<p>I'm a junior who wants a realistic view on what colleges are reaches and matches. I'm starting to narrow down my college list and I want to make sure it's not reach-heavy. </p>
<p>My favorite schools right now are Harvey Mudd, Caltech, University of the Pacific, and Rice University. I'm looking for a college that's strong in math and engineering and has small class sizes (I want to avoid huge lecture classes). </p>
<p>SAT: 2310 (math 800, critical reading 800, writing 710)
AP: Biology (5), English Language (5), Calculus AB (5)
will take: Calculus BC, Physics B, Physics C, US History, European History, English Lit
IB: currently taking English HL and will take Spanish SL
GPA: weighted 4.0, unweighted 3.9 (got a couple Bs and Cs sophomore year in hard classes)
Rank: approximately 12/400</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
Math Club (9, 10) - Founded the math club at my school and was president.
Math Circle (11, 12?) - Expanded math club to a city-wide math circle. Co-captain.
ARML (9, 10, 11, 12) - American Regions Math League. Competed on the Oregon team.
Science Bowl (11, 12?)
Marching Band (9, 10)
National Honor Society (11, 12)</p>
<p>Summer activities: math camps for 3 summers (Stanford EPGY, Awesome Math, and hopefully PROMYS or MathCamp)</p>
<p>I will probably get the Congressional Award silver certificate, hopefully even the gold certificate. I will probably qualify for AIME this year. </p>
<p>Is that Cs, as in more than one? I’m not sure how your uw GPA is a 3.9, with some C’s. You are obviously very bright, given your test scores. You really can not afford C’s, given the very ambitious list of schools you are looking at. Those C’s probably won’t hurt your chances at UOP (sorry, if that sounds disrespectful to UOP!) When you make your college list, also think about what schools offer the best financial and/or merit-based aid and what your family can afford. Have some financial match and safety schools on your list as well, if paying for college is an issue. It sounds like you are from Oregon, is that correct?</p>
<p>Some suggestions… they are either on the East Coast or in the Midwest if you don’t mind:
Reaches: Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Cooper Union, Swarthmore, Olin
Matches: Case Western</p>
<p>ELC or “Eligibility in the Local Context” is available to HS seniors who are CA residents in the top 4% of their class, attending ELC eligible schools. They are guaranteed admission into some of the 2nd or 3rd tier UC’s such as UCDavis, UCSantaBarbara, UCIrvine, UCRiverside, and UCMerced.</p>
<p>btw, do you know if any of these colleges have a higher acceptance rate for girls? or if any of them have merit scholarships for underrepresented minorities?</p>
<p>The schools on your list are really unique - warm weather, small size, small classes, engineering. Rice was the only school I was aware of like that when I went to school (I was coming from the east coast and didn’t have visibility to the CA schools) and that’s why I chose it. UoP is a safety for you and the others are reaches. You need a match school and you will have to compromise on something to find one. If you are willing to compromise on the overall school size while, I think, still getting small classes you should look at USC. The engineering facilities are beautiful. If you are willing to compromise on weather and location, consider Bucknell or Lafayette. Both of them have beautiful campuses. Bucknell is out in the country with lots of space. Lafayette has a smaller campus, but is closer to major cities. One other school to consider is Univ of Santa Clara. The engineering program is not as good as USC or Bucknell, but it’s decent. The school is beautiful and class sizes are small. I think you might be happier there than UoP. Compare avg SAT scores at UoP to those at SCU.</p>
<p>@ricegal: thanks for the detailed response! i really appreciate your feedback. i’m willing to compromise on the overall school size, so i’ll take a look at USC :)</p>
<p>@bayvcroberts: thanks! i think all three of those are high reaches for me though. :/</p>
<p>I would say the ones with a more lopsided gender ratio it would be a little easier for a girl to get in. I know Case gives automatic scholarships based on stats, more than likely with your numbers you’d get the top scholarship from that.</p>
<p>With your stats and Math background, is there any reason not to apply to Princeton? MIT is a somewhat easier admit for women than guys; that would be a good choice too. Among LACs, I’ve heard that the top Math program is at Williams - it has unusually extensive offerings for a LAC.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd definitely courts girls, and has some money for underrepresented minorities in engineering. Case and URochester might be good semi-safety schools.
Be sure to show interest in HM and apply for their special weekend program ( can’t remember what it is called). Get on their mailing list now and show up at any local presentations.</p>
<p>how about RPI (Rennslear) or WPI (Worchester)? When we toured WPI last year, they noted there is significant aid and they are looking to increase women.</p>