Trying to make a balanced college list

College Search & Selection
1

Here are some of the my stats:
I’m currently a junior in high school.
My weighted GPA is a 4.63 and my unweighted GPA is around a 3.85.
ACT: 32. (35. 27. 33. 32.)
I’m taking 4 AP Classes this year.
AP Chem. AP Physics I. APUSH. AP Lang&Comp
Next year I’m going to be taking 6 AP Classes.
AP Calc AB. AP Bio. AP Gov. AP Psychology. AP Lit&Comp. AP World History. Spanish 4.

I want to major in Chemistry. I also want to go to med school so I will be premed too.

Some of my most consistent extra curriculars: Baseball Frosh, Soph, Junior, and I will play senior year. I should be a captain next year.
Basketball freshman year. BEE leader at my school (mentors freshman). Student Athlete Leadership Team. Travel Baseball for 8 years. Summer Baseball with my school for 3 years. Minor volunteering positions.
Two Summer Job ~20hours a week for each of them.
I have received a few awards at my school (High honor roll, Student Athlete award, Grit Award, All-Conference Academic).
I’m White. Male. Income: ~200,000. I live in Illinois, Suburbs of Chicago. Most kids at my school don’t go to good colleges. Usually 1/2 people go to an Ivy/highly selective school a year.

I’m trying to find a balanced lists of schools to apply to. I’ll probably apply to around 7-10 schools.

WashU
Vanderbilt
Case Western Reserve
Haverford College
Hillsdale College
UW-Madison
UI-UC
UofRochester
Carleton College
Iowa State
U of Kentucky

2

Bump

3

OP, good work at this seems fairly balanced, but it does seem like some of your reaches are likely out of reach unless you have a hook, including Carleton, Haverford, Vanderbilt, and Wash U.

Best to look at the average scores for each school you are interested in, and assume that if you are in the median 50 % it’s a reach, at the top-25 % it’s a target and above the top 25 % it’s a safety.

If you have a hook - URM, first-gen, athletic recruit or legacy then you can be near the bottom of the 50% for a reach, right in the middle for a target, and near the top of the 50% for a safety, unless you are a D1 athletic recruit and then the standards can be even lower.

4

I don’t see why Carleton etc. would be out of reach for the OP. Reaches, yes (as they are for nearly everyone), but not out of reach.

5

Your family seems to have plenty of money, but if you are going to apply to a few schools roughly at the Iowa State /Kentucky level, why don’t u apply to ones that will throw u a lot of merit aid (which I think Kentucky will, but ISU not so much). Check out Kansas, Nebraska, alabama, Oklahoma, & Florida State.

6

At Nebraska he’d surely get the $14,500 per year Beadle Scholarship, making the tuition bill way under $10k/yr. Florida State would likely charge the in-state tuition rate so again well under $10k.

There are quite a few solid state universities that are ready to significantly lower the out of state tuition for someone with a 32 ACT…but they are not in the most glamorous parts of the country.

7

Hillsdale seems to stick out as the safety option in your list. Hillsdale is a very conservative place. Are you cool with that?

8

Thanks for all of your opinions and suggestions on other colleges to look at that will offer a lot of great scholarships. And @RelicAndType I’m perfectly fine with that.

9

Will your parents pay the full price of whatever college you attend?

If you choose inexpensively, will they use some of the unspent money on your medical school costs if you get into a medical school?

10

@zbthsjunior Cool. I wasn’t trying to talk it down, just making sure.