<p>Go for it. I imagine there’s nothing worse than having the process being over and thinking that you COULD have gotten in somewhere if you had just applied. In your case, your stats are absolutely stellar. Start applying! :)</p>
<p>Don’t think of this in terms of “falling in love” with reach schools. Think in terms of a college application and selection strategy. Create a balanced list with reach, match, and safety schools, and do your best to fall in love with all of them. Only include schools that you can afford to attend. Don’t identify the toughest reach as your “dream” school–simply think of it as one end of the range of selectivity of the schools you are considering.</p>
<p>Definately go for it. You will regret it if you don’t. I applied to a lot of great schools and was accepted at 9, waitlisted at 3, and rejected by only 1. Sometimes I regret not applying to one more reach school, instead of another safety. Your stats are stellar for schools like bryn mawr and williams.</p>
<p>thanks again to everyone…
a little confidence boost can really work wonders</p>
<p>It is ok to love a reach, as long as you also love one of your matches and one of your safeties.</p>
<p>juillet wrote: </p>
<h2>“Decisions are best made at the end of the process – in May”</h2>
<p>right! modify only slightly to read “end of April”.</p>
<p>Go ahead and apply to reaches, but realize that they may be super reaches (like Stanford, HYP, MIT) and low reaches. I would put Bryn Mawr in the low reach category for you. Does your school have any graduates who have attended Bryn Mawr? You should be asking your college counselor (or whoever does that job at your HS) where the top students have ended up. When your HS has a relationship with a top school, it can give you a boost in acceptance.</p>
<p>It does sound like a smaller, supportive school would help with your feelings of timidity. Take a closer look at the schools that interest you, especially their financial aid policies, etc. You may wind up at a medium-tier school because they will give you the most money (and maybe the most opportunity.) At this point, work on compiling a list of 20-30 schools of interest, with their good and bad points; over the summer, you can begin removing them from the list until you have a workable number.</p>
<p>^^^start with 20 or 30???
that seems like soo many…
i was thinking 3 to 5</p>
<p>In my opinion, a student with your qualifications might reasonably apply to 10 or 12 schools; say 6 reaches, two or three matches, and one or two safeties. To get down to that list of 10 or 12, you should probably research lots more. Get, or read at the library, a good college book. We liked the one on 371 (or whatever the number is now) best colleges. Truthfully, all the schools you should be applying to are probably in there.</p>
<p>If your family makes less than $60,000 a year, look into the Questbridge program.</p>
<p>Hunt is right. In order to figure out where to apply, you need to research many schools. If your financial safety takes rolling applications get that one in early. Then you can apply to more reach colleges.</p>
<p>^^thanks for the advice
i have never heard of questbridge, but i will look into it.</p>
<p>Rethink things a bit. Think of the snottiest bitxx on campus (The "Cordelia"s to Buffy fans). SHE thinks she should be going to Princeton. Those big name campuses NEED you. They need a talented but sane and modest few to balance all those neurotics and narcissists that are out there. Seriously. You would be a blessing to any dorm RA who has to deal daily with entitled elitists. You are smart. You are hard working. You have a sense of balance. And you may be surprised at the financial aid offers (may not, but, hey, you won’t know until you bait the hook and try).<br>
The standard advice is to have a couple reach schools, a couple solid targets and at least one back up plan. Why not follow that well trod path?</p>
<p>I would just like to add again that I don’t agree witht the standard advice to have “a couple” reach schools. If the reach schools on the list are very selective schools like the Ivies, Stanford, Duke, top LACs, etc., I think you need more than a couple. Read through threads here on CC and you will find case after case of kids getting into one or two, and being rejected or waitlisted at a bunch of others.</p>