My son is a junior in GA interested in Business and Economics.
Based on his academic profile, test scores and financial constraints we have now built a long list of colleges for him to explore. The list includes: U Penn, Columbia, Duke, NorthWestern, CMU, Georgia Tech, Emory, Vanderbilt, UGA, UMD, Indiana, Brown, NYU, Syracuse, UMich etc.
The list is over 22 schools and he is going through a structured process to research them and learn more about them. Any tips on the different factors he should be considering and is there a way for him to quickly select the top 15 or so schools that he should research deeply. I realize that the answer to this probably varies by individual but looking for the different factors he should consider first to downselect schools. Would appreciate any tips.
I’d make sure he has a couple solid “safeties” that he would be happy to attend. Schools that have a 60% acceptance rate or higher. Many of the schools listed are tough admits for even the most accomplished students. If you give us his scores and high school classes, that would be helpful to know in order to recommend. And don’t apply to anywhere that he really doesn’t see himself attending.
He should focus on finding safeties first. If his grades/test scores are high enough, he could be an auto admit to Indiana so I would start there.
Think about budget. Many of the schools you listed don’t give merit awards at all. If they aren’t affordable, don’t bother keeping them on the list.
Then think about things like location (city vs rural), climate, size to pare down all those reach schools.
Urban vs suburban vs rural
Other geography, weather: does he want snow, or warm weather most of the year
Close to home to make visits easy, or far to explore something totally new
Large school, medium, small school
Are sports team an interest?
Greek life?
Think about lifestyle fit as well as academic fit.
And strongly agree with lkbtnc: you need some safeties on the list. Most if not all of these schools are reaches - and he may well get into several of them, who knows! - but he risks getting shut out if the admissions roulette wheel doesn’t spin his way. Make sure there is a Plan B, C, and even D that he would be happy with.
-Research the differences between business (what major?) and economics. Business majors and economics are more different than they are alike. What are potential career goals at this (early) point?
-Decide what the annual college budget is and communicate that to your S. Run the Net Price Calculators (NPCs) at the schools on your list. Some of the schools on your list only give need based aid, some give both merit aid and need based aid, some may not give any aid for OOS students. The goal should be to not apply to any schools that will be unaffordable…Budget alone may narrow the list. NPCs may not be accurate if parents are divorced, own real estate beyond a primary home, or own a business…are any of those the case for you?
-Have a balanced list…a couple of reaches, a handful of targets, at least one safety. The list might be larger if you need to merit hunt. IU Kelley direct admit criteria are 3.8 GPA (weighted or unweighted, whatever is the highest GPA on the HS transcript) and 1370 SAT/30 ACT. If he meets those criteria IU Kelley will be a safety.
-Then consider gen ed requirements, ease of changing majors, size, school spirit, location, distance from home, ease/expense of travel, vibe, etc.
This may not be useful for everyone, but I thought Naviance is a really useful tool for seeing what schools people with similar profiles from your school may have gotten into. It can be used to determine the range of stats people have when getting into high reach schools. It can also help in determining what schools may be considered safe.
You have stated that you have already checked whether each school is affordable, but the net price can still be used to take out schools that are expensive comparatively.
There are also many people that consider dorms, clubs, and hobbies in order to decide what schools offer not only academic experiences, but also experiences that students just like doing.
I think students should have at least one safety that they would be happy attending that is also affordable. Once a student has one of these, I think it is fine to have a reach heavy reach.
Thanks for the replies. A quick summary of his profile: GPA: 4.0 (UW), ACT:36, will have taken 11-12 AP courses by senior year. EC - Debate team captain, quiz bowl captain, science Olympiad.
I did not list a lot of safeties that are on his list such as: Tufts, Binghamton university, University of Richmond etc.
Also look to see how the business school admissions work. Many schools have a separate application to the business that can be very competitive. Assess that vs. schools where there might be a direct admit option.
Tufts is not a safety for anyone (and they really don’t like being used as a safety, either ).
I don’t know those other schools that you listed as safeties well enough to comment, but I am sure others do.
In general, you will get the best help from this group if you list all the colleges he is considering, from safety to reach. People can help you sort them and get a realistic picture of which ones are true safeties, match, reach etc.
Note that many of these schools may fit into different categories depending upon admission round. A likely or even safety in ED may be a high target or reach in RD.
Those are all great schools, but it would be hard to call a schools like Richmond or Tufts a safety. Even if individuals with similar profiles get into these schools often, I would still only maybe classify these schools as matches.
