Is this a reasonable college list?

This list is longer but there is overlap so it can be shortened. The two schools with * are higher probability than normal because you come from a Catholic school. Where there is a Q do the online recruiting questionnaires.

Reaches:

Cornell
Brown (q)
Boston College*
Emory
Tufts (q)
Colgate(q)
Hamilton (q)
Bates(q)
Colby (q)

Matches:

Lehigh (q)
Lafayette (q)
Bucknell (q)
Holy Cross*
Clemson
Syracuse
Dickinson (q)
American

Safeties:

SUNY SB & B
Clark
University of SC (merit not a safety)
University of Alabama (merit not a safety)

@BatesParent2019 I can’t thank you enough for your help :slight_smile: :smiley: I’m showing my parents this tonight!!

Try to get your ACT to 32, so that you can access the best scholarships (such as Temple’s and UAlabama’s). If you do, apply to UMD College Park - just a metroride away from DC, good Honors College and scholarships.
In terms of Catholic schools that’d be safeties, UDayton and UScranton would be better than Duquesne and may be interested in your athletic possibilities. Check out John Carroll, too. Siena or LeMoyne would be other safeties to replace East Nazarene (it’s an outlier - any reason for choosing it?).
Syracuse is a match, not a safety.
Do include New Paltz and Geneseo.
Hobart&William Smith, St Lawrence may be possibilities. Also look into Goucher for political science.
I’d add Dickinson, Muhlenberg, and if you’re willing to look a bit further away, Kenyon, Denison, Oberlin, Macalester, Davidson.

@ladybug216

Let’s replace Clark with Providence College because with your grades and class rank you could get big money in the Honors program. It is still a safety though in the regular program. Its a Catholic school and you have an advantage.

You have a strong profile. You should probably plan on taking the ACT again and shoot for a 33 or higher. The Science ACT test should be something you can improve with practice. My advice to you is to focus more energy on identifying Safety and Target schools and to narrow your Reach list down to 3 schools. This will allow you to create a few, very strong applications rather than just bombing colleges with applications that are not focused enough. For political science I would suggest George Washington which should be a Target school. University of Maryland and William & Mary are also very good schools on the East Coast.

@Wje9164be

You cannot target a score on a standardized test.

The Match portion can be cut back a few names.

Applying to three Reach schools in this case will yield no acceptances. She needs better odds across more types of Reach schools.

I would take a serious look at Muhlenberg College. You would qualify for merit money, and they just raised the ceiling on the top awards this year. They have competitive DIII sports teams and have an excellent Political Science department. They do an amazing job at getting their graduates into Law, Medical and post graduate programs. It is small, @2400 students but they have great facilities and a very engaged learning community. Best of luck to you!

@BatesParent2019 what do you mean, you can’t target a score on a standardized test? You absolutely can! You can’t take that section without taking the others as well, but that doesn’t mean you can’t target it (perhaps you are referring to super scoring, which isn’t commonly done on ACTs).

@Qwerty568 A poster said to target a certain score. You simply cannot do that.

One way to target a score, is t o study a lot, take many practice tests, and keep working until you’re comfortable you can reach your target. Check out the ACT (or SAT) forum for good approaches.

@BatesParent2019 well, mark me as confused. In what way can you not target a particular score on a standardized test?

Do you mean in terms of saying “I want to get a 750 on math” or something along those lines? Because you can certainly set goals like that for yourself, too.