Reach/Match/Safety Schools?

College Search & Selection
1

I am a rising senior working on my list of reach/match/safety schools. These are my stats -
GPA: 4.0 UW/4.67 W
SAT: 1430
Rank: 2/491
ECs: 4 years in band (senior officer), 4 years golf team (captain senior year), NHS (president senior year), STEM Club (founded and president for 2 years), School On Wheels Tutor (2 years, tutors homeless children), Stanford Clinical Neuroscience summer program (might soon be doing research on epilepsy treatment with doctors there as a result), Santa Clara U Engineering Seminar, won an award from the IEEE for building a small-scale hyperloop, 75 hours volunteering at a hospital, and organized a March For Our Lives for my community.

Major: Neuroscience while on pre-med track
Location: California (I’m also a California resident)
Size: small, medium, or large (not really looking for LACs or religious schools)

Thank you, and let me know if I can provide more info!

2

This is my list so far -
SAFETIES: Santa Clara University and University of San Diego
MATCHES: UCSD, UCSB, and UC Irvine
REACHES: UCLA and Scripps College

3

Cost constraints?

Be aware of the cost of medical school. Reducing undergraduate costs can mean lower debt after medical school, which can reduce the debt pressure that limits your career and life choices.

4

A Safety school should be affordable and so you should run the Net Price Calculators on Santa Clara and USD. These schools may come out cheaper than UC’s if you are eligible for both merit and need-based aid. A more reasonable safety might be UC Santa Cruz, UC Riverside or one of the many Cal states.