Penn legacy only counts if you apply ED. I’m not concerned that you need lower safeties provided you expect early answers by December 15 to at least a few schools and can reconsider your strategy before the December 31 deadline. I would cut your list down to 10 but your you seem to have an appropriate range of schools.
Range and number of schools you are initially considering are good. You could certainly do some more research to adjust your list to fit interests. I agree with @YaleGradandDad that a better strategy is to apply to a couple of decent schools with rolling admissions and one of your top reach schools EA so that you have time to adjust your selection before the RD deadlines. Honors programs of state universities often are on rolling admissions. With your stats, unless 1 school is an overwhelming favorite, I would not apply ED. You will always wonder “what if”. H and Y (as well as P and S if they come into the mix because of legacy) are all SCEA and one of those may be a good SCEA candidate.
@frizzle68 Additional schools to consider.
http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/lists/list/colleges-with-excellent-mathematics-programs/195/
Vassar is perfect! There isn’t a football or hockey team or fraternities 
Vassar also has a new $130 million, state-of-the-art science center.
If you’re interested in grad school.
https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/infographics/top-feeders-phd-programs
Reed and Haverford are additional schools to consider.
@CrewDad thank you so much! I visited Vassar and loved it. I’m actually planning on visiting Haverford on Monday, I think I’ll really like it as well!
@frzzle68
Hi @BKSquared @YaleGradandDad thanks for your responses! Do you know which schools have rolling admissions and how that would work with Harvard’s restrictive EA? I believe that restrictive EA means you can only apply to one school early. Would that mean that I couldn’t apply to some schools with rolling admissions early? How would I get answers by mid December otherwise? And I agree with what you said about ED, BKSquared. At this point I’m not even considering applying ED anywhere because I haven’t had any overwhelming favorites. Thanks!
Honestly based on what you’ve written about yourself I don’t think you’ll have much luck with any school SCEA. Those schools are looking for some major reason to admit you and they have no reason to do so if they have any doubt because they can just defer you and compare you to the RD crowd. You’ll be up against the major hooks and perfect or almost perfect scores and notable ECs. Don’t be fooled by the higher admit rates.
If you do decide to apply SCEA you can apply to public schools EA, schools with rolling admissions and school’s that you need to apply early for merit scholarship consideration (read the specific language and make sure a particular school qualifies).
On the other hand, the ED option will truly give you a major boost in your chance to be admitted. Tufts and Vassar at about 40% ED rate is much better than RD. But like people have said don’t do ED unless you really like the school.
A 35 ACT puts you well above average for any school, including HYPS, at the 75% percentile more or less for even those tippy top schools. If your 95% GPA puts you in the top 5% of your class (if your school does not formally rank, where are the top students in your school in terms of grades and course rigor?), you are definitely in the hunt for SCEA at any school. It will just depend on the quality of your essays and LoR’s and how effectively you blend in meaningful EC’s as you portray a picture of yourself in the essays and/or LoR’s. Not just athletic recruits, musical prodigies or national science award winners gain admittance EA. Legacy at H, P and S is a minor hook. Remember though schools apply different definitions of legacy, some only consider parents, some include grandparents and others will include uncles and aunts. Some only consider undergrad connections, others will include grad school. The school website will have that information. So I believe that applying to one of your top schools EA is a good strategy, not that it will boost your admissions chances by much or any, but it will narrow down the field and greatly reduce the consequent expenses, time expended and anxiety if you get good news. With your objective stats, if you get rejected and not just deferred, you might want to reconsider the essays and LoR’s you submitted. If your absolute favorite school is an ED school, go for it, but I don’t think the slight bump it gives is worth the “what if” questions (and loss of FA leverage) if you have dream schools that you much rather attend. FWIW, my son had similar stats, was not an athletic recruit, is not URM and did not have an amazing talent (a round, not spikey kid) but is a legacy and got in Y SCEA. He had a great anxiety free rest of senior year and saved me some major $ in fees.
Most state universities have rolling admissions, including their honors programs. You have a good chance of getting a decision before the end of December if you get in your app Sept/Oct, depending on the school. You just need to do the research. H (Y,P and S) allow you to apply to public universities even if you apply EA. Harvard’s policy:
“Early Action is a non-binding early program, meaning that if you are admitted you are not obligated to enroll. If you apply to Harvard under our Early Action program, you may also apply at the same time to any public college/university or to foreign universities but you are restricted from applying to other private universities’ Early Action and Early Decision programs.”
Y’s policy:
"*Applying to Other Colleges and Universities
If you are a Single-Choice Early Action applicant to Yale, you may apply to another institution’s early admission program as follows:
•You may apply to any college’s non-binding rolling admission program.
•You may apply to any public institution at any time provided that admission is non-binding.
•You may apply to another college’s Early Decision II program, but only if the notification of admission occurs after January 1. If you are admitted through another college’s Early Decision II binding program, you must withdraw your application from Yale.
•You may apply to another college’s Early Action II program.
•You may apply to any institution outside of the United States at any time."
Good luck.
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