Hey guys, I will be a senior this year, and I was wondering if you could chance me on these schools. Also, if you could separate them into safety, possible, reach, that would be great.
University of Massachusetts Amherst (Instate)
Northeastern
UCLA (Out of state)
UCB (Out of state)
Case Western Reserve University
University of Chicago
Johns Hopkins University
Lehigh
University of Miami
University of Michigan Ann Arbor (Out of state)
Northwestern
USC
Tulane
University of Virginia
Washington University in St. Louis
Williams College
GPA: 4.13/4.50 Weighted 3.83/4.0 Unweighted
Class Rank: ≈7/120
ACT Composite 33
English: 32
Science: 34
Math: 32
Reading: 33
Writing: 27
SAT(1600) (Going to retake in fall)
1350 Total Score
690 Reading and Writing
660 Math
EC:
2 years summer work experience in my school’s IT department
1 chemistry research paper published
Political Discussions Club president and founder (2 years)
Ultimate Frisbee Club member (3 years)
Varsity Cross Country (freshman year only)
Hope for Haiti President
Technology Fellow (2 years)
JV Hockey (3 years)
JV Baseball (3 years)
Gold Metal National Latin Exam 2014
Silver Metal National Latin Exam 2013
Some other small school wide awards
Courses:
Freshman:
English I-Honors
Latin I
Algebra II
World History Honors
Physics
Freshman Art
Gym/Health
Sophomore:
English II-Honors
Geometry
Latin II-Honors
Modern European History Honors
Biology Honors
Robotics I
Architectural Design
Junior:
AP Literature
AP United States History
Pre-Calculus
Chemistry Honors
Programming C++
Latin IV-Honors
Robotics
Senior:
AP Calculus AB
AP Physics
AP Latin
Seminar-Honors
Astronomy
AP Java
Philosophy
Please be honest and offer any advice.
Thank you
GPA and ACT scores along with your EC’s make you a competitive applicant for UCLA/UCB and USC. You could get some FA and some merit aid from USC, but do not expect much FA/merit from UCLA/UCB so would these schools be affordable? $55K/year?
After looking into the UCLA/UCB more, I removed them from my list for that reason. I’m looking to apply to schools that grant financial/merit aid; so do any other schools on the list not offer a lot of financial/merit aid?
Please submit your ACT instead of your SAT, the 33 is a lot higher than your New SAT score. What’s your major? The college that you apply to (sometimes) drastically changes your chances of getting into a school. REALLY I URGE YOU to narrow your list okay?? Let me know how everything goes!
REACH SCHOOLS:
University of Virginia
------You have a good GPA, but I’m assuming you are applying out of state to UVA. UVA really FAVORS instate students and plenty of people with better stats than you will get denied all the time. If you look up Katherout on Youtube… she had a 4.0 GPA plenty of APs and a 35 ACT Composite and she was waitlisted at UVA because she applied out of state. I would not wait for this one. UVA also favors minority backgrounds so if you are from a minority background that might just cancel out your state residency.
Washington University in St. Louis
------WASH U is flat out hard to get into and I would call it a target school for you if your GPA was a little bit higher. Looking at your class rank I would say you would probably get into Wash U, it’s probably one of your reach/target schools.
Williams College
------Williams is a reach school for anyone. It’s the best liberal arts college in the country and it is certainly strange that it is the only liberal arts school your applying to. Ask yourself why you are only applying to Williams in terms of a liberal arts education. If you don’t know why your applying here take it off your list.
University of Chicago
-------You have a great ACT score for U’Chicago but it is on the LOW end. There range is, I believe, a 32-36. You are still in the range but you have to be aware of your placement. Your GPA and Class Rank are good, but U’Chicago focuses so heavily on the Essays so make sure your essay is imaginative and look up how to write a creative essay. ALSO HINT HINT HINT the U’Chicago ESSAY PROMPTS FOR NEXT YEAR HAVE BEEN RELEASED>>>>> START NOW
Johns Hopkins University
------- Very SELECTIVE school. I truly don’t know much about this school, but I wouldn’t expect much and that goes for everyone
Northwestern
-------- Northwestern has a super high early decision acceptance rate, just look into it I would work on cutting back all of your schools and I would cut this one.
TARGET SCHOOLS:
Case Western Reserve University
---------- NEVER A BACKUP SCHOOL!!
