<p>I'm a junior in high school and I've just started my search for possible colleges to apply to. There are so many to choose from, so I'd appreciate some help in finding ones to look into.</p>
<p>What I want from the college:
- good academics. I want to be challenged, and feel like I'm learning a lot.
- good financial aid available. I'd really rather not graduate with a ton of loans to pay back...
- beautiful campus. Lots of trees, lawns, etc. I do not want to be surrounded by a huge city! (A city is ok, but the campus has got to not just be buildings and streets)
- small classes. Now in high school I have some classes with 10/15 students, and I get so much more out of them than the ones with 20/25 students!
- enthusiastic, engaging teachers. I don't care if they're famous or not, as long as they love their subject and care about teaching it to their students.
- lots of clubs/organizations. I want there to be plenty to do!
- students who are interested, smart and motivated, but not obsessive about grades. I'd prefer to be around people who study more for the sake of learning than just to get a good grade.
- quite a lot of international students.
- chance to study abroad.</p>
<p>Me:
- I'm a US citizen but have lived abroad my entire life.
- Haven't taken the SAT yet but get around 2000/2100 on the practice tests.
- In the IB diploma program.
- Not sure how to calculate my GPA. I get decent grades, mostly 6s and 7s this year.
- secretary for a non-school club with over 200 members.
- I go on quite a few foreign exchanges with my school, and travel quite a lot.
- have a few other small ECs, but that kind of thing isn't as big in the country I live in as it seems to be in the US</p>
<p>Well USC (univ. of southern california) fits some of those really well...</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Good academics/financial aid (meets 100% of USC estimated finiancial need)</p></li>
<li><p>Relatively small classes - a few will be larger, but none near what big publics have. Freshman writing is capped at like 15 students/class.</p></li>
<li><p>Urban campus, but more like urban paradise. There are lots of trees and open grassy areas, and plenty of squirrels. It's not quite as open as, say, Stanford though (they don't call that "the farm" for nothing :) ) I suggest trying to find some photo's of campus if you're unsure.</p></li>
<li><p>USC has the most international students of any major US university, I believe.</p></li>
<li><p>There are lots of school activities and study-abroad opportunities. One friend of mine, engineering major, spent a year overseas in China (he's white, non-asian too) and there are lots of summer study-aboad programs too.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I would say Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Colby, Bates... lol exactly the schools I plan on applying to [i'm also an international junior doing the IB].</p>
<p>Actually, maybe its just because of my own bias, but after reading your requirements, I have to say that my school, Brandeis University jumps out at me. </p>
<p>The academics are fantastic, and they offer quite a bit of merit aid. The campus isn't gorgeous, but it does have a lot of open lawn and tree space. Like every school in the country there will be a few large classes, but the student body is quite small (about 3000 undergrad), so everyone is in small classes too.</p>
<p>The ones that fit your description best is the international students one. About a tenth of Brandeis' student body is international. </p>
<p>Again, I'm biased, but University of Chicago certainly fits what you're looking for academically... students are there because they want to learn and teachers are there because they want to teach, classes are mostly discussion-based and are kept small, the school is in a residential neighborhood of the city so it doesn't feel too urban... 350 student clubs, lots of student shows/productions/events... and lots of study abroad programs:</p>
<p>I'll just throw in a plug for my school: Rice University. In a large city, but the campus has more trees than it has undergraduates (~4000), a 1:5 student:teacher ratio, and very strong academics.</p>
<p>"
- good academics. I want to be challenged, and feel like I'm learning a lot.
- good financial aid available. I'd really rather not graduate with a ton of loans to pay back...
"</p>
<p>In terms of need-based aid, look for the schools that meet 100% of demonstrated need and have a smaller loan component. Some have been mentioned in the thread. They tend to be the older, well-established colleges with large endowments. Also find out if merit scholarships or outside aid reduces the loan portion of need-based aid. If so, then loans can be greatly reduced. These are questions you will have to ask the particular institution.</p>
<p>In terms of merit scholarships, the more selective a college is, the less likely you are to get a good merit scholarship. That doesn't mean you can't find an academically challenging school that is less selective. You might consider one of these as a financial safety school. Some less selective schools have good honors programs that provide scholarship money along with smaller class sizes and other perks.</p>
<p>Ohio Wesleyan, Tulane, and Rhodes give good aid and have the type of environment that you are looking for. As for aid, it is pretty easy to get 10K and a little above. But it is very hard to get 15K and up. So, plan around it, and take any school known for giving high amounts very seriously.</p>
<p>Dang it, I wanted to plug Rice, but Dorian Mode beat me. 300 acre campus for less than 3000 students. And you can hardly tell you are in a big city.</p>
<p>Also, almost every single liberal arts college in existence.</p>
<p>Occidental college - will be a good choice b/c its one of the only top LACs that has a campus in a major urban area (LA) but still very green and nice</p>