I go to a school without grades, but I have very good evaluations generally, and a long list of ECs. I was captain of the mock trial team, have had several internships and work opportunities, logged hundreds of hours of community service including TAing my school’s community service class. My ACTs are a 29 but that was without much studying… Im obviously planning on taking them again. I’m curious what you all think about this list of colleges? Is there a good range in here? Ones I shouldn’t bother with? etc. Thanks!
Reaches:
Stanford
Pitzer
Bowdoin
Hopeful reaches
Berkeley
Haverford
Matches
Suny Binghamton
Suny Stonybrook
William and Mary
Denison
A little vague on the information, so there is a range…Berkeley should be up with the top reaches; Haverford and William and Mary can be hopeful reaches. I think you have a lot of good balance, but kind of scattered with geographical location and school strong points. The SUNYs and U Vermont and Temple? I think maybe you don’t need to apply to that many schools. Delete 1-2 from the last 2 categories that you don’t like as much; you should be fine with the others.
I don’t see how anyone could even begin to speculate about the appropriateness of your list. You have provided almost no information. They could be all reaches or all safeties depending upon your other information. Do you have a bunch of patents? Are you an Olympic athlete? Did you win Intel? Write your ticket. Otherwise provide more information about your academic and EC credentials, quality of your school. Scores on other tests, Academic goals…
Since your school doesn’t have grades I think colleges will put emphasis on your standardized test grades. You can bump up your ACT to above a 30 with a lot of work which would increase your chances of admission into the colleges on your list. Studying tips: Do a ton of practice tests and learn the tricks to each section as well as the extra math knowledge needed for the test