I am a senior in Wyoming and am currently looking for match schools. I have quite a few schools that I’m considering, but I’m honestly not sure what can be classified as a “reach” school or not. From my college list right now, I am looking at USC (reach?), Carleton (reach?), Oregon (safety), Wisconsin (match/safety), SMU (safety), Minnesota (safety), Northwestern (reach), Vanderbilt (reach), and WashU (reach).
I can’t seem to find any true match schools that I fall within the range for (or have a fairly reasonable chance of being admitted to) that are moderately selective and not in the Northeast. Many of the schools that I would be a good academic fit for – NYU, BU, Northeastern, etc. – are on the East Coast. I am open to larger universities and liberal arts colleges as long as they are a good fit for me. I hope to pursue political science or business. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Schools at which your basic statistics are near or above average (e.g., USC, Carleton) may not be reaches for you, depending on other factors. In general, acceptance to nearly any college for you may be less a challenge than an organic result of prior efforts.
My D had the exact same stats. I think matches could be any schools in the US News list from around 25 to 50 for universities and 15-40 for colleges, particularly ones that accept at least 25% (and preferably 30%). Taking out the Northeast and the schools you mentioned leaves universities like Case Western, Wake Forest, Tulane, Michigan, UNC-Chapel Hill, UT-Austin, and some UC schools like SB, SD, Davis, and Irvine. Some midwestern colleges like Grinnell, Kenyon, Macalester, and Oberlin would also be in that range.
Two factors to consider are which schools are harder for those out of state, and how much of an edge being from Wyoming might give you. For example, my D goes to the University of Virginia (which is good for political science and business). They accept 30%, but it’s a little over 40% instate and a little over 20% out of state. So someone with your stats is a clear match instate, and a clear reach out of state. But maybe being from Wyoming (and not, say, Maryland) could make you a little lower reach, if not a high match.
Most colleges want to have a student from every state, and it’s pretty hard to get students from Wyoming, especially in the NE. If you are getting on a plane to go home it’s just another hour or two anyway. I’d shoot the moon and apply to MIT, Wharton, Cornell, CMU, Michigan, UT-Austin, Cal etc. with better business schools. The EA deadlines are approaching fast so make sure you meet them. ED to Wharton, assuming you can afford it.
Also for match schools not in the NE you might consider Indiana , BYU, OSU, and Notre Dame (assuming they are affordable). OSU has decent OOS merit.
Raising your ACT by a point or two would help too.
Some of the schools mentioned in previous posts still sound pretty reach-y to me, but I am a bit conservative in assessing reach v match v safety. I think acceptance rate has to be a factor in that assessment, and I don’t know that being from Wyoming, while certainly helpful, will totally offset a super low admit rate like some of the previously referenced schools have.
As for possible matches for you, I ran a search on Naviance for an ACT score of 32, 4.0 GPA, and moderately selective, located anywhere but Northeast, and following are some schools came back. Naviance is not foolproof, though, so maybe check Common Data Sets for any of these schools that might interest you:
Case Western Reserve U
U of Richmond (don’t know how you feel about VA)
Macalester College (smaller than most others you look to be considering)
U Tulsa
Villanova (Don’t know if you consider Philly to be NE)
U San Diego
Clemson
Southern Methodist U
Santa Clara U
St. Olaf (also smaller)
Mercer
Butler
And though it didn’t come up on Naviance, I’ll also throw Miami U in Ohio out there.
I don’t see a mention of financial constraints, but don’t forget that UCs are very expensive for out of state students. University of Oregon gives something like $9k off for high stats OOS, but that’s it, and the OOS tuition is not inexpensive either.
You mention UMN - it has rolling admissions; students have already been admitted to the school and to the Honors program. If you are interested, I would suggest applying ASAP.
EA deadlines for many places are 11/1 or 11/15.
Watch the merit deadline (12/1) even if you apply regular decision to places like USC. In general, if you are hoping for merit aid, apply ASAP!