Out of the schools you have listed, Binghamton, UGA, UMD, and IU could be considered safeties, but even then I would try to consult Naviance or your Counselor to make sure.
UMD had an overall acceptance rate of 33% last year. That includes both in-state and OOS and covers all majors. Admissions to the Smith School of Business are very competitive (acceptance rate in the low 20s for OOS). I wouldn’t classify it as a safety.
Beyond the key underlying metrics related to 1) selectivity/how likely you are to get in and 2) how much it will likely cost to attend (i.e., don’t apply to any school that won’t be a financial fit), I wrote this up for my daughter who is applying this year based on my experience with her older brother two years ago:
So much of matching with a college is about “fit” – how do you see yourself at that type of school? How does the college see you fitting in well there as they are reading your application? So go visit some schools to see how you feel there! Do you like a small campus with few students, close community? A larger campus where football and basketball games are the focus of school spirit? Maybe you love that school spirit and big athletics, but you feel overwhelmed at a large state school and think a mid-sized school that still has a D1 program (some of the mid-sized Jesuit or Catholic schools) would be a good fit. Once you start to get an overall sense of the kinds of schools you like, you can start putting specific schools on a list to investigate more thoroughly. Some things to think about:
Weather and seasons
Size of campus/community (how many students on how many acres?)
Accessibility to transportation (airports, train stations) so you can get home and people can get to you for visits
Where is the campus relative to off-campus resources and activities (do you want to have a cute little town nearby? a city? how can you get around to things?)
What are the statistics on who lives on/off campus, for how many years (do they guarantee housing? for how long? how much of the student population lives in the dorms?)
Do you care about Greek life (either to actively avoid it or purposely seek it out)?
Does the architecture of the school matter to you? Gothic stone vs. brick vs. modern? Do you care if the campus doesn’t have some defining hall or tower or structure that everybody knows and loves and serves as the perfect spot for your graduation photo?
Do you care whether or not your classes at the outset are large, lecture style classes (with sections led by grad students) vs. smaller-sized seminars?
If you want to consider a large school with large classes, does that school have an Honors program (that often gives you access to smaller class sizes along with residential preferences) to which you can apply (or get invited to apply)?
Do you want to look at mountains or the beach, farmland or cityscapes?
Do you prefer the quarter system or semesters?
Do you want your school to have opportunities for non-majors to participate in activities that are important to you? (dance classes, singing, playing in the jazz ensemble, etc. – some schools have such selective programs in these areas that they are not open to non-majors)
Do particulars about the dorms matter to you? (research those)
Do you care if the campus has good food? (research that)
How will you get around the campus? (will you need a bike? can you bike across campus or will you have to walk the bike on the yard? do you need a shuttle to get around campus?)
Does diversity matter to you? (geographic diversity, socioeconomic diversity, ethnic diversity)
Do you know what you want to study? If so, how important is it to you that your college rank well in that area of interest vs. wanting to go to a school that has an overall great reputation or advantages in other areas but isn’t the best for your major?
Schools like UMD are becoming much more competitive, I just thought OP would be likely due to stats, and if not could check scattergrams to check how similar students fared recently. In retrospect, perhaps it is better qualified as a match tho.
Our son found it was helpful to make a spreadsheet to make notes on certain elements (sites like Niche can be helpful for things like whether or not campus social life revolves around Greek organizations – he specifically did NOT want a school where you had to be in a fraternity to make friends). Plenty of others above have already noted that you should make sure to have true, true safeties on the list (and Tufts is definitely not in that category for anyone), and here’s another thing I’d say along those lines:
As you determine what’s a safety/match/reach school, make sure you are digging deeper than the overall numbers. Schools that report a 18% acceptance rate overall but that offer ED through which they admit/enroll half their class are going to be a good deal more selective than 18% in the RD round! And the acceptance rate during ED might have been as high as 30% or higher! So know whether you might be competitive for ED but NOT for RD and plan accordingly (if you can afford ED and really want a particular school – apply ED!). Similarly, a school that is closer to a “safety” for a student applying Undeclared to the college of letters and sciences is quite likely NOT a “safety” to someone applying for any kind of Engineering or Computer Science. Computer Science and Engineering are RIDICULOUSLY COMPETITIVE EVERYWHERE. But at certain schools, other majors are shockingly competitive (think UC Irvine nursing, which has a 1.5% acceptance rate despite an overall school acceptance rate of about 20%). So dig into that data so that you know what you are looking at.
He currently has Brown and Columbia on his list. What does he think about a Core curriculum? I also second not assuming that Economics is always a good substitute for business.
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