Should I even bother applying anywhere else?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>ACT: 34, UW GPA: 3.75. Decent ECs, but next to no community service.
The most competitive schools I'm applying to are:
Cornell
Duke
Rice
Vandy
Northwestern
WUSTL</p>

<p>Match schools I'm applying to are USC, Tulane, NYU, Emory, UMiami, UCLA, UCB.
I would prefer for my future college to be in or near a big city, but that's not a deal breaker. Attendance should at least be above 4000 undergrads, and I'd prefer an ethnically diverse student body. Money isn't a problem for my parents. I'm undecided, but currently thinking between pre-med or engineering, although I may end up doing something completely different. Do I have a shot at any other top tier colleges, or am I overreaching myself as it is?</p>

2

<p>Yes. You have no safeties on your list. You have a good chance of getting into Tulane, NYU, and Miami, but it’s not certain. If you want schools which will almost certainly admit you, look into UDenver, Loyola Marymount University, and Depaul. </p>

3

<p>I’m applying to safeties in my home state, just didn’t bother listing them</p>

4

<p>Yeah if you apply to all your top schools I could see you getting into at least two</p>

5

<p>bumpity bump bump bumppppp</p>

6

<p>If you are interested in engineering you might look at some other [url=“&lt;a href=“http://theaitu.org%22%5DAITU%5B/url”&gt;http://theaitu.org”]AITU[/url</a>] schools. Some of them might be a bit smaller than your 4000 undergraduates but many of them are in urban areas and you can certainly get a top-notch engineering education. Given your statistics, a number of them would be safeties for you.</p>

7

<p>What about your course rigor? You’re probably going to get in at least a few if you’ve had a rigorous course load - if you coasted to get that 3.75, I’d be more worried, you’d be depending on your test score too much.</p>

<p>Did you apply EA to any of the schools on your list, e.g. Tulane? If you have a positive answer by Jan. 1 from any of them and you’re happy about it, then you’d be good to go. (Assuming affordability, of course.) And your in-states would qualify for that as well.</p>

<p>The best schools similar to what you list that I think you would be a 98% lock for if looking for more top-tier safeties would be Ohio State and SMU. I don’t think you need to go any lower than that.</p>

8

<p>Your list is fine in terms of reaches. UMiami, Tulane are matches. Schools like Syracuse, UDenver, in that range would be something in between your current match and absolute safties. But if you are happy with what you have as safeties , you are good to go. It 's not at all unusual for kids to figure they’d go to their state school, and they are good to go there in terms of admissions, but want to give some highly selective schools, reaches a shot. You don’t have to have a balanced list as long as you have your base covered. My son did not have many reaches on his list. The schools he liked the most were matches for him for the most part. Some kids like schools that are all pretty much safeties for them. </p>

9

<p>UC’s are not a match. They look at GPA first. 3.75 is too low for those competitive schools.</p>

10

<p>OP says there are state colleges not listed. That would be fine. I agree UCs are not a match, nor are most of the schools on list.</p>

<p>Many kids at DS’s school are applying to state schools (both in and out of state) that are pretty sure things especially with the apps in early. Some are already accepted. With that in hand, they are applying only to lottery tickets. They aren’t interested in anything else enough.</p>

11

<p>Only matches I see are Miami, and Tulane</p>

12

<p>MrMom62, I’ve taken the most rigorous courses available at my school. The only school I’ve applied EA to is Tulane.
I understand that the UC’s are pretty selective, but is NYU not a match? What about USC? And would it be unreasonable to think that I will be accepted to at least one of my reaches?</p>

13

<p>Yes, you could be accepted to a reach but is unreasonable to expect that.</p>

14

<p>I also have two 4s and a 5 on AP tests, and an 800 on US History and 730 on Bio (E) SAT IIs. Don’t know how much those will help</p>

15

<p>That means you’ve had 3 APs so far, how many this year? And which ones?</p>

<p>I think you’re probably okay - there is sometimes safety in numbers, especially since you aren’t aiming for exclusively super-selective schools. If you get in Tulane EA and are okay with that, then you should be just fine, since it should be one of the easier schools for you to get in. If by chance you get anything less than an acceptance, that won’t bode well for the schools ranked above it - so I would then send in a few other applications. In that sense, it’s a good test of the strength of your application. Not sure when Tulane lets you know - just make sure you have enough time to respond to any less than positive decision.</p>

16

<p>13 schools + safeties, and money doesn’t matter? I think that you have enough apps</p>