Chance and match me please! Bowdoin/Wesleyan/Kenyon/Pomona for literature major? [3.95, 1590]

OP- you are going to be FINE. There are likely 30-40 colleges which would be fantastic places for you to thrive and grow and learn.

Here’s the trick- let’s say you love to surf (making this up) and so one of the reasons you live college A is its proximity to surfing. Well- that’s an inflection point for you. Are you willing to attend a college which might not be as good an academic and intellectual fit, JUST because it’s close to surfing? Or are you OK telling yourself “I’ll surf on vacation and move to Honolulu after I graduate from college but I’m ok giving up surfing during the semester for four years”.

Once you have clarity on this point, the rest is much less fraught.

If you had posted nothing about yourself other than you wanted to study literature in an environment with other students (and faculty) who love literature, I’d be suggesting colleges as disparate as Beloit, U Chicago, Brandeis, Bard, Bowdoin, Kenyon (for sure), Connecticut College, U Michigan, Rice, Iowa, Carleton, Macalester, SUNY Binghamton, Wesleyan, Fordham, Haverford, Holy Cross, Brown. And about 30 others which likely includes one of the public U’s in your own state.

Once you did a deep dive, you would likely learn that most of these colleges are not super-preprofessional if you aren’t interested in the pre-med required classes, or need a particular GPA for grad school/Wall Street. And then on your next deep dive you’d figure out which places would allow you to study other random things AND switch majors late in the game without needing an extra semester, if that comes to pass. Etc.

And you’d be super excited about most of the colleges on your list (which is appropriate and wonderful since virtually all of them are fantastic places.)

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