Is this list too long or too unrealistic?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Objective:
GPA: 3.6 UW (3.8 if you take freshman year out), 4.14 weighted (on a scale of A in AP = 4.667) I’m fairly underachieving as in I literally have the 5th lowest GPA out of all the Asian people in my grade (there’s around 30). This is probably the killer for me, so I need advice on what to do.
Rank: Top 9%/715 (they recalculate it every semester, so I HAVE to make this semester count if I want to stay top 10%)
AP’s: 10 (All 4’s and 5’s, mostly 5’s) by Junior Year, total of 12 next year, as well as the IB program.
PSAT: 214, NMSF
SAT: 2270 (760 CR, 720 M :(, 790 W)
SATII: Math II - 800, US History - 800, waiting on Chem scores, hopefully 750+. </p>

<p>12th grade courseload:
IB Contemporary History HL
IB TOK
AP US Gov/Econ
IB English HL
IB Mathematics SL
IB Chemistry HL</p>

<p>Subjective:
Race: Asian (Thai, though they probably don’t subdivide into nationalities so I’m fairly SOL here)
Gender: M
Income: Around 50k/year for a household of 5 and a sibling in college.
State: FL</p>

<p>ECs (the position I currently hold and the years I have been in the club):
President of National Science Honor Society (3 years)
President of Geography/History Club (4 years)
Co-editor and published in school’s Literary Magazine (3 years)
Co-founder for a program at a local children’s hospital that helps children express their literary and artistic abilities, publishing their works for people to see (1 year)
Webmaster/Co-founder of Asian Heritage Club (2 years)
Historian of Math Honor Society (4 years)
Member of Model UN (4 years)
Member of National Honor Society (2 years)
Member of Spanish Honor Society (2 years)
500+ hours of community service from mostly unrelated, though 225 of those hours are from the literary magazine.
I’m also part of the writing staff for a play, and I’m also going to be a part of acting in it, which will net me 150 community service hours each.</p>

<p>I will have also worked at a restaurant for 3 years by senior year; I’ve also started tutoring elementary school kids in core subjects (for money though, not for any sort of altruism you might believe). </p>

<p>Teacher Recommendations:
One from my AP U.S. History teacher, it’s an incredibly honest and well-written recommendation from one of my favorite teachers. I’m definitely planning on giving him a thank you card and a gift card to his favorite restaurant for this because I don’t know if I could’ve gotten a better recommendation. </p>

<p>The other one, my IB Anthropology teacher, I also have high hopes for because I’ve known her for 3 years and she’s one of the best teachers I have ever had. She really likes me too so I have high hopes for this recommendation as well.</p>

<p>The counselor recommendation, I’m not so sure about because she’s new and knows no one here, but I get along with her really easily. She’s really nice and I think with what she knows of me (since I’ve spent some lunches in her office just talking), as well as with the student questionnaire I filled out for a counselor recommendation, I think it’ll turn out fairly well. </p>

<p>Essays:
About lucid dreaming and how it affects my writing (it’s Common App prompt #1). I’ve had people tell me it’s good/impactful, but I honestly feel that it’s pretentious/cliche and not really my best work. It’s not terrible, like, it’s good enough to get into the literary magazine, but it still needs some major revision before I’m satisfied with it. Probably a 7/10 on a personal scale. </p>

<p>Hooks:
Thai? Not really a hook since I’m still Asian (curse you ORM status!). My mom went to college so I’m not first-gen either. I’m also better at QWOP than I am at actual sports so my (lack of) athletic prowess won’t help me either. Yeah, I don’t even know if I need this section in this thread. </p>

<p>These are what I’m applying to: </p>

<p>Reaches (ridiculously long list):
Amherst (ED definitely)
Pomona
Rice
Carleton
Williams
Bowdoin
Middlebury
Emory
Grinnell
Swarthmore
Bowdoin
Tufts</p>

<p>Matches:
UF
Hamilton (maybe not, though)</p>

<p>Safeties:
UCF
FSU</p>

<p>Many of these schools are long shots, rejecting many applicants far more qualified than I. I just want to know if I should bother applying to half the schools on my list. I’ve saved up most of my money from work just for college applications and all of its costs, but I think I’m going overboard with a list this long. There are a ton of supplements I would have to do as well, and that’s a lot of effort to put in just to not get into any of the schools. I decided not to do Questbridge because I really liked Amherst and decided that doing ED for Amherst was a better option, since I’d get really good financial aid either way.</p>

<p>tl;dr, is this college list too long? If so, what should I remove to remain realistic?</p>

2

<p>The list is too long/uneven. As a rule of thumb follow the 1-2-1 rule, which means for every 1 reach and 1 safety have 2 matches. You could also do 2-2-1, which is not recommended, but then again I am a hypocrite since that is what I plan to do next year. I would also cut down the list to no more then 10 schools. The only thing your reach list has in common is that they are all top LACs, other then that you have some very different schools. Figure out what you want in a school and that should help you cut your list down.</p>

3

<p>You have too many reaches. Cut that list down, it’s very disproportional.</p>

4

<p>Too many reaches.</p>

5

<p>Yeah I think you also have way too many reaches. Maybe cut it down to 3-4. Based on what you have mentioned I would keep: Amhearst(ED), Emory, Tufts and maybe Middlebury…I guess depends on which schools you like better. Your SAT is very good, so I think you have a good shot at Amhearst if you ED. Tough school to get into bu best of luck!</p>

6

<p>I disagree with most of the posters in that i think you can get into many of your “reaches.” Your stats are fine, your ECs impressive. </p>

