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<p>This is a pretty big list I have up there. I basically took the entire US News rankings list, took out a few that my parents/siblings/friends have said aren’t worth applying to, and then categorized them to what I thought may have been my reach schools, match schools, and safety schools. Especially for the finalized version of my list, I’m not going to take the US rankings very seriously. </p>
<p>From this list I plan to narrow it even further based on all of the criteria you have mentioned. The final list will be the result of a more detailed research of each school. </p>
<p>Right now I’m focusing on the general academic reputation of each school, because I’m not even certain what I want to do - but it’ll probably be a science field. </p>
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<p>If my naming convention gave you the idea that Carnegie Mellon & company were second tier schools, that’s by no means what I intended. The organizations into reach (1st tier), match (middle tier), and safety were based on the advice I got from people who already went through the application process and who I believe know a lot about it. I wanted some feedback from the knowledgeable community of college confidential on this list. </p>
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<p>I’m confident I can do better, so it wouldn’t really hurt, would it? Especially since I’m hoping that I can get a lot of the tuition covered through merit-based financial aid. I just realized I forgot to mention two ECs (Spanish Honors Society and Social Studies Honors Society). I volunteer as a tutor through Spanish Honors Society, but I’m not extremely involved in either of them (to the extent that I am for Chem Phys and Key Club). </p>
<p>Thanks for your advice. Again, I want to emphasize the fact that I merely used the US News rankings as a catalog of colleges, and I do not put much weight on them for the actual decision making.</p>