Hi all! I am not sure what schools would be good “fits” and “safeties” for me (preferably east coast urban schools). Also, any insight on my chances at top schools (i.e. top-tier Ivies, MIT, Stanford). Below is a little info about me. Any and all advice is appreciated!
White, attending large public school (including large % minority and low income, also a whole lotta smart people and high achievers), interested in math, CS, physics… maybe engineering and chem too.
GPA UW: ~3.9
GPA W: ~4.6
ACT composite: 36
AP exams: none freshman year, 2 sophomore year (both 5s), 6 junior year (definitely not all 4s and 5s, but we’ll see), 1 senior year. overall pretty spread out among math, science, social science, CS, and humanities.
Extracurriculars/honors: not much. in a couple of honor societies and clubs (one leadership position), tutor kids outside of school. an honorable mention award. current internship in CS is my biggest thing.
Essays and recs I expect will be alright, but not spectacular.
The usual questions: cost constraints and state of residency?
Can your parents afford to pay any amount of college costs, or what is their maximum amount?
If they have constraints, what is the family FAFSA estimated EFC? Run some NPCs for those top schools. They don’t care what your parents feel they can pay. It’s pure formula and their income and asset numbers determine if you get any financial aid. No merit money there.
Chances extremely low unless you have a hook. Are you a recruited athlete, development, legacy, URM or have some nationally well known award like the Intel, etc?
Otherwise take the accept % and divide by 8 and that’s about what your chances are. If you have some minor hook, (geographical, rare wanted major, needed instrument ) double that.
You aren’t going to get in on pure sterling application from the way you present the situation. There will be applications with great ECs, LORs and killer essays. As well as taking exceptional courses of rigor at or outside high school’s scope.
For safeties, more info needed. Those are the most difficult schools to find because they tend to be personal to a student’s Budget, locale and other factors. It’s really easy to list the reach schools. Not so the safeties. That’s the true work in college search because you need to find the best affordable school that meets your standards and you hopefully like a lot, thatvwill certainly take you.
Thanks for the responses! I’m in MD and will need at least some financial aid. NPCs produce affordable estimates. Forgot to mention before, I am an ivy legacy–how much of an effect can that have (parent attended one ivy, grandparent attended another)?
Looking at state schools as safety, but wondering what other schools would be good options as safety schools.
Pick some state schools that will answer early on a rolling or EA basis if possible to get that affordable safety nailed. Can you afford full pay at UMD-CP or UMBC? Have you looked at Salisbury State, Towson, St Mary’s? All possibilities there
Sometimes only parents are legacies for admissions favorable treatment. Check the parent/grandparents’ schools and see if you qualify as a legacy applicant. Sometimes you have to graduate from the ug school itself, MBA, grad school, etc may. not count. You would have you best chance applying early at the stronger legacy college. If it’s SCEA, then you cannot apply EA to
Other colleges with certain exceptions. Read the rules on that carefully.
“I’m in MD and will need at least some financial aid.”
UMD is a great school. With your stats and being in-state I hope that it would be a safety, and a very good one.
Regarding your chances at MIT and Stanford, your stats look pretty typical for students who apply. Assuming that you have straight A’s and A+'s in math and science classes, your chances are probably no better than the percentage of applicants that they accept.
I am hard pressed to think of any safeties that would make sense over UMD. U.Mass Amherst might be academically comparable but at a higher price.
MIT does not give SCEA or Legacy preference is another tidbit to know.
You need to look more at even the schools you say you want to target. Not all Ivies are in urban areas and not all of them even offer engineering. Most Top Engineering Schools are different than typical Top School lists. Not all schools that offer engineering offer all types within that field.
To find more matches, merely look down the Top Whatever list you are looking at, then look for those in urban areas and see if they have what you are looking for. Case Western, U Rochester, and Emory come to mind right off the top of my head. I’m sure there are others.
UMD is definitely a good safety. If you’d be happy attending there, you don’t need any other safeties. Just look for matches and lottery schools that have what you want (fit included).
Large Southern public honors colleges such as at the University of Alabama Honors College & the University of South Carolina Honors College.