<p>I know that this post is long... but I could really use the advice! Please reply.
Well I have the max schools in common app... but I don't know if I'm reaching a little too high.. I was wondering whether I should add a couple more matches.</p>
<p>Rice ED
Chicago
Harvey Mudd (maybe 2nd ED if I don't get into Rice)
Dartmouth
Brown
USC
Penn
Vandy (maybe 2nd ed)
Emory
Middlebury
Cornell
WUSTL
Santa Clara
Tufts
NYU Poly
Carnegie Mellon
Northwestern
Rochester
Tulane
SMU
Already accepted to UT Austin but looking for a smaller school..
Already accepted to Bama but looking for smaller school..</p>
<p>The reason I'm applying to all of these schools is because I don't feel good about my chances at any but maybe like 2 of them that I know are safeties (SMU, NYUP and Santa Clara.. maybe Tulane since their EA rate is so high).
Stats:
White male from Texas
Applying for either chemical engineering or chemistry
31/617 rank (top 5%), 3.98 gpa, 95 unweighted avg.
2180 (760m,670cr,750wr)
32 ACT (34m,34e,32r,27s)....... just took yesterday probably 33 or 34 superscore (34m,34e,33/34 r,32-35 s)
taking sat2s the 5th
I played basketball 2 years before financial hardship and crippling debt forced me to get a job my junior year, where I worked 16 hours a week in the school year and 32 in the summer. (conman my mom dated ran up tens of thousands in credit card debt)
I am a teacher's aide for my physics teacher (not really sure that helps, but I think it shows my interest in STEM)
I am a big time participant in my school's Young Republicans
I was in debate for a year
I qualified for regionals in an academic competition (current issues)
I did a lot of on and off work for a local real estate company moving furniture.
About 40 hours Comm. Service
Mu Alpha Theta, NHS, and 1 of 2 nm commended at my school (probably helped my recs since it's so rare where I go to school)
I've taken 4 AP tests (5,5,5,4) and most rigorous schedule possible
I'm taking 7 AP classes this year (2 maths, 2 sci)
My essays are about my quirkiness and about the leadership role that I play within my own family since my dad has been out of the picture for 7 years.
My common app essay is about how I connect with the homeless man who lives outside my grocery store, even when others snub their noses at him</p>
<p>I'm not asking if I'll get into Cornell or Penn; I'm just asking if it's likely that I'll get into at least a few of those schools other than the obvious safeties. So is it, or should I add matches?</p>
<p>It’s really up to you- if you’re willing to write all of those essays, fill out the applications, and pay the application fees… </p>
<p>However, I’d really suggest looking at every one of those colleges and asking yourself why you want to apply there- and ask yourself if you’d actually attend it if you got in. Perhaps even rank them in the order of how much each college means to you.</p>
<p>Agree with slon02, lots of supplemental essays, application fees, score reporting fees, etc., when you probably know where you will attend and where you won’t. You ALSO need to look at your financial need considerations, whether your parents can afford some of these schools and, if they can, whether it is a good investment in the first place.</p>
<p>Your GPA is very strong however, given your class rank, it appears that your school is guilty of some grade inflation. Your SAT, although very good, is only just average or below for the most selective schools on your list. </p>
<p>Schools that are matches/safeties: </p>
<p>USC
Santa Clara
Rochester
Tulane
SMU
Edit: NYU</p>
<p>Borderline matches (very high match or very low reach)l:</p>
<p>Vandy
CMU
Emory</p>
<p>All the remaining schools not listed above are mid to high reaches.</p>
<p>Well which are high reaches? By that I mean which schools will basically laugh at my app? And my high school counselor filled out the NACAC waiver b.c. of my poor financial situation, so my apps are free… and I’m pretty far into my supps… I just reached my max on the common app… Are there any schools on the list that are just completely out of the ballpark?</p>
<p>Dartmouth, Brown, UPenn, and Middlebury are the schools that I would say are most likely to “laugh at your application,” simply because your SAT and ACT aren’t incredibly high, and your ECs aren’t anything out of the usual, for schools of their caliber. You may also want to cut out some schools in general, across the board… That’s A LOT of schools to apply to… And A LOT of application fees and score report fees to pay… And essays to write. Do you really love each of these schools, or did you just think “Sounds nice enough, I’ll stick it on,” because if it’s the latter, that’s not really a good way to go about this… And if you were entertaining the notion, don’t apply to Emory ED II, last year the acceptance rate was ridiculously low, as in, lower than RD. And I’d apply to Tulane EA, it’ll be easier, and it’s a nice fallback to have(: You may want to do the same with UChicago; however, it’s not as likely you’ll get in (at Tulane, I’m sure you’d be in EA). Best of luck in all you do!(:</p>
<p>You’ve already been accepted to a very good school (UT) and a good and financially generous school (Bama) and I expect you’ll receive a few more acceptances, too. I think you should be focusing on schools that meet full need or are likely to offer you generous merit aid.</p>
<p>UT Austin is a very nice school for chemical engineering. Two of my friends (they’re twins) are at UT Austin for dual-majors in chemical engineering and physics, and they say they love it.</p>
<p>If you are unsure between chemical engineering and chemistry, consider only those schools which have both. I agree with a previous response that you should then throw out all the schools you don’t really care about. Finally, you have a few AITU schools on your list, look at the others too ([Association</a> of Independent Technological Universities: AITU](<a href=“http://theaitu.org%5DAssociation”>http://theaitu.org)) as some of them would be safeties for you and they may have some very nice scholarship programs you could qualify for.</p>
<p>I think it is smart to apply to a lot of the top schools, since their acceptance rates are so low, and because the admissions process is in many ways a crapshoot.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the input guys… I kind of had that same logic floridadad…
I mean I think that I am a good applicant to these schools, but it all comes down to whether I fit what they’re looking for. If I apply to all of these awesome schools that I would love to go to, I will probably get into a couple of them…</p>
<p>Personally, I think you are too top-heavy. That’s why you originally posted right, or were you looking for that one responder that agreed with you to leave your list alone? The reaches you could leave in play are:</p>
<p>I’d take the other 4 reaches (Penn, Brown, Dartmouth, and Chicago) off your list. You will save some valuable supplemental essay writing time to buff out the remaining applications. You are still applying to too many reach schools, but this would still be casting a nice wide net anyway.</p>
<p>Well that makes a lot of sense jshain…
I wasn’t feeling too good about those four anyway!
