Suggestions for my List?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi everyone. Our school requires us to sit down with our guidance counselors and create a college list spring of junior year. Can y’all help me out and find some colleges that fit me based on my intellectual interests and my personality (or whatever y’all can tell about me from my extracurriculars)?

Intended Major: Economics and/or Math/Statistics, Finance (for undergraduate business schools)
Intended Career: The Street

Stats
ACT: 36
SAT II: 800 Math II, 800 US History
GPA: 3.95 UW

Course Load
9th Grade
AP Human Geography
AP Calculus BC
English 9 Honors
Concert Strings
Biology
Chemistry Honors
Spanish II Honors

10th Grade:
Calculus III (MV Calc)*
Linear Algebra*
AP Chemistry
AP Physics C
AP US History
English 10 Honors
Spanish III Honors

11th Grade:
Intro to Mathematical Statistics I & II*
Discrete Structures*
AP Biology
AP US Government
AP Economics
British Literature Honors
Spanish IV

Planned 12th Grade:
AP English
AP Psychology
Mathematical Statistics I & II*
Abstract Algebra*
Computational Statistics*
Differential Equations*
Numerical Analysis*
Foundations of Analysis*

*Courses taken at the local University

Extracurricular Activities (nothing special)
Club Swimming - Year round except during HS swimming season. Besides being a 3-time state qualifier, I don’t have much to boast about here.

HS Swimming - Varsity 3 years, in contention to be team captain next year, not much else.

UNICEF Club - Founder and President. Just started this club over the summer. We’ve already raised over $1,000 for UNICEF, and we’ve done some volunteering at the local orphanage and at some elementary schools.

Stem Club - Subteam Captain. We’ve qualified for nationals the past two years. In 9th grade, We finished in the top 10 at a national STEM competition for our essay portion.

Mu Alpha Theta - Nothing much to boast about here. Just a 3-time state competition qualifier.

Volunteering - I’ve volunteered at the local VA hospital for around 150 hours so far.

Awards (lacking)
Likely National Merit Semifinalist (based on my 10th grade score)
AP Scholar with Distinction (hopefully gonna upgrade that to National after this year)

Now onto some “fit” aspects.
I’m honestly pretty flexible. I prefer small to mid-size schools, but I’m also fine with large schools. My ideal campus would be a picturesque, suburban campus within a few hours to a major city, but as someone who lived in NYC for 7 years, I would be fine with an urban campus as well. I would prefer a close-knit student population, but I’m also quite independent. I like collaboration, but I also have a fiercely competitive nature. I don’t like a large core curriculum, but I’m fine with anything non-UChicago.

My current list:
Safeties: my state school (not disclosing because that would be a dead giveaway to who I am), UConn

Matches: UVA (OOS, more of a reach-match), Michigan (OOS, more of a reach-match, especially with Ross preferred admission), UT-Austin (OOS, BHP program is a reach)

Reaches: Dartmouth College, Williams College, Amherst College, Princeton University, Northwestern University, Duke University, NYU (Stern).

Thanks!!

2

If you want The Street, add Penn (Wharton). I would also add Harvard. I believe these two are the most heavily recruited from undergrad. Fordham (which would be a safety for you) actually places well due to location. Georgetown places well and meets many of your criteria. Also Lehigh. They have an interesting integrated science / business track. They also place quite well on the street.

If you have interest in the south, Charlotte is a major banking market (2nd to NYC but lots of activity). Great schools for IB and Corporate Banking are: Duke, UNC, UVA, Wake Forest, Emory, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt. Compensation is similar to NYC but it lasts A LOT longer in Charlotte. Different lifestyle but still a fun city.

3

I’ve heard Wall Street recruits heavily from financial engineering majors at certain schools as opposed to Econ/etc (because the engineering programs at those schools are more competitive). For ex, if you went to Columbia or Princeton, I would recommend majoring in financial engineering. On that topic, you could maybe add Columbia as a reach as well (I know the location may not be your top choice, but still).

I’ve also heard good things about Carnegie Mellon’s financial engineering and business programs.

4

You have some very impressive stats! However, it’s important to remember that your reach schools are very much a crapshoot. Northwestern, NYU and UT Austin all consider demonstrated interest so definitely keep that in mind. I see you have 12 schools on your list and I think that’s a good number to stick with. Make sure the schools you do have (especially matches and safeties) are both affordable and schools you would be happy attending. That being said, you might be interested in Swarthmore, Wash U, Georgetown, Penn, Fordham, Bowdoin, Cornell, Rice, Colgate, Lafayette.

5

Reason why you haven’t selected any top liberal arts schools as matches given Economics and Math majors, mainstays at the top LAC’s, are primary feeders to Wall Street?

6

With Amherst and Williams on your list as reaches (as they are reaches for everyone), you might consider Trinity College, in Hartford, as a match. Enclosed, lovely campus, 2 hours from NYC.

7

Amherst and Williams are two LACs on my list. However, I was pretty turned off, for one reason or another, from all the other NESCAC schools after visiting them.

8

@Areslol1, would be interested in hearing why you didn’t feel any of the other NESCAC’s were a fit; aside from being #1 and #2, I think most would say these two have very different vibes and that there are ones that land in between.

Also, as you don’t have any non-state school matches, are you fine if that’s where you attend? Want to make sure you aren’t thinking that you don’t need any real matches and that those are last resort schools as the ones you have listed as reaches only accept at the most 20% of those with perfect scores, including EA/ED.

9

Definitely add Penn/Wharton; absolutely top notch education. Ross Direct Admit was brutal on admits this year FYI. Bowdoin/Bates seem to also have good connections to Wall Street. Brown does as well.

Make sure you think through the location thing. Huge difference in some of the location types of schools on your list. Someone happy in NYC is not going to be happy in Hanover NH…though Dartmouth is a terrific school.