Chance Me: 3.7 UW, 1480 SAT, 32 ACT, Philosophy major (pre-law track) [PA resident]

Seconding Bates, Bard, Macalester, and St Olaf. Run the NPC and apply where the net cost is lowest or all of them if they’re within budget. :+1:

What about Dickinson? Haverford?

For American, join their mailing list now if you haven’t yet, open every email they send you and click on any link that looks interesting (they track that). If there are in-person or official virtual visits, do that too.

Definitely get that Pitt application out as soon as you’re done with your ED1 app and indicate your interest for the Fredericks Honors College. The earlier you apply the better your odds so do so as soon as you can.

I worry that your mathematical preparation may not be sufficient for Chicago’s core, which has a pretty serious quantitative requirement - something adcoms would take into account. Although calculus is not required to graduate, I’m not sure Algebra2 would be considered a sufficient background for the mathematical core, even for Creative Coding and non calculus Statistics (what looks like the easiest math core courses and as a result a sequence that would require an extra science class on top of those already required by the core) for that particular university. AFAIK they mostly expect Calculus or higher for senior year math or at least precalculus for Humanities/Art. That being said, the “Flint” case study course may be of particular interest.

As a PA resident, you should apply to PSU - to have another definite choice beside Pitt and, most importantly, because Schreyer would be excellent for a Philosophy student aiming for Law School - advising, class choices, opportunities. Just send your Common Application for Philosophy/University Park and check Schreyer. You’d need to complete your SRAR within a few days (by Oct 15) to make sure it’s processed by Nov1. The SRAR is the trickiest since I assume your CommonApp is already done. I get that it’s not your first choice (it’s a huge campus, in particular, and. philosophy major should have access to mostly reading/discussion based seminars, with as few lectures as possible) but the benefits of Schreyer can’t be overlooked in this situation. The selection process plays to your strengths: the essays are paramount and the next criterion is the letter of recommendation. Only 300 students out of 8,500 freshmen are in Schreyer so even if you have a definite shot no one can predict who’ll get in – but even if you don’t get into Schreyer you automatically get into Paterno Scholars as a Philosophy “aspirant” and have the same small seminars the Schreyer scholars do then if you get good grades in these seminars you are integrated into Schreyer, so, win-win.

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