What are my reach, match and safety schools? Also, from which schools, if any, do you think I have a chance of receiving a merit scholarship?
Currently a junior in high school
Public NY School
Upper-Middle Class Caucasian Female
Major: Neuroscience with pre-med track
Minor: Spanish
GPA: uw 95/ w 97 (4.0)
ACT: 35 (34 math, 35 science, 35 english, 35 grammar) first sitting
SAT II: Bio, World History, Chem: all low 700s don’t remember exact scores
will take Physics, Math 2, and US History
APs: 9th - Human Geography - 4
10th - World History - 4
11th - US History & AP Physics 1 and 2
12th - Spanish Language, 2D Photo, Biology, Calculus BC, AP Gov’t
ECs
(Dance Captain) School Musical
(Gallery Curator and most likely president next year) Photo Club
(Vice President 11th grade and Tresurer in 10th) Best Buddies
National Art Honor Society
International Thespian Honor Society
Spanish Honor Society
Art Club
Volunteer:
Selected as one of seven members of teen board for an organization that helps people with autism
6 hours/month of community service at a horse rescue
Summer:
2016: High School Research Intern at local university
2017: applying to many selective research programs
Colleges I’m Thinking about:
American University
Boston University
Binghamton
Brown
Carnegie Mellon
Duke
Emory
Lehigh
Northeastern
NYU
Syracuse
Tulane
UC Berkeley
UCI
UCLA
UCSB
UCSD
U Miami
UNC
U Pitt
USC
UVA
Villanova
LACs such as Pomona, Amherst, Hamilton and Williams suit your indicated selectivity range and may be worth consideration. For merit possibilities at excellent schools, look into Grinnell and Kenyon.
Schools within the top ~two dozen below would be reaches for virtually any student:
U Miami gave my son $22k Presidential scholarship/yr & his scores/GPA are not as good as yours. However, he had more leadership & sports. But, still, I would think you’d get the full $25,000 Presidential scholarship & maybe an invitation to Stamps/Singer scholarships (full ride). You won’t likely won’t get any merit or FA at a UC school if you are out of state, and as a California resident, I really don’t think UCs are worth $65k per year, especially if you have a chance to go to an Ivy or Duke or Stanford for the same cost, or a place like U Miami for half off or more. Good luck - you will have some great choices!
Reach: Brown, Duke, CMU, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, UVA, UNC, Emory
Match: BU, Northeastern, Lehigh, NYU, Villanova, U Miami, Tulane, UCI, UCSB, UCSD
Safety: Binghamton, Syracuse, U Pitt
(American is somewhere in between match and safety - your stats would make it a safety, but demonstrated interest is quite important for them and they frequently reject high-stat applicants who don’t seem that interested.)
You have a good shot at merit at all of your safeties and many of your matches (but not NYU or the UCs).
I would recommend cutting your list down - the fewer schools you apply to, the more effort you will be able to put into each application.
^ @lalalemma’s list looks about right to me, although …
affordability (as well as admission selectivity) should be a major consideration for most applicants.
For out of state public universities (some more than others) you’ll pay a big price premium, and may get little or no need-based aid. Run the online net price calculators for each school to compare your own costs.
To expand on @tk21769’s comment about affordability, for a safety it not only needs to have a high acceptance rate based on your stats, but needs to affordable with minimal debt.
For the California UC’s, you will receive no financial aid as an OOS student so expect to pay full fees at $60K/year. If not affordable, I would drop these schools from your list.
I’ll head this off at the pass: UCLA and UCB are reaches for all. With over 100,000 apps each, just by shear volume, these two schools are extremely popular. Academic Credentials are expected to be top shelf. These are high reaches for all.