Trying to make a comprehensive/realistic college list

College Search & Selection
1

Hello!
I’m a A-/B+ student I suppose, and I’ve got a 3.75 unweighted GPA/4.00+ weighted GPA. My school is quite hard, and I have taken a rigorous course load (multiple honors, AP’s) and I’ve also been on the dean’s list all quarters and my schools Honor Society and French Honors Society. I spend a lot of my time doing community service, as well as christian service for the poor. Regarding extracurriculars, I’m class president, a four year varsity athlete, and a member of the debate team. I have not yet taken the SAT or ACT, but I am generally a good test taker, and scored very highly on my PSAT.

I am trying to be realistic about where I can possibly get into college, because all of my friends are convinced that there is a spot waiting for them at Duke, Harvard, Yale…etc when I know, college is a crapshoot. Nothing is guaranteed. I just want to be adequately prepared for where I am going to be accepted/rejected.

My list so far includes,
Reach Schools- Davidson, Notre Dame, University of Mass. Amherst, Emory, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Kenyon, Vanderbilt, University of Wisconsin Madison

Match(?)- Tulane, Syracuse University, Oberlin, Denison, Auburn, University of Georgia, William and Mary(legacy), USC

Safety- University of Alabama, Michigan State

Now, I have no idea if this is a realistic list, or if this is completely unrealistic. If anyone would like to rearrange some schools into different columns, or please suggest some other schools I should look at, please, I could really use your help.

Thank you!

2

Thats a pretty big list! I’m applyin to colleges this fall and I only have 6 colleges…I’m gonna have to make a post later on to see if thats enough…

First of all, the SAT or ACT is very important when categorizing what is a reach and what is a match. You may want to take the test or at least post an estimate here if you want people to help with your list.

I don’t know if this is just me, but your Reach Schools list is so long! Its fine to cast a wide net but are you sure you want to spend that much time on writing applications to schools that you have a low chance of getting into? Either cutting the reach list down or moving some to match will probably be better imo.

Finally, I think you should let us know what major you’re looking at. Getting into colleges with a good name is cool, but I think getting into a college that has good reviews on your particular major is even better. There are a lot of schools out there that can be matches for you based on just your GPA, but the pool becomes a little smaller once you have a clear idea of what you want to study in.

Good luck on your search!

3

A good point above – what are your academic interests? And what type of school do you prefer? If you got into both Kenyon and Emory, for example, which would you more want to attend? Is your “very [high]” PSAT score around 200? Higher, lower? William & Mary from your match list certainly rivals your reach schools in overall quality, and could be a good option for you with the edge you have there. UMass is out of place on your reach list.

4

That is a long and broad list. How did you come up with it? I guess it’s okay to have long preliminary list that you can later cut down but I think it’s easier to just create a targeted list.

First, what can your parents afford? You and your parents will want to run the NPC (net price calculator) on every single college on your list. That way, you can find out if your parents can afford the schools and if your parents are willing to pay what will be up to $75,000 a year by the time you’re a senior.

What did you get on your PSAT? Will you be a National Merit Semifinalist? Commended?

Have you visited any schools yet? Any on your list? You have such an eclectic list. My first thought was “Isn’t Wisconsin ten times the size of Kenyon?” Wisconsin probably isn’t quite that large or maybe Kenyon isn’t quote that small. But you have rural schools, urban schools, schools that are small cities, small schools, intense schools, more relaxed schools, sports, anti-sports. You have a couple preppy schools but then you have Oberlin.

What do you think you want to study? What are your interests? It looks like you want to stay in the east half of the States. What do you think about going west? What is your home state?

Sorry for all the questions but I believe answering them will clarify things for you and help us suggest schools.

5

Thank you all so much for your replies! I really was not expecting anything but you have all been very helpful!

In regards to why I’m casting such a wide net, I have NO INTEREST in applying to all these colleges, I’m just trying to narrow everything down, and I’m casting a wide net first. Don’t worry, I wouldnt even dream of applying to this many schools haha :slight_smile:

I have visited most of these schools, and I love both large and small, rural and urban, preppy and not as preppy schools. I’ve never really been that picky in my life, and I guess that’s translating to colleges as well.

By the end of college, I have only one goal; Law School (even typing it puts a smile on my face!!) so I am interested in studying either English/History/Sociology. I’m pretty good at American History, and scored a 760 on the placement test I took last year.

Financially, my parents have offered to pay the tuition for any school I go to, for which I am extremely grateful.

Do you think with my grades that University of Georgia and Oberlin are misplaced? My friends seem to think I’m crazy, and that those should be obvious safeties, but I’m the first of my siblings to apply to college because I’m the oldest, and I just don’t know what to expect at all.

6

“I just don’t know what to expect at all”

You should have a reasonable expectation of getting into colleges for which you are fully qualified, in my opinion, especially if you demonstrate sincere interest. However, this generality begins to lose its value at schools where the acceptance rate is below ~30%. At these schools, even perfectly qualified students can be denied because of a lack of space.

Regarding pre-law, a list worth consulting is the USNWR subcategory, “Writing in the Disciplines,” simply because writing is so important in law. Use a list like this to consider a college or two you may have missed, not to eliminate other excellent colleges you already like.

