What are some matches/safeties I should consider?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm at the phase where I'm trying to get a list of about 10 colleges together where I expect to apply. Of course, I have too many reaches/high matches on my list and I would appreciate some ideas as to what other schools I could consider (mainly in the match/safety category).</p>

<p>Summary of me:
- Solid but not outstanding test scores
- Excellent grades
- Fairly weak ECs</p>

<p>More detail:

[quote]

Objective:</p>

<p>• SAT I (breakdown): 690CR 800M 800W; 1490/2290 (took 3 times, 2280 single sitting)
• PSAT: 218 (Semi-Finalist likely, I think)
• ACT: Awaiting June score, will retake once more if I think I have a shot at 33+
• SAT II: 760 Math II, 680 Chem, 730 Bio, 710 USH (probably retaking Math and Bio, shooting for 800s, a fair guess would be 800 and 750 respectively I think)
• Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
• School: Small, prestigious private prep
• Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 8 of 88 (distinguished by Cum Laude, otherwise school DNR)
• AP (place score in parenthesis): None (AP/IB not offered; got rid of it a few years ago after extensive research and it doesn't seem to have affected recent applicants)
• IB (place score in parenthesis): None
• Senior Year Course Load: Most demanding offered (as has been all 4 years)
• Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None</p>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<p>• Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): [Including Sr. Year, more or less in order of importance to me] School Newspaper (3 yrs + 1 yr Co-Editor in Chief), Robotics (3 yrs + 1 yr Co-Captain), Mock Trial (2 yrs, maybe 1 yr Co-Captain), Tour Guide (2 yrs), DECA (1 yr), Sports (never found a passion there, like 5 different ones over 4 years), Diplomacy Society (3 yrs, 2 yr Co-President; Diplomacy is basically an extravagant form of chess) --- Basically nothing major, but I'll probably stress that I put 100% effort and a large majority of my time in these lesser-than-the-Ivy-average activities
• Job/Work Experience: None
• Volunteer/Community service: Hospital Volunteering (~150 hours)
• Summer Activities: Science Research at a university this summer, Tennis (last couple years), travel (to native country & various others either for vacation or study; only a couple weeks per summer generally), online courses with JHU's CTY program
• Essays: Should be awesome. I feel like I have a lot to talk about and most people say I'm a great writer
• Teacher Recommendation: Should be very good.
• Counselor Rec: Should be awesome (he only has about 30 kids, and we have numerous one on one sessions where we talk about everything so he'll know me well enough)
• Additional Rec: Don't know where I'll be getting this from, maybe the summer research lab
• Interview: Probably average, not a strong point</p>

<p>Other</p>

<p>• State (if domestic applicant): PA
• Ethnicity: Caucasian
• Gender: Male
• Income Bracket: Upper
• Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None (foreign-born? 16 years old when graduating HS?)
• Intended Major: Something in the sciences, perhaps CompSci with Pre-Med

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Right now my list looks something like this</p>

<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>WashU</li>
<li>UChicago</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
<li>Pitt</li>
</ol>

<p>So as you can see, I need some suggestions on more probable schools. My preferences are:
- Located within the circle formed by Harvard, WashU, and Duke
- Mid-size school (3k-10k students)
- Small city setting
- Good sciences, esp. Pre-Med
- Not too much Greek life
- I like when a large percentage of students live on campus; seems to create more of a community to me</p>

<p>Thanks for the help</p>

2

<p>Boston College, Georgetown, CMU. All have very good science programs, around the size you’re looking at, no or little Greek, but not really small city.</p>

<p>But you may want to find some “lower” schools. You have good test scores/GPA, but your ECs are a bit lackluster. Definitely put time into writing the best possible essays.</p>

