This is likely to make UIUC relatively affordable, and it is a very good university.
Sometimes staying in-state for a bachelor’s degree might seem boring, but it also can often provide an excellent education. Admissions at top graduate programs, including at Stanford, will know how excellent UIUC is.
Frankly, given how strong UIUC is, I do not see the point of paying extra to attend Michigan or most other out of state universities. Your parents reluctance to pay extra to go out of state for anything much less than Stanford or Princeton does make some sense to me.
I think that you should try to make sure that UIUC really is a safety, and consider adding another in-state safety. With this “in the bank”, it might make sense to otherwise only apply to reach schools.
By the way we have seen a few posts here on CC from students who had excellent in-state public schools on the level of UIUC as their safety (one case of UT Austin comes to mind). Years ago I was in a similar situation with McGill as my safety (in-province). With safeties this good, sometimes there simply are no match schools that make sense, and applying to a small number of exceptional safeties and a small number of high reaches can sometimes make sense (and was what I did years ago).
Hello friends… As I am finalizing my college list and starting to work on essays, this is what it is looking like:
Common App system: Brown, CMU, Cornell, Harvard, Northwestern, Princeton, Purdue, Stanford, UChicago, UIUC, University of Iowa, UPenn, Pittsburgh (Frederick Honors College), Washington (maybe Interdisciplinary Honors program), UW-Madison, Kenyon, Williams, Yale
Outside of Common App: MIT, UC Berkeley
Still debating whether to REA Stanford ;-;
Advice is appreciated! Actually started to fall in love with Northwestern a bit; their college tour propaganda worked I like their interdisciplinary nature and flexibility with double majoring
Thanks for circling back to let us know what you’re thinking!
Please make sure that you would be happy to attend any college on your list. Although you may well get multiple acceptances from schools with low admit rates, there are no guarantees. That said, you’ve got some great schools on your list that I would be shocked if you were not admitted to (i.e. most of the publics outside of Cal, though make sure to submit Pitt’s application early).
I’m assuming that when you mentioned Washington that you’re referring to Washington University in St. Louis, aka WashU. If so, you may not know that they just announced that they will be offering an EA round ( WashU in St. Louis Admissions Updates for Fall 2027 ). It’s not known how WashU will be treating the EA round (part of the discussion in the linked thread), but at some schools it is very different to get in RD. Essentially, if one wants an acceptance one needs to apply EA or ED. Since you indicated that you really appreciated the interdisciplinary flexibility at Northwestern, that seems like something that would appeal at WashU, and thus may play a factor in whether to REA at Stanford. You may also see if the new WashU EA is required for scholarship consideration in which case an application EA there would be allowed under Stanford’s REA rules (source).
As college acceptances roll in, I would investigate those schools further. Follow the school’s social media, the clubs that you’d be interested in, the different dorm options and LLCs, etc. Possibly create 4-year course plans that would meet the school’s distribution requirements, your major requirements, etc. (Some people find doing that activity can be very illuminating and sway their opinion about a school, whether positively or negatively.) Doing all of that will help you to weather the wait until your most selective colleges respond, as that wait can feel interminable. It will also (likely) make you more excited about the options you currently have, which can help to blunt the impact of any rejections you may subsequently receive. And it will be a more efficient use of time to examine each school that has accepted you as the acceptances roll in rather than waiting until April 1 to further research all your acceptances and winnow down to your final selection.
The only other advice I would offer is to take care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally. Your value is innate to yourself; it has nothing to do with which colleges grant you an acceptance. And from what you’ve done in high school, I think you have a very bright future ahead of you, no matter where you land.
It’s great that you’re zeroing in on the schools that are most attractive to you. One bit of advice that you’re 100% free to ignore is that I’d encourage you to think about not applying to Berkeley, for two reasons.
The first and more practical reason is just that you have a lot of schools on your list already, and even though many are through the Common App, there are still a lot of essays and (and other school-specific thinking) ahead of you, and the UC application is a whole other thing. It’d be a lot of work to do for just the benefit of one school.
The second and more … vibey … reason is that the schools that have been most appealing to you — Stanford, Northwestern — and, tbh, almost all of the other schools on your list, are under 10,000 undergrad students. Some are even under 2,000! The feel at Berkeley is very, very different from those schools. My oldest just graduated from Berkeley, and my younger kids (2025 twins) are at a school of around 8,000 students, and the experience they’re having is night and day (in the positive direction) from the experience the older one had. (In fact, the twins capped the undergrad size of schools they would consider at ~9,000 undergrads, precisely because of observing their older sibling’s experience.)
For the right kind of student — by which I mean “the student whose puzzle piece shape fits the Berkeley puzzle pieces’ shapes”, NOT “the best student” — Berkeley can be an amazing experience. But judging by the other schools on your list, I would hazard a guess that the experience you’re looking for out of college is going to be very, very hard to get at Berkeley, and I would encourage you to think about dropping it and focusing on your other applications (or just having more time to enjoy senior year). You can always keep it on the list for grad school.
