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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My DS is a good student (A- unweighted at a decent but not "top tier" private school outside DMV), strong standard ECs (varsity sport/club leadership, community service), strong SAT (1510).
Major: Undecided social sciences

Has anyone had a DC attend or have experiences at these colleges that you'd be willing to share?
University of Denver
UW Seattle
McGill
UC Davis or UC Santa Cruz
Santa Clara
U Wisconsin Madison

Finally, would these reaches (USC, BU, tufts, NYU, UCSB, Michigan) be too high of a reach for this profile student? He's interested in applying but I'm afraid they're too reachy.
[/quote]

UCSB and UCDavis are about the same for selectivity. Both are great schools but not located in big cities. OOS is a far easier admit. When you hear about 4.0 UW top stat kids not getting into UCSB or UC Davis they are probably from the Bay Area. If your kids gets into Davis, he’ll get into UCSB.

Davis has a really cute town, restaurants stay open late, lots of live music, very public transportation and bike friendly, train station right next to it. Sacramento is one stop, SJ is about 3 hours, you can take Amtrak to Richmond and switch to BART to get to SF. California Zephyr runs to Truckee (Tahoe). Nice kids, more parties than DS was expecting and he enjoys it. Housing is easy.

Santa Cruz. Easier to get into and beautiful campus literally in the redwood forest. They have a shuttle that runs into the city/town. Housing is a nightmare. It feels remote even though you are close to San Jose. The drive up 17 to San Jose can take 30 minutes or 3 hours depending on traffic. It’s a somewhat treacherous highway with frequent crashes but beautiful drive.

Santa Clara cares about demonstrated interest so go visit and do all the stuff that requires demonstrating interest. Apply early action. SC is in an urban/suburban area. Easier to get into than UCs. Santa Clara area is nice, a little boring but very close to downtown SJ and there is a Cal Train station right next to campus for easy access to SF. Housing is easier than SC but more expensive than Davis.

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Good summary and there are lots of things for kids to do in midtown Sacramento which is only 15 miles away.  It is like a mini Greenwich Village before gentrification.

Bonus points for OP recognizing that UC Davis is near a big city.[/quote]

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