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No I was thinking more of small, academically excellent liberal arts schools with strong sciences – including physics, math – like Williams, Wesleyan, Swarthmore, Carleton, Grinnell for example. There are others.</p>
<p>I understand your reasoning on Columbia ED, but it’s flawed if what you want most is Harvard. An ED acceptance to Columbia would negate any chance at Harvard, so that strategy could backfire on you. </p>
<p>You still have six months to think this through. You might want to work on the subjective parts of your application: your essays, recommendations, extracurricular resume. Maybe do some more visiting, widen your list a bit.</p>
<p>Most likely you’ll have a UVA acceptance in the bag by the time you send out the balance of your applications, but since you seem to be leaning toward an out-of-state experience it would be good to have some other options that are not as maddeningly selective as the Ivy League schools on your list.</p>