Match me ~20-40% acceptance rate schools [NJ resident, 3.98 GPA, 35 ACT, math and classics, unknown parent contribution, divorced parents]

Chance Me / Match Me
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I realized most of my schools on my list are very hard to get in to… here’s the list:

MIT, NJIT, Princeton, Rutgers, Swarthmore, Tufts, William&Mary

NJIT & Rutgers are my safeties FYI.

What I’m looking for is schools that are ~20-40% acceptance rates, where there is some competition, but it’s not like I have to start 15 charities to get in. I want to major in math, but I am seriously considering either a double major or a minor in classics, which I have become increasingly interested in over the past year. As you can see there are tech schools on mylist which don’t have classics, I do intend to still apply, because I think classics are relatively feasible to learn on my own, so if I get into MIT, I’m not going to pass that up because I want to learn Latin. BUT, I would prefer if schools have a solid classics program I can look into. And for math, obviously I want it to be solid. I do want to be able to do research for math if possible, but I know undergrad math is probably going to be harder to find than stuff like bio or whatever, but I would prefer if such a thing were attainable. To be honest, though, I’m not exactly sure what I want from campus life. I want there to be things to do, obviously, but I’d imagine most schools have those things. My one caveat is that I don’t care at all for Greek life or parties at all (my mom is kind of an alcoholic and just the smell of alcohol makes me feel sick). Like I could probably go small liberal arts or large state school, I’ve enjoyed looking around both types of places and they have their pros and cons.

Additionally, I am in NJ. My range is roughly all the way North in the US, south down to Virginia, and west to western Pennsylvania. But I can probably be persuaded to try somewhere in Ohio as well.

Here’s all this info, I don’t know how important it is for this sort of question, but it’s here:

Demographics

  • US domestic citizen
  • State/Location of residency: New Jersey
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): normal public high school
  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.

Cost Constraints / Budget
I am not sure. My mom won’t tell me to be honest, which is very frustrating. However, my grandma has told me that she’ll pay for both my sister’s and my college. And my sister never actually went to college, so presumably I will have some money to work with.

Intended Major(s)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.98 (I’ve had exactly 2 A-s, one from a Spanish class where the teacher gave a 90 unless he liked you and you got 95s, one from a health class b/c, again, the teacher for some reason did not like me)
  • Weighted HS GPA: My school uses a 4.3 scale: 4.56. On a 4.0 scale my GPA would be around 4.4.
  • Class Rank: My school only reports the decile rank. Mine is top 10% which means pretty much nothing. I am reasonably sure I am either 2nd or 3rd, but the school won’t report this so It doesn’t matter.
  • ACT/SAT Scores: ACT: 35, SAT: 1490, however I plan to retake it, because my math score could be better.

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: I & II honors, AP Lang (5), AP Lit (current)
  • Math: Geometry H, Algebra II H, Precalc H. AP CSA (5) Calc BC & ap stats (both current),
  • Science: Physics H, Chemistry H, Bio H, AP Physics 2 (5), AP Psychology (5), AP Physics C (current)
  • History and social studies: World History H, US History I H, AP Human Geo (self studied only, 5) APUSH (5),
  • Language other than English: Spanish II, III, & IV
  • Visual or performing arts: Music production I & II
  • Other academic courses: nah

Awards

My biggest one is that I got the highest score in both my school (all time) and New Jersey for academic decathlon as an alternate.

Extracurriculars
Academic decathalon (as stated above), track (every year of Hs, though not varsity), esports (I got top 16 on the east coast for smash bros which is fun), I did physics tutoring, I am teaching myself Latin at this current moment. For smaller clubs, I do the chess club, math team (top 10 ever since freshmen year, and 1st place in sophomore year, to be honest though I was very busy last year so I didn’t participate as much as I should have), science league (my team won 3rd place when I did it for Ap physics, though I might be misremembering it)

Essays/LORs/Other
I think my commonapp essay is good to decent, I will work on it more. However, my letters of recomenddation I am pretty sure will be really good. One will be by my physics teacher, who I’ve had for physics honors freshment year, ap physics 2 sophomore year, and ap physics C now. (also note that AP physics C did not exist at my school last year. I had to will it into existence by getting a bunch of people to agree to join and doing a presentation to the school VP). I also come in and say hello very often. Two people in my school have gone to Harvard and he has written both of their recommendation letters, so he’s pretty good. The other will be my English II H teacher. Admittedly I am not as sure about his, but last year, a person for whom he wrote a letter got into Harvard. I haven’t talked to him very much since the end of his class, however, in his class I was very talkative. Plus, him being an English teacher is a plus b/c he was able to see me through my writing.