Oberlin’s SAT scores (middle range: 1270-1455) are about the same as Emory’s (1260-1470), so I’m not sure what your friends are judging by.

7

What was your PSAT score?

8

You’re definitely right that Oberlin is a match and not a safety, but assuming you get a 2100+ SAT or a 32+ ACT, I do think some of the schools on your list are misplaced. Kenyon, Wisconsin, and perhaps Michigan are matches (especially if Oberlin is a match). U Mass Amherst is a low match or safety. USC is a reach. Auburn is a safety.

I agree with others that this list feels very random. You might not be a very picky person, but this decision will determine where you spend the next 4+ years of your life, so you’re going to want to pick places that you know you’ll enjoy. Maybe you don’t yet have preferences about size or location, but knowing basic things about yourself should help you narrow things down. For example, if you’re a fairly liberal/alternative type of person, you’ll probably have a hard time finding your niche at a place like Auburn or Alabama. On the other hand, if you’re a more conservative/conventional type of person, you probably wouldn’t enjoy a place like Oberlin or Kenyon very much. You can also think whether or not you’re into things like sports or partying or Greek life. At different schools, those things will have different amounts of impact on campus life (on your own list there is quite a range).

9

If you are not particular and really mean it that you have no preferences, then go to your State U Honors program. It will save your money for law school and your state U will generally have something for everyone.

If there are other criteria that you are using to choose schools, then it would help us if you could be more explicit. It’s hard to tell from your list. You’re an attractive candidate for hundreds of schools.

10

What is your in-state flagship? That is typically an admission safety for reasonably high-achieving kids (depending on the state, of course).

Some input based on my kids’ experience – we have visited a lot of midwest and east coast LACs as well as midwest flagships (and have a kid at UW).

UW: assuming you are out of state, an unweighted 3.75 in a rigorous curriculum should be an ultimate accept AS LONG as a student has a 30 and above ACT. UW postpones many students who will ultimately be accepted, so it is not a reliable “sure thing” acceptance early in the process. My own financial bias is that, even with UW’s tuition increasing over the next several years, it is still less expensive at $28-36k a year, than many schools of similar quality educationally. William & Mary and Michigan are a little cheaper than privates but not dramatically cheaper. That is a cost/benefit decision which is specific to each family.

The LACs: at Davidson, Kenyon, Oberlin, a 30-32 ACT with a 3.75 would be a competitive applicant a but no way to know which way that coin will land in the coin toss of LAC admissions. It could be a rejection as easily as it could be an acceptance, depending on the “soft” parts of an application, the essay, recs etc. LACs want students to show interest, and I believe Kenyon ranks Interest as “Very Important” factor in its admissions decisions. Google “common data set” and a college’s name to find a form where the schools list admissions numbers, stats, criteria, as well as a wealth of financial aid and merit aid info. Among those LACs you list, Denison is a solid match, with good chance of $10-15k merit money, but again a student would need to show interest, not just submit the Common App and figure they are in.

Notre Dame is stat driven, and would probably want to see a 34 or above for a 3.75 student. It is remarkably competitive admissions, we know, as our school sends 10 or more kids there a year. We hear kids in the 30-33 ACT range advised that they are not strong candidates for acceptance at ND – possibles, sure – but not solid. Crazy, I know.

I see some categories of types of schools here – the kind of main stream, sort of pre-professional schools, like ND, W&M, Davidson, Vandy, Tulane, Syracuse, as well as the slightly to very artsy schools, Kenyon and Oberlin, plus the flagships where any kind of kid can find their home. What is it about these different schools that you responded to? Oberlin seems like a real outlier on this list, a very distinct campus atmosphere which we have found kids either love or not at all. Have you visited Oberlin?

If you are comfortable with both big schools and small LACS, then consider seeding your list with representatives of each at the reach/match/safety level. Finding safeties for LACs is a challenge, and the admissions pool is so small, it is hard to predict, and a school still wants to see that interest. Possible LAC safeties, if you want to preserve that option, might include Kalamazoo, College of Wooster, Lawrence University, though a student would still need to “show the love.”

Finally, a cautionary note about finances – ask your parents to be more specific about finances – is it the case they will find a way to mortgage their future only if you get into a certain kind of school? Or is there $250,000 sitting in the bank ready to pay those bills? Is it important to “chase the merit money” and find schools where you will get significant merit money to close the gap between what schools think you can pay and what your parents say they can really afford? When schools talk about financial aid – it is their definition of what you can afford, not yours – which controls. For instance, schools tell us we can afford to write a $40-50,000 check every year but we know we cannot. As a result, we are looking at schools where our current high schooler would qualify for merit aid, to close the gap between what we know we can afford and what schools think we can afford. Ask your parents to run the Net Price Calculator at several types of schools on your list to see what you get. Out of state students at flagships, historically, get little financial assistance, so make sure you run their NPCs as well.

Good luck, sounds like you have been doing plenty of work on this already.

11

Your list seems really out of wack. If UMass- Amherst is a reach for you, Tulane, Syracuse University, Oberlin, Denison, University of Georgia, William and Mary are reaches as well. That would mean Vandy and Notre Dame would probably be out of reach.

12

USC is a reach too