Undergrad Early Decision for NYU(Stern), University of Michigan(Ross), or Northwestern(Weinberg)

I am about to be a senior in high school and while researching colleges, I have narrowed my decision for early action to NYU, University of Michigan, or Northwestern. I want to apply to Stern for a concentration in Finance, same goes with Ross, but Economics for Northwestern.

The drawbacks for each school:
NYU: it is in New York City and I live in suburban chicago, so out of state chances arent favored for me
Michigan: 2 tier programs, meaning I have to apply for the college first and if I get in, I still have to see whether or not my application for Ross goes through or not
Northwestern: Most competitive schools out of all of these three options

I am leaning towards investment banking, some job in mergers and acquisitions, but I am not fully inclined yet and thus, open to changes.

My gpa is 4.6 weighted and 3.95 unweighted. My sat right now is 1430 but if I superscore for the future, it will probably be 1480.

I have a good story about my immigration process from India to the US for my college application and have been extensively involved in clubs.

I am open to any college climate as long as studies are not so overburdening that I do not have time to hang out with my friends. I would like some sort of a sports climate but that is one of my lesser concerns.

Given all this information, which college would be the best to do early decision for and which college do you think I would have to best chance to get into?

Can you clarify why you think being out of state is a problem for.NYU? It’s not public, and likes geographic diversity.
Also stern has an 8% admit rate, I’m not sure that’s less competitive than northwestern?
Michigan is a public that offers EA not ED, so my understanding is that you can apply both EA to Michigan and ED to one of the privates, but with the understanding that if you get an ED admit it’s binding.

I’m not sure about Michigan, but your SAT as it stands is low for both northwestern (25th percentile 1440) and Stern (mean admitted SAT 1492). Your gpa is good obviously; do you meet the most rigorous course criteria?

Not the public for Nyu, just that they favor more NYC students compared to out of state.

My bad with the percentages. I was going off the overall college rather than Stern itself.

I got A’s in classes that are most rigorous like Calc BC. My only B+ was in Freshman English which brought my overall GPA down. But what do you think would be a good score for me given my gpa and current events too because less schools are requiring the SAT/ACT for this year? And do you think it would be easier to aim for Northwestern or Stern?

Northwestern’s acceptance rate is higher for ED than RD so if you think it is your top choice regardless of financial aid apply ED. My son was rejected RD from Northwestern with 4.75 weighted, 4.0 unweighted GPA, 34 ACT and 5s on APs. Good luck!

Here are the Ross BBA stats, GPA is unweighted:

https://michiganross.umich.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/Programs/BBA/pdfs/16_bba_infosheet.pdf

UMich doesn’t superscore. Also, OOS stats will be higher and acceptance rate lower.

I don’t think that is true. Private colleges love geographic diversity. NYU just receives a gazillion local apps, many of who have the means to pay sticker. Residents of other states may prefer to attend their state flagship at half the price.

Either ED schools will be a difficult admit. Choose the one you prefer. If you want sports, Northwestern, for example. If you want to take a chance that the Village opens up, go east.

Don’t apply ED to any school unless you’re absolutely sure it’s your number one choice.

You can apply to UMich EA, while also applying ED to NYU or Northwestern. Of course, you’ll need to plan to add some safeties and other schools for RD just in case.

OOS to Ross is likely not any less competitive than the other schools.

I think this is the wrong question. Both of them are reaches, for everyone, that give a bit of a bump in ED. The “easier” is going to be a minuscule difference in probability of acceptance in my opinion. However: They will give you quite different college experiences. Given that ED is binding, I don’t think you should be applying on the basis of a probably negligible difference in admissions likelihood, but where you would prefer to spend 4 years of undergrad.