<p>I have started looking at colleges and I would like some suggestions on more schools to look into. I scored a 2000 on the SAT (CR:620 M:700 W:680), I have a 95 weighted GPA and a 90 unweighted GPA, and I am in the second decile of my class. I have participated in band and other clubs, volunteered, and I am in my school's spanish and national honor societies. I have been thinking about studying bio in college (maybe neuroscience) and I have also been interested in econ (but this could possibly change). So far I have been pretty impressed with Vassar, Carnegie Mellon, Bucknell, and Lehigh but i don't know if I can get into any of these schools. Can anyone offer some possible (realistic and reach) schools which I should consider. Thanks! </p>
<p>Biology is a fairly standardized curriculum that you will find at every 4 yr college. Where the colleges will differ is in research opps, lab resources, % of faculty actively engaged in research, availability of researchers and labs to undergraduate (as opposed to grad) students, etc. Neuroscience is a newer discipline, found in fewer colleges, and more varied in curriculum, The same distinctions between bio programs can be applied to neurosci programs. Money and research activity are important considerations. Economics is maybe not as old as biology but it’s older than neurosci. It’s usually considered a liberal art and so it’s found in most colleges and universities. These days, it is often math intensive, so admissions officers may want to see that you’re good in math if their department is particularly math heavy. Again, the % of faculty actively engaged in research and publication and the opps for u/g research are important differentiations. So too are those programs that expect a calculus prerequisite and the expectation that you will complete statistics and higher level math courses like diffEQ and linear algebra. </p>
<p>One interesting development has been the intersection of neuroscience and economics. What can the study of the brain and nervous system teach us about human behavior, specifically as it applies to economics? So you might look for a school where you could double major in the two fields if that floats your boat.</p>
<p>When you get to college, you can try out some of your interests by taking introductory courses, completing the math requirements you’ll have no matter what you major (calc given at least two of 3 interests), taking Bio and Chem (given 2 of your 3 interests), etc.</p>
<p>Does this sound like something you’re prepared to do?</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon is certainly a reach for you, as it is for most people. Vassar is about right on target if your SAT breaks down about 700/700/700. Bucknell and Lehigh are lower matches than Vassar. Vassar then is probably a high reach and you should be looking for schools more along the line of Lehigh and Bucknell.</p>
<p>Before we go much further, have you run the net price calculators and gotten from your parents a firm dollar amount that they will contribute to your education each year? </p>
<p>thanks for responding. I do not feel comfortable talking money about my current money situation on here. I just want to know of a few more school that could possibly be compatable for me, concerning my high school stats and academic interests. </p>
<p>I’m not asking you to talk about money on here. I’m asking you to talk to your parents about paying for college at the schools you mention. the single most important determinant about what colleges to have on your list is whether or not you can afford them because even if you get in you still have to afford them. If you can only afford community college, then that’s what we should address. If your parents can afford any college, then that’s what we should address. But you need to be talking to your parents about money, not us. You need to find out how many dollars they can provide you each year for college.</p>
<p>my parents can afford to pay for these colleges </p>
<p>In my first post I had misread your scores to be 2100 and I’ve changed my estimates of your chances below. Here are some LACs and small unis in the same area if you don’t improve your SAT.</p>
<p>Reach: Carnegie, Vassar, URochester, Oberlin, Haverford
Match: Union, St. Lawrence, Muhlenberg, Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell, Franklin & Marshall, Dickinson, Gettysburg, RPI, RIT
Safety: Scranton, Moravian, Drew, Chatham, La Salle, Siena</p>
<p>I suspect you’re familiar with this list. I grew up in your area and I know these schools well. Only Oberiln was outside my geo scope when I was applying to colleges, and of course Drew was something else back then, I think.</p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>I also want an lgbt friendly college. I looked at lafayette and muhlenberg, but they didn’t feel right for me. I’ll look more into the others that you mentioned.</p>
<p>well, rural/small town PA is no hotbed of LGBT support. in general, small colleges can be monolithic, and that’s not what you need. Your sense of lafayette and muhlenberg are probably accurate. Pay close attn to the rural schools before attending. Haverford, Oberlin, and Vassar are known to be friendlier to LGBT concers.</p>
<p>Have you checked out the “Colleges That Change Lives?” There are a lot of good, small colleges, with varying levels of selectivity in the consortium. My son had similar stats to yours, and applied to six of them. He was accepted at five of the six (New College of Florida, Eckerd, Guilford, Willamette, and Whitman), with some nice scholarship offers. He was wait-listed at Reed. A few of the CTCL are quite conservative, but most tend to be progressive and inclusive places.</p>
<p>are you willing to look outside the area I’ve proscribed, OP? what about outside the LAC/small uni circle? what do you think of the list I suggested?</p>
<p>yeah, distance is not too much of a problem. i am pretty open minded to other types of schools. the list seems okay. </p>
<p>then I second @woogzmama’s suggestion. the CTCL is a place to start looking outside of the region. You might also peek at this list:</p>
<p><a href=“Campus Pride Releases 2013 'Top 25 LGBT-Friendly Universities And Colleges' Listing | HuffPost Voices”>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost;
<p>Like any list, it tends to favor large or well-known schools over smaller ones, but it also goes back to what I was saying before about smaller colleges sometimes being monolithic. Sometimes it takes a critical mass of like-minded people to make a school more tolerant of difference, and that critical mass often is going to be at larger schools rather than smaller, non-secular or Quaker schools rather than religious institutions, etc. Generalizations all, but you get my intent.</p>
<p>The Quakers are very LGBT-tolerant. My sons went to a Quaker secondary school, where there were several same-sex-headed households, and they even had a cross-dressing dance each year as part of their “Rainbow” celebration. Any whiff of homophobia was addressed pretty harshly, which was a bit of a shock for many teenage boys who had been accustomed to using certain terms as random insults. </p>