look, these schools are reaches for anyone. you are a solid student but that is not enough these days. nothing stands out (sorry). I would say chances are slim. UNC and UVA out of state are as hard as Ivies. Michigan will be a reach as it has gotten so popular in the Northeast and they defer everyone. Honestly, you are a lot like my daughter- Jersey kid, captain of XC, 1470 SAT…
I would say Michigan and Cornell are ok to keep as reaches, but you need to think about targets and safeties. maybe take it down a notch: Rochester, Case, Brandeis, Bates…
You don’t seem to mind going to the midwest so maybe think about Grinnell, Carleton, Kenyon, Univ of Illinois…these are great schools.
Can you afford these schools? Have you talked to your parents about what they are willing and able to pay?
Assuming money is no object, these are all reach schools for most anyone. The ones @joecollege44 has listed are no shoo ins either. If you applied to them all, I’d bet quite a bit that you would not get into all of them, but that you’d get into at least one, likely done. But which ones , ??♂️. That’s the problem.
If you have a clear favorite, and it has ED, as NW and UCh do ( you have to look up the others— things do change from year to year) , apply ED to it giving yourself s boost. Only if you don’t think you’ll have regrets. Then apply EA to the rest of them that you can.
Then you start working in the most important part of the college application process. Find a safety school that you know is affordable and that you know will take you, preferably early so that if your world comes crashing down on you with no other acceptances at the end of the year, you have that one.
In fact, better if you have a couple of such schools in your list and get those apps out first because some schools fill up fast. A lot of state flagships are generous with admissions at first and tighten up as seats fill up
1470 SAT is also kind of low for Chicago and Northwestern. It’s an excellent score but most applicants will be north of 1500+ with their scores.
OOS for UNC, Michigan, and UVA would be a reach regardless of grades/test scores. The first 2 have a mandate to take a certain percentage of in-state students and Michigan is just as competitive as the UCs.
Case and Rochester could be targets. They are fine schools and with an acceptance rate of ~30% there is always a chance. I might target BU as well, but if any financial aid is required, it will be hard since they’re not the most generous. George Washington might be another school to look at.
Assuming that UConn is your safety, that’s not a bad alternative.
What is your potential major? That might give a clue as to which schools to apply for.
Just looking at the numbers UNC, UMich and UVA are all your best bets, assuming you are a full pay student. Don’t underestimate the “value” to public institutions of being full pay, you are also in the middle 50% of admitted students for those schools where you would be in the bottom 25% for the others.
At least for UNC & UVa, I disagree strongly. The stats for admitted students are for in-state + OOS, and are NOT reflective of the scores needed by OOS students. UNC, by law, can not accept more than 18% OOS students no matter how much they want full pay OOS $$. UVa is 20-something % (forget exactly and not in the mood to look it up, but you can find it). For both of them the fixed caps on the % of of OOS students includes recruited athletes- and both schools recruit a lot of athletes.
Yes I know, “my favorite University is really hard to get into”, I encourage the OP to look at the statistics for each University and make their own judgement. Too many biased opinions on CC.
^No bias about about OOS publics being reaches. UNC, UVA, and Texas have their mandate to serve their in-state residents. And CC has threads about high GPA/SAT kid being outright deferred/rejected by Big Blue.
These schools are all reaches, with some being “reachier” than others. Apply if you wish, but add some safety and target schools to the mix, and make sure to discuss finances with your parents.
UNC typically takes 1 student form our OOS HS every other year, but sometimes they decide not to skip a year. Michigan typically defers everybody and then accepts 2 or 3 (OOS), and UVA has been consistently taking the 2 top students (also OOS). Nobody from our HS has gotten into the U of Chicago in the past few years (even those who got into similarly ranked schools) and Northwestern typically takes 1 during the ED process. Occasionally NW accepts somebody during the regular decision round. This is what you are likely facing.
You are a good student, and if you craft an appropriate list you will some great choices! Good luck!
@twogirls@collegemom3717@CU123@NYC2018nyc@joecollege44@cptofthehouse Thank you for the responses everyone. I understand all of these are reaches, (I have UT Austin, UCONN, BC, Tulane, UWashington, NYU, and Northeastern on my list as well). I have talked to my parents about financials and I am very fortunate where they will be able to pay for my full tuition, very grateful for that. @Hamurtle I am looking to study computer science or business
I also wanted to add in that I have produced and hopefully soon to publish some apps (I coded/programmed them). I didn’t know if that should be mentioned in the extracurricular section because I do it completely on my own time.
Create some safeties that you can afford. Get mostly A’s your senior year (Michigan is going to want first semester to first half year grades) . Apply EA.
Yes your programming is a nice adjunct. Don’t hold back on Ecs. Let the schools determine if they are important or not. Not you.