Your current list of about 10 colleges is a solid list. Top 4.0 GPA & excellent SAT scores. The AP scores of “3” and “4” should be of no concern. University of Southern California (Marshall), University of Notre Dame (Mendoza), & Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) are potential options to also consider for business. Columbia & Yale are potential Ivy options to consider for economics. I wouldn’t expand your list; take my suggested schools as potential replacements. A leadership experience would benefit you, like President or VP of some club or honor society.
Yeah I was thinking my ECs lacked in that department, but it’s not looking like I could get any of those roles this year. Will be looking into those schools, thank you.
Forgot to mention: I got a 1490 PSAT so national merit is a possibility. Also, would love some specific insights on ross, duke, wharton as those are my top 3 choices for now.
Here is a link to a historical cc forum covering schools enrolling the most national merit scholars. It is five years outdated. Duke, Ross, & Wharton do not offer any merit scholarships to semifinalists or finalists.
If your ECs are true and have depth to them - a few businesses, DEC, part time jobs (2) and lacrosse - hmmmm - that’s not lacking.
If you are full pay and win national merit, then you have to decide -
Do you want to go to college for free, but not where you want, and save your family $400K+, or do you want to keep the same list where NMF likely is of no significance?
But even today, that’s the same question - except you could go for $25K vs. $100K.
One add that could give you both though - as it fares very well - is Washington & Lee - because they have the Johnson Scholarship and that’s a full ride.
Here’s the IB list, per capita, from College Transitions. Perhaps there’s some names on there that would surprise you as well as some omissions that would also surprise you.
Except for UMD, your list is comprised of schools that are highly competitive for admissions. You appear to be a highly qualified applicant, and certainly could see acceptances from this list.
For UMD, apply in the early round. The school accepts 90% or so of its incoming class in that early round. You might be a good candidate for the Banneker/Key Scholarship the most prestigious merit scholarship offered to incoming UMD freshmen. I know you say cost isn’t an issue, but this would be a a nice scholarship to receive.