<p>I'm a sophomore in high school and I'm constantly indecisive. I know exactly what I want to major in and exactly what I want to be when I'm grown up but I can't narrow down college choices. I want to become a neurosurgeon and major in neuroscience because it's seriously a true passion of mine. I love the brain. I've always been curious. I'm not the brightest student out there but I do have a passion and trying everything in my power to show my passion. Can anyone help me decide which colleges would help me achieve my goals? What college will make my dream come true? What colleges have the best undergraduate neuroscience programs out of my list and any other recommendations that you guys have that I should add to my list? I'm not applying to any direct med programs.
Here are my colleges. Please help me narrow down.
Stats are
ACT 31
UW GPA: 3.8
Will have 17 APs by the time I graduate.
My extracurriculars are unique. No leadership yet though.
College list:
University of Pittsburg(safety)
Stanford
UCLA
Duke
Brown
Vanderbilt
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (only applying because it is in state) (SUPER-safety) (90% of my school gets in)
Claremont McKenna
University of Michigan (safety)
Pomona (ed)
Georgetown
John Hopkins</p>
<p>An easy way to eliminate a lot of these is to look at non-academic factors. The schools you listed are all solid academically, but there’s huge differences from campus to campus. You have to live there when you’re not going to class, so it’s worth considering:</p>
<p>Do you want to go to a school with a lot of people?</p>
<p>Do you want warm winters? Cool summers? A beach? Hiking trails?</p>
<p>Do you want to go to football games? Basketball? </p>
<p>Do you want to live near a major city? College town? Rural?</p>
<p>Do you want to live close to home or far away?</p>
<p>Are there any schools with really good scholarships you’d probably qualify for? With a 31 ACT as a sophomore, you should probably be thinking about your chances at National Merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Do any of the schools have terrible freshman dorms? </p>
<p>Is the gender ratio acceptable?</p>
<p>There’s other things that you’d want to ask, but answering all those questions should give you a decent idea of where some schools rank.</p>
<p>Michigan is probably more of a match. </p>
<p>Have you talked to your parents about finances? Have you run any net price calculators? Out-of-state public schools (UCLA and Michigan…I’m not sure about Pittsburgh) probably won’t give you much aid.</p>
<p>I don’t care about going to school with little or a lot of people. I don’t mind weather either. I would like to go to football, basketball games. I would love to join Greek life if possible. I’m not too worried about finances as of now. I would love to live near a major city or college town. I HATE RURAL LIFE. I want to study hard and have fun in college. I don’t want to go anywhere close to home but I need safeties so I have no choice basically. Can you guys help me narrow down from there?</p>
<p>I do very much care about dorms though. I would want a nice dorm no matter what.</p>
<p>Alright, so you want to watch sports games. Write that list of colleges you have on a piece of paper. Stanford went to the Rose Bowl today. Put a plus next to them. Johns Hopkins only has a D3 football team. Put a minus next to them. Duke’s basketball team is consistently elite but it’s tough to get tickets. Put a plus and a minus next to them.</p>
<p>Do you see where I’m going with this? Just look for positives and negatives that are unique to each school and look for the marks that stand out to you as deal breakers or huge perks.</p>
<p>Yes thank you so much.</p>
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<p>This is a good place to start if you want to take schools off your list, though. Worrying about the dorms/weather/social life you’d have at a school you can’t afford is a waste of time.</p>
<p>You have more options for safeties than just in-state public schools. You might look at Case Western…the application is free with no essay, they tend to give a lot of merit aid, and they’re good in the medical field. There’s no undergraduate neuroscience major, but it looks like the biology department has classes in it. </p>
<p>If you score high enough on the PSAT next year to become a National Merit Finalist, you would get a $30,000 scholarship at Northeastern, which is in Boston and seems to have a neuroscience program, though I don’t know if it’s any good. </p>
<p>I recommend retaking the ACT. You’re only a sophomore, so I’m sure you could get a higher score next year without trying too hard. </p>
<p>[College</a> Search & Selection - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/]College”>College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums) would probably be a better place for this question. I’m mostly just suggesting colleges I applied to because that’s all I know about. :)</p>
<p>Georgetown and Vandy aren’t very sciencey as far as I know.</p>
<p>Think about Schaumburg High School.</p>