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I know about William and Mary, and I would think you would have a great chance there. You do need to find out about finances. Will you qualify for financial aid? Will your family send you to a full pay school that costs over $70,000/year? You need to pin them down on what they are willing to do. Some schools might get eliminated.

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Will they be willing to use the net price calculator on each school’s web site and tell you if the result is affordable?

Also, are your parents divorced? If so, some colleges require both parents’ finances for financial aid, so that needs to be included when using the net price calculator (which can be difficult if the divorced parents are still fighting their divorce and keeping their finances secret from each other and you).

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MIT does offer some courses in Greek, Latin, and associated literatures and histories:
Humanities | MIT Course Catalog . But obviously, MIT is not one of the somewhat less selective schools you are asking for based on your thread title.

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My parents are divorced, but that was over a decade ago now and I only live with my mom. I guess I just need to harass my mom into telling me. Honestly, I think she’s only refusing to show me it because she got scammed recently, so she’s flustered about sharing anything. But I can probably get it out of her if I harass her hard enough, but she’s been super upset recently about something so I think I will have to wait like a week or so, so idk.

I don’t think my dad plans to contribute? But maybe he will, honestly not sure.

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However, you still need to check each college’s financial aid web site to see whether it requires financial aid forms from both divorced parents (usually, this means that it requires the CSS Noncustodial Profile from your noncustodial parent, but sometimes they have their own forms for that).

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Whether he contributes or not, most places will use his income to determine financial aid.

Don’t feel the need to limit yourself to schools with a <40% acceptance rate. There are some great schools that will meet your criteria that may be less rejective.

Ohio University has a 85% acceptance rate, but I think you would be interested in their Honors Tutorial College (very personalized and a much lower acceptance rate).

St. Olaf is another one to consider. Slightly outside of your preferred geographic radius, but an easy flight to Minneapolis.

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My first reaction is that Rutgers is a very good university.

I was a math major (bachelors degree in math from MIT). Then I worked for a couple of years, and got a master’s degree in a subfield of applied math from Stanford. The other students in the same program had come from a huge range of different undergraduate universities. Of the other graduate students in the same program who I knew, there was only one case where more than one of them had come from the same undergraduate school. This was three students who had graduated from Rutgers. They were all quite strong students. I will admit that this was probably a coincidence, but it does suggest that Rutgers is very good. My more recent experience working with different Rutgers graduates has made the same point.

This raises the question: What is the point of applying to schools that are just as good as Rutgers, and cost two or three times more?

My understanding is that NJIT is also very good, although I do not know as much about it.

When I think “mathematics plus classics” I think “McGill”, which would be close to a safety with your excellent stats (admissions in Canada is very stats oriented). However, I am not convinced that I would choose it over Rutgers if I were in-state in New Jersey.

I don’t think that you need a double major. Just take the classics courses that interest you, while majoring in mathematics.

A lot of universities and colleges have very good math programs.

There is a lot that you can do with a degree in math. In some cases there are people working in research, but who need applied math to tie their research together. One example is in physics. If you want your cyclotron to work, you are going to need quite a bit of math to get the details right. The “research” part might be in a different area, but the math is needed. I also knew other math majors from my undergraduate years who went on to a rather wide range of successful careers in a wide range of areas.

Make sure that your mother and your grandmother knows how much university costs these days. Tufts is getting close to $100,000 per year. MIT and Princeton are not that far behind. You might want to have your mother run the NPC on these schools to see what they would cost for you. However, with divorced parents I do not know how accurate the NPCs will be. You might think of them as “best case”.

Getting a bachelor’s degree at Rutgers plus a master’s degree at Princeton, MIT, or Stanford might cost less than just a bachelor’s degree from some schools.

