<p>Hello. I'm going to be a senior in August, and I am in a quandary about colleges. I would prefer to either go to college in Georgia (where I live) or somewhere along the eastern coast up through New England. My latest SAT scores were 710 Cr 600 M 600 W, but I intend on taking it over again to raise them. My extracurriculars, interests, and awards are listed below, but I aspire to be a professor of English, foreign language, or linguistics/etymology some day. The colleges I am currently interested in are St. John's College (Annapolis), Berry College, Berea College, Reed College, and Emory U., to name a few. I tend to prefer smaller colleges to giant universities and liberal arts schools over normal ones. Do any of you have anymore suggestions or advice about colleges I could get accepted to? Also, do any of you have suggestions for things I could do, other than retake the SAT, to make me more appealing to colleges? Thanks!</p>
<p>ECs:
Marching Band
Concert Band (first chair soprano and alto saxophonist)
NHS
Spanish Club President
Art Club
SAGE Club (future teachers)
Literary Team
Pegasus (Honors students)</p>
<p>Interests:
Literature
Spanish
Grammar, linguistics, spelling, etymology
Graphic/web design
Writing
Saxophone performance
Art
Musicals, theatre
Video games</p>
<p>Awards/Achievements:
English excellence award (6th- 11th grade): highest GPA in English
AP U.S. History excellence award
1st place region spelling competition winner at literary meet (soph. and junior)
1st place state spelling competition winner at literary meet (junior year)
Perfect attendance (freshman- junior year)</p>
<p>Current class rank: 3rd</p>
<p>GPA: 99.0/100.0 ... whatever that converts to on a 4.0 scale</p>
<p>Oh, by the way, I am currently leaning towards St. John's College, but I have not yet visited their campus, nor have I spoken to anyone who goes there. (So, if you go there, let me know!)</p>
<p>You might want to consider Kenyon in Ohio. It's an excellent LAC in Ohio with a somewhat intellectual flavor to the campus, excellent programs in english and writing, and a good percentage of the students go on to get ph.d.s. Your coming from Georgia might be a plus for your application, especialy if you are male (I can't tell from your post).</p>
<p>Because you "aspire to be a professor of English, foreign language, or linguistics/etymology some day", you should give strong consideration to Middlebury College in Vermont. It's outstanding English department and its even more outstanding instruction in foreign languages would make it an almost perfect fit for you. While you may have a time of it in the snow-filled winters, the campus is beautiful and your geographical "diversity" would be of interest to the adcom there. </p>
<p>Also Kenyon, as suggested above, and Vassar in NY might also be schools you should look at.</p>
<p>Reed and Emory are good, add Colgate to. You should try for the ivies though, smaller ones like Dartmouth?</p>
<p>Thanks for the wonderul suggestions, boysx3, collegeparent, and HarlemNY! </p>
<p>I am particularly intruiged by Middlebury, collegeparent. It does look like a perfect fit, if I can get enough financial aid to go there! I like the looks of their summer programs, as well. The "Doctor of Modern Languages" degree that they offer in their graduate programs is also very intruiging. (Oh, and as far as the snow/winter thing goes, I hate, hate, HATE the weather here in GA and have always liked winter and cooler weather.)</p>
<p>Oh, and collegeparent, will the fact that I am from GA really be a plus? I didn't know that colleges were still interested in geographical diversity.</p>
<p>boysx3, yes, I am a male. I suppose I should have mentioned that in my post. XD</p>
<p>Harlem, do you think that I would have a chance at getting accepted to the smaller Ivy League schools? I feel like my standardized test scores will be a road block. Also, my school only offers AP U.S. History, AP English Lit., AP Economics, AP Art and AP Calculus. I have taken the highest level honors and AP courses offered at my school, but will this lack of AP/IB courses be a problem?</p>
<p>I thought this might give everyone a better idea of what sort of classes are offered at my school.</p>
<p>Classes I have taken:
- Freshman year:
Honors Freshman Lit/Comp.
Honors World Geography
Algebra I & II (I actually got to take Al. I in eighth grade for h.s. credit)
Honors Biology
Intro. to Technology I
Personal Fitness/Health (Had to take this...)
Visual Art/Composition I
Band
- Sophomore year:
Honors World Lit/Comp.
Honors World History
Euclidean Geometry
Chemistry (Gifted/Talented)
Spanish I
Intro. to Technology II
Visual Art/Composition II
Band
- Junior year:
Honors American Lit/Comp.
AP U.S. History
American Government (Gifted/Talented)
Advanced Algebra and Trigonometry
Physics
Spanish II (Unfortunately, only Span. I & II are offered at my school.)
