<p>Why wouldn’t you apply? You have to risk something to succeed, and although Emory wasn’t successful (You wouldn’t have wanted to spend four years in hot, humid, crowded Atlanta, would you?!), admission to college is very idiosyncratic. You never know which school will like you. </p>
<p>Every admissions committee is just a group of people with their own interests and attitudes. This isn’t some kind of mathematical process in which the students with the top GPA’s and highest SAT scores automatically get into this school and students with other scores go to other schools. There is a lot of overlap with B students going to Ivies because their parents went there or they can throw a football or they were born in Thailand or something. And lots of A students end up at state universities because they prefer them, they want to stay close to home, or for money reasons. This isn’t as logical and mathematical as most applicants believe it to be.</p>
<p>Your statistics put you in the middle of Colgate’s applicant pool or a little lower than that (to be honest), but they admit a wide variety of students, so even if it is a bit of a stretch, perhaps your journalism and your being from L.A. and everything else will intrigue them about you. Your music may be appealing, and they put a lot of stock in your application essay and recommendation letters, too. Keep your grades up, of course, as 3.5 or above will impress more than 3.4 and below. Work hard!!! </p>
<p>My own daughter – now a Colgate sophomore – had an A- average in high school, was involved in a few activities but not many, played some sports, had traveled a lot, and was a great writer. So she was in the upper part of her high school class, but not in the top 10% by any means. She applied to a couple of Ivies which were a stretch (but you never know!), a few “small Ivies” (including Colgate, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Colby, Williams) plus a few others like Vassar. She got admitted or wait-listed at most of these, but fell in love with Colgate after they admitted her. You might, too. She’s there now, and she loves it. Small, friendly, top quality education, lots of publications, music, drama, sports – LOTS of sports. She plays club rugby. No serious injuries yet. Some blood loss, but she’s proud of that. She’s only 5’0" tall, so go figure. Grrrr . . . Colgate Rugby Girls!! </p>
<p>As for comparing USC, NYU, and Colgate, you really couldn’t be comparing more different schools. </p>
<p>USC: Since it’s in Los Angeles, you could go home every weekend. Do you want to go to college “down the street” in the same city you went to high school in? By the end of Senior year you may not see that as much of an adventure. Going to college is one of the great adventures of life. USC has improved much over the years but still has some of its ‘party school’ or ‘football school’ reputation, I’m afraid. It’s a major graduate school with an undergraduate college attached to it. A lot of the prestige you hear about USC is really about its graduate programs. Will professors pay much attention to you as an undergrad? Will you be noticed? How many huge lecture classes will you have to sit in? It is a very large university, and you may find yourself just an anonymous person there. You will live in marginal housing off campus, perhaps renting a room in a house in a fairly bad neighborhood, dealing with traffic, and all the usual L.A. issues. You can get a good education there, it is a good university and is improving, but you do need to weigh these very real factors in your decision, too. </p>
<p>NYU: New York City is wonderful, but NYU is also not really so much a “college” as it is a series of buildings in the middle of a busy city, and very different from a college campus with green fields, trees, and all the beauty you might imagine. I have a nephew who went to NYU, and he liked it, but for him it was more like attending New York City than attending college. He lived “off campus” (there’s really no campus) in an apartment building, went to classes in various other buildings, graduated in three years and hardly remembers the place. He finished in three years because he’d “done it” and wanted out to get on with his life. That was certainly not my experience of college, and a bit sad really since he could have gone elsewhere but was intrigued by NYC, as many people are. </p>
<p>I’d take advantage of the chance to go away and see something new and different that will change your life. There are a lot of great colleges that might really want you and which would really change your life. Here’s my list of schools among the Top 50 colleges in the nation, all schools you certainly could get admitted to and all first-rate (in no particular order):</p>
<p>Scripps – near L.A., but a great undergraduate college which you might get into. My wife went there, and she loved it.</p>
<p>Colby – up in Maine and a little like Colgate, a very good college with top academics and not as hard to get into as Bowdoin, but a little better than Bates, another good Maine school. </p>
<p>Trinity – in Hartford, CT. I have two nephews there, and both like it very much. It’s famous for taking Yale and Harvard rejects, but consider what that means – good students who weren’t quite A/A- level. </p>
<p>Skidmore – a terrific, somewhat less well known college in upstate New York. I know students there who love it.</p>
<p>Bucknell – Pennsylvania. Very good college, not quite up to Colgate standards but still among the top 50 colleges in the nation, friendly, good programs.</p>
<p>Kenyon – Ohio (yes, Ohio, but it’s pretty much like New England) and that means fewer applicants to this great small college, so a little easier to get into. I’ve known many students who’ve gone to Kenyon and every one has loved it.</p>
<p>All are small liberal arts colleges. Among larger universities (you did apply to Emory which is fairly large), there is Boston College and Tufts (but very popular and hard to get into), Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh, a great university and a great city (too large a school for my taste, though), maybe BU in Boston (but with the same negatives as NYU – large, no real campus, etc.), GWU in Washington, DC (a very good school), and Washington is a great city . . . maybe some others. </p>
<p>Among all these schools, however, Colgate is the best. Colgate is top-ranked academically, offers a huge number of off-campus programs, a top Division 1 sports program (the smaller schools I’ve mentioned play only other small colleges more like high school athletics), great drama, art, and other programs, and the nation’s oldest weekly college newspaper, the Maroon-News. It’s friendly, has a gorgeous campus, and the cold snowy weather is either a beautiful time of year or you hate it – but that’s up to you. I like snow. No ski areas very close by, unfortunately, since the terrain isn’t mountainous. But you’ll be too busy with clubs, friends, and studying, anyway. </p>
<p>Colgate has as good an academic program as any other top university. And most classes will not be the huge lecture classes you get at large state schools or some of the Ivies. Colgate is a teaching university which means individual attention in smaller classes. Students I know at Yale, Harvard, etc. go to many lecture classes, and that is a very different and more anonymous experience than at smaller colleges where people get to know you, and professors know your name. Hamilton is a very small rural town in the middle of nowhere, but that’s pretty standard for small top quality liberal arts colleges, and it helps students focus on college, make friends, and have something to complain about! </p>
<p>I’d definitely apply to some of these schools. You’ll get into some of them, pick the one you like best, and you will have a great experience. Choose a handful of them and apply. Include Colgate since you’ll never if you don’t try. Best of luck.</p>