregard ;)</p>
<p>Good luck, and congrats on your achievements!</p>
<p>apathy, I wouldn't worry about trying to determine whether individual colleges are reaches or matches. Your background is somewhat unusual -- especially if you intend to participate in varsity track -- and there are too many variables to make a good guess. Instead I would concentrate on what you want along the lines of teaching style, environment, and location and come up a consistent list.</p>
<p>At this point, the search and research phase, you should have more than one safety. If, after visiting and investigating, you are convinced that Clark (or any other) is the right one for you, then you only need one. Mt. Holyoke and Scripps sound like good suggestions. I think Smith is a great school, too, but it may be too liberal for you. If you're visiting Amherst, try to see Smith as well.</p>
<p>I would think that your profile would be very interesting to Williams and any one of several rural LACs that have a hard time attracting Asians. I would put Hamilton and Bowdoin, maybe Kenyon in this category. Being an athlete counts a lot at these schools, even if you don't intend to compete on a varsity level. After you visit you will know if this is the right environment for you.</p>
<p>Unless you're determined to do so I wouldn't worry about your SATI scores -- they're fine (they're excellent). Concentrate instead on the more subjective aspects of your application like the essays, recommendations, resumes.</p>