Alls fine as long as u have 2 or 3 aps ready to go if Michigan doesn’t accept you. I’d go with Wisconsin, Boston College, and Lehigh myself. But seriously, the chances of u getting rejected by ALL schools on your current list is really low. They should re-name the Tufts syndrome after u if u get the thin envelope from all of them.
@CHD2013 I appreciate your clarification but that is not the definition of a safety. Your explanation merely means that you’re applying early to see if you can get in a school in the earlier pool BEFORE regular pool hits. You can definitely do that and, if you get in UMich, feel ASSURED that you’ve been accepted to a school; but applying early doesn’t make chances better.
I would make sure that you visit some of your plan B safeties - if Michigan falls through.
Your stats are great but a lot of schools want to see interest and if you apply without visiting it might seem disingenuous
and make sure that you (and you guidance department) are prepared to scramble the last week of December - when school is closed - to make that early January deadline
You need to consider “another safety” before you are rejected. If you are unexpectedly rejected, the last thing you will want to do is look for more colleges to apply.
Adding UCSB and UCSC will balance the list more but only if you are fine with attending these schools if you happened to be rejected by all the other schools. If you say “well, I really don’t want to…”, find other safeties.
Have your applications to your safety schools ready to go. You are not going to be in any mood to finish up any apps if you are rejected from what you think is your safety school. For that matter, what’s wrong with sending the applications earlier rather than later? Many “traditional” safety schools have short applications with few, if any, essays.
Do not treat Michigan as a safety in your essays OP. Put time and effort into those. If you don’t, expect a deferment.
^Very good advice
Also, maybe take out one or two reach schools and replace them with matches you would be happy to go to. Northwestern regular is not a match, even with your high stats. Your reaches just seem to be the top ranked schools-- find what you actually want and apply only to those reaches. Unfortunately, it is far too easy to get rejected from a slew of reaches and end up at a safety, so make sure you pay as much attention to the bottom of your list as the top