Colleges for me?

<p>I'm a high school junior (tomorrow's my last day!) and I've started looking at what colleges I might want to go to and I was wondering if you lot might help me with some ideas of what kind of schools I could go to.</p>

<p>I've only taken the SAT once and I got 660 on the reading, 490 on math, and 540 on writing. I might take it again but I'm not sure. I'm just no good at math. My cumulative GPA is a 3.5 (unweighted) and I'm 55nd out of a class of 267. So far, I've taken 1 AP course and I got an A in the class (not sure about the test yet) but I'll be taking 3 more APs next year (Bio, Lit, Comp). As for extra stuff, I've been in 4-H for 8 years and have exhibited livestock for 7 years (and won many awards through livestock exhibiting). I don't really do any varsity sports but I play badminton and golf recreationally. One thing I like to note is I've presented a research project to scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and I guess a lot of people don't get to do that, do they?</p>

<p>As for my criteria:
- I'd like to study anthropology so a strong program would be great.
- I'd really prefer to be in a metropolitan city or really close to one, hopefully with a low crime rate, too.
- I'd like to stay on the East coast. I live right around the MD/PA border, near Gettysburg if it's any help.
- It can't be too expensive because my family's not exactly wealthy and we already have one kid in college.</p>

<p>So any college ideas would be sweet and I'd be really grateful! Thanks!</p>

<p>U Maryland College Park</p>

<p>Ten minutes from Goddard. Good Anthro. Agriculture school. In-state.</p>

<p>UMCP is just a little too close to home for me; my mom works about five minutes from there. Also, I just mentioned the Goddard thing because it's something that most kids don't have. I don't really care about the ag dept. of the school, either. Thanks though. :)</p>

<p>You're fifty-fifnd in your class? ;)</p>

<p>Are you expecting to get financial aid? Middling-income families are the hardest hit with college costs because they don't qualify for much aid, but can't manage to pay the high costs of private college. One possibility is Grove City, a Christian college in PA; they keep total costs around $16,000 a year - not bad at all for a private school. Most private schools, however, are way pricier, and out-of-state public tuition is staggering. So give a good look to your in-state public schools, even if you feel it might be too close to home.</p>

<p>Grove City is great. There are also smaller, mid-tier colleges that you might be able to get into with those good EC's.</p>

<p>Syracuse U or Boston U will be a reach but a good shot at a great education.</p>

<p>Arizona has a top 5 anthropology dept.</p>

<p>Florida, UCSB, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, UConn all have respected programs too.</p>

<p>Gourman Report ranking for undergraduate anthropology:</p>

<p>Michigan
Chicago
Berkeley
Penn
Arizona
Stanford
Yale
UCLA
Harvard
Northwestern
Texas Austin
New Mexico
Cornell
Illinois UC
Columbia
UC SB
U Washington
U Mass Amherst
Wisconsin
U Fla
Penn St
Pitt
Duke
Rutgers NB
Indiana Bloom
Hawaii Manoa
UC Irvine
UNC CH
UVA
SUNY Buffalo
Arizona St
Brandeis
UC Davis
Colorado Boulder
Tulane
NYU
Princeton
Washington St Louis
U Conn
Bryn Mawr
U Oregon
UC Riverside
U Minnesota
Brown
Southern Methodist
U Kansas
Missouri Columbia</p>

<p>Your options would be improved if you could raise your SAT scores. I would spend the summer studying for the SAT, and you might also consider taking the ACT. The math portion of the SAT can really be studied for.</p>

<p>Have you considered Penn State or some of the smaller state colleges in PN or MD?</p>