Need Help Sorting Safeties, Targets, and Reaches

State Forums
1

Hey all, so I’ve compiled a list of colleges that I’d be interested in attending (and a few that I really have no business attending), and I’d appreciate some help in sorting these colleges in the various categories of Safety, Target, and Reach.

Here is the list so far: UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UCLA, Cal Poly SLO, UCSB, San Diego State, UC Santa Cruz, UCB, USC, and Stanford Univ. (lol).

Here are my Stats:

Stats:

  • Going to be a High School Senior
  • Current Class Rank 25/366
  • ACT (plus writing): 31 - retaking it, expecting a 33 or 34
  • SAT II Math II: 710
  • SAT II Bio E: 600, retaking, aiming for a 700+

Avg High School GPA: 4.18 weighted; ~3.83 unweighted
Taking 8 APs total by senior year; expecting AP scores to be mostly 4s maybe some 3s

EC (By senior year predictions):

  • 3 years swim (2 years varsity)
  • Founder of History Club
  • 3 Years Leo’s Club
  • 2.5 Years NHS (5 semesters)
  • 150+ Hours of Volunteer work at Hospital
  • Some awards such as Summa Cum Laude

I REALLY like UC Davis and UC San Diego, but again, these are all viable options for me

This is what I Think so far:

Safety: San Diego State, UCSC

Target: UC Davis, UC Irvine, Cal Poly SLO, UCSB

Reach: UCSD, UCLA, UCB, USC

Get-a-hold-of-yourself: Stanford

Any edits to this listing? Any listings of your own that you suggest? Any other colleges I should look towards? Anything I can do at this point to improve my chances?

Again, thanks in advance for reading all this and for your feedback.

2

I think you’ve got a very good handle on where you stand.

3

Agree that you have a well balanced list. Good Luck.

4

@NCalRent @Gumbymom thanks a bunch, I may remove Cal Poly SLO and UCSB in turn for some more med-oriented schools.

Do you guys know of any other good med-oriented schools in California that seem like targets for me?

5

Very logical list. What is your intended field of study?

6

Santa Clara, USD, LMU and Chapman are worth a look. There’s no reason to remove SLO and UCSB - you are a solid candidate for both.

At this stage of your life, more doors open is better. Apply broadly, see who takes you - make your call in the Spring.

7

@LongRangePlan Plan on taking some pre-med pre-req.s, biological science major i’d assume (although it’s quite impacted, I may go undeclared if that benefits me)

@NCalRent I’ve looked into Santa Clara and USD, pretty neat schools. I’ll look into LMU and Chapman as well, thanks for that. The main problem with private universities is their cost, I happened to remove USC from my list due to that.