Stop with excuses. Your African American counselor is too busy to see you? Since September? I don’t buy that for a second. I literally just googled “colleges with good engineering programs” and immediately found four that are safeties or matches. Purdue, Lehigh, ASU, Drexel. These colleges have good programs in all kinds of majors, in case you want to study something besides engineering. That took me about 15 seconds. Do you think your GC isn’t going to like your list and that’s why you haven’t bothered? Guess what? He is going to see the colleges you applied to. He has to write you a letter of rec. Stop wasting time and see him asap. You want top colleges, you need good recs. Without good recs, you have zero chance. I am actually amazed that you don’t understand that. I think you need to get off your high horse and stop assuming your GC doesn’t have time for you.
@b4sicallyid0work If you are leaning toward engineering, you should eliminate the non-engineering schools like Chicago. You have plenty of schools.
I think you will get into Northwestern, Rice, Northeastern, Michigan, and OSU. The others will be questionable.
I would add Cornell and Lehigh to your list.
Lehigh is strong at engineering, business, liberal arts, and education. It would make an excellent safety for you. They also allow you to change engineering majors without having to reapply and risk getting rejected. Many engineering schools no longer allow that. If you want to apply to Lehigh, you need to show interest or they will reject you, regardless of your stats. They know from experience that students with high stats and no demonstrated interest will not attend. If you show interest they are very likely to admit you. It is in a small town, but only 1 hour 15 min. from Philly and only a little farther to NYC.
Also do you prefer a college in a big city like Penn, Columbia? A more rural area like Cornell or Dartmouth? Or a suburban area like Northwestern or Michigan. Than matters to many students.
Penn and Cornell also rank very highly in student engagement, if you are the type of student who likes to get involved.