When a student has an in-state flagship as strong as UIUC to act as a safety, it is OK for the rest of the list to be mainly reaches, with the understanding that the student must be psychologically prepared to receive multiple rejections.
Because I do think you are going to receive a lot of rejections, and the reason is going to be your lack of hooks combined with less-than-perfect grades. I do think you have a reasonable chance of getting one or even a few of your reaches, in particular the LACs if you are male, but I think you have to be prepared for this not to happen as well.
I want to tell you, however, that I am really rooting for you. You seem like a gem of a student, and any of your schools would be lucky to have you. I personally like a student who has had some non-A grades. Perfection really can be the enemy of good (and the enemy of excellent, and the enemy of creativity, and the enemy of fun.) Keep being you!
My first reaction is that you could be a math major! Precision is important in math. (I was a math major)
My second reaction is that I am not sure that Chicago is going to fit your budget. I am not a fan of ED unless two things are both true: (i) You are sure that the school is your #1 top choice; and (ii) Either the NPC shows the school as likely to be affordable, or you and your parents are fine with being full pay.
An income of $200k/year is pretty good, but does not make it easy to pay half of this amount to support one child in university.
And with your stats you should be close to certain to get into a school that is very good for physics and math and that will cost less than $90,000/year, as long as you apply to the right / affordable schools (which might be UIUC and Purdue).
My third reaction is are you sure that UIUC or UIC or Purdue or all are safeties for you? Are you okay with UIC if it is your only acceptance? Similarly, assuming that you get into Chicago, and that you would have gotten into UIUC and Purdue, is Chicago worth the additional cost?
I think that you have a good chance of getting into other schools on your list. I would be very happy to see you in my part of the country at Amherst or Bowdoin or Williams. However, you cannot count in getting accepted to any of your reach schools.
Generally though I think that you have a good list, and that you are likely to do very well wherever you end up. I am impressed by your SAT scores, and perhaps just a bit jealous.
I totally get seeing Illinois as setting a very high bar in terms of what it would take to woo you elsewhere. So obviously hopefully you get in there, and then the rest of this is just collecting other good options.
You may be correct on the result, but CC members continue to miss that colleges look at 3.8+ as pretty much the same as 4.0 unweighted. It likely means that a student got 0 or 1 B+ in 4 years. Less than perfect is just not the way admissions sees it.
So how do you think this student has a 3.85 unweighted if there are no minuses? My point is that some people here are underestimating the strength of a 3.85 unweighted. I do not know what your point is though TBH.
Different schools calculate GPAs differently. Some recognize + - in the calculation and others treat all As as 4.0, all Bs as 3.0, and so on. In the latter case, only Bs would get one under a 4.0.
I live in a state where many schools use the latter since our state flagship recalculates all applicant GPAs that way. It was a shock (and a bummer) for my D when she discovered the hard way that her current college recognizes an A- as 3.67. Sheād never had below a 4.0 before, though sheād had multiple A- grades in high school.
But for the OP, donāt let this concern you. College AOs will have both your transcript and your school profile so your academic record will be clear no matter how it is calculated. If you care to clarify for posters on CC, that is up to you. As you can see in the posts above, posters are interpreting your GPA differently based on the calculation they are familiar with.
Best of luck! I commend you on your gracious communication and openness to the questions and suggestions of other posters. I look forward to following your journey.
There seems to be some question as to whether or not you are truly an A student. Help us understand your transcript better. How many Bās have you gotten for the year during 9th, 10th, and 11th grade. Have you gotten additional Bās that will show up on your schoolās official transcript?
Some posters on this thread have more credibility than others. @michaelcollege has literally written the book on college admissions, and is an advisor, among other college-related things. I would weight his advice very heavily.
You are so nice. I guess that if any top applicant says they have a 3.85 unweighted, and they get there in a less common way with lots of Bāsā¦ I feel somewhat misled.
The student has kindly clarified and has been forthcoming throughout this thread. They cannot read your mind and know how you interpreted their GPA. While you have expertise, remember that they do not.