College List!?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>so, i'm a senior having trouble with my college list. to say the least.</p>

<p>quick overview:
-GPA: UW=3.8/3.9ish, W=4.2ish
-SAT: 1450/2190 (and retaking in october)
-ECs: pretty good, nothing too extraordinary. mostly fall under history, art, and writing. most significant EC is National History Day with state and national placements.
-possible majors: history, sociology, international relation
*I also want to have the opportunity to take art and/or fashion design classes and maybe even have an art minor.
-ideal school: medium size just outside a city with a solid history program and the chance to take fashion design classes along with a great study abroad program. </p>

<p>so these are the schools that I think are definites on my list as of now:
1. Brown: great atmosphere, good size, RISD affiliation
2. Cornell: **I don't like that its rural but it seems like its own little town and they offer an apparel design major, meaning I could take classes but you can't double major between schools
3. **Washington University in St Louis: **good size, ok location, fashion design major/classes and you can double major between schools
4. **Tufts: **love the location, good size, international focus, and an affiliation with the fine arts museum in boston
5. **BU: love the location-i think boston is a perfect college city, iffy about the size, great study abroad programs
6. **UMD: **good honors program, location is good for internships in DC, if I get in then I get an NHD based scholarship that I won last year
7. **UPitt: **good location, solid honors program</p>

<p>now this is what I'm having trouble with:</p>

<p>insane reaches: I really like Yale, Northwestern, Georgetown, and Columbia but don't really think I want to add 4 more high reaches, so I want to pick one. maybe two? haha, I love that columbia has its own campus in the city but I don't really like the idea of a core. There's nothing in particular I can point to about Yale, but when I visited I just really loved the atmosphere and architecture and such, and I love the residential college system. Northwestern and Georgetown seem like good middle ground, but I'm not so comfortable with the whole catholic thing for Georgetown.
so basically, I don't know which to pick! </p>

<p>low reaches/high matches: ** one of the problems is I cant really tell which are matches. some of the other middling schools I'm interested in are **Rice, Emory, Johns Hopkins, BC, Carnegie Mellon, UVA **and **Skidmore. In particular my counselor said it would be possible to get aid from JHU since they prefer humanities students and I know CMU is good with art/design but idk about how good the humanties are at these schools. Skidmore may not really seem to fit with the rest of my list, but I really liked it when I visited and unlike some other small colleges they seem to offer a lot of courses. Could it be possible to get merit aid from any of these schools? </p>

<p>safeties: the reason I'm really looking at safeties is for merit aid. do you think any of the following are worth adding? University of Delaware<a href="fashion%20program">/B</a>, **Syracuse<a href="good%20art%20program">/B</a>, **SUNY Geneseo or **Bing<a href="ny%20resident">/B</a>. </p>

<p>i'd like to keep my list as short as possible...but its kind of hard when I love all these ridiculously selective schools and would also like to apply for merit aid and compare costs, etc. I think I'd like to keep it under 12, hopefully 10.</p>

<p>any reccomendations, opinions, or suggestions would be appreciated</p>

2

<p>IMO: UVA, Rice and BC are more insane reaches than Georgetown. Read their admission threads.</p>

<p>BC has a great merit program, but very limited. </p>

<p>BU gives decent merit $.</p>

<p>Several of the schools you listed are switching aid policies and loans may be limited by income. You should check the FA pages of their websites.</p>

<p>You do have many tough ones on your list. If you compare merit $, it may help eliminate a few.</p>

3

<p>i would say if youre iffy about cores and the whole catholic thing.. definetly cut off BC (both large core and catholic), georgetown, and columbia. and i think with your solid list of schools you can cut off carnegie mellon, UVA (becuase its so hard to get into OOS and you dont need more reaches), and Skidmore becuase even though you liked it its not near a major city and ive never heard of good fashion/art at it. it would also be a safety for you and you dont need anynmore of those.</p>

<p>that makes ur list down to 15!!</p>

4

<p>bump </p>

<p>10 chars</p>

5

<p>What's wrong with just going with your seven definites and adding an in-state safety? That would certainly cut it down.</p>

6

<p>A good friend of mine has the same academic interests as you, with lower test scores albeit, and she LOVED Syracuse. Thought it was a perfect fit for her in terms of what she wanted to study, got a great vibe, so I'd say its worth adding as a safety for you.</p>

7

<p>I think I want to add Yale (as a super reach) and Syracuse along with
-maybe Georgetown
-either Emory, JHU, or CMU
-and maybe switch UPitt for a SUNY. i can't decide. UPitt has a better location but SUNYs have a great price.</p>

8

<p>Apply to UVA, it fits right in there</p>