<p>My dilemma is that there are schools that I really like, but I don’t think my SAT scores can gain me an admission to it. There are schools that do interest me that also fit with my SAT scores, but I can’t help but fantasize how awesome, I guess, going to a higher ranked school would be like. From all the famous/influential people of our time, they went to top schools… I aim to earn a JD from a top law program, and my understanding was that you need to go to a top school in order to get that</p>
<p>Your understanding is mistaken. Law schools don’t care where you go but what you do there. Earn a high GPA but go almost anywhere. All this prestige stuff is smokescreen for 99% of students; don’t believe it.</p>
<p>@jkeil911 - I agree with our comment (#8) except for the part about not being able to afford higher ranked schools. The higher ranked schools typically give THE BEST financial aid for those who might have trouble affording them, so for many people it is actually CHEAPER to go to a higher ranked school if you get admitted.</p>
<p>The problem is that it’s hard to know in advance whether the atmosphere of a college will suit you (there were several colleges that really appeal to me in theory even though I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed attending them, but it’s possible that I’m worse at introspection than most people). Rankings and financial aid are more certain at the outset, and it’s easier to change your perception of a school than it is to improve their rankings or get more money from them. </p>
<p>Hmmmm halcyonheather makes a good point. For the longest time I thought I wanted an LAC because of the class sizes and close relationships. Then after visiting some of them I realized I liked it in theory, but things would get familiar too fast, so I ended up at a medium sized school that still had many of those things.</p>
<p>I do believe there are some things you can tell just by visiting though. Like when I stayed overnight at one school (that shall remained unnamed) there was just so much emphasis on partying and going out it was overwhelming. I realized I wanted a more intellectual or a fun-but-without-drinking crowd. So I chose a different school.</p>
<p>Back to the OP’s original question, you do not need to go to a specific school in undergrad to go to a top law school. A quick search of the law school forum will confirm that. However, if you have certain “type” of schools you like, but you think they might be reaches, if you post some info such as your preferences and stats, we might be able to suggest similar schools to check out that may be slightly less selective (therefore a “match”)</p>
<p>The ranking of the major matters more than the ranking of the school. A GA Tech engineering degree will impress more to employers than a Dartmouth engineering degree.</p>
<p>^^I really doubt most employers would turn up their nose at either one.</p>
<p>
True, but recruiters looking for engineers tend to visit schools which graduate lots of engineers, just like people needing to buy a screwdriver tend to favor Home Depot instead of a Macy’s.</p>
<p>What made my top choice was that it had a high number of graduates attending top graduate schools in their field of study. when I went to this school I felt so out of place and pretty much felt like I would be thought of as a “conformist” if I got accepted and decided to attend. </p>
<p>My stats are:
SAT- CR 650, M 510, W 650 (I hope to get in the 700s in CR and W this December and bump my M to at least a 550)
GPA: 3.95, all IB classes
Abroad experience (lived with family in Germany for two years)
Columnist and political/pop culture commentator in school’s newspaper, VP of Model UN, Director of Drama Club Productions, starting on varsity girls’ soccer team, Ad Manager for school’s yearbook, main member of teen justice panel, work experience through my mother’s business and refereeing soccer for U14. I have played violin for 10 years but I’ve honestly lost interest in it so I’m not sure if I should take it out of my college apps.</p>
<p>I want to study Philosophy, with Education or Linguistics (yeah that requires math but maybe I can work around that!) as a Minor. </p>
<p>I’m not picky at all about location. </p>
<p>Do mention the violin and your accomplishments if you had any, why not?</p>
<p>3.95 in an IB program + 2 years in Germany + director of Drama Club productions = lots of choices</p>
<p>So, you want a liberal-to-moderate, but not liberal-to-very-liberal-to-radical college that’s good for humanities majors:</p>
<p>Reaches: Kenyon, Middlebury, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, Hamilton, Davidson, Mount Holyoke, Fordham (and, generally, Jesuit colleges)
Matches: Denison(note: important frat culture), St Olaf (note: dry campus), Dickinson, Rhodes,
Safeties: Muhlenberg, Wooster, Ohio Wesleyan, Allegheny, Gustavus Adolphus, Saint Louis University, Hendrix, New College of Florida, Earlham
- of course your flagship’s honors college and/or separate public honors college.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In most majors, it does not, not for undergrad. Engineering is an exception (and I would say business, too).</p>