Lehigh
---------- Still never a backup school, they hate being used as backup schools and they will deny you in a hot second if they find out you are actually aiming for U’Penn and using Lehigh as a backup school.
University of Miami
University of Michigan Ann Arbor (Out of state)
---------- I am actually instate for U’MIch and again a word of warning on this school: It’s a pretty big sports school and it is pretty opposite of CWRU. You have to find out what you want and you can find that out after your accepted or now. Big School vs small school, big sports school vs not a sports school
UCB (Out of state)
---------- This is a selective school. I would actually say it is more of a reach school (all things considered). AGAIN VERY ESSAY FOCUSED>> Katherout was accepted to UCB, watch her videos
Northeastern
------- You’ll probably get in. THIS ONLY LOOKS AT WEIGHTED GPA
UCLA (Out of state)
------- Never a back up school
USC
------- Might get in and might not
Tulane
--------Even though I think Tulane is a good school, they deny people with high ACT scores. They don’t want to be a backup school, so DO NOT make them a backup school.
BACKUP SCHOOLS:
University of Massachusetts Amherst (Instate)
-------- APPLY for some more backup schools!!!
My above comment looks reallyy weird. It goes with the description below the line. So USC goes with “Might get in and might now” and Mass Amerhest goes with “Apply for Some more backup schools”
@collegeguru2017 Thanks for the detailed response. I am retaking the SAT in the fall, but at the moment I only plan on submitting the ACT score. I plan on majoring in engineering or computer science, but I’m not 100% certain about that. Since the initial post, I have removed UCLA, UCB, U Miami, and Williams from the list. Later in the summer I am visiting most of the schools which will help in narrowing down the rest. Can you recommend any other safety schools? I would prefer they are on the East Coast, but it doesn’t have to be. Also, how would schools find out if they are a “backup school”?
University of Massachusetts Amherst (Instate)-safety
Northeastern-target
UCLA (Out of state)-low reach
UCB (Out of state)-low reach
Case Western Reserve University-target
University of Chicago-high reach
Johns Hopkins University-reach
Lehigh-target
University of Miami-target
University of Michigan Ann Arbor (Out of state)-high target
Northwestern-high reach
USC-reach
Tulane-match
University of Virginia-reach
Washington University in St. Louis-reach
Williams College-high reach
Advice:
Keep up your gpa during senior year
What SAT2’s will you be taking?
Use ACT–even so, you’re average for the more competitive schools
What is your major?
Try to get on varsity sports for your senior year
apply to more target/safety–> suggestions: University of Washington, low UC’s (message me if you want to know more about regents/chancelor’s scholarships–I was regents for UCLA, UC Davis, Irvine, San Diego, and Santa Cruz), Boston University, message me for more ideas
Good luck!
I think that safety schools are schools that you are at the top of their admitted students range so like of you I think that a good safety school is a school that you want to go to! I’ll give you some sort of based on your current list. The way that I always choose backup schools is go to collegeboard.com and look up a university say like U’Mass Amherst, see that you are in the majority of their Academics. THEN, see that your 33 is a lot higher than their range of 25-30. I would also look at admitted students from your school! Do you use Naviance? ANOTHER school that you might want to add to your list would be Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Not necessarily a backup school, but i think you can probably get in. You might want to look at adding Carnegie Mellon to your list and Georgia Tech! Carnegie Mellon is really GREAT for Computer Science and it is in the same UAA as U’Chicago and CWRU, so if you like those schools you will probably like Carnegie Mellon. Georgia Tech is really great for engineering!
Safety Schools:
Penn State @ University Park
------ Probably one of the best backup schools on this list for you it definitely matches U of Mich
U’Mass Amherst
U’Connecticut
University of Pittsburgh
University of Vermont
I wouldn’t even look at the UCs if you take UCB and UCLA off your list. TBH, no financial aid & you have a good GPA
@collegeguru2017 Yeah, I stopped looking at the UCs due to the lack of OOS financial aid. I also have Naviance, which is actually how I found most of these schools. I’ve looked at Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, and WPI in the past; but I don’t think I will apply to them despite them being great schools at computer science/engineering. I’m not 100% positive that I want to do engineering; so I have been mainly looking for schools that offer great engineering programs, but are also great in other aspects like business or the humanities. And thanks for the list of safety schools, I will take a look at all of them.