<p>That’s a great response from nanotechnology. My D and I just went thru this process. She looked at schools of every size and region, but she focused primarily on those she could afford. Affordability is not something you’ve addressed in your post and it is of the utmost importance. You haven’t told us your grades and SATs, but assuming you get into the schools you’ve mentioned, can your family afford them? If you’re not lower income (I won’t go there right now), you will find yourself expected to pay most of the stated cost of attendance. I don’t think any of them give out merit, but if they want you they will make it possible for you to attend. What they want is a student of the highest potential academically and in terms of ECs and leadership. </p>
<p>So let’s say you’re interested in neuro and these schools are high reaches (as they are for all but a few thousand applicants), where else do you look. Well, you can look at rankings of programs but they usually are for graduate programs, which doesn’t always translate to undergrad programs. There might be professors who are cranking out world-stopping research who never speak to an u/g. It happens. So you might also look a bit below the ivies and near enough ivies (Emory, Berkeley, Duke, etc.) to programs D looked at: Pitt (which she will attend), Rochester, Tulane, Vanderbilt (which is getting near enough ivy), Bard, Claremont McKenna, Georgetown, Grinnell, Miami, Michigan, Mount Holyoke, New College of Florida, Northwestern, Ohio State, RIT, Rensselaer Poly, Richmond, Rhodes, Rutgers, Skidmore, Smith, South Carolina Honors, USC, Vassar, Wake Forest, and Wellesley. Bard, Grinnell, and NCF we tossed as too small; then we tossed the predominantly women schools; Georgetown and Michigan OOS, Northwestern, Smith, and Vassar were likely to be too expensive for us; then she tried to learn as much as she could about the remaining. Pitt had a rolling admission. Tulane was EA (both were generous; apply early for the best chance at the most money), but she applied nowhere ED because of the financial commitment. When you apply ED you essentially tell the school that your family is committed to sending you to that school unless the FA package is out-of-line with what your family can pay. That brings us back to affordability. You’ve got to run those net price calculators. </p>
<p>Pitt has had a neuro program about as long as anyone. There are over 200 u/g majors. They have a brain trauma research center and are building a new Brain Institute that they hope will do cutting-edge, Bell Labs kind of research. They have lots of u/g summer internships that are paid, and students routinely do research during the school year. D is interested in second language acquisition, and Pitt has strong faculty researchers in that area. Pitt also has a hospital (as did Tulane, USC, OSU, Rochester, maybe some others) and many research opportunities there and at the brain trauma center. It’s a great city for young people with a great arts and sports scene. It’s also too far for an overnight visit by her parents. Finally, even though we were OOS, Pitt was not much more than our baseline, the Univ of Maryland (which also offered aid but which doesn’t have a neuro major but a certificate or something like that). These are some of the reasons she chose Pitt and some of the things you might consider in putting together your list.</p>