My DS20 had a 3.5 but a 1350 SAT and slightly more course rigor. He (and kids like him) at his pretty competitive CT high school tend to get “branched” at UConn—it’s definitely a reach. UMass Amherst could be reachy as well but maybe not if she’s not applying for the more competitive majors like Comp Sci or Business. I think UNH and UVM are hard to call without stronger SATs as well. UMaine is a great suggestion. I think Colorado State is probably a solid match, and CU a high match.
According to https://assessmentandplanning.byu.edu/00000178-892a-dae7-ab79-d92e7fab0000/cds-2020-2021 section C11, 96% of frosh at BYU (Provo, UT) had HS GPA >= 3.50, so it would be a reach for an applicant with a HS GPA of 3.4. The Hawaii and Idaho campuses are less selective.
BYU is one of the universities where religious compatibility is relatively important in the student experience.
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Someone through in N Arizona. I would throw in U of Arizona Arizona - Mt. Lemon nearby.
WVU
Colorado State
U Wyoming - cheap
Colorado Mountain College
Idaho State
This is real skiing.
If you want to be in the east - App State is hills (not skiing) and is a reach.
Butler - no skiing.
CSU a match.
IU no skiing.
JMU - not good skiing.
Loyola - no skiing
Miami Ohio - near a bunny slope (Perfect North)
Ohio U and the Michigan schools - not close - nor Iowa, KS, UK or WMU for skiing.
East Stroudsburg - safety. It’s in the Poconos
I would add Gonzaga as a match — has an English major with Writing concentration, Theatre major, mid-size with lots of school spirit, in Spokane just over the border from Coeur d’Alene’s ski resorts (and there are a few in Washington also).
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Not much skiing. An hour south of Bloomington is Paoli.
And on a personal note, my first time successfully quoting somebody!!!
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Ah, and another safety: Boise State! Nonresidents with a GPA above 3.0 are automatically admitted.
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Thank you all for your suggestions. I wanted to provide a quick update given all of the great feedback.
We are trying to balance DD23 strong desire to be close to ski/snowboarding with her academic and other personal interests. While I appreciate all of the suggestions for other schools closer to better ski opportunities, we have already narrowed down the list of potential schools to the list I provided in the original post for many reasons.
We have evaluated (and visited) many schools that you recommended, including Montana State, U of Wyoming, DePaul, UMass, Arizona schools, New Mexico, BYU. They have all been ruled out for various reasons.
Our family travels regularly out west to ski and we have also been to Paoli Peaks (IN) and ski “hills” in Ohio and Wisconsin. Obviously, midwest skiing does not compare to many options in the west and out east. She will have opportunities to ski out west or east during holiday breaks if those opportunities are not available during the school year.
We are trying to understand whether we have a good mix of match/reach/safety schools in her current list. We have tried to use the most recent Common Data Set from each school, along with the niche graph of chances to try and categorize these schools.
Based on your feedback thus far, I am updating our list to the following categories. Does this better reflect how these colleges might align for DD23?
Reach:
- Appalachian State
- Miami University Ohio
- U of Colorado, Boulder
- U of Vermont
- Virginia Tech
Match/Target:
- Butler
- Colorado State
- Indiana University
- James Madison
- Loyola Chicago
- Michigan State
- U of New Hampshire
- U of Utah
Safety:
- Central Michigan
- Grand Valley State
- Ohio University
- U of Iowa (based on Regents index)
- U of Kansas (based on assured admissions)
- U of Kentucky
- Western Michigan
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Those seem like reasonable categorizations based on the info we have.
Sounds like you are full pay, so all the safeties are affordable…if so, probably no need to apply to that many, unless she is truly interested in them all and can’t really decide by application time.
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Absolutely. We have been trying to narrow this list further but worried we didn’t have the appropriate categorization. We have suggested she try to limit apps to her top 2 reaches, 3-4 targets and 2-3 safeties. It’s still a large number of applications IMO. She’s planning EA where available.
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Have you looked at Champlain College in Burlington,VT? It is right across the street from UVM. My son just graduated from UVM and made friend with kids at Champlain. According this website the average GPA there is 3.4: https://www.prepscholar.com/sat/s/colleges/Champlain-College-admission-requirements#:~:text=The%20average%20GPA%20at%20Champlain,like%20AP%20or%20IB%20classes.
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If she were to apply Early Action to University of Denver, the acceptance rate is 87%. Check the school out.
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Has she toured Central, Western and GVSU?
We live in Michigan as well and it seems like a lot of kids really develop a preference for one or the other after touring.
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One way to prune is to remove from the application list all schools that she would not choose over her safeties.
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Yes she has been on all three campuses and prefers GVSU and Central. Right now, she’s leaning towards only applying to GVSU of the three.
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That’s a great suggestion. Right now she’s not highly keen on any of the safeties and only wants to apply to the following in order of preference.
We have some tours coming up the next few months that may take a few more officially off the list. I suppose we could go with this list and just add in a few safeties. She likes GVSU and Iowa the most as safety options.
Boulder or Utah
UNH
Michigan State
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UVM oos is for sure easier to get into than UMass Amherst oos. And UVM is a fantastic school.
OP I think she should for sure apply to UVM if likes it. Especially if you are able to check off on the application ‘not applying for financial aid,’ and apply EA (its not ED iirc - just non binding EA). I’m positive that is what helped my not so high stats kid get in to similar level colleges.
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We have been hearing this type of feedback and counselor has also indicated that being full pay and applying EA would help at match/target schools. That was a surprise to me but we keep learning through this process.
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Two more SUNY suggestions, New Paltz and Oneonta, would put you about an hour or so away from some of the better NY ski areas, Hunter, Windham, Belleayre. Also Hartwick private LAC in Oneonta. I think a good chance of getting into all three, with New Paltz being the more selective.