I’m a high school junior at a public high school in Wisconsin.
By the time I have graduated I will have taken 10 APs and calc 3 through uw-Madison.
I have an uw gpa of 3.87, and I got a 33 on my act
I founded my schools psych club and am president, and placed in state for fbla, but otherwise I am in various clubs like key club, safe youth, peer mentor and peer tutor, and start on my teams varsity basketball and baseball teams.
No hooks
The dilemma I’ve been facing is I don’t know where to apply or even visit, what are some good safetys, matches, and reaches I should consider ?
Start with looking at your state public universities (UW-Madison or elsewhere) to determine whether such a school or schools would be “safety” in terms of both admissions and money.
In addition to academic interests and any budgetary constraints, do you wish to go to a large/medium/small school? One in an urban/suburban/rural environment?
You could get into some really good schools. Some things to think about:
Budget
What area of the country you want to be in (close to home? far away?)
What you want to study
What climate you want
Urban/rural
Sports teams
Size of university - massive state school vs. small private
Think about the criteria you want for school and start searching around for schools that match your criteria.
Once you have a preliminary list of schools, it’s a good idea to split them into “reach” schools - where you probably won’t get in but want to try, “match” schools - where you have a good shot at getting in, and fit their typical profile well, and “safety” schools, where you are above their average acceptance. It’s good to have a balance between these 3 categories, so if your list is lacking in any of them, search again. After this you’ll have a balanced list.
Once you have your list, get people to look at it. Your parents, and particularly your guidance counselor. They know more than you and should be happy to help.
To start you off, here are a couple schools for each category (just off the top of my head… I don’t know your whole profile so take it with a grain of salt):
Reach - Northwestern, University of Chicago, any other school in the top 15-20
Match - Lafayette, Emory
Safety - Probably the state universities in Wisconsin
St. Olaf
Franklin & Marshall
Bucknell
URochester
Bates
Emory
Colgate
Grinnell
Hamilton
Carleton
Amherst
Pomona
Safeties, matches and reaches would be implied by your profile in relation to that of the students at these colleges, in combination with the schools’ acceptance rates. Colleges with acceptance rates below ~25% can be regarded as reaches for the majority of their applicants.
What will your parents pay? You have two solid options with in state tuition, UW Madison and UMN-TC. Every college has a net price calculator on their website – work with your parents to run those and see what you might pay at each school. Find out how much your parents are willing to pay.
Dental and med school are expensive – will your parents help with that? Can they help more if you pick a less expensive undergrad?
Visit a few schools to get an idea of what type of school you like. Maybe check out Carleton, which isn’t far away to see what you think of LACs. St Olaf is in the same town, and would likely give you merit money.