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<p>You would be foolish to ignore Cornell at in-state rates…Cornell-CALS has all the bio that you could ever want, and Cornell-CAS has top-notch humanitites.</p>
<p>Remember that the small LACs likely have a higher percentage of graduates going on to PhD programs, because they have fewer students majoring in pre-professional majors, and are less heavily recruited by employers due to smaller size. In particular, the HYPM type of schools get recruited by finance and consulting companies luring many of their students into highly paid jobs there.</p>
<p>However, there is nothing inherently wrong with the small schools, provided that you check their faculty rosters and course offerings to ensure that each one you consider has the academics that you want (small size often means that there are limitations somewhere; you want to be sure that the limitations are not too constraining on your major(s)). The only real general caution with LACs is that students likely to want to take graduate courses as undergraduates are likely to bump into a “ceiling” at a LAC, but that mainly applies to highly advanced math majors.</p>
<p>Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is $43,451 per year for NY residents.</p>
<p>[Cost</a> to Attend 2012-2013 | Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.finaid.cornell.edu/cost-attend]Cost”>Cost to Attend | Financial Aid)</p>
<p>I have heard that Cornell is a pressure cooker (anti-nurturing haha) and that students do not develop close relationships with professors, which is very important for grad school admissions (recommendations).</p>
<p>Of course this may be a misconception.
I generally have a rule that I only can truly get a feel for a college once I visit. It either “clicks” or it doesn’t.</p>
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<p>This is a common misconception about research universities. These schools know better than anyone how important research experience is for undergraduates who plan to pursue a PhD and therefore it is usually pretty easy to get these opportunities. My daughter is a physics major at a peer school to Stanford and she was able to start working in one of the profs labs as a freshman. Furthermore, since they have a lot more research ongoing than at LACs, you have a much broader choice of opportunities.</p>
<p>Ok so I have narrowed down my list somewhat, though I still have to visit schools. Basically, I don’t want to have to visit 100 schools or write 30 applications, so I am trying to get my list down now. Let me know if you have anything to add, any comments, etc.</p>
<p>MIT
Caltech (I don’t know that much about Caltech being from the East Coast. Any input?)
Princeton
UPenn
Columbia
Yale
Brown
Stanford
Johns Hopkins (not sure about the pressure cooker environment rep.?)
Cornell (same dilemma as Johns Hopkins)
Reed
Pomona
Swarthmore
Barnard
Wellesley
Tufts
Kenyon (random, but I heard it was cool and I would love to visit, though I think it is TOO small for my taste)</p>
<p>I didn’t include Northwestern or U.Chic because I don’t want a climate any colder than NYC/Boston. I would LOVE to go to California for college, as I kind of see college as a way to get (FAR) away from home and explore, but it isn’t really that important.</p>
<p>Do you have any safeties for your application list?</p>
<p>Caltech is very small, and more STEM-focused (in terms of the number of students majoring in STEM versus non-STEM subjects) than MIT.</p>
<p>I was considering the SUNYs, Butler U, and Indiana @ Bloomington as my safeties.</p>
<p>I would consider some of the UCs, but I have heard that many are extremely competitive for OOS applicants–correct me if I am wrong.</p>
<p>If you have the academic credentials to have a non-trivial chance at the likes of MIT and Stanford, the UCs should include a range of selectivity levels from probably high matches (Berkeley and UCLA) to matches to almost-safeties.</p>
<p>Be aware that UCs’ out-of-state cost is over $50,000 per year, and lower division chemistry and biology courses can be gigantic (although UCLA has tiny honors chemistry courses). But they should offer a large selection of upper division courses in your various subjects of interest, as well as plenty of research opportunities.</p>
<p>Note that out-of-state applicants often do not realize that UCs (and CSUs) have a visual and performing arts high school course requirement of a year-long course, although a semester-long college course or an AP or IB HL test score can be used in place:</p>
<p>[University</a> of California - A-G courses](<a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/requirements/a-g-requirements/index.html]University”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/requirements/a-g-requirements/index.html)</p>
<p>Cornell Bio and Chem are not only in the Arts & Science quad, they are also in the Ag quad, and in the College of Human Ecology. You can find a less crazy-making bio/chem program by choosing the division you study in. And plenty of those Human Nutrition majors from HumEc go on to the kind of grad programs you are dreaming about.</p>
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<p>Unlike MIT, Caltech does not do lit/hume well. And it has no college up the road for cross-registration. And it IS a pressure cooker. If Cornell is too much to handle…</p>
<p>Ok so I’m deleting Caltech and adding Cornell for sure.
