What Was Your College List?

Just wondering what was on everybody’s lists (safeties, targets, reaches)! This may provide insight on schools to look at if someone has a similar list as you!

My list from this year:

Safeties:

  • UConn
  • Umass Amherst

Matches:

  • Smith
  • Bryn Mawr
  • Brandeis
  • Wellesley
  • Northeastern

Reaches:

  • Tufts
  • Johns Hopkins
  • Brown

Safeties-Montclair, William Paterson
Matches-Rutgers Newark, Hofstra, Quinnipiac
Reaches-Drexel, Rutgers New Brunswick/Piscataway, Temple, NJIT

CS Major from NJ

I applied to Wentworth IT, NYIT, & University of New Haven but I didn’t really care for those schools after getting accepted to Hofstra & Quinnipiac. I think I should have

If I were to reapply all over again it would look like this:

Safeties-Montclair, Rutgers Camden
Matches-Rutgers Newark, Rowan, Ramapo Hofstra, Pace, Quinnipiac, Howard(maybe,they have decent academics & I like DC but
Reaches-Drexel, Rutgers New Brunswick/Piscataway, Temple, NJIT, George Mason, Towson, VCU

I like UC Riverside, but it’s WAYY to expensive for OOS & they get a lot of applicants.

Also, where are you going? Was it your safety/target/reach?

I’m ranking these in order of easiest for me to get into. I apply this fall.

Safeties
Sonoma State
SDSU

Matches
Dickinson (low match)
UC Davis
UCLA (high match)

Reaches
Bates
Claremont McKenna
Bowdoin
Stanford (pretty much no chance, still not sure I will apply)

Reaches:
Stanford
Harvey Mudd

Matches:
Northeastern
BU
NYU
U of Rochester
WPI

Safeties:
RIT
Rose-Hulman

I’m going to La Salle.

Reaches:
-Marist College
-Providence College
-Temple University

Matches:
-Catholic University of America

Safeties:
-La Salle University
-Montclair State
-Eastern Nazarene College

I got into all of my safeties & my match, & I was waitlisted at Marist.

Reaches:
Georgetown
American university honors program (25 out of 1700ish kids)

Matches:
Ohio state
BU
UMD College park
Boston college (match because of a ton of legacy)
University of San Diego honors
American university
Northeastern university

Safeties:
Loyola Maryland
Providence college
Ithaca college

I definitely would’ve applied to a few more reaches if I could redo the process (e.g duke, u cal Berkley, WashU, and maybe even Dartmouth). Overall very happy with where I will be attending next year.

To update on my post: I’m going to Brown, which was my highest reach. I kind of underestimated myself in the application process, so if I could do it again I might have applied to more highly selective schools instead of low matches like BMC and Brandeis, but at the same time I’m glad I only had to choose between two schools in the end.

Reaches:
Columbia (high reach)
UChicago
Barnard (low reach)

Matches:
BU
NYU
Boston College
UNC (in-state)

Safeties:
Ohio State
Pitt
Fordham

Attending BU w/ Tuition Exchange scholarship

@hssenior27
Where are you attending?

Safeties-Montclair, William Paterson

Matches-Rutgers Newark, Hofstra, Quinnipiac

Reaches-Drexel, Rutgers New Brunswick/Piscataway, Temple, NJIT

Computer Science Major from NJ

I applied to Wentworth IT, NYIT, & University of New Haven & got accepted but I didn’t really care for those schools after getting accepted to Hofstra & Quinnipiac. I stopped caring about Quinnipiac after I visited.

I think I should have thought about my safeties & matches a little more. I should have factored value & price more, I factored easy selectivity & location a bit too much. I though about them most senior year & I felt I rushed a little too much. I didn’t consider farther OOS as much because my parents really wouldn’t let me go too far, & I considered a lot of far OOS schools before applying they were expensive or not very diverse.

I’m happy with my choice with Rutgers Newark, as it’s a great value for me & the diversity is great & I don’t regret my choice. I think I’d still choose it again for the same reasons.

If I were to reapply all over again it would look like this:

Safeties-Montclair, Rutgers Camden

Matches-Rutgers Newark, Rowan, Ramapo Hofstra, Pace, Howard(MAYBE, I’m not into HBCUs at all & even after visiting I was so-so & I’m not sure if I would choose it if I did it again,but DC is nice, price isn’t too too shabby for a private school & academics aren’t bad,my parents really wanted me to apply)

Reaches-Drexel, Rutgers New Brunswick/Piscataway, Temple, NJIT, George Mason, Towson, VCU, SUNY Albany

I like UC Riverside also, but it’s WAY to expensive for OOS & they get a lot of applicants.

It was my match(well in between a match & a safety tbh).

I will be attending Rutgers University-Newark.

Also if you’re wondering the only schools I didn’t get into were my reaches.

bump

My list from last year.

Reaches:
Northeastern
Bentley U
University of Pittsburgh
Syracuse
Fordham
Binghamton

Matches:
UNC Wilmington
UMass Amherst
Quinnipiac
Stetson
Hofstra
Clark

Safety:
Rider (in-state private)
UPitt Johnstown (failed to get into main)

I got into my safety with flying colors, and I also got into all but two of my matches (UMass & Clark). I had absolutely zero luck with any of my reaches. I just completed my freshman year at UNC Wilmington, and I’m in even more love with the school than when I originally enrolled.

Looking back, I definitely applied to WAY too many schools. There were several applications that I found that I wasted time, energy, and effort on. I could also have stood to have had a more geographically diverse list of schools. 12 of the 14 schools I applied to were in the Northeast. I now realize that what I needed was a getaway from the cold-hearted snobs and brutal winters. Which I got, but still. Lastly, I probably should have added an in-state public as a safety for financial reasons.

If I had to do it all over again, this is how my list would have looked:

Reaches:
Bentley
University of Pittsburgh

Matches:
UNC Wilmington
Christopher Newport University
UBuffalo
CU Boulder
Ohio University
Quinnipiac
Stetson
Hofstra

Safeties:
Rowan and/or Rutgers Newark (in-state publics)

if I could do it again…
it would be

u of pittsburgh
muhlenberg college
hendrix college
lafayette college
butler university
university of new mexico
nova southeastern
elon university

also 2 or 3 of the following

college of wooster
allegheny college
elizabethtown college
bradley university
franklin and marshall
washington and jefferson
college of charleston

yes I know it looks a little random but each school has a major draw for me.

^ That looks like a pretty coherent list to me except for UNM and Pitt, which are much larger than the other options.

yeah pitt and unm are bigger and for that reason I might not attend but, if I did decide a larger school would benefit me those would be the two so i would apply to both.

Safety:
UMass

Matches:
Binghamton
Geneseo
Brandeis

Reaches:
Cornell
William and Mary
Barnard