<p>Have you run the net price calculator on each school? For those which are not affordable on need-based financial aid, are there sufficient merit scholarships that you can get (and assess reach/match/safety on the scholarships, not admission)? Cutting schools with no chance of being affordable would be the easiest first cut.</p>
<p>How advanced are you in math courses? If you have taken college math beyond the AP calculus BC level while in high school, consider carefully the offerings of advanced undergraduate and graduate level math courses at each college.</p>
<p>Make sure that you have a safety that you know you will be admitted to and know that you can afford to attend.</p>
<p>@MrMom62 I definitely see where you’re coming from, but I’m not overestimating my chances anywhere. I realize how lucky I’d be to get into any of the schools I listed, but I do feel like I’ll regret it if I don’t apply to my dream schools. I always have community college as a back-up, so it isn’t like I won’t get an education if I don’t get accepted somewhere this year.</p>
<p>Yes, you will only attend one school and only need one acceptance, but you are not buying lottery tickets here. The factors that make for acceptance at one reach are the same factors that will make for acceptance at any of them, the schools are not independent chances. I understand the temptation to play the numbers game and sometimes advise it myself, but you need to do that with schools you have higher chances at. With your record, there’s a real wildcard in play here that makes predicting your chances really, really difficult.</p>
<p>Right now, you’ll regret not applying, but you’re going to regret going to CC even more after shooting for Stanford and Swarthmore. At the very least keep some big state schools on your list that you can afford, you’ve likely got a good shot at those as long as you can afford them.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus I actually have gone through each school’s net price calculators. Most are affordable, although Ohio does have unmet need. Thank you for your post about drinking culture, I’ll definitely take that into consideration. I’ll probably eliminate either Colby or Oberlin as well.</p>
<p>@MrMom62 Honestly, I whole-heartedly see your perspective, but I feel like every school is a reach for me, so I’d be playing a wildcard wherever I apply. Maybe I’ll get accepted to Swarthmore but not Smith, or maybe I won’t get in anywhere. I’m open to the idea of attending a CC for a year and transferring to a UC if that’s what I have to do.</p>
<p>@Marylandfour I hadn’t considered those factors, thanks! I was under the impression that transportation costs were covered in the "Cost of Attendance’’ but I may be wrong. A semester system is definitely preferred.</p>
<p>Are you a California resident? If so, what about UCs and CSUs?</p>
<p>While they require an application fee per campus, you just need to fill in one application for each system and send test scores once for each system (which will then get the scores to all of the applied-to campuses in the system). You do not need to bother your high school for recommendations or transcripts at the time of application.</p>
<p>If you go the CC and then transfer route, note that UCs and almost all CSUs only take junior level transfers, so, unless you have substantial AP and/or college credit earned while in high school, you would likely be attending CC for two years before transferring.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus I was considering applying to UCs but since most of them run on the quarter system, I’m not sure if I will or not. I’m not applying to CSUs because they don’t accept essays as part of their applications, so I probably won’t get into any of the ‘‘impacted’’ ones. Actually, I’ve calculated that I will have enough AP and College Credits to transfer after one year.</p>
<p>What about the quarter system do you dislike? (Note that Stanford and Carleton on your list are on the quarter system.)</p>
<p>Even many of the impacted CSUs are not that selective, so if you meet the a-g requirements and have GPA and test scores that make Stanford and the like realistic chances, you are likely to get admitted to most of them.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus I was completely unaware of that. I personally feel like it would be too fast-paced for me, but maybe I shouldn’t be so closed-minded. A lot of students at my school get turned away from schools like CSU-LB, Cal Poly-SLO, SDSU, etc even with good stats. Also, if I eventually want to transfer to a research institution like a UC, wouldn’t it be better to transfer from a CC versus a CSU?</p>
<p>Yes, it is the case the UCs tend to admit more transfers from CCs than CSUs.</p>
<p>CSULB, SDSU, and CPSLO are among the most popular and selective CSUs, but are unlikely to be more selective than schools like Stanford.</p>
<p>Yes, a quarter system school divides a year long course into three 10-week pieces instead of two 15-week pieces that a semester system school divides a year long course into.</p>
<p>A semester course equivalent at a quarter system school may be either more accelerated (but a higher credit unit value reflecting a higher workload) to fit in a quarter, or decelerated into a two course sequence (each course being a lower credit unit value), or reorganized to contain less material (but the remaining material may be in some other course).</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus You make a very valid point. The quarter system seems interesting especially the ‘‘one course covered in two quarters.’’ I’ll look into that.</p>
<p>@Ctesiphon That is so great, I didn’t know schools offered such a thing. I agree that those 3 are out of place, so I’m eliminating them. I eliminated Yale as well.</p>