Band</p>
<p>Classes I signed up for:
- Senior year:
AP English Literature
AP Economics
AP Calculus
Honors Human Anatomy
AP Art (Visual Art/Composition III)
Journalism/Writing Workshop
Band</p>
<p>With the exception of Berry, Berea, St. John's, Reed and Kenyon, your 600 scores will not help you at any of the schools mentioned. However, colleges often justify how they figure scores into a candidate's application package, be it pro or con, so the 710'll help. Suggest strongly that you have some outstanding writing examples (hopefully published material) to submit along with your application; also do you have any other awards besides spelling which won't help you much. And yes, the GA-geo factor will help you in the NE, particularly at Middlebury and Colgate which are trying to increase their admit numbers from the SE. BTW, of the Ivies that could be of interest, you should look at Brown over Dartmouth, but I don't think you're a strong enough candidate because the competition's very tough for Brown (but again, you never know). If you want Middlebury (which again I think would be a perfect fit based on your post), you need to see exactly what they want in their application, give that to them -- and then go beyond it. It's a highly competitive college, but your transcript is solid! But that'll depend too on the rep of your HS.</p>
<p>Another school I think you should seriously look at is Sarah Lawrence. It's writing program is among the top in the nation; it's in Bronxville, NY, about 20 minutes from NYC. You need to give this program serious consideration; it's not as strong in the foreign languages as Midd, but its writing/English program is superb!</p>
<p>Yes, I did forget to mention some other awards. I've been in Who's Who Among American H.S. Students for all 3 years of high school. I'm on the National Honor Roll. I've been nominated twice for the National Society of H.S. Scholars. Other than those and the spelling awards you mentioned, I did also receive awards for English excellence from my school, but I think I put that in my opening post.</p>
<p>You mentioned Brown, but I actually find Middlebury more appealing than Brown, in spite of its Ivy League status. They seem to have an amazing language department, which is exactly what I was looking for!</p>
<p>I'm afraid I don't have any published material to submit, but I do have a number of essays and papers that I am very proud of. I think they would be solid enough to submit, if the college asked for any extra materials.</p>
<p>I have looked at Sarah Lawrence, and it does look like an excellent school. Considering that their student population is only approx. 24% male, would that be a plus for me or is that sheer coincidence?</p>
<p>One other thing: are you involved in sports in any way? Schools like Dartmouth, Colgate and Midd like their athletes; Reed, Emory and Sarah Lawrence must less so. Kenyon and Brown are in the middle. Am thinking about a fit for you re: campus culture.</p>
<p>I think you have a possibility at getting into Cornell. I think your SAT is a tad bit low than most applicants there but its still a shot. Also, what exactly is who's who's among american H.S. students?</p>
<p>As good a suggestion as it is, ttlyswt, Cornell would not be the right place for him -- it's a large university when he wants much smaller -- and the programs he wants are better elsewhere.</p>
<p>collegeparent, I'm afraid I'm not an athlete. I played soccer for six years, but I didn't gain much skill from it. (Perhaps I will do intramural soccer in college.) I'm very into music (band) and academics, and that's pretty much it.</p>
<p>ttlyswt, I'm hoping to raise my Math and Writing SAT scores the next time I take it. I'm afraid I've only had the chance to take it once, due to schedule issues. Who's Who Among American H.S. Students is a listing of exceptional students. You get in by being nominated by a teacher for excellence in the classroom. There's also a Who's Who Among American H.S. Athletes, if I'm not mistaken.</p>
<p>Since you want to be a professor, PhD productivity could be important. Here are the top ten schools in English Literature for future PhD production rate:</p>
<p>St. John's
Yale
Amherst
Bryn Mawr
Swarthmore
Bennington
Simon's Rock
Oberlin
Reed
Williams</p>
<p>They're mostly LACs. I am familiar with Reed; for the 2005 entering class, the SAT Verbal 50% range was 660 to 760, Math was 620 to 710, and ACT Composite was 29 to 32 (Reed doesn't use SAT Writing). Average GPA was 3.9, weighted. Your GPA is fine, math is a tad low, verbal is fine, but test scores are less importatant to Reed than high school record and essays. </p>
<p>Going through the same exercise for other schools using their Common Data Set information can suggest where you are <em>statistically</em> but that's just a starting point.</p>
<p>St Johns College is absolutely incredible from what I understand. I'm just worried about the social life there.</p>
<p>Thank you for the list, vossron! However, I'm not entirely sure if this is entirely beneficial, because I am set on becoming a professor, in spite of the "future PhD productivity rate" of institution I go to for undergraduate studies. Perhaps you could enlighten me on the matter?</p>
<p>Sure. It just means that if your goal is to become a professor of English literature, attending St John's provides the highest statistical likelihood of your attaining that goal, because the percentage of St John's graduates who go on to earn a PhD in English literature is higher than at any other undergraduate school in the country. The implication is that St John's provides the best undergraduate preparation for later earning a PhD in English literature. However, the result can be influenced by self-selection, i.e., those who choose English literature go to St Johns, and those who want, say, history pick Yale. It could be that St John's history department is just as good as Yale's, but since Yale's history percentage is higher than St John's, history PhD seekers choose Yale.</p>
<p>To be sure, this is a narrow view of the overall educational process, but enough consider it to be significant that the data is collected and distributed. The backing data comes from Weighted Baccalaureate Origins Study, Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium. This particular set is five years old, but updates are coming.</p>
<p>Long-winded, but I hope it helps!</p>
<p>Thanks for the clarification! :)</p>
<p>Does anyone have any suggestions of things I might be able to do to give myself a better chance of being admitted to colleges like St. John's and Middlebury? (Once again, I do know that I need to raise my SAT math score.)</p>
<p>St Johns has a very quirky admissions process. It's extremely self-selective, with the main point being that you are a good fit for the school.</p>