Confused rising senior needs a college list before the school year starts [NH resident, 4.0 GPA, 1470 SAT, 33 ACT, biology (pre-PhD, not pre-med)]

College Search & Lists
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As the title states, I am going into my senior year and do not have a finalized list of colleges I will be applying to which is kind of (very much) stressing me out. I have some ideas of schools from when my brother applied, but I don’t want to miss out on any that I haven’t heard about. I am planning to major in biology with the end goal of going to grad school. Also, I live in the northeast but am not opposed to moving further away. Recommend me schools ranging from Ivies and T20s to safeties and state schools!

School preferences:

  1. Research opportunity for undergrads → bigger schools or smaller schools w/ connections to big schools (ex. Wellesley and MIT)
  2. In/close to a city OR a cute college town w/ things to do on campus
  3. Collaborative nature - students are not pitted against each other for grades
  4. Good amount of diversity
  5. School spirit - sports games to go to

Any and all advice is appreciated, thank you!

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1st 2nd and 3rd most important thing - budget!! How much can your family afford - and do you qualify for aid?

State - don’t say Northeast but name the state please.

Also your stats - GPA unweighted, rank if have, how many APs and highest level of math and science, and your SAT/ACT score.

  1. Bigger or smaller - what’s that mean - that’s everything - and what’s a connection to a big school. Do you mean at Wellesley you can take classes at MIT? And MIT isn’t big - so do you want a mid size and not a large school (UMASS).

  2. Depends on the school - is bio for pre med or for interest? You note grad school - where you go won’t matter - Wellesley or West Virginia - you can get into a grad program from anywhere.

  3. Do you mean D3 level sports, some of which will have spirit but not the spirit to the level of a school where there’s a major sports scene like division 1 - Georgia, Alabama or even a Northwestern, Duke on a higher academic level.

You haven’t given enough or really anything to work with…

Who is on your mind now - from where your sibling applied? What do you think of each of those schools?

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Can we please get more information- budget etc?

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To make any meaningful suggestions we need you academic stats, meaningful ECs, and budget.

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So first, I want to assure you that you have plenty of time to finalize your list. My S24 was still visiting colleges and such in the fall of his senior year, and his list was not really finalized until December, in advance of the January application deadlines.

Second, there is a standard Match Me format available which you should use:

If you give this community that information as a starting point, and also answer more detailed questions as they come up, you will be amazed at the range and depth of options.

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@strugglingstudent2, you may want to start a new thread using the “Chance Me / Match Me” category and filling out the template. That will provide us the information we need to guide you better.

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As others have said we need more information in order to give you accurate advice. Your state and your budget will matter a lot. Different high schools in the US calculate GPA in wildly different ways. It would help us a lot if you can compute your unweighted GPA on a scale of A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0.

However, there are a few other comments that we can make even without sufficient information.

There are a LOT of universities that are very good for biology. This is a very common major and one that many, many universities do very well.

Again, this is possible at a large number of schools. As one example, we live in the US but one daughter attended a small university in Canada. At a small school that you never heard of she got involved in original cancer research, and even won a contract from the provincial government to continue her research over her last summer (between junior and senior years). She got paid, the research was funded, she got academic credit, and she gathered information that was useful for her thesis. All of this was at a small school that is almost completely unknown in the US.

We may have different opinions on this, but this may have some impact on which universities we propose. As one example, biology as a major means that you will be taking a number of classes with premed students. Many of those premed students will be academically very strong. Some of them will also be very competitive. However, this is a very reasonable preference and is one that should help us suggest schools.

But again, budget, GPA, and home state will help us a lot.

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Deleted

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The student wrote:

  1. School spirit - sports games to go to

My question is - is that at a smaller scale (D3 small school)…or are they seeking a huge spirit school with huge, big time sports scene.

Sorry - I see what you are saying - I used the word real.

I will edit that out - I simply meant the size of the scene - but I see how my comment could be taken as you did.

Thanks.

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In hindsight I should’ve included all this info, forgive me I just joined College Confidential!