(Sidebar: I get that Berkeley and UIUC are similar in size, but that there might be several other reasons why applying to UIUC would make sense for you. Keeping UIUC in the mix seems reasonable to me, in a way where UCB isn’t compelling in the same way.)
I love my alma mater, UW-Madison. But if I were a kid living in Illinois who likes UIUC, I wouldn’t spend $20000 more per year to become a Badger (as awesome as that is…).
I think that Wisconsin and Illinois are about as close in overall academic quality as two schools can be, so it makes sense to pocket that $80,000 and save it for grad school, a nice car, a great start on some investments, a house down-payment, an extremely natty professional wardrobe, etc.
Likewise, if I were a Wisconsin kid, I wouldn’t spend the extra cash for Illinois. Or probably any other public school, unless it offered something UW didn’t.
Now, if the apps are free, and don’t require much more work (if any), then go ahead with them. But when it comes time to make a decision, please consider this sentiment.
The lone public outlier here is Iowa – their creative writing program might be worth it. And also, they are not as expensive as some (if not most…) other flagships for OOS students.
I agree that UW-Madison and UIUC are very similar, and I would understand folks’ reluctance to pay $20k/year more for one over the other. But I thought it could be plausible that UW would offer an applicant of this caliber enough merit aid to help close that gap and would thus be an OOS school for OP to keep on the list.
My son is very happy at Berkeley and my daughter has deliberately picked an even bigger and more impersonal school to attend (if you can imagine that) and I also endorse the message of @LionsTigersAndBears here. You have to want the big school experience to put up with the big school hassles, and from reading this thread I’m not sure it’s what you want? Also the UC application is a pain.
Of course, if you do end up coming to Berkeley, we Californians will benefit from your out of state tuition, so there’s that…
Yeah, I didn’t mention merit aid – if that can bring the OOS school’s price into competitive range (vs. the in-state option), that changes the equation.
Couldn’t help but notice that Williams was your only LAC. A similar college which tends to fly under the radar when it comes to STEM, is fellow NESCAC, Wesleyan. Wesleyan (not to be confused with Wellesley) could be the sort of “Goldilocks school” you are looking for in that at 3,000 u/g it is not too small to be big in both the arts and sciences. Writers include Amy Bloom 75 ("Away" and "Lucky Us"); Daniel Handler 92 (aka, Lemony Snicket); Joss Whedon 87 ("Toy Story"); Mike White 92 (“The White Lotus”) and Sebastian Junger `84 (“The Perfect Storm”).
Likewise, Wesleyan is one of the few LACs with PhD programs in STEM (Physics, Biology, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, and Mathematics) and has the unique distinction - because it’s always in the “PhD- producing” category - of having won several Apker prizes against undergraduates from leading R1 universities.
I would rank your choices as follows, assuming that you do not REA Stanford:
Brown for the utmost academic freedom – you get to design your own curriculum for the most part
Duke is a tie with Northwestern IMHO. Duke is stronger in STEM and definitely offers dual major possibilities. It also brings moderate weather which could be a nice change from IL. Northwestern is very well known for its interdisciplinary training in liberal arts, while they also offers solid training for creative writers (e.g. GRRM, Veronica Roth) and aspiring journalists. Both have picturesque campuses!
Princeton is top notch for pure physics and astrophysics. The literature/writing programs are also very well regarded. They require a senior thesis which not all students are crazy about. I would put it in the same category as Harvard and Stanford in terms of odds of admission.
I would put Yale and Williams in the same bucket in terms of student makeup. Bear in mind that Williams is a very small LAC, as is Kenyon.
UChicago – You live in IL, so you owe yourself a visit. If you really like the vibe after you visit, then you can take advantage of the ED1 or ED2 to increase your odds.
If you already have UIUC as a safety, then you don’t really have to look at UW-Madison or Berkeley. I am fairly certain that you will get into UIUC with a merit scholarship. You can save Berkeley for your PhD program – not sure if it makes sense to pay OOS for undergrad there. Same thing could be said of Purdue, which is awfully similar to UIUC - large state flagship, strong STEM programs, rural settings, etc.
Like Williams, Grinnell is a highly ranked liberal arts college which is a top per capita feeder into PhD Physics programs. Like Brown and Wesleyan, Grinnell has an open curriculum, providing maximum flexibility to explore and study both of your areas of interest. Grinnell is an excellent match for your interests.
Thanks for the advice! My counselor recommended Berkeley to me due to their excellent physics program, but after thinking about the size of the school and the other factors you mentioned, I am probably removing it from my list. No UC apps to worry about
It occurs to me that the best fit for you within the UC system… if you did want to deal with the UC application and the UC OOS costs… might be UCSB College of Creative Studies. It is a small school within a big school, and has a great physics program (research based, said to be amazing preparation for grad school) and a creative writing program. The physics program is said to be strong enough that some people choose it over Berkeley… which is saying a lot because Berkeley physics is strong.
I like their interdisciplinary nature and flexibility with double majoring