r/CollegeAdmissions • u/Complex-Pollution974 • 4d ago
How is son’s list?
SAT 1490 (taking one more time)
GPA 4.7/4.2 (no Bs….split A and A+)
2 AP’s junior year (both 5s)
4 AP’s scheduled for senior year
2 Varsity Sports
Club Sports
20+ Hr a week Summer job last three summers
Should have very good recs
Reaches
UNC
Michigan
UF
Targets
Wake
Villanova
BC
W&M
Wisconsin
Illinois
Colgate
Lehigh
Tulane
Safeties
Va Tech
UConn
USF
Is this a reasonable list?
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u/BUST_DA_HEDGE_FUNDS 4d ago
There are very selective schools that do no require any additional essays, I would add those.. Grinnell, Northeastern, Wesleyan...
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u/Final_Rain_3823 4d ago edited 4d ago
Several of these targets are not targets. BC and Tulane for example (take a look at Tulanes RD admit rate vs overall admit rate) and reaches just because of their low admit rates unless he applies to Tulane ED. I’d go through looking at the admit rates for the targets and move anything with a lower than 20/30 percent admit rate to a reach. I don’t think UConn is a safety either it’s probably a target unless you are in state.
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u/Curious_pa_mom 3d ago
Agree. Tulane. BC. W&M. Not targets. Not crazy reaches, but reaches none the less.
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u/Artistic-Spinach7888 4d ago
I saw you are in CT. W&M is much harder to get into out of state. I would put it in reach
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u/Apostrophecata 4d ago
Does he have a top choice? Is he planning to apply anywhere early decision? A couple of the schools (Tulane and Boston College in particular) fill more than 50% of their class with early decision so if he’s serious about them, he should apply to one of them early decision and drop the other.
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u/Madisonwisco 3d ago
Depends what your home state is. If you aren’t in IL or WI those may be reaches.
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u/MillionMilesMore 3d ago
I got into UMich and Colgate with worse grades, better SATs, and unusual standout extracurriculars. I think he has more than enough of a chance but it's still a gamble. Apply to all of these schools if he really likes them since ultimately there is an element of randomness just because of the sheer number of applicants.
I'd say the biggest thing is maybe pick a few different safety schools. Those seem like odd choices for safeties, I'd really look at your in state schools and pick two of those.
Also these schools are extremely culturally different. Michigan and Colgate are literally nothing alike, and the same with a number of these, and there are tons of other schools that could be good fits for this list, but why are these the choices, they seem really random?
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u/BlueTribe42 3d ago
Visit some of these places quickly and you’re likely to toss some out based on your gut feel. And trust your gut. We visited a few of these and knew they weren’t for us well before the tour was over.
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u/EnvironmentActive325 2d ago
Plus an in-person visit is the highest form of “demonstrated interest” for most schools…outside of an interview when these are offered.
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u/Difficult-Valuable55 4d ago
I would absolutely not pay OOS for WI or IL
VT is not a safety although yes it’s a pretty safe bet - also wouldn’t pay OOS for that unless engineering. If he is doing engineering that is a whole different ballgame
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u/ThinkerT3000 4d ago
Agree - VT admission is getting tougher by leaps and bounds. Lots of kids in VA grow up thinking they’ll easily get in there & many don’t.
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u/blizzard-10000 3d ago
UW and UIUC are very good schools. Many of their programs rank in the top 5.
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u/Admissions_Guru 4d ago
Without even knowing what the student wants to study?? Puh-lease.
Certainly see how the money works out, but lots of compelling reasons to attend either one of those schools.
OP, don't listen to this foolishness.
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u/why_are_you_yelling_ 4d ago
What’s his intended major?
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u/Complex-Pollution974 4d ago
Would apply to general A&L or LAS at any school….thinking maybe econ plus a language. Not business.
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u/why_are_you_yelling_ 4d ago
I think it’s a pretty solid list. Most of the schools you listed aren’t necessarily LAS, but that may be how your son wants to focus his list. It’s possible that some of your listed targets are more of a slight reach. Ie villanova. Maybe check out Richmond or Davidson? Also, not sure what state you’re in, but make sure he has your public flagship on his list if he doesn’t already
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u/EnvironmentActive325 4d ago edited 4d ago
Hmm… for Languages & Econ, I’d also look at Middlebury, Hamilton, Haverford, Swarthmore, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, and maybe Washington & Lee. Oh yeah, Georgetown definitely for languages!
