A couple of things related to your future career plans, which I know can change, that may be helpful. First, editors also need skills in negotiation and basic finance like understanding profit and loss statements. These days some digital marketing skills could also come in handy. Also, while being well-read and having strong writing skills are important, I know editors who majored in everything from English to history to philosophy to business to theater to neuroscience.
Secondly, the quickest way into traditional, big trade publishing is through one of the Masters’ programs like the NYU Publishing program, the Pace Masters in Publishing, etc. City College of NY may have one also. So save some money for grad school if you can. There are also some certificate programs like the Denver Publishing Institute if you can’t swing a Masters.
@cptofthehouse. $20,000 seemed to be the normal merit for Lacs. My daughter was accepted to 11/12 schools across the United States about 4 years ago with lower GPA and Act. But she was back then for theater design and she “made” her own interviews. Brought her portfolio and showed her passion. As an example Knox (cold weather) stacks their scholarships to get to at least that number. Plus it seems Lacs were more then willing to deal or give more money for things like housing etc when asked. My advice for Lacs is that their offer is just a starting point.
Then my daughter transferred to Beloit Junior year after taking a gap “semester” and got a academic merit worth $30,000 from Beloit. So the money is there unless she’s getting really lucky… Which I will take any day ?
Lehigh and Bucknell are peers on many levels. Both great engineering programs. Also strong in business. Both fairly small (Lehigh being larger) PA based. Both have very deep greek culture. When we looked at Lehigh very closely, I was quite surprised to see a smallish school be so dominant in the Greek Life arena (yes they rank everything). Both schools made it on the top tier of just about every greek oriented listing. Was surprised they got that much attention when compared to Alabama, Arizona St and the rest of the large state heavy greek schools.
You should look at Rowan as an affordable safety. If you can get the SAT up, maybe apply for the honors college. Even without honors, classes are relatively small for such a large school. Tons of food options, new dorm is very nice. Gender neutral bathrooms in that dorm, but separate toilet and shower areas so you aren’t exposed to the opposite sex. Upperclass housing can’t be beat.
My neighbor’s son in a rising senior communications major and will be spending the summer in London with his internship.
Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell have strong Greek culture. They also are competitive schools just for admissions, let alone merit money for the OP. If she wants to include any of them as reaches, fine, but they are not great choices for OP, much as U like the school
I don’t know a lot about these schools other then my friends daughters go there but Babson is supposed to be great for business like careers and St. Olaf was great experience for my friends daughter who got a job right out of school in a business field. (just noticed that St. Olaf is in Minnesota… So it’s cold).
The best advice I can give you is DON’T major in English unless you want to teach. You’re going to have difficulty finding a job in your intended field as those jobs are dwindling. Change your major to an area of STEM or business. As to where to go to school, you have such a long list of characteristics, but I’d say, try to pick a place that fits your gpa and test scores (some of the places you mentioned are a reach to be honest). Every school has clubs that you can check out. I would suggest a school close to you in N.J. like Drew University or Monmouth University or Manhattan College in NYC. Good luck. Don’t be too much of an introvert!
I’m just going based on your post but you need to be open minded or you won’t be happy at any school. No school is perfect but the best thing to do is pick a major where you will succeed in line with your ability as a student. Your school list is all over the map.
It would definitely help if you can bump ACT to 30, especially if you are looking for merit $$$ at schools. I second (or third) schools like Dickinson, Muhlenberg, and Connecticut College. All excellent small LAC colleges. Don’t cross Fordham off your list without visiting. Proximity to NYC makes it very easy to intern at a major publishing house or magazine during the school year. Good way to get your foot in the door. You can take things like Buddhist Meditation to meet the two theology requirements. Maybe look at Marist and/or at Union?? Gettysburg is a good match, but can be a bit of a party school. Hobart & William Smith another LAC that would be a match - but it’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Ithaca college has ~ 7,000. Worth a look?
My D is at St Olaf and has everything you mention as important—except it is very (very) cold in winter. But spring and fall are nice and has very strong study-abroad programs and culture! St Olaf has a Great Conversations program, kind of like “Great Works”. Quite a few LACs have these kinds of programs and sounds like it is something that you’d enjoy.
With your stats, you should not be targeting the ‘name-brand’ LACs. You’ll be targeting great schools…but schools that don’t get much attention on CC. In general if you want merit $, you need to be above the median test stats unless you have something other unique attribute that the school wants. Also these schools often look at demonstrated interest. If visiting is not possible, reach out to the Admin Officer over email. Research the school on the web and then set up your own ‘info’ session call with the AO.
Money. Given your parents’ jobs, it sounds like you are probably full-pay. Most likely your parents have no idea how expensive college is nowadays. Unless they have been running NPCs, they don’t know. Sit down with your parents and run a few NPCs. You don’t need precise numbers to get a rough idea of the costs.
NE is expensive generally. Go to the midwest or south and you’ll knock a $10k or so off the price tag. Obviously if you have to fly, that racks up $ for breaks and such. Also health insurance will add $1k-3k—if your family’s insurance won’t cover you at school. Very common that it won’t.
Look at Knox College in Illinois. Cornell College, Grinnell College and Coe College in Iowa.
The midwest has fantastic LACs that offer solid merit, especially Coe College, for middle range to good students.
Some of those will require higher test scores than others, but probably you will not pay full price for anything in Iowa or Knox College in Illinois.
OP, you mentioned Bowdoin. I think that is out of reach given what you’ve said so far. Also, Bryn Mwsr is a women’s college, but it is right next to co-ed Haverford and can also share classes with nearby Swarthmore. So I wouldn’t reject it for that reason. I don’t think at this point the OP would get merit at Grinnell, either.
Also, contrary to what one poster stated, English is not just for teaching (and it has better ROI than some stem majors such as biology). Liberal Arts majors aren’t immediately vocational so it’s not major//job, but rather your way of constructing your path, courses+internships where you apply the skills from your major to the professional world → job. It’s not as obvious but pretty effective.
@intparent I think of Bowdoin as reach, of course. But no way “out of reach”.
They are proudly test optional.
A solid “A” student, the 95.6 UW average is a 4.0 at many high schools. She’s is most likely an excellent writer and may have a knack for the essays. And English majors are a bit uncommon these days as a stated goal. That might be appealing. Who knows?
Also with a sat range 25 to 75 of 1290 to 1510. It seems like they have a wide range of academic profiles and certainly aren’t demanding perfection.
So I agree it’s a reach. But not one to totally give up on for the OP. It’s a long shot like any of the toppy top schools.