<p>Do you have any weather / location preferences?</p>
<p>Also, I’m not sure if the topic has been thoroughly dissected, but how much can you afford to pay per year? School’s definition of meeting 100% need can vary widely. </p>
<p>Run the NPC and see if your options are affordable…eliminate those that are not. They will include federal loans and work study. Good way to get rid of some more on the list.</p>
<p>Most of the 100% need LACs should be affordable; Rice does too, they also have a no-loan policy for families making under $70,000/yr. WashU may or may not be affordable. Case Western won’t be that cheap if you don’t get much merit. Then again you may have circumstances that can warrant getting good or not so good aid at these schools. Run NPC!</p>
<p>Most of these schools run theri NPC through collegeboard’s website, so you can just fill in your info there and run through all of the individual school’s calculators.</p>
<p>@Ctesiphon I’ve run every single NPC. They all met full need, most with about $5-8k in loans and work-study together. Rice and Swarthmore are the exceptions, with no loans. Case Western doesn’t meet need (about 11k unmet need after loans and work study) but I’m applying for many scholarships to help reduce the cost.</p>
<p>I think you’re getting more cohesive, but could reinforce either with more safeties or with an EA or rolling application.</p>
<p>For safeties I’d definitely add Smith and consider Holyoke. They are both members of a five college consortium, which broadens social opportunities. Conn College may also be a safety, but I think it’s a little out of sync with the others on your list. Skidmore is a possibility.</p>
<p>I’d suggest that you find an EA opportunity. Chicago EA is another that might fit with Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Reed.</p>
<p>
No, I’d say Williams is equally holistic (in admissions, assuming that’s what you mean) as Swarthmore and the other LACs on your list. Math is superb. The music department is stronger than most of the non-conservatories with many performance opportunities for non-majors. One of the strongest art and art history offerings among LACs. Loan-free need-based aid.</p>
<p>Williams rural setting is a big part of its personality – same for Middlebury. Your latest list seems to have swung more toward urban/suburban, so this is something else to consider.</p>
Yep, faulty reasoning. As posts #23 and #24 say, this is not a lottery and if you think you will regret not attending a dream school, you will regret even more attending a community college. Nobody who is capable of Stanford should even have a community college on their radar. The colleges you are targeting should not be mentioned in the same context as a community college.</p>
<p>The logic you are using is one of the reasons that we sometimes see quite smart students who get rejected at every school they apply for because they only applied to elite and near elite colleges. One fellow back in the Spring had applied to every Ivy League school, with the logic that he would get into at least one of them. He didn’t, and hadn’t applied anywhere else, including his instate flagship. Luckily, the flagship took him at the last moment.</p>
<p>Ohio State appeared at one point to be your safety school. Now even it is gone. So you have doubled down on elite and semi-elite colleges. Whitman probably is now your safety.</p>
<p>You are a California resident and not applying to any state schools. Sorry, but this is the worst logic of all. Makes no sense.</p>
<p>@momrath I’m curious as to why Conn. College is out of sync, there must be something I’m missing here. I actually do prefer rural, and like I said I would love to attend Williams, but I’d rather not add any more reaches. I’ll definitely try to add more safeties, but that’s difficult to do when you have my academic record AND need a lot of financial aid. </p>
<p>@NROTCgrad But you see I’m not applying to elite colleges simply because they are elite. I have genuine reasons for wanting to attend, and if I was well-off financially and could afford any school, I’d be applying to far ‘‘less reachy’’ schools. I removed Ohio State because I can not afford it, and I definitely wouldn’t consider it a ‘‘safety school,’’ especially being out of state.</p>
<p>I disagree that those who are capable of Stanford don’t have CC on their radar. I have plenty of really intelligent friends who have the stats to get into Stanford (but it’s still a reach as it is for almost everyone) but they also know CC may be the most feasible option because of its affordability aspect.</p>
<p>If you would have asked me 3 years ago where I wanted to go to school, I would have said Stanford or Rice, and you probably wouldn’t have discouraged me from applying. I would not have even mentioned Community College, but reality is that life happens and things don’t always go as planned. Would I rather go to a 4-year than a CC? Yes, but I’ve come to accept that CC may be my only option. </p>
<p>I am applying to state schools, I forgot to include those in the list. They are: UC Irvine, Santa Cruz, and Riverside. I have yet to decide on the fourth one.</p>
<p>Even with sub-free dorms, if even a whiff of marijuana makes you sick, you really should take Reed off you list. When we visited campus, I was reading the student paper, and it listed incidents on campus when campus security was called. It was an entire page of the paper covering several weeks, and there were a lot of incident listed. At least 2/3 were something along the lines of marijuana smoke detected, campus police came, nothing found. A smattering of bike & laptop thefts, minor injuries, etc. mixed in. But by far the most calls were about this. You don’t want to have to STAY in your sub free dorm all the time…</p>