<p>Hey everyone I'm getting ready to plan visits to colleges that I'm interested in, but it's quite hard to narrow down some of my choices and frankly I don't know much about certain ones.
I really would like a college with an intellectual feel to it, I love academics and just enjoy learning. I would like this feeling at the school I attend as it wasn't present in my high school and I found myself staying away from social situations as much of the conversation turned into meaningless banter about parties. Some of my choices are Boston College, Trinity College, College of the Holy Cross, Wesleyan University, Hamilton College, Bucknell, while I doubt I'll get in as even these colleges seem to be reaches, Brown and Columbia University interest me too. I live close to New York City if that helps choosing and while I would prefer to stay in the northeast/mid Atlantic area I was interested in the College of William and Mary in Virginia. If anyone could suggest or offer information about these I would be sincerely appreciative. Thank you.</p>
<p>I hate to bump my own post, but I’m really anxious for some advice. Thanks.</p>
<p>There will be parties at most schools, but you can also find peers who choose not to party at pretty much any school.</p>
<p>A couple you might want to consider that I don’t see on your list are U Rochester and Georgetown.</p>
<p>If you give an idea of what you want to study and/or some stats finding matches would be easier.</p>
<p>Schools with intellectual reputations, without the name recognition, less of a reach: Ursinus and Juniata in PA. Can you afford privates? St. Johns in Annapolis, but you may not want that. College of Wooster in OH. I’m helping my kid look for such schools, but I’m mostly looking away from the Northeast, even though I live here.</p>
<p>Thank you for the insight, both of you. I assumed that Georgetown would be too much of a reach for it to be practical to apply to, and yes I can afford private schools. I’ll need to take out loans, but attending a good school is important to me and I’m willing to accept the responsibility of paying off loans for quite a while. I’m interested in political science or history as a major, but I would also like to dabble in ancient Latin and Greek languages. </p>
<p>As far as stats go:
GPA: My GPA for last semester was 100.786 weighted and around a 97 unw. I’ve maintained around a 95+ average for the past two years and my freshman grades were a bit on the lower side being around a 90, but since then it’s always been an upward trend. I’m unsure of my class rank as they haven’t been issued yet, but my last semester’s GPA ranks 17th of 540 kids.
SAT: I’ve yet to take a real one, but on my practice tests I’ve been receiving scores around 2150
Extracurriculars: They’re a bit weak, I’ve had 2 clubs one will be for 3 years and the other for 2. I plan to join more my senior year, but I doubt that helps on an application. I’m interning at a supreme court office this summer (not usually for high school students), and I volunteer at a hospital. I also plan to get involved in a soup kitchen, if I can find one this summer.
Classes: As far as they go I was in all normal classes freshman year, two honors sophomore, three honors two AP junior year, and next year I’ll have 1 college level, 4 AP, 1 honor, and I plan to self study two or three APs.</p>
<p>I hope this helps anyone who wishes to answer. Thank you very much for your time.</p>
<p>If I were you I would get a good college guide book such as the Fiske Guide, which has lots of descriptive information about each college it covers including what the students are like, etc. Once you find a few schools you like, then it is easier to find others like it.
Also, you can generate a good starting list by using a college search engine to identify schools with your majors, and other criteria of your choosing (such as selectivity). Then you would need to research further to get an idea of the school’s intellectual atmosphere…
There is a college search engine here on CC [College</a> Admissions, Search, and Financial Aid Help from College Confidential - College Admissions, Search, and Financial Aid Help from College Confidential](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/]College”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/)
But I also like College Navigator because you can download the results into a spreadsheet [College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics)</p>
<p>Thanks bean town, but I have picked some colleges I liked above. I’m curious about what it’s like to attend these schools and what people who may have gone thought about it. I don’t have much time to go on a tour and if I can eliminate choices or take in consideration of schools that people think would fit what I want then I can narrow down to make tackling visiting schools much more manageable.</p>