<p>OP, some top law schools - including Harvard - publish a list of the colleges represented in their most recent class. [Here’s</a> Harvard’s](<a href=“http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/apply/undergrads.html]Here’s”>http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/apply/undergrads.html). In addition to some very top/selective schools, there are also colleges like CUNY Baruch and Brooklyn, Clemson, Eastern Michigan, Excelsior College, Drew University, Fairleigh Dickinson, Fairfield University, Florida International, Marymount Manhattan, Olivet Nazarene University, Patrick Henry College, Touro College, University of Delaware, Weber State University and Warren Wilson College. Some of the colleges on the list I’ve never even heard of. There are 172 colleges and universities on the list.</p>
<p>So you can go to a top law school from any kind of school - you don’t have to go to a top-ranked, elite college/university to do that.</p>
<p>I would say that Fordham is a match, not a reach. Your test scores are in line with what they want (except the lowish math, but that’s only one section) and the rest of your stats are way over the average Fordham student, I would think. I’d put NCF in the low-match pot, personally - same with Earlham and Hendrix. You’ll probably get in, but your stats are about even with the average admitted student - not way over.</p>
<p>Other suggestions are Bard and Skidmore (both low reaches/high matches, I think), Ithaca College (low match to safety), American University (match, a tad more pre-professional but still pretty good for humanities), Colby College (reach).</p>
<p>Several of the schools mentioned in post #29 are test optional, too. If you don’t get your math score up quite a bit, you probably won’t want to submit them. Note: howling with laughter that St. Olaf is a “dry” campus. Our high school is a local “feeder” to St. O, and it is NOT dry (even if they tell parents that).</p>
<p>I played in orchestras but never won like a competition. I’m looking into Fordham and Denison right now! Thanks for your suggestions</p>
<p>Haha…I agree, intparent. And it’s not like any college that isn’t “dry” actually condones underage drinking.</p>
<p>I asked my GC about that and she said that I should just submit them anyway because it’s really only Math that’s weighing me down. St. Olaf, though, really interest me because I love the calm and friendly vibe that comes from it, but their median SAT Score is 1350, so it’s a definite reach</p>
<p>^intparent: well “damp” is the unofficial version, but it’s still “dry” compared to a few other colleges on that list - “officially dry, not as wet as the rest” would be the better moniker then 
– I had just listed Denison, which has record high alcohol consumptions/alcohol-induced comas… and StOlaf isn’t in that league at all.</p>
<p>sidenote to @intparent:
Do you know how St Olaf compares to Grinnell, Macalester, Carleton, and other midwestern LACs when it comes to drinking? My impression really was that it was lower there than at “not officially dry” midwestern LACs… any first-hand experience with your kids and kids from their HS?</p>
<p>@stepay, you are mistaken. ranking has little to do with affordability. The little that it does have to do with affordability applies only to the very highest ranked colleges and a very few others. So for the very great number of colleges, say 99%, ranking won’t get you money. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I disagree with this. You do NOT want to show a math score under 600 to most of the schools on your list if you don’t have to, especially since you have strong grades in an IB program, have lived abroad, and have decent ECs.</p>
<p>I think St. Olaf is pretty comparable with those other schools on drinking. I have seen quite a few “red cup” pictures of my kids’ St. Olaf friends partying at college, and my D1 complained during college that her friends that went there only wanted to go out and drink when they were back in town for holidays or summers during college. 
I know all of those schools have groups of students who aren’t partiers (I know students at all of those schools who I think are not), but just saying that St. Olaf is no drier than the rest you listed. I do agree that Denison has a particularly heavy party reputation, though. Frats are not helpful in that regard…</p>
<p>@jkeil911 - Seems by “higher ranked” you mean ones that aren’t at the very top. I don’t consider those outside the very best schools to be “higher ranked”, and you can certainly find a lot of lower ranked colleges that cost a LOT of money. Anyway, I will agree with you that the good financial aid for expensive TOP schools is had and that after that it drops off.</p>
<p>^^I don’t know where we went astray then, @stepay, but what I think I was trying to say is that there are privates that provide a great deal of need-based aid to families who make very little money and that those privates can sometimes end up being cheaper to families than public schools. My point is just that those very generous privates enroll a very small percentage of all the student applicants worldwide in any given application cycle.</p>