Starting to make a "college list"- advice??

We started with type of school…narrowed it down to LAC. Ruled out southern schools (my D hates heat) Then looked at schools in top 100 that offered merit aid. Narrowed it to schools where our D would be in top 25% or higher of applicants. In that group we narrowed it to schools with decent music programs. Came up with a solid list. Had a few safeties and added a few Ivies for fun. When using Common App my D added a few schools with free applications that looked interesting. One actually ended up as a contender. The plan worked well.

I’m thinking Lehigh might fit many of your criteria.

OK. Preferences for:

  • Bio/neuro/CS
  • Pre-professional vibe (we’ll use this to exclude most LACs, UChicago, Columbia, a few others)
  • Good prof interaction (so – private schools, generally)
  • Willing to work, but wants some balance
  • Parties/Greek is ok
  • Suburban or urban (or at least not in a field/pasture/forest); mall/city over outdoors
  • Weather mandate is flexible
  • Not too much modern architecture – classic gothic, georgian, and other old looks are preferred.
  • An actual campus

So here are some schools that could fit that, or most of it – basically, we’re looking at urban or suburban private universities near or on the east and west coasts, that look like Hogwarts:

(not having seen your stats, but assuming they are strong…)

Reach:
Princeton
Harvard
Yale
Penn
Brown
Duke

Low reach:
Georgetown
Emory (check the look)
Johns Hopkins (confirm work/life balance)
Carnegie Mellon (ditto, and check the look)
Tufts
USC (check the look…)

High match/match:
Wake Forest
Boston College
Lehigh
U of Rochester
Brandeis (check the look; there is a castle, but…)
Northeastern
Villanova
Lafayette (LAC exception)
Holy Cross (LAC exception)
U of Richmond (LAC exception)
Trinity College (LAC exception)

Low match:
Pepperdine
TCNJ
Syracuse
Santa Clara

Safety:
USD
Providence
Seton Hall
U of Scranton
College of Charleston

That’s a start, anyway.

If you’re willing to consider the middle of the country there are a few more I think might fit you fairly well:

Northwestern (check the look)
Rice
Vanderbilt
Washington U
Notre Dame
Tulane
Case Western (check the look)
SMU
TCU

I think prez buckys list is probably a good start.

But I would refrain from using it as a expectation guide without knowing more about your course rigor. Ap classes and act or sat test results. Your gpa is excellent but only tells a small piece of the story. And when I make these suggestions, I assume you will have top tier recommendations and excellent writing skills and execution in your application.

Georgetown Hopkins and CMU are full reach schools with a 3.88

USC tufts emory and Emory/oxford are the low reaches assuming you have the 1500 sat plus to go along with what we know. Wake Boston College are right behind that if not the same. A full expectation notch ahead of the Lehigh northeastern and Rochester. And those three are a full degree more selective these days than Brandeis Villanova holy cross Richmond. Trinity college is just a titch below that.

So if you look at large ranges such match and low match. It doesn’t mean they are the same.

@privatebanker

JHU and Georgetown’s admit rates are fairly close to my boundary between reach and low reach – 15%. It would depend on the sum of OP’s resume and the round in which he or she applies (moreso for Hopkins, as Georgetown’s EA and RD rates are virtually identical…).

CMU - depends on the school, as they aren’t all equally selective.

Prez Bucky i generally agree with your assements and do so again in this case.

Just a small difference in opinion for me is that I do not think that boundry reflects that Hopkins and Georgetown don’t get as many “just for the heck of it”applications that boost the number of applicants but not the same level of candidate in many of those as the core competition.

I would venture that the applicant pool top to bottom is as competitive as any school.

I guess if Georgetown used the common app and made it easier to raise the applicant numbers the percentages would change. If Hopkins wasn’t considered so intense and Baltimore not being
As desirable as some locations.

But if I look actual quality of the accepted and declines at jhu and Georgetown in my personal examples and here on cc they are nearly identical to the schools in your reach list.

But this is my interpretation of course. And it’s all just best guess.

And a 3.88 goa with no other data would not indicate to me that either of the schools should be considered a low reach.

I don’t have the same real time visabiiity into cmu. My observations are based of dozens of students over the past three years from a mix of prestigious private and high end New England public schools. A mix of unhooked,athlete and legacy. several Orm students and no international award winners etc.

Prezbucky’s list makes sense and I’d add Colgate and Bucknell as another two LAC exceptions if they aren’t too rural/remote (if you liked Dartmouth, they might be OK). They otherwise fit the bill.

If you have TCNJ in there could add/substitute Rowen which has been climbing the rankings

TCNJ offers very similar environment to NESCAC schools and many on your high match list . Yet, it is 2/3 the cost and very academically competitive. S is graduating finance major , small class size with lots of prof interaction. No place to hide. S had choice of three top internships in nyc, and was just made a full time offer for after graduation by a top 4 consulting firm with generous terms. In our experience, school is what the student makes of it and if your child is proactive, high performer TCNJ offers all the connections needed. Plus leaves more $$$ available for grad school.

"Cost:

  • What are your parents/family willing to spend? haven’t had this talk yet, will use it to further narrow schools soon
  • Have you run any practice NPCs to get an idea of what kind of aid you could expect? No"

OP, I really think you need to start with cost/affordability and build your list from there. Have the talk with your parents sooner rather than later. Find out how much they can pay each year, then run the NPC at the schools that interest you to see if they are feasible.