<p>Hi!
I'm looking for a very feminist, liberal, quirky school in a major city.
I looked at Reed, which is my perfect match, however it is a liberal arts school and I want a science school.
My Current List is: NYU, Barnard, UPenn, Wellesley, Pitzer, Scripps, Bryn Mawr, Harvey Mudd, Reed, MIT, Temple, RPI
(what are my chances with these schools??)
ACT: Eng: 30 Read: 30 Math: 32 Sci: 34 Comp: 32
GPA: School does not provide, probe around 3.6 UW and 3.8W (Frosh + JR year all As, Soph year all Bs :()
APs: Bio 5 World 4 US 4
Rigor: Extremely Rigorous except in english and especially in Science/Math
Awards: Rennslear Medal (11), School Superior Science Award (9 + 10)
ECs: Pres/Founder Feminist Club, Worked all through high school, organized various community service events for homeless awareness, Model UN head delegate
Potential Majors: Health and Societies (focus in gender), Bio ... pre-med I want to go into doctors without borders type work.
My only thing is that I refuse to go to a school in the South because of their racist, sexist, homophobic ways
nor would I want a religious college
1st Generation </p>
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<p>Reed in particular is very well known for being strong in the sciences despite being a liberal arts school. In fact it is just below MIT and Mudd in the NSF list of schools that produce the most Science and Engineering PhDs:</p>
<p><a href=“Top 50 Schools That Produce Science PhDs - CBS News”>http://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-50-schools-that-produce-science-phds/</a></p>
<p>5 of the top 10 and 5 of the next 10 are LACs. </p>
<p>American University would probably be good match culturally- it is very liberal, has public health and gender studies and is in an urban location.</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr is not urban but sounds like it would be a good fit otherwise.</p>
<p>BU has a great Public Health program and a relationship with Partners in Health, but culturally is probably not a good match.</p>
<p>Of your list, Barnard sounds like the best fit to me. NYU, Temple and UPenn are probably not what you are looking for. MIT and Mudd are also not quite right. Wellesley and Scripps/Pitzer would probably provide the right political climate for you.</p>
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<p>Stereotyping based on region is just as bad.</p>
<p>Look into Lewis & Clark and Occidental.</p>
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<p>If it weren’t for the “major city” part I would say Smith, hands down. It’s also a fairly good match for you, at least as far as ACT scores go. But, it really is kind of out in the middle of nowhere – although they say Northampton is a fantastic town, very quirky and artsy. I think you should strongly consider it. Yes, it is a LAC, but my Fiske guide says that 1/4 of students are science majors and that biology and engineering are two of the strongest programs there.</p>
<p>Reed would also be good, but it is a reach for you. Harvey Mudd is also a reach, and of course MIT.</p>
<p>And you need to lay off the prejudice against Southern schools. Southern colleges are not Tea Party enclaves, even if the surrounding communities are politically conservative. In fact, I would be recommending Agnes Scott to you (women’s college just outside of Atlanta) if it didn’t have a religious affiliation, because it is considered a strong feminist campus.</p>
<p>As mentioned Reed is quite strong in the sciences, though I’m not sure about their med-school admissions record.</p>
<p>You actually have 7 small liberal arts colleges on your list, so I’m not sure why you would question Reed’s suitability and not the others.</p>
<p>I would drop Penn and NYU and add Chicago, Pomona, Swarthmore and Brown.</p>
<p>If you’d be open to a small town versus a large city you might look at Oberlin, Wesleyan and Smith. Among the women’s colleges I think Smith would be a great match for you.</p>
<p>How is your financial situation? Do you need financial aid? That would be the first consideration when making your list.</p>
<p>Only Mudd, MIT, and RPI are “science schools” on your list now. Mudd isn’t a great fit for pre-med anyway, no grade inflation… and the core is brutally difficult. </p>
<p>Reed is strong in the sciences, unless you want to be an engineer, and could be a good choice for you. Honestly, I think MIT and Mudd are probably out of reach given your test scores. Pitzer and Scripps sound like good fits.</p>
<p>Pitzer/Scripps/Mudd aren’t in a major city, either. I’m not sure there exists a school that meets all the OP’s criteria and is within reach for her.</p>
<p>No, but you can hop the metro train into LA if you want to. We aren’t talking Grinnell here…</p>
<p>How about Macalester? Not a science school per say, but decent in the sciences. You can certainly prepare for med schools there and I feel like they have strong gender studies as well. I think the OP would feel at home. </p>
<p>I don’t think RPI would be a good fit - I hear it is heavily male-dominated and not particularly liberal or quirky, either. </p>
<p>Also, not all southerners are racist, sexist, or homophobic…it’s rather close-minded of you to stereotype them like that.</p>
<p>Also, there are non-south areas where those undesirable characteristics may be more present than you want.</p>