Does each college within Cornell have desperate admissions policies? How does that work? I don’t know too much about Cornell because I never considered it due to its size.</p>
<p>Also I have a friend at UC Davis in the nutrional biochemistry major and she loves it. I am thinking of including it in my list as a safety.</p>
<p>Your list of schools seems really “top-heavy” so far.</p>
<p>I know that it is top heavy. I am looking to narrow down the top of my list but I am finding it hard to decide between all the amazing colleges there are!</p>
<p>Here is information about post-graduation outcomes for several LACs:</p>
<p>[Carleton</a> College](<a href=“http://apps.carleton.edu/admissions/parents/life_after_carleton/]Carleton”>http://apps.carleton.edu/admissions/parents/life_after_carleton/)
[Reed</a> College](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/success.html]Reed”>Life After Reed - Institutional Research - Reed College)
[Swarthmore</a> College](<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/student-life/career-services/post-graduation-statistics.xml]Swarthmore”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/student-life/career-services/post-graduation-statistics.xml)
[Williams</a> College Math/Stat](<a href=“http://math.williams.edu/majors/post-graduate-plans/]Williams”>http://math.williams.edu/majors/post-graduate-plans/)
<a href=“http://www.pomona.edu/administration/career-development/files/where-grads-go-2012.pdf[/url]”>http://www.pomona.edu/administration/career-development/files/where-grads-go-2012.pdf</a></p>
<p>Re research at Stanford, D began working in a genetics lab freshman year. Has had other research opportunities/offers since in other areas. She hasn’t had many TAs, but she also started taking upper and grad level courses in her freshman year, which may not be typical. On the other hand, the ability to take those grad level courses is one advantage that universities have over LACs for students who are advanced in their areas of interest. S attended a LAC and loved it - but he did ‘max out’ on the courses in his dept. and had some difficulty getting into the courses that he wanted in his senior year. (Since he wasn’t PhD bound, this wasn’t a big deal - but he did decide to graduate a semester early as a result.) D has a different problem: Too many courses that she wants to take in her field and not enough time to take them all. And, of course, SLE gave her that liberal arts college experience in freshman year, as I mentioned earlier.</p>
<p>Stanford sounds like a great compromise between research university and LAC through the SLE program. Being in California is also a plus!
M’s Mom: to be able to take upper level courses, what AP credit/high school courses did your daughter take?
Also, do you know how much room there is at Stanford to take electives or fulfill a double major? Do you have any knowledge about the dance program?</p>
<p>Here is Stanford’s AP credit chart:
[AP</a> Credit Chart | Student Affairs](<a href=“http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/registrar/students/ap-charts]AP”>http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/registrar/students/ap-charts)</p>
<p>You can go to the web site to check courses and offerings.</p>
<p>If you are looking at Pomona, consider Harvey Mudd College, also. It is part of the Claremont consortium, with Pomona. It specializes in STEM, requires research of all seniors, with many students involved in research even earlier in their undergrad career. It has a strong humanities requirement, especially for a STEM school. Being a part of the Claremont consortium allows you to take classes at Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Pitzer and Scripps, all top-notch LACs. Harvey Mudd sends a high percentage of its students to excellent graduate programs. Harvey Mudd could be an ideal fit for you.</p>