if a kid came out of our non-dmv private with those stats they would not be in "no man's land" and would get into a t20 easily. it's a lot about your HS. check your naviance.

two strategies:
A Lock down a t30 during ED. Maybe U Chicago, Rice or Vandy.

B Do enough EA that you have a yes in hand before you submit all your t15s. EA suggestions Denison, Davidson, Santa Clara, Pitt, Mac, GWU.

You have some good suggestions here already, I'll throw out a few others:

Universities that are generally strong but not as competitive: Indiana, Minnesota, other second rung flagships. Also privates like BU, GWU, AU.

Consider some schools outside the East Coast: Reed, Lewis & Clark, Macalester, St. Olaf. Carleton and Grinnell are top tier but get fewer apps just because of the locations.

There are a ton of less competitive SLACs all over the Northeast - Bard, Trinity, Conn College, Providence, Fairfield, Clark, Holy Cross - plus the various OH and PA schools.

Obviously some geographic diversity and flexibility around the criteria is necessary for targets and safeties.

I would highly recommend ED, but avoid the temptation to overreach. Yes, someone gets into the T10/15 but odds are it won't be your kid.

Visit Rice in TX, he might be surprised!! It literally ticks all his boxes! ED and be don’t with it.
Those scores put him in no man’s land if he doesn’t get in ED REA someplace.

Pitt is bigger than you're looking for, but it ticks all the other boxes and is rolling so could be a true safety (i.e., acceptance in hand) by September. Case Western, Rochester, and Oxy could be good non--Catholic matches (many Catholic options if you're open to that).

Target
Target Reach
BC you’d need to ED though or get yielded
Northeastern same

Target
Santa Clara
U San Diego
Villanova? May not be urban enough ?
Fordham
Syracuse may be too big
Tulane you may need to ED also it’s on the south

Safety
Rochester
GWU
Pepperdine slightly smaller school

It is a lot bigger than you want, but Indiana would be a good safety. Tulane would be a good target. It is the right size, in a city and has a great vibe.

Macalester?

These suggestions are broke …

Xavier
College of Charleston

UPitt

Possible targets:
Loyola Maryland
Fordham
SUNY Binghamton (larger)

Safety:
Marquette (a bit larger)

Those parameters are a little tough esp the 8k range

Anonymous wrote:If the school admits less than 50% it’s not a safety under any circumstances. Look for admit rates above 70-75%.

I agree with this approach, generally.

For Targets for even a high stats kid like yours, look at acceptance rates 30%-50%, where your kid's stats are at the 75th percentile (or at least 50th percentile).

Do you have reaches he likes? If you know your reaches you can sometimes get inspiration by looking for similarities.

If the school admits less than 50% it’s not a safety under any circumstances. Look for admit rates above 70-75%.

Having trouble figuring out targets / likelies since everything is so competitive these days …things that were once safeties are no more

Also we are not instate for MD or DC so those options are out

What do you think would be targets or likelies for 4.0 UW, 4.6+ Weighted, 1550+ SAT, excellent ECs, will have around 11 or more APs w 5s so far

Looking for
- midsize or smaller school (maybe 8,000 or fewer under grads)
- likes an actual defined campus
- prefers urban or urban adjacent locations
- prefers collaborative vs competitive environment
- they like an intellectual vibe but also want an engaged student population that is involved in a lot of activities
- has a few academic interests - so wants STEM and humanities
- open on geography - except not really into the south -eg, no FL, Tx
-would be full pay and can do it
- not athlete , not URM
- do have legacy at one T25, which they will apply to

It seems like most schools are reaches now and it’s hard to interpret much from our small school’s SCOIR data since often there aren’t a lot of data points or the data is old