<p>Your CR score may be a show-stopper for at least half those schools (#1-10 … w/possible exception of Berkeley … 16,18). At Yale, for example, only 2% of freshmen enrolling in 2012-13 had SAT-CR scores below 600. At Dartmouth, the corresponding number was 6%; at Northwestern, less than 5%.</p>
<p>unless you have some major hook, go for emory northeastern purdue rose hulman u of rochester wpi and georgia tech. there aren’t many safeties on this list with your critical reading score. forget about those super reaches and save yourself hundreds of dollars and lots of time. good luck.</p>
<p>Unless your CR improved dramatically most of these are unlikely and you should start looking at other schools too. The name of the school isn’t important, it’s what it offers you and what you can offer it. Consider what you want in terms of location and size – urban, suburban, town, rural? 2k, 10k, 20k? Consider if you want to participate in certain clubs or organizations, if you want to intern, if you want to do research, etc. Does diversity matter? Greek systems? Transportation? Weather? </p>
<p>The schools on your list should have ~3 key things in common that are most important to you; what are those things for you? The more specific you are, the more narrow you can get and the more likely you’ll find a campus that actually fits you, rather than one that just has a big name.</p>
<p>You might have a reachy chance at USC. Agree with the others to get rid of 1 - 8, 10, and Northwestern. Unless you raise your SAT scores considerably, you would be wasting your money to apply to these.</p>
<p>Read xariel’s post carefully. Good suggestions.</p>
<p>UMBC is probably not affordable; the minimum net price for a non-Maryland resident is about $28,000 according to its net price calculator. That is $13,000 more than the $15,000 you can pay, and somewhat more than the outer edge of what colleges expect students to reasonably contribute.</p>
<p>Run the net price calculators on each school’s web site and eliminate all of those which are unaffordable. The public schools will almost certainly be too expensive as a non-resident.</p>
<p>For the most part you’re right - you application won’t be discarded simply because of low test scores. It does mean the school is a reach. Schools with low acceptance rates should be considered reaches for pretty much everyone. This means 1-10, 16 and 18 should all be considered reaches, maybe even some of the others with your current scores. It’s okay to apply to a few of them but I’d recommend no more than 3. </p>
<p>It’s clear that you haven’t considered much in terms of fitting YOU, however, because you have a school like Cornell (~15k undergrads) listed with a school like Harvey Mudd (~1k undergrads). Would you really be okay with either 15k or 1k, or do you (like most everyone) have a preference? Even just narrowing this selective list by the size of the schools might help you.</p>
<p>I see what your getting at. But im not really a picky guy. I mean sure, I have a preference. But a small school isnt a deal breaker. I would still enjoy it. My current batch has 80 students. No problem. Climate wise, again, I would go with anything. Warm, cold, doesnt matter too much. Its not that im indecisive. Its just that I dont prefer anything too heavily over the latter</p>
<p>^ The OP’s 1300 M+CR is not high enough to qualify for Alabama’s highest awards (full tuition / full ride) … but is high enough for the half-tuition “Foundation in Excellence” ($11,975/yr) scholarship. That would leave a net cost of about $27K/year.</p>