If you get into MIT, you might want to be aware that MIT students can cross register at a few other universities in the area. When I was there this included Wellesley College and Harvard College (the undergraduate part of Harvard University). I think that both are still possible, although you might want to double check this. There are a few restrictions, such as MIT engineering students can’t take engineering classes at Harvard (I think), but you should be fine with classics.

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Ah that is fair enough, I don’t have any problem with things >40%, my mind was just on more competitive schools. My issue with St. Olaf would be the flight. I don’t hate flights, but I think it would very quickly get on my nerves to take to fly back and forth to get home every time. Admittedly, maybe driving would too, but at least for that I don’t have to go through an airport. Not to mention that I have to pay for all that (though, gas will be a lot too…). And I’d probably end up going through Newark airport (absolute nightmare. Never go.)

Also, really? They’d use income from a parent who literally doesn’t pay for supporting me at all for determining financial aid? That’s actually ridiculous. And kind of a problem because he drives a super expensive car and owns a tree business and buys a ton of jewellery and stuff. Admittedly I’m not entirely sure on his finances, but I do think he makes quite a bit more than my mom, so that would screw me over a lot. ugh

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You do make a good point. I guess my aversion to Rutgers is probably my ego (kind of pathetic, I know), partly because it feels a little too close (NJIT also has this “issue”, Princeton sort of does too), partly because I’m not that into the whole sports culture (I’ve heard from a couple people that people there care quite a lot about sports, which is not my cup of tea).

And about double majoring math+classics, I suppose you’re right. Plus, I can probably just take the courses I want and see if I really want to pursue the classics in school further or just read on my own.

100,000 per year is, wow! I did not realize it was that expensive. But MIT and Princeton say, on their website that tuition is free if you make under 200,000. Obviously still have to pay for food and stuff, but I am pretty sure that my mother does not make nearly that much, so tuition would be free. Unless there is some sort of trickery there, which I wouldn’t put it past them.

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Some schools will accept the CSS non custodial waiver, some won’t.

What’s hour background in math? Do you like writing proofs?

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Everyone has brought up cost. Some of these, unless you qualify for need, some are are $400K.

I would shy you away from 20-40% acceptance schools - like they’re at a different level than others. Find the right fit - and some schools may excel whereas others don’t.

Now you don’t want large it appears - so maybe Rutgers doesn’t fit.

But when I think math, I think UMD - very strong. At the same time, and it’s off your radar in competitiveness, but I wonder - why not Brown? And why not Washington & Lee - I’m not sure that your ECs are top shelf….seem a bit forced but maybe i’m wrong…why not the Johnson scholarship.

So those are three schools to look at:

  1. UMD - large but strong in math or Stony Brook. Pitt is another if money no issue.
  2. Brown - as competitive as any on your list sans MIT/Princeton
  3. W&L - for the Johnson

I’m not sure teaching yourself classics is the point of going to college You should be studying, working with other students - so I think - why not an LAC.

You like Swat, so then I think Lafayette or F&M or Union.

You like Tufts, why not Case Western or Brandeis or Rochester.

You like MIT - why not RPI or Lehigh? Neither of those two have Classics. MIT doesn’t appear to either.

None of it matters until you have your arms around the financials.

But I personally would go to a school where you can study both your majors and eschew schools where you can’t. This is college - self study isn’t the way to go.

Good luck.

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Yes and no. They will likely want dad’s #s, whether he’s contributed or not.

And those tables always have an asterisk - they’ll look at assets too - so some people have low incomes but high assets. Schools typically expect them to sell assets down.

The biggest thing is you have an affordable school that excites you. No one cares what the acceptance rate is…no one.

You will care if you’re in heavy debt or because you chose a school based on name vs. fit - as you have to be there four years, day after day.

So if Rutgers is right, it’s right - it doesn’t matter it’s close to home. But if you decide you prefer big, well there’s other big colleges - you just have to find one that fits your budget - which you need to understand. I noted UMD or maybe it’s a SUNY or a UMASS.

Find your happy spot, not the one that will impress your friends.

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Both of these schools use both divorced parents’ finances to calculate financial aid. So they both need to be cooperative, and their combined income and assets must not be too high for you to get sufficient financial aid.

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Your 35 ACT score is equivalent to 1530-1560 SAT, based on ACT to SAT Score Conversion Chart | ACT/SAT Concordance

If you want to retest, the ACT may be more worthwhile.

