- Rutgers NB (maaaayyybe Penn State/American University? finalizing with my parents)
- UVA, UNC, UMich, NYU, Boston College, Wellesley, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, maybe Emory
- Northwestern, Duke,
- Ivies + Stanford + Uchicago
Actually…you ARE skipping from Rutgers to a bunch of reach schools. As suggested upstream…I strongly suggest you look for some schools that are not reaches and include them on your application list which right now is top heavy.
Really…you need another sure thing…choices are good to have if it comes to that. I’m not sure why you seem so resistant to this suggestion.
Please read the thread I’m linking here. It’s an older thread but the message is the same. This student was a NMF, class Val, very strong rigor in courses, excellent ECs, excellent LOR. NO ONE expected that he would get accepted no where when he applied as a high school senior, but that is what happened. He really didn’t have an absolute sure thing. And if you are needing the honors college to make Rutgers work…neither do you.
This student had a horrible end to his HS senior year. He was on a couple of waitlists that turned into rejections. He took a gap year and did land on his feet very well…BUT do you want your senior year to be similar?
Read this from the beginning to the end.