Would you put Middlebury with the former or the latter?</p>
<p>Middlebury? for someone who is interested in Chem Engineering??? uh, no…take it off your list. And Wash U is notorious for wait listing thousands of qualified students who dont apply ED. You may not want to waste your time applying there.</p>
<p>Be SURE to apply to USC BEFORE DEC 1, in order to be considered for their 1/2 or full Tuition merit scholarships. You can also get great financial aid at USC, in addition to merit $. But that’s only if your complete your application before Dec 1.</p>
<p>You may as well apply to a large list…your backstory may be interesting to these schools, especially if your GC writes a really good letter. however, you should be looking at some schools with good financial packages that don’t load down the packages with loans as well. Maybe add a few less selective schools that have good merit packages, such as Case Western?</p>
<p>Wait… don’t the schools on my list meet full need? I mean I can manage 5k loans a year in a package… My mom can pay about 3k-4k a year…
And my counselor doesn’t know much about me other than the National Merit thing… I mean I go to a school of 3000… my essays are all about it though</p>
<p>And yeah… I don’t think I’m going to apply Middlebury.
Is WUSTL really that bad though?</p>
<p>…@menloparkmom Do you think I would qualify for merit money at USC??</p>
<p>“don’t the schools on my list meet full need?”
COLLEGES are the ones who decide what a families need is, not the family! MOST colleges don’t have the $$[ Billion dollar endowments] to give needy students 100% grants instead of loans. Be very careful and realistic. </p>
<p>“Is WUSTL really that bad though?”
read the WUSTL forums from last April 1 , and you’ll see for yourself. Also, you can check out their Common Data Set , which gives you an eye opening look into admissions statistics at colleges .
As I said, Notorious for waitlisting students. WUSTL likes to “feel the love” from applicants- the ED kind of love!</p>
<p>"
menloparkmom Do you think I would qualify for merit money at USC?"</p>
<p>If you are a NMF , and you are accepted [ which I’d bet you would be] you’ll receive a 1/2 tuition scholarship at USC automatically ,IF you declare them to be your first choice BEFORE May 1.
For a chance at more $$ complete your app before Dec. 1 and if invited to interview there- GO. You could get bumped up to a Full Tuition scholarship [ but only if you interview when invited do so]</p>
<p>I do not know if you should just take the highest ranked ones off of your list. No one is going to laugh at your app IMO, so that would not be an efficient way of going about things. If you love Penn or Brown, for example, apply. But if you research some others and find that for your major they are not all that impressive, then get rid of those. Applying to high reaches is perfectly fine so long as you have backups. </p>
<p>As to whether you are applying to too many, that is of course your own choice. I am maxing out at 13, because anything above that would be far too stressful for me. So if you might have that problem, maybe try ranking them in order from most likely to attend to least likely to attend, like others here have suggested. Then get rid of the 5 that are ranked lowest on your list and highest on the scale of admissions selectivity.</p>
<p>Well the USC calculator (yes I know it’s not official) projects that I’ll get 45k in gift, and my mom has agreed to pay 5k, so I’ll end up 20k in debt… not bad…</p>
<p>And I really do want to apply to Brown though… I’ll probably cut a Chicago and a Middlebury… and a Dartmouth!
Thanks for all the feedback people!</p>
<p>I believe Middlebury has a Chemistry department but it is combined with Bio-Chem, so menloparkmom is probably right. There are much better options for your major. Even though WashU says they are need-blind, they really are very much need aware. If you don’t apply ED there, make sure you at least do a regional college fair and, ideally, a campus visit. As far as USC goes, where you are a solid match imho, they are extremely generous with merit aid to National Merit award recipients but not so much with unhooked applicants who are not NM award winners. At least that’s been my perception based on my kids as well as their friends and classmates.</p>
<p>you need to realize your costs will go up each year, and your financial aid may not. also consider expenses like spending money, transportation to college,etc., when considering your finances. Also, the $45000 you think you might get? could easily be almost all in loans.</p>
<p>Definitely apply broadly…but add a few less crazily selective schools where you will stand out to your list. A lot of schools give more attractive financial aid to attractive applicants, as compared to run of the mill packages to the run of the mill applicants. You have a strong academic package, but it’s run of the mill at the schools on your list.</p>
<p>Really try to find a few more schools where your application will shine.</p>
</p>