PLEASE Help Me Figure Out Some Target Schools

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi everyone. I would appreciate it SO much if you knowledgeable College Confidential members would help me out.</p>

<p>I am a senior in High School, and am well into the college admissions process. I've already applied SCEA to Yale, and the rest of my deadlines are in January. </p>

<p>I am a strong student, but I am starting to freak out that my college list is way too top-heavy. It is:</p>

<p>Princeton
Tufts
NYU
Stanford
Columbia
U Chicago
U Penn</p>

<p>I had been told that my list was okay, but I really don't think it is. If you guys could suggest some target schools for me, I would be so grateful. </p>

<p>Size-wise, I would prefer around 5,000 - 15,000. I'm cool with either a city or a college town. I would really love to go somewhere where undergraduates have many opportunities to do research. My two main areas of academic interest are very divergent - English and Life Science.</p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>GPA: 4.00 unweighted,
4.5 weighted. (My weighted would be higher if I slacked off like my peers and took a partial schedule instead of a full one.)</p>

<p>I have taken 11 AP classes. Senior year schedule: AP Lit, AP Human Geography, AP Psychology, AP Calc, AP French, Honors Pre-Engineering, Photo Digital.</p>

<p>SAT I: 2180 (retook last week)
780 CR
710 W
690 M
SAT II: 770 Biology E, 730 US History</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: </p>

<p>Editor-in-Chief of Literary Magazine (10, 11, 12)
Secretary of Envirothon (10, 11, 12)
Patrol Leader in Girl Scouts (2-12)<br>
Committee Chair in Rise to Interact (9, 10, 11, 12)
SPCA Volunteer (10, 11, 12)
Model UN (12)
National Art Honor Society (11, 12)
National Honor Society (12)
National Youth Leadership Conference (9)
Camp Counselor at Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (Summer 2010)</p>

<p>I also studied abroad in Kenya this summer through Boston University and earned 4 college credits. </p>

<p>Thank you very much to anyone who will help me!</p>

2

<p>How much can your family pay?</p>

3

<p>What are your fianancial aid needs, as happymom already asked… other questions:
What is your state of residence?
What is your class rank?
Do you have any SAT II scores to share? </p>

<p>I think you will be accepted at NYU however don’t expect much in the way of aid there. Your chance of acceptance at Tufts is decent but not a slam-dunk. I think you will need to score in the mid-2200’s to have a better shot at the other schools on your list. All the other schools are reaches so, yes, you definitely need matches and a safety. Your ECs are okay but nothing really stands out for top-tier, most selective schools. Let us know the answers to some of these questions.</p>

4

<p>Finances are not a problem.
And I live in Maryland, I am 7/460, and the SAT II scores were up there, right under SAT I. But they’re 770 Biology E and 730 US History.</p>

<p>Thank you guys. :)</p>

5

<p>Targets:</p>

<p>Boston College
Bucknell
George Washington
USC</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

6

<p>Thanks very much.</p>

<p>Do you think the fact that my high school focus has been on the sciences (on the Yale supplement I selected Biology: Ecology & Evolutionary as my major), yet I made it clear in my supplemental essay that I have an ardent passion for writing that I hope to combine with my interest in science, will help me out at all, since many people who apply as Biology majors are headed in the pre-med direction? Is it possible that my not being as conventional a science major might set me apart a bit?</p>

<p>If you don’t think it will do anything for me, that’s fine, I would appreciate an honest answer.</p>

7

<p>Your instincts are correct. Your list is not “okay.” In my opinion, you need two matches and two safeties. To me, all of these seem a bit too selective to be counted as a match.</p>

<p>Your stats are outstanding and you will probably do very well with admissions but you need some “sure thing” schools that you really like. Remember the andison story: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/47867-were-picking-up-pieces-but-what-went-wrong.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/47867-were-picking-up-pieces-but-what-went-wrong.html&lt;/a&gt;
It is well worth a read.
(The sequel to the story is okay. He is doing fine now! But you want zero risk of a situation like his.)</p>

