College search for US expat coming back from Canada

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey, I need some help choosing colleges to apply to.</p>

<p>I'm a guy and white, so I may be at a disadvantage. Fortunately, I moved in January from North Carolina to New Brunswick, Canada, so I have that going for me. Unfortunately, the counselors here know squat about American colleges.</p>

<p>GPA: At my old school (through first semester grade 11) my weighted was above 4.0. At my new school (one semester so far, one year to go), it's 88.33 unweighted (this will go up now that I'm adjusted)</p>

<p>SATs: Reading - 760, Math - 680, Writing - 690 = 2130. Planning to take the Literature and World History subject tests.</p>

<p>Class rank was in the top 15% in NC, but they don't rank at my new school</p>

<p>Pretty good course load, honors classes plus APs, with maybe 2 or 3 slack classes.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars are kind of on again, off again, but I did start a Philosophy Club.</p>

<p>So what I want in a school is something urban, pretty liberal-minded, and somewhere in between uptight study freaks and total fratties (I do like a party, though). I'd like to stay East Coast, because that's home, and I'm looking at an anthropology, English, or and International Studies major.</p>

<p>Money's an issue, but I should be able to lock in some aid and schollies.</p>

<p>So I'm looking at:
Columbia
Harvard
McGill (Montreal)
UNC (Dad's alma mater)
NYU (But of the two, leaning towards Columbia)
Toronto</p>

<p>Any recommendations/comments? THANKS!</p>

2

<p>You don't have any ECs which will hurt you at Columbia and Harvard.</p>

<p>Columbia: REJECT
Harvard: REJECT
McGill (Montreal): Don't know Canadian system
UNC (Dad's alma mater): In
NYU (But of the two, leaning towards Columbia): In
Toronto: Don't know Canadian system</p>

3

<p>Steam of consciousness...go!</p>

<p>Wake is probably out, that's considered "total fratty."
You should be good for aid at Elon but I don't know how strong their aid packages are. More of a preppy culture, or so I've heard.
Davidson is tough to get into (though not Harvard/Columbia 9% tough) but they've gone loan-free, so 100% of need is met through grants and work-study. Their anthropology and classics depts. are solid. Philosophy is a little weak.</p>

<p>One school you may want to check into is New College of Florida. While it isn't big name, the academics are very tight (small small school though) with a liberal, hippie student body. Public and you should be golden for some big institutional grants there.</p>

<p>What size school are you looking for? Big cities (NYC, Montreal...) or smaller? The big and the big seem to be the leanings right now.</p>

<p>Edit [you can't predict the stream]- Hmm...possibly Macalester in Minnesota (comparatively balmy, right?). Supposedly, they're very friendly toward internationals but I have no idea about the dollar dollar bills, y'all. Oberlin (Ohio) is a larger liberal arts school at just under 3,000 students with the co-ops and a more liberal student body.</p>

<p>The other thing is that I don't know if you have a true safety on your list. College admissions certainly aren't as cut-and-dried as Gaffe but the mods and everyone espousing college advice for a living says, "Have a true safety." Maybe UNC-Asheville? I visited there, it's a nice campus with nice, though not brilliant, students.</p>