I know 13 is a lot for apps but I wouldn’t want to leave out a school wondering if I could’ve gotten in if things don’t work out the way I hope. I am qualified for the schools I will list, but I understand that nobody is a shoe-in at the top schools. I divided the list between the “under ten percent” admissions and the 10-20% plus one safety. I know I can get into my safety, but I honestly would be surprised if I didn’t get into at least three of the other schools I listed. Here is the list:
Harvard
Stanford
Columbia
Princeton
University of Chicago
University of Pennsylvania
Cornell
Dartmouth
Northwestern
UC Berkeley
Washington University
Georgetown
University of Texas (Safety)
Thanks!
If you want to pay for and do 13 apps (12 of them likely reaches), feel free. I assume you can afford OOS tuition (over $50,000 per year at Berkeley).
Some People apply to more than 20 colleges. Don’t worry about it!
The only thing you should do is add one or two more safeties, you know just to be on the safe side.
What are you asking? If this is a reasonable list? No, unless you’re guaranteed admission to UT Austin and can afford it. Apply to more safeties/matches, since realistically, every school on your list is really hard to get into. UT Austin is 39.7% acceptance, even worse if you’re OOS. What are your stats/ec’s etc?
35 act 4.2 ish gpa
Founder of one club pres of another officer in two more member of two more
Volunteer a lot at hospital
7 summers of dna/genetics research
4 years of track
Class rank? Intended major? State residency?
Talk to your parents about what they will contribute?
Texas is a safety only if you are in the automatic admission rank (top 7% in a Texas high school), are not applying to a competitive major, and can afford it.
I guess you’ll never know until you apply - but that said, those schools are all very different. I get the feeling that you’re only applying to the <10% rate ones (as well as some of the other “less selective” schools) because of name/prestige. What specifically are you looking for in a school?
Is UT Austin a guaranteed safety (top 7% or better at a Texas public school) or a “most likely” safety. There’s a huge difference between the 2.
It is very likely that you will get into only 1 out of the 13 because the other 12 are just so unpredictable in their admissions. If you’re 100% happy going to UT Austin and can afford it, your list is fine.
Otherwise, you should try to find some schools that are in between the selectivity of your 12 reaches and your 1 safety. You can post on the college search and selection section of this forum and people here will give you great suggestions on schools based on intended major, preferences (if any) in terms of size, location, social life etc.
Texas should probably be considered a reach for those whom it is not a safety (top 7% rank in Texas, not applying to a competitive major, can afford it). About three quarters of admissions are taken by automatic admits.
Not too many applications, just lopsided (Why not Brown and Yale for a full sweep?). Your 10-20% are closer to 10%. You may wish to look at some of the schools with honors colleges, and maybe take a step back and go bottoms-up: define what qualities you are looking for in a school and then start looking from there. You are early enough in the process, you will want to look for a good fit.
It really looks like you took the top 20 schools from some rankings list and arbitrarily picked a dozen, with no real deep thinking about what YOU want from the school. Maybe you didn’t, but then again, maybe you did?
This is not an uncommon list for Texas students in the percentile of their class that gets them automatic admission to UT-Austin. Prestige is usually the name of the game, with UT as the fallback.
Agree with @itsjustschool. Lopsided selection. Unless you have disocvered a cure for cancer, your list is full of crapshoots. Applications everywhere are up which means getting in is that much harder. The number of schools you applied to is not outrageous but considering the difficulty, you may or may not end up with much to choose between. On the other hand, maybe you will get in everywhere. do you have any hooks like first gen to college or URM?
@dowzerw
Why do people always assume you need to cure cancer to get into the Ivies. NO ONE HAS CURED CANCER IN THE HISTORY OF HUMANKIND.
A boy in our community developed a quick test for cancer that won him the Intel. Referring to finding a cure for cancer is a figure of speech/metaphor for having done something pretty crazy outstanding. Getting in to the Ivies takes that. It just does.
It’s not the number that’s a problem, it’s the fact that it’s lopsided and overweighted with prestige schools, many of whom don’t have a lot in common with each other beyond their prestige and selectivity. What drove this list? And will you really be happy to wake up and find out that you have no choice, it’s just UT or bust? (Assuming that’s even an option.) And no, you don’t have to cure cancer to get into an ivy, but you do, need something extra, not just high grades, high scores and a few leadership positions. There are lots of strong students/leaders in our community, but just two I know are headed for HYP. One I don’t know all that well, so I don’t have a read on what drove their admission, the other I could have predicted years ago. Seriously. She just has that much going on. I could say the same for several others I’ve known over the years, and one of those didn’t get into one ivy but did get into another.
If Texas is not your home state it’s not guaranteed, and not a safety as only a very small percentage of students are out of state, many of them athletes or musicians.
And it’s great to be confident, but no one can be pretty sure to get into three of the schools on your list of reaches,
Best of luck, and I would add some reasonable safe choices.
Every year on April 2 you will see a bunch of posts that say this: “I didn’t get accepted anywhere!” I see one potential safety on your list. Do you actually have a burning desire to go to all the schools you are applying to? If not, I suggest you do a little more research and figure out what it is about the college that appeals to you, other than the name. Every year colleges reject thousands of kids with your stats because they suspect that you are just applying to see if you can get in, not because you really love that school. Find another safety.
It is evident that OP is pursuing prestige. If that is the case, I’d remove Berkeley and apply to Yale instead. What the heck? Why not go for the broke, assuming UT is an automatic admit?
You need to add a few schools that are targets. Most of those are reaches for every candidate.