<p>Reed is a liberal arts college that has a good physics department and an ACS approved chemistry major, although its biology department does not seem to be very large. You may want to check the course offerings to see if they are sufficient for your interests.</p>
<p>Just a warning, but Reed has some extreme grade deflation (average is 3.08, I think), which could be bad for a pre-med student. That said, they do help their pre-medical students by sending a letter to medical schools explaining the grade deflation. (Not sure how much it helps, though.)</p>
<p>Oh, and I’ll also join the crowd telling you to stop stereotyping against the South.</p>
<p>It’s not grade deflation but rather lack of grade inflation. Going to med school isn’t a very popular option amongst Reedies (I think about 96 Reed seniors+alums applied to med school in the recent 5 year period), but Reed has a 70-80% acceptance rate to med schools, which is pretty okay.</p>
<p>If your GPA is 3.6 because of your school’s very rigorous science curriculum, then it’s fine to apply to schools like Harvey Mudd, Haverford, and Swarthmore. Otherwise, I’d reconsider Swat and HMC because both are insanely selective, although women do have an edge at HMC.</p>
<p>How about Vassar College? It’s in Poughkeepsie, which isn’t NYC, but has a really nice biology program. It also has an open curriculum so you can fill your schedule with as many science classes as you want. Wesleyan has an AMAZING science program, so you could look into it. </p>
<p>@International95: For all intents and purposes, the differences between grade deflation and a lack of grade inflation are meaningless. Also, I suspect there’s still some degree of self-selection among Reed pre-meds with low GPAs. Nice to hear that a few students made it work, though.</p>
<p>“My only thing is that I refuse to go to a school in the South because of their racist, sexist, homophobic ways.”</p>
<p>I don’t think your chances at the colleges you listed are very good if the above mindset is at all reflected in your application.</p>
<p>A slightly less competitive school for admission is Lewis and Clark, also in Portland. They have a good bio program (a classmate of my D’s went directly into a PhD program at a UC).</p>
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<p>Wow. You have just taken bigotry to an entirely new level. Rather than honing in on a group to hate based on race, gender, or sexual orientation, you’ve moved on to ascribe characteristics to an an entire geographic region! Impressive. Maybe you could write an essay on how you know the hearts and minds of people based on their zipcode. That’s a pretty rare trait. Sure to be a hook.</p>
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<p><a href=“Reed College”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/Reed.html</a> lists 3.14 as of 2008.</p>
<p>^“The average GPA for all students in 2009–10 was 3.08 on a 4.00 scale. This figure has scarcely changed in the past 26 years”</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.reed.edu/registrar/form_downloads/grades.pdf”>https://www.reed.edu/registrar/form_downloads/grades.pdf</a></p>
<p>Minor disparity due to a difference between the graduating class and all students enrolled. With money, no inflation isn’t deflation. What’s grade deflation? </p>
<p>Wellesley, Pitzer, Scripps, Bryn Mawr, Harvey Mudd, Reed are all LACs if I am not mistaken (although HMC may be science focused).</p>
<p>Have you looked into USC?</p>
<p>Scripps, Wellesley, Pitzer, Barnard, and Bryn Mawr are just as much liberal arts colleges as Reed is.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how liberal and “quirky” Johns Hopkins is, but it is in a major city and has a great health sciences program. So does Emory University. Agnes Scott’s religious affiliation means next to nothing in the modern-day parlance. I think you should apply there, too, because they might offer you enormous aid. They often try to attract young women away from places like Wellesley, Barnard, Scripps, etc. They’re also very diverse - racially, socioeconomically, religiously and sexual identity-wise - and I would certainly describe the students as quirky, feminist, and liberal. It’s in Decatur, but it’s in the part of Decatur that’s directly adjacent to Atlanta - and they have a beautiful science center and really encourage women in the sciences.</p>
<p>(As an aside, I’m a black woman from the South. Don’t paint an entire region as a monolith - different parts of the South are very different. Atlanta is actually a majority African American city with lots of LGBT people, and living in Atlanta is very different from living in, say, rural Alabama. I’m not telling you this to “shame” you - I’m telling you this because there are some colleges in Atlanta and the South that you should probably consider because they’d be decent fits for you.)</p>
<p>Another quirky liberal feminist college in a large city is Mills College, a small women’s college in Oakland. That’s a safety for you, likely, and they may offer you some big aid.</p>
<p>I second the encouragement to apply to Smith College, since the only criterion it doesn’t meet is being in an urban area. It’s known for training women in the sciences and it’s definitely quirky, feminist, and liberal.</p>