Demographics
NH
Small public high school, not super competitive

Cost Constraints / Budget
No cost constraints

Intended Major(s)
Biology - not pre-med, looking to get a PhD for research

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • GPA: 4.3769 (for both unweighted and weighted so I’m not sure how it works - all As though)
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1470, 33 (planning to retake the ACT in September)
  • 4 APs (all 5s)

HS coursework - school has 17 APs offered
AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Lang, AP World History
Senior Year: AP Calc, AP Physics, AP Environmental Science, APCS A, APUSH, honors lit, honors anatomy and physiology

Awards
NHS
AP Scholar
Two year diploma from Indian university for classical dance
School awards for precalculus, biology, and world history

Extracurriculars
Independent research project w/ mentor from Stanford, will at least be in a pre-print
Research program at university (this summer - 7 weeks), free, might receive stipend
Research program (last summer - 3 weeks), paid to attend, worked through the year as well, listed as an author (if the paper is published)
Copresident of Science Olympiad (10-12, participated all 4 yrs)
Founded Culture Club w/ ~25 members (11-12)
Tennis Varsity Captain (11-12, participated all 4 yrs)
Volunteering at local hospital (10-12)
Classical Indian Dance (9-10) - should I include this I danced from 3rd-10th grade
Wrote for the town paper, ~5 articles published (9-10)

Essays/LORs/Other
Essays: pretty good writer, 8/10
LOR 1: Junior year English Teacher - Strong
LOR 2: Junior year Bio Teacher - Above average
LOR 3 (if needed): Mentor from independent research - Average
Counselor Rec: Average

Some of the schools I am looking at are Dartmouth, Tufts, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, UMich, Northwestern, WashU, USC, Northeastern, Rutgers, UWashington, UIUC, UVM, UMass Amherst, UConn, UWinsconsin, and NC State

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I added my info, it should be in the replies! The size of the school is something I am unsure of, but I don’t mind as long as the other criteria can be fulfilled!

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I added my info in the replies!

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My stats are below, thank you!

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So this is a nice list - because you have some acceptances - UMASS, UVM, Uconn, U Washington, likely NC State.

You initially mentioned a Wellesley but I assume since these are all bigger, that was in error.

So you have no cost constraints - so $90K+ a year is ok when you can go to a school for $20K a year and maybe have a similar outcome to some? Bio - in general - not a high paying field - and is the PhD for academia or something else??

If UVM, UMASS, and UCONN, why not UNH?

Here’s a list of PhD feeders…doesn’t mean you have to choose one…but the left is who sends the most and right is who sends the most per Capita.

I like your list.

You’re a great student - and this list as is works fine.

So what exactly are you looking for from us?

I would say you have some rural schools (Dartmouth) some urban, and overall too many names.

Have you visited any? If not, go see some within a few hours. You’ll develop preferences on size, environment (urban, rural), weather, and more.

You could definitely trim this one (and supplement) if you want…but you are honestly good as is.

Top Feeders to Ph.D. Programs (■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■)

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See below for my stats, thanks!

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I would add Pitt

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Thank you for the list! I mainly just wanted to know if there were any schools that would fit me that I am missing. Thanks for your time!

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My info is in the replies!

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WIth a list like this, likely many. But they’d be substitutional.

For example, if you want a school similar to Tufts size wise, but an easier admit (Tufts is a reach), you might look at a Miami or Denver or Brandeis (a bit smaller) or SMU. Denver and SMU would be safe…Miami and Brandeis targets. …but with this list as is, I suspect you’d end up at a large or mid size public, and nothing wrong with that.

You talked about connections in your first - so that’d UMASS…but you also can look at the Philadelphia schools (if female, Bryn Mawr as an easier admit (small schoo but with access to Haverford, Swarthmore, Penn). If male Haverford.

Minnesota has this type of set up as do Atlanta schools (Emory) or California (the Claremont colleges). Whether these types of connections are regularly used probably determines on the locales and majors (can the home school support enough).

Good luck.

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These are my guesses as to what your chances for acceptance might be at the schools on your list:

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • U. of Vermont

Likely (60-79%)

  • Rutgers

  • UConn

  • UIUC

  • UMass

  • U. of Wisconsin

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • NC State

  • U. of Washington: But be aware that almost all of the majors related to bio are capacity-constrained, which means not only do you need to pass the prereqs with an appropriate grade, but there’s an additional application process beyond that to be accepted to the major.

Lower Probability (20-39%)

  • Northeastern (if you want to start the fall of your first year in Boston, if you’re open to NUin or other campuses, then I would guess this is a likely)

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • Dartmouth (but maybe better better than students with a similar profile because you’re from New Hampshire)

  • Tufts

  • Columbia

  • Johns Hopkins

  • UNC – Chapel Hill

  • Duke

  • UMich

  • Northwestern

  • WashU

  • U. of Southern California (assuming this is the USC you’re referring to)

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