Opinions on College List?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Ok, trying to figure out potential schools so I can focus on them this coming year. So far, I've got 10.</p>

<p>Some Stats-
Location: WI
Race: African-American
Gender: Female
Majors: Engineering, second choice being Poli Sci
Test Scores: 34 ACT as a sophomore, retaking so hopefully 35,36
Will take SAT + SAT II's
Engineering/Science EC's (Intel finalist, Nanotechnology researcher @ Marquette University this summer)
Public Forum and Policy Debater (8th ranked PF team in state, 1st JV Policy team at State)
Member of School's Model Organization of the American States team and Forensics Team
National History Day Finalist
Part-time Hostess Job @ Restaurant
Some other less important things...</p>

<p>Reaches:
MIT
Stanford
Yale
Caltech
Harvard
Princeton</p>

<p>Matches:
Wesleyan U
Cooper Union
Franklin Olin (reach maybe?)</p>

<p>Safety:
Case Western</p>

<p>Comments? Too reach heavy? Suggestions?
Main things that are important to me: Academics (Good Engineering rep. is a bonus), Location (not in WI!!! not too far from a city), FINANCIAL AID (single mother currently unemployed but makes 65,000 when employed, also taking college courses, have younger sister, definitely need lots o' aid)
I also don't want to attend a women's college,HBCU, and preferrably not a college in the South. So any suggestions greatly appreciated!</p>

2

<p>Assuming you didn’t do subpar in your classes, and you have a decent course load, you can go pretty much wherever you want.</p>

<p>You’re a BLACK so you already have AA on your side, you clearly do well on tests, your EC (by which I mean intel finalist) is great, and you’re a girl who wants to get into engineering.</p>

<p>If I were you I’d also look at Harvey Mudd. But you can pretty much choose where you wanna go.</p>

3

<p>Your matches, despite being matches by stats are still low reaches, solely because of the school selectivity (25% admitted or less). You might also consider Bucknell. You can also get tuition reciprocity in Minnesota.</p>

4

<p>I know you don’t want to go to school in WI (don’t blame you, I’d love to go out-of-state aswell), but I’d suggest adding University of Wisconsin-Madison as a financial (in-state plus you should get merit aid) and academic safety. I don’t believe Wesleyan University offers Engineering, so consider that. I’d suggest adding Cornell and another non-HYP Ivy for good measure.</p>

5

<p>Note: GPA 3.9ish, school uses weird system but 3 B+'s out of 29 class semesters, all the rest A’s, Courseload def. most rigorous @ school, about 12 AP’s by graduation</p>

<p>greg: OH, for some reason I was under the impression that Wesleyan had engineering! Whoa…what was I looking at lol. That’s sad. So it’s out then, because I’m fairly certain that’s what I want to do.</p>

<p>So I may add UW Madison as a safety but if I got in ANYWHERE else, I would surely go. But it does make good FA sense…</p>

<p>Columbia v. Dartmouth, which is better for Engineering? Not really feeling Cornell. And I don’t want too many more than 10 schools.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the opinions.</p>

6

<p>Columbia is better than Dartmouth when it comes to engineering.</p>

<p>And to insert Penn (because I love her so)</p>

<p>Columbia SEAS > Penn SEAS > Dartmouth Thayer</p>

7

<p>Franklin Olin is a reach. My best friend’s brother got into MIT, Stanford, and Yale, but not Olin.</p>

8

<p>There are no reaches for you.</p>

9

<p>I don’t think Cooper Union is a match for anyone, simply because it’s such a small school/with specific majors and application process. I think your list is absolutely fine for your stats, though! Good luck :)</p>

10

<p>So, I could take out Wesleyan, put in Columbia. and maybe UW Madison.
Then it’s 9 reaches, one/two safeties…</p>

11

<p>Erin’s Dad is being unduly pessimistic about your chances. You truly are a likely admit anywhere on your list.</p>

12

<p>To be on the safe side, also look at JHU and Carnegie-Mellon.</p>

13

<p>How about Penn (as much as its not my type of school)? Its a match for you I’d guess. Dartmouth might be worth it just because they seem to have awesome financial aid.</p>

14

<p>I’m pessimistic/conservative, but I agree more with silverturtle than Erin’s Dad, just to chime in on the chances debate.</p>

<p>Have you considered Swarthmore? Would give you the option of a small LAC (1500 students) and has engineering.</p>

15

<p>You’re getting into at least 1 or 2 of your top six choices, I wouldn’t be very surprised if you made it to 5/6 of those schools, they are reaches, as they are for everyone but they are not far reaches. I would put Columbia (my school) on the list, it’s good for engineering, great at poli sci, is well rounded, in the middle of a city (but still with a separated stand-alone campus), high proportion of African Americans and minorities, one of the most economically diverse campuses in the US, and you’ll attend for free (as you will at most/all of those reaches) with that family income and a sister.</p>

16

<p>An aside to Keilexandra, who several months ago was trying to weigh Bryn Mawr and Scripps.
The 1997 USN&WR rated Bryn Mawr 10th and Scripps 37th. The 2010 edition has them tied at 25th. Likely the fastest falling and rising of the top 50 LACs. I would expect the trends to continue.
To the OP, no school is a reach. If you were my daughter, I would consider 2 or 3 of your matches as safeties, and guess you would get into at least half your “reaches”.</p>

17

<p>Thanks everybody for the encouraging responses :). Hopefully all the optimism comes to fruition.</p>

<p>I never really thought of Swarthmore, Keilexandra. Definitely consider it, I get mail from them all the time lol.</p>

18

<p>If you want Wesleyan + a more urban environment and engineering, look no further than Brown.</p>

19

<p>You will get rejected from at most two schools. I’d wager, if you write good essays, you’ll be accepted everywhere.</p>

20

<p>you were probably mixing up Swarthmore with Wesleyan. Swarthmore has a small engineering program.</p>