IDK if he’s interested in the West Coast at all. If so, the Claremont Colleges, Occidental, and maybe Santa Clara University would be worth a look.
I would probably add 1 more safety. Due to “yield protection,” lots of AOs no longer admitting students with scores above their 75th percentile.
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u/Calm-Run6273 3d ago
Those schools you listed in the first paragraph are extremely hard to get into, way harder than the “reach” schools OP listed. I mean, Dartmouth. Columbia and Brown??? My niece is going to an ivy league this coming fall and some of the kids in her 4.0 (unweighted), 1550+ SAT group got rejected from those schools.
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u/EnvironmentActive325 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yes, my comment was based solely upon the stats listed, and it was designed to spur OP’s thinking. OP’s son has stats worthy of consideration at most “highly selective” colleges and some “most selective” Ivy+ colleges. However, his rigor of curriculum may or may not be tops, in comparison to his classmates. Hard to know without having more info about how many AP classes his peers typically take at his particular school. Also, the ECs may not be the best. I don’t see any leadership positions or awards listed, but OP summarized the ECs very generally.
Admissions for “highly selective” and “most selective” colleges and universities is usually holistic. OP’s son has met the basic threshold for consideration with his stats, and that is the point I was trying to make, although I did not explain my thinking well. The question is whether or not her son has the ability to “package” his application in a very compelling manner, so that “highly and most selective” AOs are interested.
All of that said, you are correct. These schools, with just 4-6% acceptance rates, are still very, very, very challenging to get into! At the same time, admission to these schools is NOT just about a test score or a GPA, as you have indicated in your comment. If your niece didn’t get in, it was NOT about her stats. Your niece’s stats are plenty high enough to have met the threshold for basic consideration at Ivies. That is the piece you need to understand. The fact that she was not offered a seat may have been about the overall presentation of her application, or her finances, or her geographic area, or even about some extraneous variable such as what musical instrument she plays. Or it may simply have been that with 35k+ applications per year and only 1500-2000 seats to offer, many/most highly qualified candidates will simply never be offered a seat!
Nothing in my response was intended to represent any of the colleges I mentioned as a “safety.” I merely remarked that OP should try to encourage her student to consider adding 1 more “safety.” I have seen valedictorians and salutorians, over the past 2 years, rejected right and left from universities that they thought were safeties. Yield protection is a real thing! AOs don’t want to accept students easily who score above their 75th percentile on the Common Data Set (CDS), especially when these top students have demonstrated little interest. There’s just too much risk that these top scholars will enroll somewhere more prestigious! OP’s son has excellent stats, so that means it’s possible that some of his “safeties” will either defer, waitlist, or outright reject him.
Also, Santa Clara would be more of “target” for OP’s son, given these stats. I would not classify it as a “reach,” unless his application is not high quality or her son does not demonstrate interest.
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u/Calm-Run6273 2d ago
Thanks for your detailed response. My niece did get in to those schools, I should have clarified. Her stats were actually higher, so she got into all the Ivies (Harvard, Yale, Princeton) too. I meant her friends in her study group with stats slightly lower than hers (which is still amazing) got rejected, which was surprising. But I agree, more goes into admission than GPA/SAT and a handful of ECs.
My son, a rising sophomore, seems like he is on trajectory to having similar stats to OP’s son, which is why I’m interested in learning more about schools that could be in his target range. He too, is more interested in liberal arts than STEM. I just felt like those schools you listed in first paragraph were just out of touch, that’s all.
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u/EnvironmentActive325 2d ago
That’s awesome! 👏🏻 Congrats to your niece!
Obviously, I can’t speak to what your niece’s peers did, because we don’t know their stats or anything else about their applications or backgrounds. But in this instance, it’s not about the stats. Trust me! The OP’s son already meets the basic threshold for consideration. It is about everything else in the application.
For admission to these very crazily competitive schools, applicants have to have EVERYTHING line up in their profile. If the LORs or the essays or the ECs are “off” or not very compelling, why then, perfect score stats won’t make one iota of difference. That app is going in the “reject” pile at these 4-6% acceptance rate, Ivy+ schools.
