My son has done a lot of research about the college admissions process, and has a very thorough list. However I think it’s a little too eclectic, as in it seems to be a mixture of all types of schools, which leads me to think: does he know what he wants? What do y’all think of his list?
Reaches:
Yale
Duke
Brown
Penn
Cornell
Amherst
Low Reaches/High Matches:
Tufts
Emory
UVA (in-state)
Matches:
William and Mary (in-state)
Case Western
Bucknell
Safeties:
GMU (in-state)
I generally don’t see anything wrong with his list. It would be helpful to know his planned major, his stats (many students are a poor judge of reach-match-safety classification), and whether you have run Net Price Calculators on each college website (on the FA page).
I’ve run most of the Net Price Calculators and what they expect of our family is fine. He wants to major in Cognitive Science or Neuroscience with a minor in International Affairs or Global Health or a language. He would be on the pre-med track. For privacy’s sake I don’t want to reveal his exact score but his GPA is a 3.9something and his SAT score around a 2100. He is retaking his subject tests this fall.
Does he have a high GPA and test scores?
What does your son want to study?
Schools like Brown and Duke are quite different, so I understand your question. The VA schools are a great option but W&M is very different from GMU.
Make sure you run the NPC (if you haven’t done this already) for each of these schools. All of his reaches meet full need and can be either quite expensive or unexpectedly affordable depending upon income levels. If you can afford these schools, then it is an interesting list.
The main question is - is he really sure he will be happy to attend GMU? I’m not saying that he will be shut out by all the other schools (I doubt it) but I would start with the safety first. If he has the grades, stats and EC et al to aim high, then he can probably find a safety that makes him very happy instead of settling for the local default school. For instance, Rhodes College may be a possibility as a safety-level school (he would get money - always an ego boost); there are other schools.
His list is a little reachy but really, it’s a nice range. Has he considered Rochester?
He needs to think about where and how he wants to live for four years, and what he wants access to besides a campus. For example, Duke is in the middle of nowhere with few places walkable from campus, whereas U Penn is in the heart of Philadelphia with the ability to walk or use public transportation to go to endless destinations. I think that is the biggest distinction among all the colleges on the list – some are remote and rather isolated, while others are in or near big cities with all their resources and opportunities (including restaurants, theaters, shopping, internships, jobs, transportation options, etc.).
Are there any sports or hobbies he wants to continue? Some students want to be near a great climbing gym, or a river for crew, or a skiing destination. Does he love live music or plays? Dining out? Museums? Does he want to be involved in a community beyond campus, and if so, how? What about volunteer work or internships? Since so many of the colleges on the list are in or near big cities, I would guess that is his preference, and he should go ahead and remove the remote colleges from the list and replace them with more in cities, but he should really think it all through to be sure.
Given the GPA and test score ranges indicated, I’d work on developing a more robust match and safety list, unless he’d be happy as a clam attending GMU. Without knowing more, hopefully he’d have other choices, but we’ve seen it happen here on CC when that isn’t the case. I agree with the comment above that his reaches are very reachy, which is fine as long as you and your son know that.
Unless he has stellar ECs, he may end up with only 2 or 3 acceptances next March. There are numerous posters each Spring on CC who are frustrated because although they “did everything right,” they wound up with too few choices in the end.
We’ve took measures to make sure that he loves his safety school, so we’ve visited GMU numerous times, and he says he’ll be happy with attending there if he only gets in there. He feels that with a guaranteed safety he would love to attend, he can aim wherever he wants for his reach schools. I guess I see the logic in that. We’ve also used Naviance and he fits the profile for past students accepted into UVA and W&M from his school, so we could call those “confident matches”. He hasn’t considered Rochester but I’ll suggest it to him.
Even though he doesn’t have schools with drastic differences like Columbia and Dartmouth, I just feel like some of the schools are really different–yet he seems to have at least five good reasons for applying to each school on his list.
@mommyrocks So are you implying that at this point it’s more so about the location of the school rather than the school itself? I’ll definitely ask him to think about that.
To be honest, his SATs seem low for all of his reach schools. I’d add some more matches and take a couple of reaches off if it were my kid.
Have you and your son taken a look at the Common Data Set, Section C, for the reach schools that he’s applying to? For example, at Yale, his test scores would put him in the bottom 25% of the admitted class and unless he is offering a hook or an amazing life story that means his acceptance is highly unlikely - if it were my kid, I’d recommend that he not spend the time or the money. He might want to take some of those high reaches off his list and add a few more low reaches/high matches which would be more realistic.
Also, I notice Georgetown (low reach/high match), GWU (match) and American (safety) aren’t on his list. Too close to home? Certainly good choices for his potential majors/areas of interest.
What about JHU as a possibility? It fits his interests.
Maybe look at the University of Pittsburgh, as well? I think I’d take the top four reaches off the list and concentrate more on some of the outstanding universities that are closer to being high matches/low reaches.
All of your high matches will be reaches for this student (except perhaps UVA in state). I would cut four or so reaches and replace them with real matches (acceptance rate of 35%+).
He knows his chances are smaller than average for his reach schools, but Yale is his absolute dream and he’s applying SCEA. I don’t know if I’ll be able to talk him out of a few of his reaches but maybe some of his lower reaches.
@N’s Mom We visited GWU and he didn’t like the urban campus, and he didn’t like American either. He loved Georgetown but it would just be another reach to add to his list of many reaches, and he knows his list is too reach-y.
@SlackerMomMD S didn’t like JHU because of the sheer amount of pre-meds and how that would create an environment of competition unlike any that of comparable schools.
I’ll tell him about Pitt as well.
I hadn’t consulted him yet but he came to me with a new, more realistic list, which is as follows:
Reaches: Yale, Duke, Brown, Penn, Cornell, Amherst
Matches: UVA, William and Mary, Case Western
Safety: GMU
Now his list is definitely reach-heavy. He’s applying early action to UVA and GMU and if he doesn’t get into those we can adjust his list after the results.
He looked into Rhodes as a potential safety but didn’t like it; he’s considering JMU or Clemson.
Also does anybody know how generous Emory is with their merit scholarships? He says he is reluctant to not apply to Tufts so he might put it back on the list and might add Wake Forest or Boston College as another match.
Does he have any interest in trying to bring up his SAT? He is likely to end up with only a couple of admissions off his current list, which is depressing in the spring.
UVA may be a reach if you are from NOVA.
Not sure what your financial situation is, but for IR, take a look at University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Gorgeous setting, strong in IR, would likely be an accept because admissions is more stats driven and your son’s SAT would meet their cut-off. Gives very little aid to foreign students, however.
UVa won’t report EA decisions until mid-January and many schools’ RD deadline will be Jan 1st. Just something to consider when looking to create RD list.
Ugh…this list would make me nervous. He might end up with only one acceptance; his safety…I fear its going to be a long admissions season for all of you; You never know…he might get into a reach (by the way, Tufts, with a 15% acceptance rate is a high reach). I think he needs more safeties and hopefully one with rolling admissions or EA so that he can get an acceptance before March.