what colleges should I look at?

Hey y’all! I am a high school junior in the thick of AP’s, SATs, ACTs, and college visits.

I was wondering what colleges people think would be good for me to apply to (safety, target, and reaches). I live in the central NJ area and want to stay relatively close, maybe 6 hours driving tops.

my stats:

Freshman & Sophmore year:

  • all honors classes with more B’s than A’s
  • weighted cumulative gpa 3.81
    -rank 40/300
  • JV cheerleading (captain 1 season)
    -operation smile
  • competitive gymnastics
    -girl scouts

junior year (this year):

ap lang, ap calc, apush, apes, honors physics, honors french, genetic

  • year gpa 4.6ish W 3.8 uw
  • cumulative gpa 4.1 ish W (did much better this year)
    -rank unknown yet
  • varsity cheer
  • operation smile (went to a leadership conference in rome!)
    -Student leadership
  • started voter registration club
  • member of the league of women voters
  • National Honors Society
    -100+ community volunteer hours

senior year
ap stats, ap econ, ap french, ap bio, honors english 4, anatomy

  • varsity cheer
    -NHS
    -student leadership
    -officer voice your vote club
  • league of women voters
  • op smile

testing:
SATs 1380 (first try no studying, going to retake)
ACTs 31 (1st try minimal studying, going to retake)
Subject tests: going to take math and us history in june

What do you think you will major in? Do you prefer city or more suburban/rural? Are you interested in Greek life? And most importantly, have you spoken to your parents about your budget?

Large school or small?

And the finances should be what you lead with-- no school will work if you can’t afford it.

You may wish to look at college search websites such as big future and niche, for they have filters that you can put on to match you to a school that would fit you.

These schools really depend on your interests and budget. I have a friend that had similar stats, but she applied for a business program at these schools. If you’re interested in the business field, take a look at these. FYI, she was accepted into 8 out of 11 of these schools.

Safeties:
-Boston College
-Babson
-University of Richmond

Targets:
-Indiana University at Bloomington (a bit far)
-UIUC
-University of VA
-Notre Dame
-College of William and Mary

Reaches:
-NYU
-University of NC, Chapel Hill (also a bit far)
-CMU

TCNJ

if you’re interested in Business one of the best choices for you would be TCNJ.
For undergrad it is by far the best deal with the best results.

Unfortunately, @vk1026 's suggested safeties in post #4 are way off-base as they are safeties for no one, let alone a student with those test scores. A few listed schools might be high matches, especially if you can get your test scores up a bit. Consult the class profile and acceptance rate for each school.

Highly-regarded undergrad business programs tend to be more selective than the college’s arts and sciences school.
Also note that business programs generally will look closely at math grades/scores and some might prefer to see calc on the transcript for senior year.

FYI , S attends TCNJ finance major. Has been offered three different top (as in sought after jobs by even IVY students and the like) internships. If the student has top grades, and is proactive , know the resources at TCNJ are as strong as anywhere and the top firms DO recruit the top students from TCNJ. We have lived this. And I have stated many times, in the beginning I was surprised he chose to attend and I had concerns (as he had several , lets say coveted schools to choose from). Nonetheless, he made the most of the opportunity and its worked out truly great. Know you don’t need to spend $$$$ when great results are certainly being had at TCNJ. That’s our actual experience.