<p>If you like NYC (Columbia and NYU), how about Fordham?</p>

<p>How about DePaul?</p>

<p>Maybe a “Canadian Ivy”? Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario?</p>

8

<p>I don’t really think it will give you much of a boost to your application, if any. There are more applicants than you think who combine unrelated majors and end up double-majoring. Many schools encourage this.</p>

9

<p>If you like smaller private schools, maybe University of Rochester, Lehigh U, and Carngie Mellon U (but that one’s a high match)…</p>

<p>any school of those caliburs would be good matches/possibly safeties.</p>

10

<p>Might look at Holy Cross very good LAC with strong science program, new science building, and school sponsors many internships. Holy Cross has small class size ratios as the Ivies do and Holy Cross(don’t need to be religious) fosters great sense of community. HC like the Ivies is need blind for admissions and its alumni network has a great reputation for helping students in job placement.</p>

11

<p>Since you indicate that you are a Girl Scout, take a look at the Womens Colleges. The top five are a bit safer than what you have on your list so far, however they may be smaller than you’d like: Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesely. </p>

<p>What about Cornell? Good Arts and Science program for your writing interest, and unbeatable breadth in the biological sciences where you could take coursework in Human Ecology, and Ag and Life Sciences, as well as in Arts and Sciences.</p>

<p>UMD at College Park is probably your home-state admissions match/safety. Check the priority application date for the honors program and any merit-based scholarships.</p>

12

<p>Several good suggestions already. Maybe William & Mary or UVA - may be a high match from out of state, but not as reachy as a bunch on your list. Another possible target…Wake Forest? Safer…what about Pitt?</p>

13

<p>I agree that you need to expand the list, although I think that you have a good shot at several schools on the list. I would add two matches and two safeties, and you’ll be set. I would suggest Brandeis and Syracuse. I know someone at Syracuse with very high stats who is in an honors program and did incredible research as a freshman. </p>

<p>I"m sure there are plenty of other unis like this; i’m just not familiar with them.</p>

14

<p>If undergraduate research is important to you, you might want to consider Johns Hopkins. There are a ton of research opportunities – roughly 80% of the undergraduates at JHU do research. Obviously they are very strong in life sciences, and they have a very good English program as well. It would probably be a match / low reach for you, but I don’t know if you’d like to go someplace farther from home.</p>

15

<p>This is great; I definitely think that some of these schools could work. :)</p>

16

<p>You definitely need some safeties and matches. I think NYU, USC, and maybe UPitt would be good schools to consider.</p>

17

<p>Is this revised list better?</p>

<p>Reach:</p>

<p>Yale
Stanford
Northwestern
Princeton
U Chicago
Columbia</p>

<p>Target:</p>

<p>Tufts
NYU
George Washington (legacy)
University of Rochester </p>

<p>Saftey:</p>

<p>Boston University
University of Maryland</p>

<p>I know it’s a big list, but at least then I have a better shot of getting into some really good schools, right?</p>

<p>Oh, and if I were to put Johns Hopkins on the list, would it be reach or target?</p>

18

<p>This list is much better. (Tufts can be hard to predict.) Rochester and Maryland are great safeties; I’ve known some top students who chose Rochester and liked it very much.</p>

<p>Your credentials are great. Congratulations on all of your successes thus far.</p>

19

<p>

</p>

<p>It’s hard to say – you have Tufts as a target and Northwestern as a reach, but in reality there is not a lot of distance between the two. I think you really have four tiers:</p>

<p>Reach:
Yale
Stanford
Princeton
Columbia</p>

<p>Low Reach / High Target:
U Chicago
Northwestern
Tufts</p>

<p>Target:
NYU
George Washington (legacy)
University of Rochester </p>

<p>Saftey:
Boston University
University of Maryland</p>

<p>In the Low Reach / High Target tier, I’d say Johns Hopkins and Northwestern would both be somewhere between Tufts and U Chicago.</p>

20

<p>Okay, thanks; that helps.</p>