<p>I have a 92.5 GPA weighted and scored a 33 on the ACT with a 12 on the essay. I plan to double major in Economics and Journalism or International Relations, depending on the school, as I want to be a journalist. My parents only want me to apply to ten schools, but I have 12! I don't know what to eliminate. Help please? Leave at least two safeties!</p>
<ul>
<li>William and Mary (I'm EDing this one - it's my top choice) - Reach</li>
<li>Columbia University (I know this is a stretch, but my dad went here for undergrad/grad/PhD so I figured why not give it a shot?) - Reach</li>
<li>Tufts (right behind Columbia and W&M) - Reach</li>
<li>U of Richmond - Target</li>
<li>NYU - Target</li>
<li>Fordham - Safety</li>
<li>Boston U - Safety</li>
<li>U of Miami (Fl) - Safety</li>
<li>Wake Forest - Target</li>
<li>George Washington - Safety/Target</li>
<li>Barnard (my second chance at Columbia haha) - Reach</li>
<li>Tulane - Target</li>
</ul>
<p>If money is a concern, have you checked all of your “safeties” to see whether they are definitely affordable? (Check the net price calculators, and check the scholarship pages to see if there are any guaranteed merit scholarships for your stats.)</p>
<p>Remove any schools which have no chance of being affordable. If that leaves you no safeties, you need to find other safeties which are affordable.</p>
<p>1) Applying to 10-12 schools is a reasonable approach</p>
<p>2) If the cost of applications is the only reason you are dropping a couple schools consider getting a few part time jobs and pay for those last couple of applications yourself</p>
<p>3) No need for that many safeties unless you really like all the schools</p>
<p>4) I’d suggest visiting Columbia and Barnard … after visiting I’d bet you see them as two very distinct schools with a strong preference for one or the other … (and having access to the second school is a great benny of attending the one you prefer)</p>
<p>You really only need one safety, assuming it’s a true admission & financial safety that you’d be happy to attend. </p>
<p>I don’t think Miami is a safety for you. Your ACT is only 1 point above their median band (25-75); your GPA is below their average; they accept less than 40% of applicants. If you don’t like it as well as your true safety(-ies), drop it.</p>
<p>Get rid of NYU and decide between Barnard and Columbia. </p>
<p>Can you afford the applications? If not, you should look into fee waivers.</p>
<p>The other posters raise a good point regarding financial aid. Have you run the financial aid calculations to determine if you have enough financial safeties on the list?</p>
<p>Your stats are great! Hopefully you have some leadership experience within your EC to make your application compelling.</p>
<p>If the only issue is the application fee, and you scored a 12 on the SAT essay, hire yourself out as an SAT essay tutor to cover those outstanding application fees! (Not kidding.)</p>
<p>But I agree with what others have said . . . figure out which of these schools you can actually afford to attend, and get rid of the ones you can’t. Schools such as NYU and BU are notorious for not meeting anywhere near the full need of their admitted students . . . only the most exceptional candidates get affordable offers. If you can afford to pay the full cost of attendance, then by all means keep them on your list . . . but if that’s the case, the application fees shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>Bottom line - don’t waste your money on schools you can’t possibly afford to attend.</p>
<p>Unless your high school guidance counselor has years of records that clearly indicate that every student like you who has applied to Fordham, BU, and Miami has been accepted, then you cannot consider them to be “safeties”. Perhaps they are reasonably safe given your stats, but you need to identify at least one institution where your stats flat-out guaranteed admission. Many publics post that kind of information right on their websites for in-state students.</p>
<p>Assuming you’re instate for W&M, why do you not have any other state schools on your list? If you list it as a reach, shouldn’t you apply to other Virginia schools that are more safeties and matches to be sure that you can actually afford to go to college? If you’re not instate, then take W&M off your list as you very likely won’t be able to afford it, and apply to at least a couple in state options. </p>
<p>Remember, safeties are schools you can see yourself at, schools that you know you can get into, and schools you know you can afford. You don’t have any true safeties on your list, unless your parents are full pay and just wanted to limit the number of schools you could apply to.</p>
<p>If you can’t afford more than 10 apps, then your safety schools aren’t safeties.</p>
<p>You don’t seem to understand the concept of safeties. Getting accepted is only HALF the issue. Paying for the schools is the other. Your “safeties” are expensive and don’t give great aid. </p>
<p>How much will your parents pay each year for college? If you don’t know, then ask. </p>
<p>definitely take off NYU…lousy aid, and your stats won’t get merit.</p>
<p>Fordham, BU, and UMiami will cost your parents a lot of money. If they’re fine with that, then ok. </p>
<p>Wm and Mary will expect your OOS family to pay full freight. If they won’t do that, why bother applying ED or at all?? It’s an OOS public. My niece is an OOS senior there from Illinois (with better stats) and she got no aid at all…full pay.</p>
<p>You need at least 2 safeties that you know FOR SURE are affordable because of ASSURED funding of merit, grants, small fed loans, and/or family funds.</p>
<p>Take out Wake Forest and NYU. You won’t get money from NYU and it seems like you prefer big cities, so Wake Forest might not be the environment you want.</p>
<p>While you have been told many schools to take off your list, I think you should add American University to the list. They offered very generous aid to my D, so if your family could swing it, it might be a great school for you. You have all “name brand” schools on your list. Try finding some smaller schools that are private that may offer you awesome merit money for your stats. Sure, many people may say “where’s that school” or “Never heard of it”, but if it’s a decent school and gives you the financial aid you need, it will serve you well for undergrad. You won’t be making big bucks in journalism, so it’s important to keep loans for college to an absolute minimum.</p>
<p>I actually think you need to apply to a really true safety. You will probably get into one of your safeties, but your “safeties” are not 100% safe.</p>
<p>I think at present, you actually run a slight risk of getting rejected everywhere. It is not that easy to get into even a #50 school nowadays.</p>
<p>For those who doubt fordham, umiami and bu as safety schools for me, I’m an all honors all ap student and, according to my school’s naviance, everyone who has had above an 88 weighted that has applied, unless they flopped the act or sat, has gotten in.</p>
<p>My problem has been that I can’t find any safeties that are good for my desired majors and has the type of environment im looking for (real campus but close to/in a city, ideally 5,000 - 8,000 undergrads). If anyone knows any schools like that with good fa I would really appreciate it, especially since I’m not too crazy about Fordham but my guidance councilor is forcing me to keep it on my list as she thinks it has the best rep of my safeties</p>
<p>Columbia2017: Are there any state schools in Connecticut (assuming that’s your homestate) that you’d be willing to consider? UConn for example. A safety is a school that you know, NO MATTER WHAT, you’ll be able to afford. Most of these schools are hyper expensive, and the only way to afford them is to get merit aid. The thing is, you don’t know if you’ll get merit aid, unless it’s by formula. And most of the schools on your list are somewhat stingy with merit aid.</p>