<p>I would focus on each school on the list a ask yourself “why this school,” “what does this school have that i want or what’s missing?” Look at Rhodes College.</p>

<p>Then I’d get going on the best essays you can muster and apply to the schools that meet your criteria.</p>

7

<p>Most of the reaches are reachable, though.</p>

8

<p>Yeah, I completely understand that my reach list is very disproportionate to my match and safety list but I can’t really find schools I would like that I would be a match or safety for. I made an earlier thread asking for match recommendations and checked a few of the schools out, but I couldn’t really see myself at them, save for Hamilton (still don’t think it’s a match though, contrary to what my GC believes), Rhodes, and Macalester. I’m honestly fine with going to any of the Florida schools though.</p>

9

<p>My general rule of thumb is you need more high reaches than matches. The reason is high reaches are more like lottery, the more you play, better chance you have in winning. OP may get admitted to Williams and not Amherst, Pomona, or Middlebury. As an Asian male, OP will have much better chance getting into a LAC than a large U. </p>

<p>OP - why don’t you look into application fee waiver with some of those schools. I would also not apply ED if you are looking for good FA.</p>

10

<p>A bit off topic, but I have to ask, Anythingtosay, does your school really consider writing for the literary magazine and acting in a play community service?!</p>

11

<p>I’m not sure if I should have so many reaches oldfort, because it just costs so much effort and money to apply to all these top schools with a very low chance of getting into them. I don’t know about the whole matches/safeties thing because I really like all the state schools I’m applying to, especially UF, but that’s a match for me.</p>

<p>With Amherst, they waived my application fee because of DivOH (even though I didn’t get in) but the others, I’m not too sure about. I don’t qualify for reduced lunch by around 2000 dollars so I’m not sure if I’ll get many, if any, fee waivers because of income. I’ve talked to some of the people at Amherst, though, and I’ve put in as accurate numbers as possible for the financial aid calculator, which comes out to a number my parents can easily afford.</p>

<p>I get community service hours for it, and, although I don’t really consider it such, it does count. Though I may be mixing up CAS (the IB requirement) with community service.</p>

12

<p>Although your school may consider it community service most college will likely not, it should be classified as a regular EC on your resume. Unless the literary magazine is like something where you go and help little children at a school make/write a literary magazine (though from my understanding it is not).</p>

<p>Most schools will give you a fee waiver if you directly contact them. Though all those LACs have supplement essays which are weighed as heavily important in admissions. It is unlikely that you will be able to produce strong/unique/high quality essays for all those schools. Once again what makes you like them? The list is very diverse within the realm of LACs and you should be able to eliminate a few due to them being so diverse.</p>

13

<p>Agreed with community service hours. Our younger kid was also in the IB program. Many school ECs were considered community services for the purpose of IB, but she listed them as ECs, not volunteer work.</p>

<p>Rice and Tufts are different than most of those schools on your list. Yes, cut back on your reaches. I don’t think Hamilton is going to be your match. If you are considering Hamilton then what about Colgate? Have you considered Bucknell or Lehigh? I think because you are happy with UF, you probably don’t need to apply to that many schools.</p>

14

<p>Yeah, I did put them as regular ECs on my college application but I’m not sure where to indicate hours for community service. I know for sure what I do counts as CAS, but my school conflates CAS with community service, though I have actual community service; around 150 hours from true community service like tutoring, volunteering, etc. </p>

<p>Cutting down the list is an issue because I can honestly see a part of myself at all of the colleges I’m applying to. I do really like UF, but there’s just gonna be a part of me that is going to regret if I didn’t apply to the reach schools. I justify reasons why I belong to each of the colleges on my list. I’ve tried it from the other way, justifying why I don’t belong at a certain college, but that’s only eliminated around 4 schools at this point. Maybe I’ll need to do college visits (ah, the price of airfare) to really get a feel of the atmosphere at each school, but I always find a way to like the schools on my current list. I’ll probably need to do some more thinking at this point, but thanks for all the advice.</p>

<p>And actually, Colgate was one of the schools I couldn’t see myself at for some reason. I don’t even know why, though, like I feel like I’m just going based off of first impressions if anything.</p>

15

<p>If you’re trying to eliminate some schools, here’s a forced-choice process that sometimes works.</p>

<p>Using a spreadsheet or just a sheet of graph paper, write each school across the top and down the left side. Now, starting at the top row, compare school 1 against each of the schools across. If you only had to make this single choice, which would you choose? Write the name or just an abbreviation in the spreadsheet. Do it again for each set of schools in the first row. In one case, you’ll be comparing a school against itself; just x out that box.</p>

<p>Consciously try to forget which choices you already made. Maybe cover your previous answers with a sheet of paper. Just focus on the single choice. If you can get someone else to read the choices to you and write down your answers, even better.</p>

<p>When you’ve made all of your one-against-one choices, add up the number of times each choice appears in the spreadsheet. You might get some surprises, or you might get some clarification about what you really think and feel.</p>

16

<p>Most schools don’t care about community service hours. What they do care about is community service activities. If you have room for them list those activities separately, e.g., tutoring 1 hr/wk for 30 wks., volunteering at hospital camp 30 hrs/wk for 2 weeks, etc… If you’ve run out of space to list ECs either list your volunteer jobs under “additional information” or cluster them on one line but still say what you did. </p>

<p>When considering whether or not to list an EC I think it’s always good to think about whether it would pass the purple test, that is, could you have a discussion about it, in this case with an admissions officer, without turning purple in the face either from embarrassment or from the effort of coming up with something to say?</p>