Chance Me - Be Brutal...Lots of reaches

White male from wealthy suburb and large public school. Both parents have degrees. Mother legacy at Indiana

ACT: 33 Superscored: 34
SAT: 1440
GPA Weighted: 4.46 UW: ??? Probably about 3.6-3.7??

Extracurriculars:
Lots of sport intramural…paddle tennis, basketball, golf…all multiple times a week all 4 years
Baseball competitively freshman and sophomore
Model UN, Political club, archery club…no recognition or position of power
Senior year I will be essentially a teachers assistant for finance class
National honor society in Spanish
Love to camp/backpack…have gone on 3 trips with various programs…learn leadership skills etc

Employment:
Youth baseball umpire
Youth baseball camp coach
Local pizza place worker—I do a large variety of work here

Community/Volunteer
Church youth group freshman, sophomore, part of JR year…help organize events donations etc
Help local children with disabilities play baseball during summer 2hrs for 12 weeks a year

Main interests:
Economics, geography, business, language

This list is pretty random, so be prepared:
Bates, Middlebury, Lafayette, Indiana-Bloomington, St. Olaf, Colgate, Lehigh, Villanova, Bentley

No class ranking at my school btw…no APs JR year…taking AP AB Calc and AP Econ SR year. Waitlisted for AP Comp Sci though I have the prerequisites

I think you will be competitive at many of these schools. Good luck!

First, several of your choices would be excellent for the study of economics: https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html.

With respect to your chances, your high matches could actually extend as far as Colgate in analyses such as these:

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-50-smartest-colleges-in-america-2016-10

https://amp.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9

To be realistic, though, you should consider any school with a sub-25% acceptance rate – such as, for example, Bates – to be a reach.

Best of luck!

Yes, if I were to put them in order of hardest to easiest I think it would go something like this (if you think differently please reply): Middlebury, Colgate, Bates, Villanova, Lafayette, Lehigh, St. Olaf, Indiana, Bentley

Yes, so somewhere in there your true matches begin. Maybe just after Bates? In any case, you can be rightfully confident that you’d get into several of these schools.

Carmel dude?
Your list looks very reasonable. From the title I thought you were going to be listing out all the Ivy League schools, like many others on this forum.

Dont know about others but I think you are a bit lacking with Lehigh and Nova.

Lehigh has been extremely competitive and so has Nova. Apply ED1 if you want a legit chance.

Good luck, hope you find your dream. BTW Lehigh and Nova will be extremely expensive if you from wealthy suburbs. Are they great? Definitely, better value than say PSU or Pitt? No.

I dont know–I think you have excellent chances at all of the schools including Villanova and Lehigh. Just be prepared to really put some serious thought into your essays. You are a busy guy and do a lot which is great but you want to be packaged a little tighter if that makes sense. You seem well rounded and level.

Agree with this. Students in our NJ suburb (mostly white, upper middle class) apply ED if they want universities like these. I think the universities like to grab as many full-pay folks as possible in the ED rounds.

Bump - I would like to get a bit more feedback if possible

Often with elite LACs you need to convince the admissions committee that that is your first choice school. Typically this is accomplished by applying ED or EA.

Your ACT score of 33 is fine for all of your targeted schools, but it is not clear as to your class rank (school doesn’t rank) & the rigor of your courses taken. Because you school doesn’t rank, teacher recs will be more important.

Are you applying as a direct admit to Kelley ?

In regards to rigor, I have taken all either honors or high honors courses Freshman through Junior year. I posted a comment about my APs for Senior year.

I would most likely apply direct to Kelley.

I think your chances are looking good!
Especially at IU and Villanova, and I believe Colgate, you fit into a typical applicant’s profile, if not above (in IU’s case). I don’t know too much on the other schools, but I think you have strong all-around chances.

If you are interested in Colgate University, then Bucknell University might be of interest to you. You fit the profile.