Help me define safety/target/ reach schools!

MYOS1634
Sun, 09 Oct 2016 13:58:02 +0000

Your list doesn’t work. I understand it represents the type of colleges you like and that you likely received zero guidance about them.
1° get the Fiske Guide from your school library as well as the book Colleges that Change Lives.
2° for every college on your list or suggested here, you want to run the Net Price Calculator first. If “net price” is above 6.5K (federal loan + work study), it’s out. Note that “net price” must include grants and scholarships only, NOT any loan or work earnings.

CUNY applications will be FREE for you and SUNYApply will allow you to apply to as many SUNYs as you wish, no application fee. In addition, make sure you AND your guidance counselor check the “fee waiver” section on CommonApp. You’re also entitled to two free sittings for the SAT, two for SAT Subjects, and two ACT’s. Since test scores are an issue, use them. You can typically take the tests up to the month you app is due, ie., December or January tests for Jan 1/Jan 15 deadlines would be okay.

** Safety **
Hunter College (CUNY)
Lehman College (CUNY)

D’Youville College => cross out, will NOT meet need
Bard College => reach and doesn’t meet need, cross out.

Oberlin College => high reach but meets need; place in your commonapp dashboard but wait till you’re done with the rest before you tackle it. For high reaches that are very liberal, Social Justice Warrior-type schools, HEOP Vassar and Skidmore, your odds are better through HEOP than at Oberlin.

** Match **
Rutgers University => will not meet need, cross out
University of Massachusetts- Amherst => same thing
Purdue University => idem
Boston University => idem

University at Buffalo (SUNY) => match through EOP; add Bing, Geneseo, Albany through EOP. (Without EOP they’re reaches).
Add Baruch and CCNY through EOP.

** Dream**
Wake Forest University => are you sure it’s a dream school? Oberlin is super-duper liberal and Wake is pretty conservative/Southern.

College of William & Mary (That is where some of our founding fathers went!) => they don’t offer financial aid to OOS applicants so it’s out.

University of Rochester => high reach, use HEOP

**Summarizing from your list:

** Safeties **
Hunter, Lehman
HEOP St Bonaventure or Siena
HEOP Hobart&William Smith

** Matches **
EOP Baruch, CCNY, Buffalo, Geneseo, Binghamton, Albany
HEOP St Lawrence

** Reaches **
HEOP Skidmore
HEOP Vassar
HEOP Barnard
HEOP Hamilton
HEOP U ROchester