A University in the South with Great Academics?

<p>Hi all!
As I begin to face the daunting task of selecting colleges to apply to, I was hoping I could get a little help.</p>

<p>My objective: to find a "name-brand" college in the South that has solid academics and a strong communications/media/poli. sci/journalism program.</p>

<p>I am interested in a career in the entertainment and leisure industry, meaning working as a political analyst for a news show, an editor for a publishing house in NYC, a magazine editor, an executive at a record company... something along those lines.</p>

<p>The reason I like the South is for its warm weather and general passion for their sports teams! I like a lot of tradition and school spirit.</p>

<p>My stats:
Female
PSAT: 185
SAT/ACT: I'm only a sophomore so I haven't taken them yet... am I being too ambitious here? lol
GPA: Weighted 4.285
Unweighted 3.92
(I am doing a virtual class to retake one of my B's so it should be back to a 4.0 soon!)
Courses: World History AP; beginning IB Diploma Programme next year
from Nevada
Caucasian
income: between $100-$120k
EC's: I will be a Senate Page this summer- appointed by Harry Reid; Miss Nevada's Outstanding Teen- the little sister to Miss America pageant; organized a Soles4Souls campaign; piano-12 years; saxophone-5 years; Girl Scout since 1st grade- Bronze and Silver Awards, in process of Gold Award; National Charity League- 150+ service hours since Jan; Spanish Honors Club; Forensics (Debate) Congressional County Champion; played in Obama's Inaugural Parade with my Marching Band</p>

<p>If you could help me out, that would be fabulous!</p>

<p>P.S. While I am primarily interested in universities in the South, I will keep my mind open! So pretty much, all suggestions are welcome!</p>

<p>UNC-Chapel Hill seems like an ideal fit for you. Excellent academics, a very strong communications/journalism program, and great athletics and school spirit. I would def start my search there if I were you.</p>

<p>(Full disclosure: I’m currently a student at UNC)</p>

<p>Duke
Wake Forest
vanderbilt
Emory
UVA
UNC Chapel</p>

<p>Wow… that resume is almost sickening.</p>

<p>what do you mean by that?</p>

<p>Nothing negative, only that I couldn’t imagine being as active as yourself. I feel like you should live it up a little bit more, do you even have leisure time? Obviously you are an intellectual, and that’s great, but make sure you’re enjoying life at the same time :-)</p>

<p>wow Obama inauguration marching band. you go girl haha</p>

<p>oh! I get it. I do have leisure time, that’s for sure! I also really enjoy all of my EC’s so that’s one way I enjoy life. Don’t worry!</p>

<p>Thanks though!</p>

<p>what’s funny about it is that I am a conservative, and in my resume I have 2 EC’s with Democrats’ names attached! haha</p>

<p>BTW: if the college is politically active that would be great!</p>

<p>Dang…all that potential, but your a conservative. Heh just kidding, to each his own.</p>

<p>College of William and Mary
University of Texas and Texas A and M
Rice University
Washington and Lee [a large number of full scholarships–Johnson program I think]
University of Richmond [a large number of full scholarships]
Duke, Vanderbilt, Davidson, Elon, Suwanee . . .
There are some great schools in the south!</p>

<p>You want warm weather? The only place you can go to in the south and be sure it’s usually warm is U-Miami.</p>

<p>Washington & Lee seems like it would be a really awesome fit for you. The only thing is it might get a it chilly because it’s in the mountains. They’re very well known in poli sci (lock up their mock convention) and are one of the only LAC’s with a journalism school. Sports really aren’t very big there either. </p>

<p>Other schools to consider:
UNC-CH
UVA
Vandy
URichmond
Furman
UGA (perhaps not as prestigious as some others, but they have a well thought of journalism program and you would probably qualify for some scholies)</p>

<p>Chapel Hill comes to mind for the communications/journalism aspect, but it’s hard to guage what is a realistic fit for you until we have SAT scores. My PSAT went up from 186 to 215 between sophomore and junior years (still waiting on SAT scores, but they’re looking 2200+ from practice tests), so this year’s PSAT may not be an accurate guesstimation for your actual SAT.</p>

<p>If you could get into UNC from out of state, you’d be qualified for anywhere. By state regs, it has to be at least 83% in-state.</p>

<p>ur pretty motivated
your app looks really good
how bout…
duke
emory
U of miami
vanderbilt
UNC
heres some other good colleges just in case you change your mind about the south
notre dame
northwestern
uchicago
john hopkins
michigan
Upenn
Cornell </p>

<p>Keep up the good work</p>

<p>Given Big sports / Big Name / South - if you have great SAT’s to go with your GPA than I would say UNC (now accepts up to 20% OOS) or Duke.</p>

<p>Thanks, everyone for your great responses!</p>

<p>I spent all afternoon requesting more information on those colleges’ websites!</p>

<p>Yay for spring break!</p>

<p>If you have any more suggestions, that would be great! I have kind of decided on more of a business route, but still with those interests. I was thinking a Business major, Communications/Journalism minor, and a piano performance minor or certificate.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Well, I hate to be the first to mention a hard subject, but better safe than sorry. If I were you, I’d have a talk with my parents now about their budget for your college. $100k - $120k is a tough, tough income bracket for a family looking to a private school. 95% of colleges this year are $48kk-$55k/yr retail price, called Cost of Attendance. The income you mention, after tax, is probably about $85k. If you consider living expenses (and every family has of course different expenses), it is possible they don’t have more than about $20k/yr to contribute per year to college. </p>

<p>If you find out your family cannot afford full private tuition (and most families cannot, so don’t feel bad), you might want to start finding out now which colleges give the best merit scholarships and need-based aid. You don’t want to get your heart set on a college, let’s say Clemson, and later find out you can’t afford to attend.</p>