<p>As I said my stories may not really help...but when I say 0 aid, it's not that they considered me ineligible to receive fin aid, but they simply said they couldn't afford to meet my need. And I met a number of people on CC who had the same experience, but this shouldn't dissuade you from applying at all...</p>
<p>You can pull out...but you need to have a convincing argument, usually. I think you have a very good shot in the RD round, anyway. You might not get into all of your reach schools, but it is my studied opinion that if you do your job right, you will get into a top school regardless...that's how it worked out for me. </p>
<p>Wellesley is the #4 LAC, btw...not too bad, especially considering the relatively higher acceptance rate because women's colleges have a MUCH smaller potential applicant pool (obviously no guys, but also a lot of girls who wouldn't consider a women's college either).</p>
<p>Edit: Needing aid gets tough. Even need-blind, meet 100% of need schools might not actually make it possible for you to attend. It would behoove you to look around the forums and guidebooks for the school's you are interested in and see what kind of finaid reputations those schools have. For example, NYU is notoriously awful for finaid. I'm very lucky as a full pay student, but aid is very hit or miss, except at those very few schools--like, Princeton--that are committed to providing full aid, with no loans. Of course, being that they have billions of dollars in endowment and alumni like my parents at all levels of the income scale consistently donating money, I guess it's up to you to decide if that is really generous.</p>
<p>yeah i feel pretty strong about my position in the RD pool as well. not to be too much of a dick but if you're looking for URM, i don't think it gets a whole lot better than me (refer to resume). i think i'll get into atleast 2 of my top 4 schools (duke, penn, washu, northwestern) RD and be happy from there. i've already started looking in the financial aid forums. i also know a lot of scholarship programs that are just looking to give away money to black students. so i'm not worried.</p>
<p>I agree, advantagious.</p>
<p>My bad, I assumed that you were looking at ED because you had the finances taken care of. Don't know if it's a wise option to go ED if financial aid is a considerable concern. Regardless, I think you're going to have some nice options schoolwise and financially even if you go RD.</p>
<p>I think you have the correct pulse of the situation. Even if it did not pan out for you at your reaches, you would hardly be slumming if you went to Vanderbilt or Emory or even UT-Austin, which is still a top tier school.</p>
<p>ok here's my working list right now with everything. i wanna see what you guys think. big reach, reach, slight reach, good fit, best fit, or safety for each one that you know enough about to make a choice.
1 University of Pennsylvania
2 Duke University
3 Northwestern University
4 Washington University at St. Louis
5 Vanderbilt University
6 Boston College
7 Princeton University
8 Harvard University
9 UNC-Chapel Hill
10 Southern Methodist University
11 Rice University
12 Lehigh University
13 Emory University</p>
<p>Reach-->Harvard and Princeton </p>
<p>Slight Reach-->UPenn, Duke</p>
<p>Good Fit (I prefer the term high match, but anyway)-->WashU, Northwestern</p>
<p>Match-->Vanderbilt, Emory, Rice, UNC OOS</p>
<p>Safe Match-->Boston College</p>
<p>Safety-->Lehigh, SMU</p>
<p>1 University of Pennsylvania (Meets full demonstrated need)mfdn
2 Duke University
3 Northwestern University (mfdn)
4 Washington University at St. Louis (mfdn)
5 Vanderbilt University(mfdn)
6 Boston College
7 Princeton University(Mfdn)
8 Harvard University(mfdn)
9 UNC-Chapel Hill(Mfdn)
10 Southern Methodist University
11 Rice University(mfdn)
12 Lehigh University
13 Emory University(mfdn)</p>
<p>I think your chances are better than most for many of these schools. Your SAT's put you in the top 1-2% for AA males. That's going to be attractive for many schools looking for candidates looking to address their "institutional" needs. It's like being a blue chip athlete or big time developmental applicant. I predict, you'll get accepted at more than you would be rejected/waitlisted.</p>
<p>Penn--reach
Duke--slight reach
northwestern--match
washington u--match
vandy--match
BC--match
Princeton--reach
Harvard--Reach
UNC--safe match
SMU--safety
Rice--match
Lehigh--Safety
Emory--Match</p>
<p>UNC's acceptance rate for out of state is about 12% I believe. URM status wouldn't help him much there as UNC has many instate AA candidates, and a state mandate to limit out of state acceptances do they not? Its possible, but I would think more of a slight reach.</p>
<p>^^Yeah, that might be true. I'm WAAAY not an expert on UNC-OOS admissions, besides the general "It's pretty tough!" warning.</p>
<p>thanks guys. anybody else have any opinions? especially on penn and duke?</p>