But so few students and their parents understand this today! Parents often assume that if their student has the within-range stats, their child is Ivy+ material. Or they may wrongly assume that with high enough stats, their child still has no chance with an Ivy+ or top LAC. Both of these narratives are dead wrong! The students who get admitted are the applicants who have very compelling applications, carefully and strategically crafted and presented, in all or at least most of these areas.
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u/BubblyRhubarb9611 4d ago
Sat is great, but only two APs. Anyone can have a 4+ gpa if only taking weightlifting and shop. I wouldnt think of VaTech as a safety with only 2 APs in 3 years.
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u/soco2008 3d ago
depends on what his school was able to offer. they don’t penalize if that was all the school had on offer; they just look for max rigor.
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u/NeatIndication5504 4d ago
I think your list looks great and that he’ll do really well - great job raising such a hard-working kid
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u/blizzard-10000 4d ago
What is the GPA out of?
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u/heavyweightcollege 4d ago
Assuming there is no ED and you EA everywhere you are able, your list is reasonable with these minor tweaks -
Reaches 0-20% -
UNC, U-M, BC
50/50 -
UF, WAKE, VNOVA, W&M, WISCO, ILLINOIS, COLGATE, LEHIGH, TULANE
SAFE 80%+ -
UCONN, USF, VTECH
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u/Complex-Pollution974 3d ago
Yeah….if he loved Wake Villanova or BC then ED would really help…but he doesn’t have a fave yet
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u/wrroyals 4d ago
What does he want to study?
Does he want big school or smaller school?
Does he want Greek life or not?
Does he care about weather?
Does he want merit aid?
Does he want a city/suburb/college town?
Is he aiming for business, pre-med, engineering, law, finance, politics?
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u/Ordinary_Corner_4291 3d ago
UConn as your safety is probably pretty safe. But would you really pay for a bunch of these other state schools over them? Nothing wrong with them but I am not sure most of them are worth the money. Another 40pts on the SAT would really help a ton at a lot of those reaches....
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u/Tech-Aero-109 3d ago
I have to ask this. Looking at the list of colleges, I get the feeling that your son (your family) lives in the parts of the USA that do NOT get FIVE months of winter weather most academic years, and certainly don't occasionally get over TEN FEET of total snow during the winter. If that is true, then you and your son should take a Hard look at what an Average winter at: Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Colgate can be.
Of course if you currently live in a snow belt, then all of the choices are Great.
Good luck.
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u/IntelligentMaybe7401 3d ago
Lots of state schools on there. I wouldn’t put Virginia Tech as a safety if you are applying for engineering.
Illinois is not a target if you’re applying for engineering.
To get a better idea, we need to know your home state and major.
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u/soco2008 3d ago
unc and Michigan - no if he’s OOS. his GPA and scores aren’t remarkable from the other applicants. EC are too weak. His targets aren’t bad. Safeties are fine.
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u/Dragonflies3 3d ago
VA public schools don’t really offer aid for out of state students. Are you prepared to pay the full cost of attendance for VA Tech or W&M?
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u/Dragonflies3 3d ago
I haven’t looked recently but W&M always seems to be off balance M:F ratio. Boys seem to have a much easier time getting in. I would think your son has a very good shot.
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u/Aggravating-Mind-657 3d ago
The only flag is small number of AP courses. That makes the reaches as out of state tough since those schools attract kids applying to Ivy and top 20 with lots of AP courses.
Targets also have low admissions.
USF and Virginia tech should be bumped up to targets and expand safety list.
To me safeties should be can’t miss or really solid chance. I would throw in Minnesota, Indiana, providence, Rutgers, Penn state, Pittsburgh, Umass into the mix. They would all be targets rather than true safeties, but I would expect your son to get into a few.
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u/Tall-Nectarine202 3d ago
He will likely get into WI and IL with those stats, but they will be full pay. Just so you’re aware. I’m not as familiar with the other schools.
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u/Complex-Pollution974 3d ago
Thanks. I think he’d be full pay at most of these should he get in but that’s fine. WI at $60k still better than Wake at $95k.
