Another student who could use guidance for where to apply

College Search & Lists
1

Stuff about me:

Race and Gender: White Male
Hooks: First Generation
State: Florida
Major: Physics and possibly Computer Science; Want to pursue Pre-Med
Financials: Family makes about 90k -110k, unsure about exact amount. I’ve asked my father multiple times for what we can afford, but he’s been putting it off.
UW GPA: 3.9
W GPA: School calculates differently from most, I’m not going to recalculate it right now.
SAT: 2270 - Reading: 800 Math: 720 (-2 wrong and with terrible November SAT Math curve, this catastrophe happens) Writing: 750; Probably retaking to up my math score
SAT Subject: M Biology: 750; Going to take Math II, Physics, and US History
Rank: Top 10% (Most school will say is this or if you’re valedictorian or salutatorian)
AP Classes taking or taken: Human Geography, World History, Biology, Chemistry, Physics I, English Language & Comp, US History
AP Classes for Next Year: Physics C E & M, Physics C Mechanics, Calculus AB, Computer Science, Comp Gov, English Literature & Comp
Extracurricular: Played baseball for 2 years, member of pre-med club, quizbowl, sciencebowl, internship at planetarium, model un, probable internship at NIH, interning/shadowing doctors at hospital next year, volunteer at hospital
Awards: MUN Awards, Individual awards for QuizBowl and National Qualifier, Expected NMF, Physics and Biology Tutor

I am interested in a science-focus, research university, but not pure-tech. I enjoy history too, however I am not a huge fan for english. I would like to go to school along the East coast, more the NE because I enjoy the cold. I would consider midwest if the University is near big city (e.g. Northwestern). I would look at colleges in California too. A school having an actual/distinguishable campus is pretty important to me, I don’t want a campus like NYU or Boston University. I would like to go to schools with a low Greek life and consumption of alcohol. I would not want to go to an overly liberal campus, the more moderate the better.

If anyone could help me compile a preliminary list of safeties, matches, and reaches, I would greatly appreciate it! Please let me know if you need more additional information from me! Thank you!

2

Reach: Tufts, Stanford, Georgetown
Match: Carnegie Mellon, Boston College, Northeastern, George Washington
Safety: There are tons. Check out your state schools.

3

The fact that your father has put you off several times could be a problem. Check the threads for schools that award big merit scholarships and meet full demonstrated need, and be sure you identify financial safeties that you would be happy attending. So many kids are thrilled to be admitted to their dream school only to learn that it’s not affordable.

4

Go to the Financial Aid forum and look at the pinned threads for schools with assured merit aid. Your in-state schools will also be good safety options with Bright Futures $.

5

@yaupon I don’t believe I will have an trouble with finding financial safeties because of National Merit. I believe the University of Florida offers a full ride now to instate students who get National Merit and I would be quite happy with Gainesville. Thanks for the advice!

@lalalemma‌ I don’t think Georgetown, George Washington really fit for what I’m looking for, I’ve always viewed those schools as more for politics. I’m surprised you have Carnegie Mellon as a match, I thought Carnegie was a reach according to this site. Thanks for your suggestions though!

@"Erin’s Dad"‌ Looks like it’s quite a benefit to have National Merit. Thanks for helping me with that.

I suppose I need more help than anything is with matches, and maybe reaches. I suppose I have safeties covered through the National Merit schools. I just find it difficult to differentiate between a match and a safety and a match and a reach. Please give me more suggestions for those who have some!

6

@ZucchiniSoup Georgetown and GW are considered “more for politics” only because those are the programs that they’re most famous for. You could still go to either for Physics or Computer Science and get a stellar education. I’m sure they both have plenty of pre-meds and good med school admissions rates (you could look those up).

I think Carnegie Mellon could be viewed both as a low reach or a high match. 25% acceptance rate is obviously low, but still higher than a lot of schools you’ll probably look at, and you have very good stats/ECs.

7

Reach: columbia, penn, tufts, cmu, Hopkins
Match: northeastern, case western, GW
safety: Rutgers (really good comp sci and physics), UF, most state schools here like Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut

8

The label of reach and match for a given college can vary depending on whether you are applying early or regular decision.
Try picking any college and sitting down with your dad to go through the Net Price Calculator on their website.

9

What about Lehigh? You might get a good scholarship.

10

I finally had my Father sit with me to run some Net Price Calculators and the results were after testing a few:
Harvard - 13,500
Rice -9,000
MIT - 12,000

And my father said we could afford this.

11

Look at Dickinson: real campus, little Greek life, excellent for science.
Case Western, Connecticut College, Skidmore - all match your criteria.

12

@MYOS1634‌ Thanks for the suggestion of Dickinson, but I believe I want more of a research university than liberal arts college.

13

I have degrees in physics and astrophysics…

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, Brown, Carnegie Melon, Chicago, Northwestern, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Tufts, UVA, UNCCH, URochester, UMD, Rutgers, Swarthmore (larger LAC with OUTSTANDING physics)

You should apply to UF as a academic and financial safety… they have a respectable physics/astro.

14

@harvardandberkeley‌ Hmm never considered Swarthmore, I’ll look into that.

I am curious why so many people are suggesting Tufts, I never thought of it as a science school. Additionally how many matches, safeties, and reaches should I have?

15

It’s because, like I said before, most top colleges are good in a lot more than just one department! They wouldn’t be top colleges otherwise!

I think 2 reach, 4 match, and 2 safety is a good amount (3 reach 3 match 2 safety would also work). I think keeping the number down to 8 really ensures that you have time to work hard on each application. That’s what my school recommends us to do. Obviously some people apply to more and it works out fine for them though.

16

Any large research university will have strong sciences. If your plan is to get a PhD in physics, don’t worry too much about the perceived “prestige” of the undergraduate science program. Science and engineering curriculum is fairly consitent from university to university. Focus more on fit, and Tufts seems to fit your other standards (although it is more liberal, but the vast majority of universities are at least somewhat liberal).

Rice sounds like you.

Look into Swarthmore, Reed (sends a very large amount of grads to PhD programs), UChicago, Caltech, WashU, Vanderbilt, U Rochester.

17

A great college for physics is Lawrence.
They also have an excellent research program for undergrads, pairing them with major researchers.
https://www.lawrence.edu/academics/research/off-campus/lu-r1

18

Could University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign be consider a match? Also how can I earn merit scholarships from there?

19

Bump

20

I just saw the results of your NPC runs.

You might want to have your father re-run them. Harvard has THE highest cutoffs for FA of all colleges. It’s hard for me to believe you would get more from Rice and MIT. I think there might be a couple of errors in there.