Safeties:
UW
WSU
Matches:
Boston College
USC
Northeastern
Stony Brook (not safety because OOS)
Reaches:
WUSTL
Stanford
Cornell
Pomona
UChicago
Northwestern
@FireBallsDJ where are you attending?
I am impressed that I see many sensible lists here. Good job students!
Nice to see some lists that don’t have several top 10 schools for reaches.
Reaches:
Brown
Northwestern
Swarthmore
Vanderbilt
Matches:
Vassar
BU
Emory
UNC Chapel Hill
McGill
Safeties:
Lawrence University
Bard
University of Vermont
Because of its Ivy status and <10% acceptance rate, Brown was my highest reach–which is why I was quite surprised to receive a likely letter, even as I was waitlisted or flat-out rejected at some of my other reaches and matches. I’ve come to the conclusion that nothing in selective college admissions can reasonably be predicted these days, particularly with the proliferation of ‘Tufts syndrome’ making safeties and matches far less certain. I think one of the most important things is to choose safeties at which one could be truly satisfied, in case all else fails.
Reaches:
Duke
UChicago
WUSTL
UC Berkeley
UCLA
Vanderbilt
Amherst
Georgetown
UPenn
Dartmouth
UNC Chapel Hill
Johns Hopkins
Matches:
UC San Diego
UC Davis
Northeastern
Carnegie Mellon
Emory
NYU
Safeties:
Tulane
Brandeis
Results:
Accepted at UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, UC San Diego, UC Davis, Northeastern, NYU, Tulane, Brandeis.
Waitlisted at Emory.
Rejected everywhere else.
I understand that I had a lot of applications, but after I finished the application every single of my original in the summer, I decided to see apply to see where I would get accepted to.
I will be attending UC Berkeley in the fall.
Reaches
Cornell
Columbia
NYU Stern
Penn
Matches
Boston U
Northeastern
Safeties
TCNJ
Pitt
Rutgers
Drexel
Rowan
Pace
I made the mistake of applying to safeties that weren’t financial safeties and not enough matches. If I could do it again my list would look something like this:
Reaches:
Columbia
Penn
NYU Stern
Brown
Georgetown
UChicago
Matches:
Boston U
Northeastern
Boston College
George Washington/American
Safeties:
TCNJ
Rutgers
Pitt
@RoundGenius after ultimately not getting off the Waitlist for Americans honors program I decided to attend the University of San Diego as a part of their honors program.
@FireBallsDJ Which schools did you get into?
@rosedancer1 WUSTL
@IvyLeaguer225 UW, WSU, NEU, Stony Brook, and WUSTL. Waitlisted at UChicago and BC.
@Penn1248 where did you end up getting accepted and matriculating?
Reach: University of Michigan
Match: Michigan State
Safeties: Michigan Tech, GVSU
I will be attending the University of Michigan in the fall.
@ZBlue17 got into Drexel, Pace, Rutgers, BU, NEU, TCNJ & Pitt (Waitlisted at Penn and NYU Stern). Matriculating at BU.
Reaches:
UNCCH
UNCW
NC State
Elon
Matches:
College of Charleston
University of South Carolina
Wofford
Safeties:
UNCC
Alabama
Mizzou
Washington College
Rejected from UNCCH, NCSU, UNCW, and Wofford. I’ll be attending Elon in the fall. If I could do it again it would probably look like this
Reaches:
UNCCH
UNCW
NCSU
Elon
-Wake Forest
Matches:
College of Charleston
University of SC
-App State
-University of Tennessee
-Sewanne
Safeties:
UNCC
Stats: 91/100 GPA and 32 ACT
Reach:
Tufts (ED)
Kenyon
Vassar
Grinnell
University of Minnesota (business school)
Match:
Ohio State (business school)
UMass Amherst (business school and instate)
Fordham
Muhlenberg
Rhodes (?)
Safety:
Earlham
Howard
Lake Forest
Miami University (business school)
Quinnipiac
UMass Lowell
Accepted:
Ohio State
UMass Amherst
Earlham
Howard
Lake Forest
Miami
Quinnipiac
UMass Lowell
University of Minnesota (Arts and Sciences)
Wait listed:
Rhodes (for lack of interest then accepted!!)
Fordham (still waiting)
Muhlenberg (still waiting)
Rejected:
Tufts
Kenyon
Vassar
Grinnell
Attending: Rhodes College
Reach:
University of Southern California
University of California - Los Angeles
Matches:
Wofford College
University of California - Santa Barbara
Safeties:
University of Idaho
Boise State University
Washington State University
If I could start the application process all over again I would have added Wake Forest and UC San Diego.
Accepted:
Wofford College
Boise State University
University of Idaho
Washington State University
Rejected:
University of Southern California
UC - Los Angeles
UC - Santa Barbara
I will be attending Wofford College on a full ride scholarship.
Adding on from post #15…I probably would not apply to Hofstra if I had to do it all over again. Yes, it was a low match for me, and I did get accepted with a scholarship and a direct admit into the business school. However, at the risk of sounding a bit arrogant, the scholarship I received ($12.5k/year) was much too small for them to ever have a hope of successfully recruiting me; that was the only type of aid they had given me, and they expected my family to cover a $46k gap. I felt I was definitely deserving of a bigger scholarship given the quality of the school. To be blunt, it’s incredibly overpriced; it’s nowhere near as good as the school at which I matriculated, nor is it even much better than the safety to which I applied.
Keeping that in mind, my updated hindsight list would have looked like this:
Reaches:
Bentley
University of Pittsburgh
Matches:
UNC Wilmington (high match)
Christopher Newport University
UBuffalo
CU Boulder
Ohio University
Quinnipiac
Stetson (low match)
Safeties:
Rowan/Rutgers Newark/Montclair State (in-state publics)
I would have chosen only one of the proposed safeties to apply to, as I was more than clear about my intentions to apply to only a single in-state school. This would leave my list at no more than ten schools - a very sizeable number. However, I’m very sure I still would have chosen the same school.
Oh, and if it wasn’t clear before, I’m a Business major from New Jersey.
Applied for financial aid
Safety:
UConn
UMich (lived in Ann Arbor for long time, OOS legacy at time of application)
Reach:
Bowdoin
Claremont McKenna
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Princeton
Stanford
UChicago
Williams
Wharton
Yale
The reason for having so few safeties or matches is because I chose only the schools that I would be admitted to AND would be content attending (at a reasonable cost). That opened up a lot of space to apply to reaches that I would also be willing to attend over my matches/safeties (also at a reasonable price due to generous financial aid). I am currently attending Dartmouth on a very generous grant.
@anxiousenior1 Fascinating that you were accepted at Berkeley but rejected at UCLA. In any event, Berkeley is awesome so enjoy.
@citivas Thanks! I was little surprised as well.