College List Guidance

College Search & Lists
1

Rising senior here, currently struggling to find good match schools. However, I’d be more than happy attending my safety, so I don’t know how concerned I should be about how top-heavy my list is. Any thoughts on that/guidance would be VERY appreciated. My family has set the boundaries of as far south as SC and west as Michigan, although I would like to stay northeast. From what I’ve seen, I like smaller schools a little better, but with opportunities, I’d be open to any size.

School Type: Public
Race/Gender: Caucasian/Male
Prospective Major: Stat or Math/Econ
Unweighted GPA: 3.9
Class rank: 30/1000

SAT: 1530 (750 Reading/Writing, 780 Math)
PSAT: 1500 (750 Reading, 750 Math) - Probable NMSF

AP Classes/Scores:
10th - Stat (5)
11th - Econ (Macro/Micro)
Lang
Calc AB
12th - Lit
Calc BC
French
Physics C
US Gov

Extracurriculars:
President NJHS - 9th Grade
FBLA - 2 x State Champion, school cabinet member this year, president next
MUN
Entrepreneurship Club
NHS/French HS
Church Mission Trip - 3x
National Champion of an academic competition
Varsity Wrestling

Work:
Ice Cream Store about 10 hrs/wk
Prospective mentorship with Biostatistician next year

College List:

Colgate

Cornell
Dartmouth
Hamilton
U of Michigan

Penn State (In-State)
Princeton (I will have a rec from very wealthy alum who I met at the national competition)
Williams - LOVED when I visited, most likely first choice

2

Hamilton often outperforms larger schools in quantitative competitions:
https://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/mathletics-team-freezes-out-competition-in-snow-bowl

3

For some guidance on econ programs based on faculty publishing, you can read through this analysis:

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html

4

Your GPA and test score are both slightly higher than admission average of UMich. For LSA, your chance should be higher than OOS admission rate which is around 20%.

5

Is money an issue?

There are lots of other strong LACs in the Northeast that are a bit less competitive if you want to add some (ex. Lafayette, Muhlenberg, Union, to name but a few).

6

On your general question, you may be admitted to ~half of your current choices, so you might not need to specifically look for further match schools. However, you could still broaden your search for additional suitable colleges, of which some may be naturally less selective than your listed schools above. Along these lines, you could explore a few more NESCACs, or look into @happy1 's suggestions in #4.