<p>I'm looking for a little help from you guys about what colleges and universities would be a match for me, or any ways that I could use to find compatible schools. I've already used College Board's Big Future Search and a few others, but I find that I'm swimming through a lot of information that I can't really process correctly.</p>
<p>A few things about me and what I look for in a school:</p>
<p>Intended Major: International Relations or Political Science
School Size: Medium to Large
Location: Primarily the Northeast/Midatlantic but I'll give thought to other areas
Interests/Activities: Model U.N., Debate, Student Government, Newspaper
College Interests: Study Abroad and Honors Programs</p>
<p>Schools I've been looking at already:
Georgetown University
UChicago
American University
WUSTL
Northwestern University
NYU
George Washington University</p>
<p>Are there any schools that you guys would recommend that I look at with my preferences and current school list in mind? Are there any really good resource that you guys would recommend that I use to find schools that fit my needs? Thank you guys for any help you can give, I really appreciate it!</p>
<p>Have you looked at a Fiske Guide to Colleges yet? That is a great resource. Your guidance counselor or library may have a copy you could borrow. It is okay if it is a year or two old, the writeups don’t change a lot. But if you have an older copy check more recent test scores online (easy to Google “<college name=”"> SAT range" to find that info.)</college></p>
<p>Money money money. Have you used the net price calculators, discovered your EFC (expected family contribution) from each, and had a sit-down with your family about what each school on your list likely will cost them and you?</p>
<p>We need your GPA and SAT/ACTs? Are you a rising junior or senior? Can’t tell you match or if we don’t know those scores? In addition, we cannot tell you safeties unless you know your family absolutely can afford it.</p>
<p>@jkeil991 I’m a rising junior with a 3.9 GPA who hasn’t taken the SAT/ACT yet. Abouth the money part: I have no clue how to start. I know that private colleges cost A LOT of money, and I will need some form of financial aid or scholarships, but I don’t know where to turn to on net-price calculators or EFC’s. My guidance counselor offers no help and my school doesn’t really have a college adviser (our last one left in the middle of the year and we have no real replacement). If you could help me start getting all of those things in order, it would be a lot of help to me.</p>
<p>If you want to just do it for a specific college, go to the college website and find the financial aid page. There is always a link from there. You will need your parents to help you fill them out. But if your parents are divorced, own a small business, or own rental real estate, the calculators can say you will get more aid than you really would.</p>
<p>OP, you really need to figure out the financial part first. Have your parents told you what they are willing to contribute? That’s where you start. </p>
<p>OP, I’m glad someone could answer your question about the NPCs. </p>
<p>You’ve not yet taken the SAT/ACTs, so it’s really hard to say much of anything without the latter because they are the only indication that your 3.9 is, in comparison to 3.9s across the country, approximately of equal worth. Some admissions offices, like the UCs reputedly will emphasize the GPA, but they will not ignore the SATs (or the high school, essays, letters of rec, etc.). Some schools will emphasize the SATs (like UMD), but they will always take into consideration the GPA because some some kids will have a bad day on the SAT and still be very strong applicants. </p>
<p>If we compared you with your 3.9 with all the other students with 3.9s, we wouldn’t know very much except that you are one or thousands who MIGHT be of interest to AOs at elite and every other school. Ask again when you have an SAT/ACT score, not that the first score has to be your final score. </p>
<p>In the interim, a) study your butt off for the SAT/ACT. See other fora on this website on how to prep for the SAT/ACT. My advice: summer is a good time to do this. Make the time, 15 minutes a day every day. Don’t go to bed without your 15, but do try to do it when you’re not tired. Animals learn best in short segments repeated frequently and regularly. It all adds up to being prepared. And b) get some idea of what you can afford by using the npcs.</p>
<p>@zobroward I’ll look more into the program later, at a glance it looks really interesting. @suzy100 I’m going to try and use abacus and other calculators this weekend so we’ll see what my families contributions will be! @CHD2013 I’m hesitant about ivies, why do you think it would be a match (just inquisitive). @jkeil911 I’ve been using testive daily and a sat prep book i was given at school. Any other ideas? Thank you guys so much for all of your help, it really means a lot to me!</p>
<p>I agree that you need to figure out the financial aspect of this before you can look seriously at schools. But a couple more names to throw out would be Tufts and Johns Hopkins. Certainly check into your state flagship school as well.</p>
<p>Yes, a flagship state school is the best public university in your state. For example if you live in Michigan your state flagship is University of Michigan, if you are in North Carolina it is University of North Carolina etc. If you are an in-state student at a public university it will be a good deal cheaper.</p>
<p>I would go to the library or guidance office (or bookstore) and try to get your hands on some college guide books. I like Fiske, Princeton Review and the Insiders Guide but there are a lot of other good ones out there too. Also if you HS has Naviance it is a good way of seeing where you fit statistic-wise with colleges. If you want merit aid, you should probably be in the top 25% or so of their admission statistics.</p>
<p>Another good LAC in your field might be Dickinson College.</p>
<p>The state flagship school is usually the most selective state university in the state. Often, it is called “University of [state]” (e.g. University of Virginia, University of Florida), less commonly “[state] State University” (e.g. The Ohio State University or Pennsylvania State University), but may be called something else (e.g. Rutgers). Sometimes, there are secondary campuses with similar names (e.g. University of California - Santa Cruz, University of Texas - Dallas, Pennsylvania State University - Erie, University of Minnesota - Morris). There may be a multiple flagship arrangement (e.g. four of the State Universities of New York) or where there are co-flagships with different academic specialties (e.g. Indiana University and Purdue University, University of Alabama and Auburn University, University of South Carolina and Clemson University, University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University, University of Georgia and Georgia Institute of Technology).</p>