Rank these colleges for me

College Search & Lists
1

Hey everyone! Can you guys help me rank these colleges that I am applying to. The colleges are: Michigan, Rensselaer Polytechnic, UVA, Penn State, and Georgia Tech. I want to major in Physics. Here are my stats:

UWGPA: 3.985
WGPA: 4.55
SAT: 1460/1600
9 AP classes, the rest honors classes
Award for Excellence in English
Captain of the Ultimate Frisbee Team
Bronze Presidential Service Award
Bronze Congressional Award
Varsity Golf
Varsity Volleyball
National Honors Society
Key Club Member
Anti Drug and Alcohol Club
NSLC Engineering

2

Are asking quality of the schools or your chance if admission ?

Quality/Cost, GA Tech is a great school at a reasonable price.

Michigan, among the most expensive public schools, but of course excellent.

RPI is expensive, but you may get merit making it cheaper than Michigan.
Have a son at RPI, amazing what their alumni have accomplished, google it.

Can’t say much about the other two, the above 3 would be my preference, maybe UVA then Penn St last.

3

I would rank by tiers.
Tier One: UMich, UVA
Tier Two: RpI, Georgia Tech
Tier Three: PSU

4

For physics specifically, I’d put RPI first. Also, as the only private university on your list, it would be the most geographically diverse.

5

If I were to rank them by the quality of their Physics department, I’d put them in this order;
1-Michigan (Ann Arbor)
2-Georgia Tech
3-Rensselaer Polytechnic
4-Penn State
5-UVA

I think Rensselaer Polytechnic is your best choice here among that list.

6

These are all good schools. I’d rank them based on your own personal criteria, whatever that is. Cost, where you feel most comfortable, weather, geographic preference or distance from home, etc. Doesn’t matter if you go to the “best” of these if you’re not happy there…

And please please have safeties on your list. These look like reaches or high matches with your stats and the acceptance rates / OOS status of several.