<p>Okay, so I'll be a senior this upcoming fall and I'd like to finalize the list of colleges to which I will apply in the near future. Any advice that you guys have on what schools to consider and any thoughts you have on the schools that I have denoted as safeties, matches, or reaches would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>First, for some context:
Rank: 1/310
UW GPA: 4.0
W GPA: 4.9
SAT I :2200, but will retake in fall
SAT II: 800, 780, 740, and awaiting scores for one more
AP Exams: American Gov't (5), World History (4), Calc AB (5), took five more exams this year, and will be taking seven my senior year.
I have what I consider solid EC's (varsity athletics, student government, science and academic competitions, etc)
National Merit, State Distinguished Scholar, AP Scholar</p>
<p>College list:
Safeties: American University, Boston U
Matches: Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Georgetown(EA)
Reaches: Duke, Princeton, UPenn</p>
<p>Again, based on my stats, how would you guys rate the list and rankings of the schools already on my list and what schools would you recommend for me?</p>
<p>You gotta say something about your interests (areas of study, features of a school) before we have a clue what schools to suggest. :)</p>
<p>It’s a balnced list if you can afford the safeties. Are you from NY and applying to a land grant school at Cornell? CAS would be in the reach category.</p>
<p>Have you completely eliminated liberal arts colleges? You might consider just adding two for comparison when your acceptances come in. I think applying to 11 schools is fine.</p>
<p>I’m from Maryland and I’d prefer to stay within the mid-atlantic, eastern seaboard area. That said, most of the liberal arts colleges that fall in that region do not offer strong math and cognitive science programs (the areas I want to study) and those that do, such as Williams and Swarthmore from what I’ve been told would be yet more reaches for my list.</p>
<p>@Redroses:</p>
<p>I know that Cornell is extremeley selective, and I will be applying to CAS, but I felt as though it was much more of a match (if anything a low reach) than say Princeton or Duke. Just my opinion though.</p>
<p>^I’d say Cornell is a match / low reach. The combination of rank, SAT and extra curriculars make it more of a match. What race are you? If asian, cornell is probably a low reach (along with JHU). If you’re URM both are matches.</p>
<p>I’m caucasian, so I don’t have the hook of URM, but I am a first generation college student for what it’s worth.</p>
<p>^white will hurt a little, first gen will help, good college list I think, you could possibly add a reach or two if you are interested in more colleges. congrats on the achievements btw</p>
<p>Confidentialcoll, thank you! I am tempted to add a few more reaches, including Columbia(where I see you go, congrats by the way!) and U of Chicago, but the issue that I have is simply time this fall to complete the applications. I would start this summer but with summer AP projects for school and studying for SATs so I can hopefully get a 2300+ the time just isn’t there, so I was hoping to create a relatively concise list that will leave me with options and I’m hoping my current one will do so.</p>
<p>Well time shouldn’t be an issue since it’s just the start of the summer. You can’t be that busy for 6 months. I did 7 applications in the week before they were all due. Applying to 4-5 reaches is pretty standard and increases your chances of getting into one. Applying to 9-10 reaches like some on CC do is a little ridiculous.</p>
<p>Keeping in my mind that I’d like to stay in the eastern region and study math and cognitive science, which schools would you suggest as further additions to my list assuming I decide to apply to more reaches?</p>
<p>And I’m not necessarily thaaaat busy for all six months in terms of academic work, but with soccer and a social life…well, I’d at least like to have a social life haha.</p>
<p>both math and cog sci will be well served at any top east coast college just make sure the school has cog sci or equivalent, chicago is not quite east coast. Columbia has strong departments in both math and neuro science. Neuroscience and behavior at Columbia is a popular undergrad major along with math.</p>
<p>All of your matches/reaches are selective enough that no matter how good your scores, getting in is still basically a crapshoot. I think you have a good shot at getting into 1/6, but just in case I would include one or two more solid matches-- UChicago, NYU, maybe Northwestern.</p>
<p>Thanks vonnegut, I’ll try to take your advice and add some more schools to my list, but in all honesty I don’t feel that my odds at these schools are leaning towards acceptance at only one of the six? I was expecting acceptance at half most likely.</p>
<p>Both of your safeties offer National Merit scholarships that can be significant, so be sure to talk to the financial aid people at BU and AU about eligibility and deadlines. No point in leaving money on the table.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice! I will also be applying for the Trustee Scholarship at BU so I am hoping that both of my safeties could be financial, as well as admission, safeties.</p>
<p>any more input?
any more ideas for matches or how to make some of my reaches become more of matches?</p>
<p>First, I think your overall list looks pretty decent academically since you really do have excellent stats and some solid ECs.</p>
<p>So I don’t think you’ll need to worry over much about “Will I only get accepted to one place?”</p>
<p>I think the thing you do need to worry about is “Will I and my parents be able to afford the places I get accepted to?” All the places on your list are expensive privates. Have you talked to your parents about whether they can afford your FAFSA EFC? Have you talked about whether they can afford to pay more than your FAFSA EFC in case one or more of the places you get into gap you in the FA package?</p>
<p>Comments have been made about your two safeties offering money for NMF. I couldn’t quickly find any $$ figures attached to various merit awards, including the NMF ones, at American; at BU, the NMF is only for a max of $2k (when COA is about $51.5K). Many other places are similar. If you are counting on NMF-merit and other “automatic” merit based on stats to make American and BU affordable, please be aware that if</p>
<p>COA - scholarship$ > EFC,</p>
<p>then you and your family will still need to be able to pay for your full EFC </p>
<p>And you mention that you plan on applying for a Trustee Scholarship at BU. The BU web pages say that approximately 20 such scholarships are awarded each year and that “the competition [for the Trustee Scholarship] is especially rigorous.” So while winning a Trustee Scholarship will clearly make BU affordable and your stats clearly make you a potentially competitive applicant for a Trustee Scholarship, I don’t think you should count on winning one as the basic, foundational piece of your financial safety strategy.</p>