We live in a world of grade inflation. Your grades likely put you just below the middle of your class. Given that you come from a solid high school, that usually means you come from a fairly affluent town. That probably makes your SAT’s in the middle of your class as well.
Where do kids just in the middle of your class go to college? I say Penn State if they have strong activities and applications.
Maybe Rutgers belongs on the low end of the reaches, but you did say finance. Truly nothing has changed though… your high reaches are still not happening. you might pull a reach and I hope you do. and most people go to a target, but maybe you do a tad better. The end.
It doesn’t really matter if schools are reaches or not. You can apply to as many schools at the high end of your list as you want - ten, twenty, thirty . . . Have fun with it. Dream big. You’ll find out the results when you hear back with the results of the school’s decisions.
The single most important school(s) on your list is your safety(ies). You should have at least one school on your list - preferably row or three - where admission is a slam dunk, a school which you can afford, AND where you’d be happy to go. That’s where you should be putting your energy. There are plenty of terrific schools which fly under the radar but whose alumni do very well in their careers and earn high salaries. The fact that they’re not household names is irrelevant.
FTR, for Penn State, 2/3 decision = GPA×rigor. I was asked to your thread and spent quite a bit of time explaining exactly what you can do to increase your odds of being admitted to University Park vs. Abington, if that’s what you want. I briefly listed the key benefits of each option. (Even if you already submitted your app, you can still modify some things like alternate campus, major, fall/summer).
Unfortunately, a nice essay and good activities won’t tip the scales if you want UP (they’re only considered for borderline candidates) but you can consider Abington a safety.
Has your STARS/SRAR been received&processed?
What does your list look like now?
What do you think of the list in post 47?
U Cincinnati, SUNY Albany, SUNY New Paltz would all be good additions. Have you been able to explore their website? Are you considering applying? (SUNY applications are free this week.)
I second this advice. A relative of mine ended up doing something similar at a different state flagship. Like the OP, his weakness was in his GPA and foreign language. He has ended up with an outstanding career in trading, some based domestically, some out of Geneva Switzerland. Loves his job and makes substantially more money than his siblings, including the doctors.
That’s a great story for OP. Too many kids tie career success or non- success to the college they get into and while averages may show that, everyone is an individual and successes and non successes abound from every school.