<p>Assuming a student has average EC’s,
2200-2400 SAT score,
around 3.7UW and 4.7W GPA,
what would be reasonable universities that he/she would be able to aim for?</p>
<p>Pretty much anywhere with those stats, save maybe Ivies, but you <em>might</em> even have a shot there. Are you looking for small colleges or large universities? What area of the country?</p>
<p>My kid got into everyplace she applied, including Swarthmore, U of Chicago, Harvey Mudd, and Carleton with a 3.7 for Fall 2013. Also a few lower ranked schools with very good merit. But her test scores were very good (2380 superscore), and she did have pretty good ECs (not “wow”, but some unusual ECs and decent accomplishments in them). No hook. 3.7 is about the cutoff to still be considered for top schools. But it is on the low end, and you have to shine elsewhere to get accepted to top schools with that GPA.</p>
<p>Looking for a small to medium sized college around the east or west coast</p>
<p>That’s still alot of colleges. What are your possible majors? State of residency? What else are you looking for? Do sports matter? Class sizes? Location? Distance from cities?</p>
<p>Other schools my kid got into with a 3.7 besides the ones I listed above (all of these with merit aid, ranging between $15,000-$25,000/year) were Mount Holyoke, Lawrence, Kenyon, and Macalester. I would not worry about what your kid should “aim” for. As @shawnspencer points out, there are a lot of other factors to consider besides selectivity. Also, for most families, cost is a factor. Use the net price calculators on the college financial aid website pages to figure out what you might be asked to pay at a given college (although they are not very accurate if parents are divorced, own a small business, or have rental real estate). If he/she is looking for merit aid, then you will want to look at a different list of schools (where she is closer to the top of the applicant pool) than if you don’t care about that.</p>
<p>My other kid with a 3.6 went to Dickinson, and loved it. Graduated Phi Beta Kappa, had great study abroad and internship experiences, and now has a very good job 2 years out of college (just got promoted yesterday, now managing a group of 24 people at the age of 24). But without more info on the student’s interests, can’t tell if a school like that or any other would be a fit.</p>
<p>Have you spent time with a Fiske Guide to Colleges yet? Great resource for getting a real flavor for a lot of colleges.</p>
<p>Use the college match engine on the left side of this page.</p>
<p>2200-2400 is a massive range. Also those last 200 points are the hardest to come by.
Going from a 2200 to a 2400 is a much bigger game changer than going from a 2000 to a 2200, particularly for someone with your GPA.</p>
<p>You are overvaluing high test scores. Yes, they are hard to achieve, but once you pass a certain threshold, you don’t gain all that much. Maybe that threshold is 2250 for a certain school and 2200 for another and 2300 at yet another, but once beyond that, you aren’t really gaining much of an edge.</p>