What are some safeties, matches, reaches?

College Search & Lists
1

GPA: Above 4.0 UW, ~4.6 Weighted. No B’s in high school

Half A+s, half As, 1 A- (97+=A+, 92-96=A, 90-91=A-)

SAT:
800 Math
740 Writing
700 Reading
Total: 2240

SAT Subject:
Math 2: 770
US History: 770
Biology: 750

Classes: 2 honors- Freshman (no APs available), probably should have taken the other 2 honors offered… But, it’s Freshman year and everyone is still finding themselves

3 honors and AP US1 - Sophomore (1 AP available),

AP Lit, AP US2, AP Environmental Science, AP Micro, AP Psych, Honors Latin (and Academic Calc, but not interested in math and already a year ahead of most kids) -Junior

AP Lit, AP Physics , AP Micro, AP Prob/stat , AP Gov/Pol, AP Computer Science, Honors Latin - Senior

AP Scores:
Lang (5)
US (5)
Enviro (5)
Micro (5)
Psych (4)

Took 3 classes over the summer over my high school years.

ECs- Habitat for Humanity 2 years, JSA 2 Years (treasurer both years), Television station 4 year (Freshman year-technical director and control room worker for 3 shows a week in our high school, Soph/Junior/Senior sports anchor), Newspaper (Contributer 4 years, sports editor Sophomore, Editor in Chief Junior and Senior), , National Honors Society, Latin Honors Society, History Honors society, (leadership position all 3), started a tutoring program to help kids in elementary schools with their work (2 hours per week through all four years of high school) Visited the school every week to help out. Technical director and editor of all school plays/musicals.

Attended advanced sports broadcasting camp for 5 years and at the camp hosted own 10-minute sports show. Ran by two leading figures in broadcasting industry

Summer program at Northwestern

Recommendations: From 1 outside of school- big figure in the broadcasting industry- 11/10, Lit/Newspaper- 11/10,

Volunteered in the Dominican Republic the summer before junior year to help the locals rebuild home, create better living arrangements, etc. Took suitcases worth of baseball equipment and school supplies I collected down to them, contributed to the blog for the company I went with.

Two-Week Summer Video Journalism Class at Harvard, limited to 15 kids from across the world, recommendation from the professor who won a Pulitzer for work in South Africa covering Apartheid

Intern at National Swim meet freshman year, published on the biggest swimming website in the world.

Contacted by Cartoon Network for some of my broadcasting work

Awards- National Latin Exam highest possible award all four years. Best Original Screenplay at NJ State High School Film Contest Challenge.

White, from Public school in NJ.

Essay- 9.5ish/10

2

You list some great stats - congrats! - but give us absolutely nothing to go on regarding what schools might be a good fit for you e.g. size of school, geographic location, areas of academic interest to name a few.

Buy a Fiske Guide or peruse one at your local library. Read through it and see what schools might interest you.

3

I’d like a school around 8,000-16,000 in a suburban area— def not in the city. D1 Sports are a strong want, but not a need.Probably Econ major

4

Safety options here: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/

Match schools will also be reach schools with your stats. Try running the SuperMatch tool on the left side of this page.

5

I would check out Bucknell University as a match, but it is more rural than suburban. Safety would perhaps be UMass Amherst, or UCONN. I think your reaches would be any of the ivies, but for you perhaps Dartmouth or Cornell.

6

With stats as good as yours it’s important to only apply to safeties that you would want to go to. Generally the term safety as negative connotations to it, but because you have such good stats you shouldn’t feel the need to aim really low for safeties.

7

What is your financial situation?

8

Bump. Not an issue @intparent

9

Seeing all the cash money ECs, I would see your list including Northwestern, Penn, Syracuse, NYU, USC

10

Definitely second Northwestern.

11

Washington University, Tufts, Lehigh too.

12

bump

13

Boston College (straddles Boston/Newton line) , Tulane (in residential part of New Orleans), U o f Miami (in suburb).
Berkeley is kind of big, but it is suburban. If you want Div. 1 sports and don’t want to be IN the city, NYU shouldn’t be on your list.

14

This online Newsweek article highlights some colleges that may be of interest to you: “The 25 Most Desirable Suburban Schools.”

15

I think you would be happiest at WashU, Dartmouth, Princeton, Penn, Williams, Northwestern. You sound highly motivated to succeed, and a good fit for schools with lots of accomplished pre-professionals as opposed to future professors. Not sure if you are wanting to continue with sports broadcasting or filmmaking, which could influence options. It’s hard to get a read on your personality and truest passions. But you are bound to get into good schools. Colgate and Boston College should be less reachy schools on your list.

16

Also, Johns Hopkins has media studies, film studies (or somesuch).

17

Find 2 safeties with 40%+ acceptance rates, preferably with a strong honors college.
Since money is no concern, apply to Penn State on Sept.1st, with your stats you should hear back by the end of October, and apply to Schreyer just in case. (They publish something called the Bubble Chart and based on it, you’re 100% in). It’s in a college town about 4hours to big cities by Megabus, and the Honors College is among the top 10 in the country. However, it’s MUCH larger than your target number.
UMD-CP is suburban but 45mn metro ride to DC, would be close to 100% sure too but you don’t have the “bubble chart” to guarantee it. UConn, UMass Amherst, UIndiana, UIllinois, UWisconsin Madison… are all possibilities too.
ASU Barrett, USC-Columbia Honors, UAlabama honors are top honors colleges and 100% sure, but the overall university is less strong than the three above and ASU is, I believe, the largest university in the country.

Once you’re done with the two safeties, pick matches. Those would essentially be any university that admits between 30 and 45% students (don’t look at stats since with your stats any “match” is an automatic reach due to selectivity). Villanova would be an easy pick in that category.
Find a Fiske Guide or Princeton Review’s Best Colleges, and start reading. You should find 3-5.

Then you can add any other university; :slight_smile:

18

Was your Northwestern summer program at Medill? Even if you want to major in economics the schools that will appreciate your impressive commitment and success in broadcast sports journalism will be the ones with on campus opportunities in that area. Targeting those schools seems to me to make more sense than just looking for matches based on stats. Also, your volunteer work would make for a great essay to most Jesuit schools. Best of luck to you.

19

Seconding Cornell & Northwestern.

Consider Stanford, University of Virginia, & University of Notre Dame.

20

one last bump