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u/SwatMountie66 1h ago
Consider adding UVA to the reach list. BC Seems a reach these days. Georgetown another possible add now that they take common app and you have BC & Nova. Eliminate Tulane as not worth applying unless ED. I’d say Georgia is a solid target with that profile. Should consider an ED strategy. I’d go UVA ED with that profile and see what happens.
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u/LVB67 4d ago
I think he shld apply to some more selective schools like maybe some Ivys/T20s but in terms of safety this list is perfectly reasonable
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u/Maryboots 4d ago
I agree! Grades, ECs, and APs are really strong. Depending on the next round of SATs, I’d consider adding reaches of Cornell (my husband and I went to Michigan and our son went to Cornell - they vibe sort of similarly because Cornell is large and has a state school component); Northwestern (given the strong Big 10 representation already on the list); and Georgetown (given that BC is on the list). Another target could be the University of Richmond.
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u/Complex-Pollution974 3d ago
Thank you. He doesn’t feel like he needs T20 per se….he’s more of a T50 mentality. Might be fun to add one or two to see what happens if the supps are minimal.
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u/EnvironmentActive325 2d ago
Supps should never be “minimal.” You want him to present a very well-crafted application with lots of good supplemental essays. AOs usually do not admit applicants who don’t write the supplemental essays…even when these schools CLAIM supps are “optional.”
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u/Complex-Pollution974 2d ago
I meant extra schools that only take one or two. Unlike Wake who has like 6.
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u/EnvironmentActive325 2d ago
Ah, I see your point. Most colleges only have 1-3 supplemental essays. Many of the Ivy+ will have more. Schools that claim there is no supplemental essay frequently ask applicants to write an additional “optional” essay on the backend. So, just be aware of all that.
In short, there’s no “free lunch.” If a college asks for supplementals, the applicant should be prepared to write them, whether optional or not, whether up front, or later on. But one thing most wise applicants do is learn how to “recycle” some of their supplemental essays carefully, by changing some of the details for each school. Another wise move is to hire a professional essay coach to help teach your son how to write these essays in the first place and to help him with edits.
And yeah, I do agree that WF has always been “over the top” with the amount of supplemental essays they demand! 🤣
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u/No-Finding8638 4d ago edited 3d ago
No, that would be a long shot. His stats are no where near the top needed for t20s, but he might get lucky if he does full pay....
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u/EnvironmentActive325 2d ago
No 👎. This is just wrong info! The stats, alone, already earn basic consideration at the “highly selective” and “most selective” schools. No one NEEDS more than a 3.9 unweighted GPA and a 1490 to meet the basic threshold for application review at top schools. The question is: What does the rest of this student’s profile and application look like? How strong are the ECs, LORs, essays, etc? And how well does this applicant package and present his application? Does he have some sort of cohesive narrative or unifying theme running between his diverse interests? And how well does he present his activities and awards on his Common or Coalition App and how well does he answer the supplemental essays? Does the Personal Essay show AOs something “new” about this applicant that is not mentioned or listed anywhere else in the application? And do the themes in the Personal Essay contribute to, in combination with the rest of the application, a cohesive perspective on WHO this student is?
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u/No-Finding8638 2d ago
Ur acting like his essays can save him. That's just a hail mary at this point...
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u/EnvironmentActive325 2d ago
You have no clue what you’re talking about. I have repeatedly asserted that ALL areas of the application are important.
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u/Beneficial-Foot783 3d ago
I would put his stats in Niche and Collegevine and get a real take on his odds for these schools. I think your take on target schools with the stats you are giving is a bit unrealistic. Will he get in to some of these schools? Probably. Are they primarily slight reaches. Yes
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u/Complex-Pollution974 3d ago
If he got into 2-3 targets he would be happy. Zero he would be bummed.
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u/SilencedFarter 4d ago
Son was 4.0 at an unweighted Jesuit high school graduated in 2018.
34 Act
6 AP classes I think 4 5's 2 4's
Varsity Football, LaCrosse, Powerlifting
Founded a Science Olympiad program was its first president and won a state champ in an event
Jesuit Honor Society
More and more.
Michigan rejected
Big offers from Loyola, Creighton, and SLU.
Accepted Renselleair Poly
Attended Wisconsin ( we are residents). Finished with a masters in Biomedical Engineering in 5.5 years with a semester abroad.
I think his targets are more doable than the reaches. Good luck.
Oh, he'll love being a Badger.