3

<p>Your scores are pretty good and your grades are really excellent! However, your EC’s are lacking just a bit. Find somethign truly unique about yourself that can really make u stand out on your college apps - Everyone else is gonna try to do the same thing too but as long as you can make sure you write very personal, honest essays you’ll be fine!! Also, don’t worry about retaking bio and math - just getting above 700 for an subject test is good enough .TRUST ME. You will be fine! I wish you way more than luck!!</p>

<p>P.S. Also, what book did you use to study for the bio and math subject tests? I’m studying for them now to take in october …are they really difficult in your opinion? Is the bio more information based or common sense kind of stuff? </p>

<p>Chance me back please? :] Appreciate it!!</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1167626-wowowowowow.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1167626-wowowowowow.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>tufts, Brandeis, northwestern, cmu, vassar</p>

5

<p>University of Rochester and Ct. College. Best of luck!</p>

6

<p>You never mentioned the financial picture.
Are your parents willing to pay over 50K/year if you are not eligible for financial aid? </p>

<p>Have you calculated your family’s EFC (Expected Family Contribution) on one of the online calculators? The Collegeboard has a good one. Keep hitting “Save” on every page so you can refer back to the numbers. Select both “FM” and “IM” for the methodologies. </p>

<p>Have the financial discussion now, many families are shocked by their EFC.</p>

7

<p>

Did too…

</p>

8

<p>Upper doesn’t tell us much. I am sure a few other posters would agree with me. </p>

<p>If an OP states right up front what his family’s annual income is, then it is quite possible to tell if he actually would qualify for any FA at all. But he didn’t. </p>

<p>Or if the OP already knows his family will not be eligible for FA due to family’s income level, he should state that, and if he requires merit aid to make it work, he should also state that.</p>

9

<p>Tufts certainly.</p>

10

<p>Agree with SLUMOM that income bracket tells us nothing about what schools the family can afford. If the family hasn’t run a calculator to get an EFC and then given their child a specific budget for school, then the CC community really can’t make good suggestions.</p>

<p>I never believe it when the family says that if the student gets in to (fill in name of school), the parents will somehow make it work. </p>

<p>OP, Pitt is a great school and a good safety–you’re going to get that application in right when the application window opens, right? Have you visited? Do you like the school and campus? If you wouldn’t be happy to be there, it’s not a good safety for you. </p>

<p>Muhlenberg has a strong pre-med program, and should be an admissions safety for you.</p>

11

<p>Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll be looking into all of them. Of those mentioned I’ve actually visited Tufts and BC; not a big fan of BC, though now that you guys mention it, I think I should be considering Tufts more than I have been.</p>

<p>puppies9279 - I’ve used Barrons for all my SAT II’s. Frankly though I haven’t been putting in enough effort in studying the books; despite their lacklusterness, my EC’s have the tendency to overload me (maybe I just try to do too much in them sometimes…). Bio is information based. And I’m pretty sure on retaking since my top 3 scores range from 78-79th percentile.</p>

<p>SlitheyTove - Admittedly I haven’t looked into Pitt all that much. At some point this summer I’ll be visiting schools near Pittsburgh so I’ll have a chance to see Pitt and Penn State.</p>

<p>SLUMOM - My parents have said that they’ll pay any price for a top college (i.e. top 30ish), and if I don’t get into any they would prefer I went to a state school or somewhere I could get a scholarship (hoping Pitt/Penn State would suit that). And no, I don’t qualify for financial aid.</p>

12

<p>*My parents have said that they’ll pay any price for a top college (i.e. top 30ish), and if I don’t get into any they would prefer I went to a state school or somewhere I could get a scholarship (hoping Pitt/Penn State would suit that). And no, I don’t qualify for financial aid. *</p>

<p>Thank you for clarifying. :slight_smile: There are many kids from upper income homes who can’t/won’t pay full freight. So, it’s helpful to know that your parents will pay $50k+ for a top 30 school, but maybe not for a lesser school.</p>

<p>then your safeties should be schools where you know FOR SURE that you’ll get large merit for your scholarships.</p>