Chance me for T20s after not matching [VA Resident, 4.45/4.00 W, 1500 SAT, Fire ECs, -1500 SAI]

Absolutely, yes! And you already have all of these other acceptances which seem to be affordable:

Frankly, it’s an embarrassment of riches! Right now I would focus on what things are most important to you in a college and look at each of your affordable acceptances and rate them on how important they are to you (this recent post explains it much better…I think it’s a great way for students to get clarity on their priorities and make a decision).

I’d also suggest doing some 4-year plans for some schools, especially those with different course plans. For instance, if you did course plans for the following five schools, you might learn your preferences about distribution requirements, the amount of classes you take at a time, the amount of courses you take over your entire college career, academic calendar preferences, etc. All of which (if any of your preferences are felt strongly) could help to eliminate (or move forward) schools of a particular type amongst your acceptances.

  • Carleton: It’s a trimester system with 3 courses/trimester for 9 courses/year
  • Hamilton: A semester system with 4? courses/semester but has a very open curriculum
  • UNC: A semester system with probably 5 courses/semester with greater distribution requirements
  • Oberlin: A school with a 4-1-4 calendar
  • U. of Southern California: Semesters w/about 5 courses at a time as the norm with fewer distribution requirements than UNC

All of this to say, it looks like you have 16 affordable schools to start to winnow down. If you’re looking up living learning communities, research interests of professors, clubs of interest, etc, for these various schools to help you find your preferred options, there’s no time to be worrying about what may or may not be coming down the pipeline from a few highly rejective colleges. It very well may be that as you learn more about your options, you may prefer them to whatever decisions you haven’t heard back from anyway.

ETA: I was writing while you posted, but I still stand by what I wrote. Good luck!

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