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Why retest? A 35 ACT is outstanding (99th percentile), and a 36 won’t do anything for you that a 35 doesn’t. Just send the ACT instead of your very good (but not quite as good) SAT.

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OP- your academic record is terrific. Any college would be lucky to have you.

You need a budget- an actual “you have X dollars for four years” budget, not the hopes that your Dad’s income will be ignored, not the “I don’t want to deal with this now” from your mom, nor the “don’t worry about paying for it” from loving relatives.

I hate to be mean. But this is your reality right now. Don’t get ahead of your skis by creating a list filled with schools which will be unaffordable.

Take five minutes to read what it takes to have the non-custodial parents income (your dad) not considered for need based aid. See if you are going to qualify. Then find a time when you and your mom can run the Net Price Calculators on a range of colleges and see the results. There’s more to it than income….

You sound like a fantastic person and are going to get a fantastic education. Just don’t fall in love with schools that won’t meet your budget. Applications cost time and money and energy. Don’t waste the time, money and energy on the “I can’t afford it but what the heck” schools.

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Here is a list of colleges which meet the criteria in your question (Math major, Classics major/minor, 20-40% acceptance rate, Northeast, no Greek life). There aren’t that many of them! I’ve added two (UConn, Fordham) which are above 40% acceptance rate because both are excellent in what you’re looking for and both offer full cost of attendance scholarships + additional enrichment money, which I think you’d be competitive for. I didn’t worry about Greek life at state universities because the number of students involved relative to the overall student population is small, so it doesn’t have the same impact that it does at a much smaller school. I did not repeat schools which you already mentioned in your post - except Rutgers for a point of comparison. I’ve listed the undergrad enrollment and acceptance rate for each school. I’ve listed the coat it attendance (tuition, fees, room & board) for each of the stat schools but not for the privates because the sticker price for all of them is expensive but what you’ll actually pay varies widely and depends on many factors. I encourage you to follow the advice of others here and come up with a budget, complete the net price calculator for each college you’re interested, and talk to your father about his contribution because the non-custodial parent is a factor.

State Schools:

Rutgers - 36,600 enrollment, 35% acceptance rate, $34,000 in-state cost of attendance
U of Connecticut - 20,100 enrollment, 52% acceptance rate, $58,800 out-of-state cost
SUNY Binghamton - 14,700 enrollment, 39% acceptance rate, $52,000 out-of-state cost (scholarships up to $12,000, for which you’d be competitive, could bring the cost down to ($40,000.)

Private Colleges:

Brandeis University - 3600 enrollment, 40% acceptance rate
Connecticut College - 2000 enrollment, 37% acceptance rate
Fairfield University - 5400 enrollment, 25% acceptance rate
Fordham University - 6700 enrollment on main campus, 58% acceptance rate
Holy Cross College - 3300 enrollment, 21% acceptance rate (est.)
Skidmore College - 2700 enrollment, 21% acceptance rate

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I see your SAT score but did you take the PSAT? Just checking to see if you qualified as a NMSF?

No need to retest. Use the ACT.

You need to pin down your budget asap. Good luck

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You might want to look at Pitt as a university that fits your criteria. I am not sure it is “better” than Rutgers overall, but it does have an active and well-regarded Classics Department, which also feeds off strong related departments and faculty in Philosophy, History, and so on:

Pitt also sometimes feels a little different to some prospective students than most publics–it is on the smaller side, and it has a great location right in the middle of Pittsburgh. You can do the normal Public U sports and party scene, but I think it tends to attract more than its share of students looking for a somewhat different social and cultural experience.

Penn State and Ohio State would be good academic choices too, although I feel like those are a notch less different from Rutgers.

In terms of privates, Bucknell actually has a nice Classics department:

Culturally, though . . . it is kinda isolated and I think does tend to gravitate to a bit more of the traditional college social scene. However, I think it is big enough that people not into that scene can still “find their people”.

Finally, Dickinson would be another I would put into roughly a similar category:

A little less isolated, though–Carlisle is a pleasant town itself and quite a bit larger than Lewisburg, and then Harrisburg is like 30 minutes away, versus over an hour for Bucknell.

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