Emory, especially in stats, is not in between.
I agree with you on the the rest - so other schools I’ve seen - after the student said - it’s not worth big money over Rutgers about very good Pitt and UMD (which is especially strong in math) , would dismiss many others mentioned. But everyone is entitled to their contribution.
I think, given Penn’s love of ED, OP has a chance there.
Except for the fact that the subject line is “What is missing on my kid’s college list?” And that OP asks, “I feel there is no Likely/Target schools, what exactly should be included as target schools?”
Maybe I did not get it completely. I think her targets will be Purdue, and Northeastern. The rest will be reaches. If she will apply to 2 UCs that will be already 15 schools. Going over that number will hurt her with quality of applications (since all require many essays).
Lehigh and GWU are nowhere close to Emory
I totally agree, and I would not pay full freight for all 3 of them. I would pay for Emory only as premed or prelaw. But I guess people are different.
I just checked, and it does not look like Emory is a top school in Math (Statistics.)
Purdue would be a safety for math/stats - IMHO. But it makes no sense given its size (too big for OP) and it’s lack of urbanness - another thing OP wants.
Emory is very highly rated in stats - at least in various rankings.
All that being said, different schools excel in different levels - not sure if the student is focused on social science, natural science, finance, etc.
Its QTM major is highly regarded
It could be difficult for very strong students to find target schools because target schools on paper are really reach schools.
I think Rochester comes close, and I keep mentioning Pitt. I mention Pitt because it’s a great school with strong students, despite looking like a safety. The OP asked for target schools, and we are providing some.
I would add Emory, but that’s just my opinion. This student may end up with too many schools and may have to drop some (not sure).
As others pointed out, the OP seemed to be asking for “in between” suggestions. I’d just add that I do think merit offers would be a possibility at some of the places being suggested, including WUSTL and Rochester.
But if the OP’s kid is rejecting such options and would prefer Rutgers–that is totally fine, and that’s the answer.
Unless she applies ED1/ED2, would categorize Northeastern as a reach. They had over 95,000 applications last cycle with an overall acceptance rate @5%. (The EA/RD’s acceptance rates were similar.)
With no supp essays, Northeastern is an easy and popular app.
17/18 year-olds can be pretty fickle. Right now, your daughter doesn’t think Pitt or UMD is worth the difference in $ compared to Rutgers. But come May, if her reaches don’t happen, she might change her mind and decide that going out of state to a target school is totally worth it, particularly is she gets some merit. Options are a good thing:)
And if she does decide to apply to PItt, would encourage her to apply soon. It’s rolling admission and last year it seemed like the kids that applied earlier had a better chance at the merit money pool.
Can’t speak about the other targets recommended by posters, but Pitt and UMD are also very generous in accepting AP credit and it might be feasible for her graduate in three years.
Wishing her all the best–your daughter seems very impressive!
There are a lot of wonderful colleges between the local flagship and elite schools. Some students and families like to look at those choices. And that is fine. I happen to agree with keeping options open because what a student really likes in September might be different than what they might like in April.
Never mind that usually the flagship is a large university, and some students would prefer something just a little smaller.
In addition, I strongly believe in choices. At the end of the admissions process, most students are choosing between their top choices. I think students should have two sure thing choices, so that if those are the only acceptances, they can have a choice to make.
Of course, this is a family decision…and what works for one family might not work for another. To each his own.
But this OP did ask for options.
If this student decides to apply to these schools…the sooner the better. For UMD, they accept the vast majority of their freshman class in the early action round. Just FYI.
Yeah, Northeastern is pretty notorious for using yield protection with high numbers kids.
This approach makes sense to me also. If your safety is sufficiently excellent, there is no point in having “match” schools. In this case you might as well go with an “excellent safety” plus some reach schools. This is the approach that I took many years ago. My safety was McGill (in-province) so otherwise I only applied to one reach. Similarly we saw a post here on CC a while back from someone who was auto-admit for UT Austin (again in-state). Otherwise this student only had reaches and again this made sense. To me Rutgers is also at the “don’t need matches” level.
What I know about Rutgers comes from knowing people who graduated from there. Some were fellow students in graduate school. Some were coworkers. One was a boss. Some more are in-laws. ALL of them make Rutgers look very good. If Rutgers is your safety, then I am okay with the rest of the schools being reaches.
Regarding the list, it already is long. For statistics (or for math in general) Princeton is excellent. MIT, Harvard, and Stanford are also excellent. MIT is very intense and is a “fit” school. You need to want to work that hard to go there. The desire to work that hard should come from inside yourself. I would not call Stanford “urban”, but then I do not think that I would call Princeton “urban” either. I do like WUSTL which others have recommended. Wisconsin is very good for math. McGill and Toronto are urban, in attractive and relatively safe cities, and also very good (and very likely for admissions given this student’s excellent stats).
Yeah, the Canadian universities seem like great alternatives.
NJ requires it as well.
I think there are a couple of things going on:
I agree with the local flagship or shoot for the moon approach. OP’s local flagship is so good that this approach makes sense. Princeton and UPenn are both fantastic options and I would put CMU for quantitative only one step below, and above many of the other options. CMU has a fantastic international reputation for applied quantitative (quant methods, stats, applied math, machine learning, CS etc). Likely does not have that customer-focus student experience of Ivies but otherwise a super option if available. (I’d prefer to UNC, BU, Northeastern, UC schools, Purdue, UVA (great schools but not as reputed as CMU for quant).
One of my kids is auto-admit to our very good state flagship. However, I am encouraging a couple of other match/target/safety etc schools. (not just reaches).
A lot of teens want a choice in April. Even if my DC ends up choosing the auto-admit school, they will be happier if it isn’t their only option. They won’t want to feel like they HAD to go there. It’s pretty disheartening to get a bunch of rejections and only one admission. And what they like may change. So even though right now my DC wants certain things (mid-size to large, urban ish), I am suggesting they add in a couple of smaller schools or college town schools in case they change their mind in 8 months.
You can find some that don’t require much if any additional effort to apply - so there really is no reason not to check the box. I think Pitt is one that doesn’t have extra supplementals.