College suggestions?

College Search & Selection
1

I’m still in the process of creating my “college list,” so it would be great if someone would just suggest some universities/colleges for me to consider.

So, about me… (I’m stealing the format from a college results thread… oops)

Objective:

[ul]
[] SAT I (breakdown): 2190 (750 CR, 740 M, 700 W, 9 essay) — I hope to retake this in the fall!
[] ACT (breakdown): 34 (35 E, 32 M, 35 R, 33 S, 8 essay)
[] SAT II: Haven’t taken yet.
[] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
[] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 5/464
[] AP (place score in parentheses): World (5), Lang (5), Gov (5), Stats (5). Calc BC, APES, Lit, and APUSH are forthcoming.
[] IB (place score in parentheses): Psych SL, forthcoming.
[] Senior Year Course Load: Math HL, Physics SL, History of the Americas HL, TOK, English HL, Spanish SL, Micro, Macro, and Human Geo. Bye!
[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Scholastic Gold Key/Medal for poetry, a program that selects 20-35 people per year (omitted for privacy). [/li]
[/ul]Subjective:

  • [] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Club/year-round swim, varsity swim, summer league swim (junior coach) — cumulative of 18 hrs per week. Independent violin study, local youth orchestra (highest level). Reader for a literary magazine.
    [    ] Job/Work Experience: Intern at edtech startup. In the summer, I hope to work in the editorial staff of one of my favorite lit mags and as an intern for various websites. In the fall, I will tutor for Kumon.
    [] Volunteer/Community service: Church orchestra, junior coaching, some library hours. I hope (if I can pull together some resources!) to set up a free, student-run tutoring program in my community.
    [    ] Summer Activities: Swimming, internship, self-taught AP courses (Enviro, Micro, Macro). Reading and writing. And, hopefully, the free tutoring program.

Other

  • []Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
    [    ] State (if domestic applicant): FL
    [] Country (if international applicant): USA
    [    ] School Type: Public
    [] Ethnicity: Asian (Filipino)
    [    ] Gender: Female
    [] Income Bracket(mention if FA candidate): ~100K
    [    ] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None!, unless I apply to an engineering program. My parents attended universities in the Philippines before immigrating here, but I don’t think that counts.

I hope to major in chem/biochem/engineering in college, since I want to attend either medical/pharmacy school afterwards.

What I’m looking for…

Important, though not completely necessary

  • [] Somewhere I can thrive/stand out academically. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a quiet and shy person, so I don’t speak up in extraverted situations. I will however, quietly work through every detail in an assignment and seek out professors if I need to. I would also like a college with lots of opportunities to work with/talk to professors and to use resources like the library or the labs.
    [    ] Somewhere where I’m challenged to think in new ways. A.k.a. somewhere where teachers teach for the love of teaching, and knowledge — not grades — is valued.
    [] Somewhere where I won’t be stressed out all of the time. Even if I’m a swimmer, constant competition scares me. I just want to live my life, man.
    [    ] Diversity! Both racial and socioeconomic. In college, I want to acquire lifelong skills, including social ones. I want to know how to work with people from all walks of life.
    [] Great financial aid and/or low sticker price. Although the household income is ~100K, my dad tells me he can only afford $20-30,000 in tuition per year. Also, since I hope to attend grad (med/pharm) school, it would be best to have a more affordable undergraduate college.
    [    ] Opportunities to study abroad.

Slightly important

[ul]
[] A nice campus/housing. A pretty superficial factor, but I can’t imagine being motivated/inspired to work in an ugly campus. Sorry, lol.
[] Great campus safety. I’m a fragile human being.
[li] A generally friendly population? I know generalizations are sometimes difficult to make, but I don’t want to study somewhere where pretentiousness/exclusion is predominant.[/li][/ul]

Not that important

  • [] Location/size. However, I will say that if anything out-of-state doesn’t offer an acceptable financial aid package my dad can accept without grumbling extensively I will prefer in-state universities.
    [    ] If it’s a party school or not.

Not that important, but cool to have

[ul]
[] Merit scholarship opportunities.
[] Intramural/D3 swimming.
[] Great athletic facilities.
[] Great creative writing programs/opportunities.
[li] School pride. I like viciously rooting for a team.[/li][/ul]

Sorry that I’ve included so much! Of course, not all of the criteria has to be met, but I would like for some of the “important” criteria to be considered.

2

It counts in that it means you are not first gen.

In that case you want to keep the costs for your undergrad to the minimum.

GO to the FInancial aid forum and look at the pinned threads for assured merit aid. I know at Alabama you would get some great aid.

3

You didn’t mention your home state.

In Texas, you should consider Trinity University in San Antonio. You might get a merit scholarship plus they have Div. 3 swimming. This is small LAC type school that has engineering.

Or Rice University if you don’t mind not swimming as Rice is Div. 1. Terrific engineering programs and gorgeous campus. Run the NPC on the Rice website. You might qualify for financial aid. There are merit scholarships but they are hard to get.

If you are a possible NMSF then consider Baylor University which offered generous merit scholarships to NMF. Sports are big at Baylor but is is a Div 1 school. Baylor has a nice, safe campus.

4

OP did state she is from FL. And I agree with Trinity^^

5

If you don’t mind cold, northern weather, look at Pitt, Lehigh, Case Western, University of Rochester, Northeastern, Drexel, and Purdue. If you want to remain in warmer climes, your chances are excellent at Tulane, Clemson, and Georgia Tech. Vanderbilt will be a reach, but not impossible (like Rice), and you should definitely use UF as your financial safety.

6

Any reason for wanting to combine a pre-med track with engineering?

7

Miami, Florida, Pitt, Clemson, Alabama.

Colorado College: https://www.coloradocollege.edu/admission/financialaid/scholarships/barnes.dot

8

Alabama sounds perfect for you

9

From what you are saying, I think you would like small/mid-size colleges better than large universities because you will stand out more there. Also, I think you would like a more liberal-artsy school rather than a techy school from what you are saying.
Here are some ideas:
Colorado College, Claremont Schools (Harvey Mudd especially b.c. they are engineering), Pomona, Rice (they have merit scholarships), Amherst (they really look for diversity of students), and U Rochester.

10

Shy, introverted students can feel a lot of pressure to ‘not be themselves’ in smaller classes, especially in the presence of ultra-confident talkers. There are many ways to stand out at a larger school if you’re one of the better students. The OP will have to sort this out.

Also, she will likely be on the hook for ~$20K+, so it would be nice for her to lower that with a full-tuition scholarship, especially with grad school looming.

11

Look around Florida since you want to go on to medical/pharmacy school. You want to keep those costs as low as possible. University of Florida has a great pharmacy program.

12

You may want to consider Emory University (not biased at all :))). You appear to be a good candidate for merit-based aid based off your test scores. Emory is D3 and its women’s swimming and diving team has won six consecutive national championships since 2010. Creative Writing is a popular non-science or non-math major at Emory. The only criterion of yours that Emory slightly lacks when compared to its peers is school spirit; although Emory has very strong tennis and swim teams, the lack of a football team, IMO, leaves a void in the camaraderie of students which other schools have. However, Emory is a very academic-oriented school and, after all, one goes to college to get an education, not to tailgate. Good luck!