Need help with picking colleges

College Search & Selection
1

I am currently about to finish my junior year. My dad wants to go on college tours this summer and is asking me where I want to look so he can plan accordingly. I honestly, for the most part, have no idea where to look. I have looked at UMD College Park and Univ of Delaware. I really like college park, but UD not so much. Here are my stats so far and hopefully you can help me with what types of schools I should be looking at.

State: Maryland
Cost is not really a factor
School: Large, public (recently ranked #1 in the county and #9 in the state)

Stats
GPA: 3.84 (UW), 4.80 (W)
SAT: 1950 (CR-610, M- 760, Wr-580)
ACT: just took it last weekend, probably not that good (most likely going to use my SAT)
Class Rank: Currently i am at 99/519 (19%) this is just from freshman and sophomore year. I did pretty well this year and my counselor today said with this years gpa I should be around top 10-15%

Classes(grade received)
9th grade
Gym (A)
Honors Algebra 2 (A)
Latin 1 (A)
Honors Govt (A)
Pre-AP English 9 (A)
Honors Bio (B)
Art (A)

10th Grade
Latin 2 (A)
Pre-AP English 10 (A)
Health/Abnormal Psych (A)
Honors Chemistry (A)
Pre-AP World History (B)
Cooking (A)
Honors Geometry (A)

11th Grade
AP US History (B)
Honors College Algebra (A)
Honors Engineering Principles (A)
AP Computer Science (A)
AP Stat (A)
Pre-AP Physics (A)
Honors English 11 (A)
Pre-AP Trigonometry (A)

12th Grade (no grades yet just my schedule)
Honors English 12
AP Physics C Mechanics
AP Environmental Science
AP Calc AB
AP Macro Econ
AP Micro Econ
Tech/Teacher Intern

Extracurriculars:
School Ambassador
Class Council
Special needs soccer, bowling, and baseball (peer assistant)
Allied Friends Club- basically volunteering with special needs program (Cofounder and President)
Volunteer 10+ hrs a week at an animal rescue
National Honor Society
Student Athlete Leadership Board (Special Needs Sports Representative)

Teacher Recs: 10/10 (both teachers know me really well)
Counselor Rec: 8/10 (it’s hard for the counselors to know students with a school of 2100+)
Essays 9/10

Sorry this is so long. Its hard for you to help if you don’t know my info. Open to suggestions for any type of school (safety, normal, reach). I honestly have no idea how I compare to other students and what schools are right for me. I am interested in UMich, UVA, Va Tech, UMD, and Penn State but I dont know if those are too out of my range.

So basically what I am asking is, what colleges should I look at with my stats? For distance I am looking for mostly school on the east coast to about a line straight down from michigan to alabama. So nothing really too West.

Sorry for how long and absurd this is but anything at this point will really help me.
Thanks!

2

UMich, UVA, Virginia Tech, and Penn State are a little out of reach for you with your current SAT. UD and UMD are probably solid matches, with a little on the reachy side. What do you want to go into? Engineering or computer science? UMD is honestly superb in those departments so you don’t have to look far.

Did you think about any of the in-state schools like Towson, Goucher, St. John’s, Loyola MD, Washington College, Salisbury, Hood, or Stevenson?

3

@TheDidactic The only school Id really consider going to in Maryland is UMD. Penn State seems kind of strange to me cause I have always though of it as an easier to get into. Thats obviously why I am looking for help. I am mainly interested in larger schools cause I am really into sports. And yes I am looking to go into Mechanical Engineering

4

Well, to help you get calibrated, here’s how I rate your chances at the schools you mentioned -

Reaches
UMichigan 30%
UVA 35%

Matches
Va Tech 70%
UMD 75%

Safety
Penn State 95%

Some of these schools could be significantly tougher or easier depending on your major.

5

@NickFlynn Thanks. For the most part thats what I was thinking. I have UMD more on the reach side. But lately I have been thinking it may be more of a match because my school this year has 90 kids attending UMD with close to 120 being accepted. Some of these kids I know, and they took about the same strength of classes and got worse grades, so my hope has gone up a little for UMD

6

^ Penn State as a reach and UMD as a match? UMD’s SAT average is 135 points higher than Penn State’s. I’d give some weight to the OOS factor, but not that much.

7

@merc81 the good thing about UMD Sat though is it is just CR and Math and my total for that is 1350 which is basically their average

8

UMD-CP would indeed be a nice match, especially since you like the school, @ud0212.

9

If you like what state flagships offer (big time sports, etc.) and you already like UMD-CP, then you may not have to look too far beyond this school. I’d say, though, that should you want to stretch yourself somewhat, you could look at a school like the University of Rochester. Their sports may be lower key (though complete), but their academics are excellent.

Btw: “my total for that is 1350.” Isn’t it 1370?

10

@merc81 yes i meant 1370. I for some reason always just say 1350 because i got a 1950 on the total so i get it confused

11

Don’t short-change yourself, @ud0212, those 20 points may come in handy somewhere.

12

I think you have a good chance at all of them, but you should try and raise your SAT score to 2000+ at least.

Just wondering, but how do grades work at your school? Aren’t there 2 semesters, so you should have 2 grades a yr for every class?

13

@ZBlue17 we get an individual grade each quarter (twice a semester) and then we have a final at the end of the year and there is a system that gives you one grade for the whole year. So on our transcript it only shows one grade for each class

14

Bump

15

Hard to come up with a better match or reach than UMD-CP given your criteria. Find out what it would take to get into the Gemstone program. Apply as soon as they accept applications and you’ll know before Winter break. In all probability, you won’t need to apply anywhere else.