School List vs. Stats

College Search & Lists
1

<p>I’d like some outside opinion on how my list of schools to apply to compares to my stats. Basically, is this a good list for me?</p>

<p>STATS:
White male, from highly competitive (top 100) public high school
GPA: 3.9ish UW, 4.3ish W
Only non As are 3 B+s sophomore year, one in an honors course
SAT1: 800 CR, 770 Math, 750 Writing, 2320 overall
SAT2: 800 Math, 790 Chem, 760 USH, 700 lit (lit was with no studying, I expect a 750+ in oct after I study)
APs: USH 4, Chem 5. I have taken as many as possible except for CS, which I didn’t take soph year cause I wasn’t interested, and decided not to take junior year so I could maintain grades. My school makes it hard to take 2 AP sciences at once.
Taking 4 APs next year (Physics, English Lang, Spanish, Calc BC)</p>

<p>ECs/Awards
Will be Eagle Scout soon (I designed mobile uniform racks for my school’s marching band, and then organized and participated in 300+ hours of work to create them)
4 years marching band, trombone section leader for 2 (my biggest leadership role)
2 years section leader
2 years concert band, 2 years wind ensemble (audition only)
2 years orchestra (audition only)
Brown Book Award (for talent in writing/literature, one of 11 awards given to juniors at my school)
National Merit Commended (only got 211, so probably wont make next round)
National History Day county finalist and state competitor (we did many hours of research and assembled an exhibit documenting our findings)
1 week exchange program studying Spanish in Mexico, I plan to go back senior year as well.
1 year of volunteering at local bookstore (4 hours/month)
6 months volunteering helping teach mentally challenged children to play instruments (6 hours/month)
County Honor Band Sophomore year (audition only)
Link leader in upcoming senior year (help integrate my group of 4 freshman into high school and stay in contact with them as they assimilate)</p>

<p>I expect very good letters of rec; one is from the teacher who gave me the Brown Book Award; other is from my math teacher who saw my passion and enthusiasm in her class, which I got an A+ in both semesters.</p>

<p>COLLEGE LIST:
Reaches:
MIT
Caltech
U Penn
Cornell
CMU
Northwestern
Harvey Mudd</p>

<p>Matches:
Georgia Tech
Purdue
UIUC
UMich
UTexas Austin</p>

<p>Safeties:
UMinnesota TC
UArizona
UColorado</p>

<p>UCs:
B, LA, SD, D, I</p>

<p>I apply to the UCs with one app, so I’m not categorizing it by selectivity or anything.</p>

<p>I have a feeling my list is a little top heavy and there are too many schools on it, but I guess I’ll see what CC has to say! </p>

<p>Thanks for any input, I appreciate it a lot.</p>

2

<p>You are applying to many schools my friend.</p>

3

<p>Purdue is a safety. You don’t need three other safeties. Heck, most of your “matches” are virtual safeties and CMU for example is matches. I would apply to only one of the following four: Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota or Purdue. If you care more about campus environment, I would apply to Colorado, if you care more about Engineering, I would apply to Purdue, unless you are keen on Chemical Engineering, in which case, Minnesota.</p>

<p>I would also add Rice as a mild reach and replace Caltech with Stanford as a reach.</p>

4

<p>I’ll talk more with my parents about the safety options, but my mom seemed like she wanted me to apply to a few safeties, just in case.</p>

<p>Also, I love Stanford and it was on my list but it’s literally a 20 minute drive down the freeway from my house. I want to be somewhere away from home, and if I got into Stanford I don’t think I would be comfortable going to school so close to home.</p>

<p>And yes, I realize this is a large list of schools, which is why I am trying to narrow it a little so I don’t get destroyed first semester haha.</p>

5

<p>I agree that you don’t need quite so many safeties and matches. If you have 2 of each that you like you could apply to 8 reaches. Harvey Mudd is the only small school. have you ruled out LAC’s? Because I might add Swarthmore, Williams, Amherst, Middlebury or Carlton for variety. I agree that Carnegie Mellon is more of a match than a reach especially if you visit and show interest (which might be worth doing).</p>

6

<p>I just haven’t been attracted to the LACs, I’m not sure why. I haven’t done much research on LACs, but to me they don’t seem to be as good at engineering as some other schools. I could be wrong, though.</p>

<p>And for CMU, really? I thought it was harder to get into than that. Cool though, that makes me feel better. </p>

<p>I’ll try to convince my parents, but we’ll see how that goes.</p>

<p>Also, I removed WashU from my list because I think it would be a reach too and I’ve heard its MechE department isn’t as strong compared to BME and ChemE. I’m interested in MechE, so I was a little disappointed. But I could be wrong again, haha. </p>

<p>If I were to remove some of the matches/safeties and add a couple other schools, what schools would you suggest?
so far I have: WashU, Columbia</p>

7

<p>From your list I take it cost is not a factor in choosing schools?</p>

8

<p>No, I have been fortunate enough not to be burdened by cost. When I pick which school I want to enroll in I will take cost into account, but right now it’s unimportant.</p>

9

<p>I think you have too many UCs. Berkeley and UCLA are a challenge because so many people apply, but you could narrow the other UCs to your favorite among the three – especially if you have other safeties. If you do apply to a lot of UCs, then you might cut down the number of safeties. I recommend cutting your matches to 3.</p>

10

<p>Cutting UCs is kind of pointless IMO because it’s all one app and you literally just check the boxes for the schools you want to apply to. </p>

<p>On another note, I removed Tucson and added UWisconsin Madison and WashU to this list (WashU’s supplement has no essays). I know I still need to eliminate some, but I think I’m done adding now.</p>

11

<p>@redanator. It costs $60 to check each box for the UC – and that’s a good amount for some people. While I know know the OP said money for apps is not a concern, someone with those stats would probably get into Davis, San Diego and Irvine, and I think you can make the call on those based on location and programs.</p>

12

<p>First of all, I am the OP, lol. </p>

<p>Secondly, what? I’m not getting what you are saying.</p>

13

<p>Don’t mind me, OP, I was just trying to point out that the check of the box is actually a significant amount of money for some people. Actually, I still value $60 and I make a decent living. But aside from that, my original point is that you are competitive for Berkeley and UCLA and the other UCs are match/safety territory, and thus it strikes me that the pointless part is applying to so many UCs. I would think that you could figure out whether D, I, or SD is a good third UC for you. In any case, good luck.</p>

14

<p>Ahh, I understand. I did not know the fee was so high for each college, I will definitely reconsider and thank you for informing me.</p>