Confused junior...help me start my college search!

College Search & Selection
1

Hi all,
I got my December SAT scores back and I don’t think I did too hot, but now that I have an SAT score under my belt, I was thinking that I should seriously start looking at colleges. I’ll post a little bit about myself, and what I’m looking for, and hopefully someone could suggest a couple of schools I should look into. Thanks!

SAT: 1280/1600
PSAT: 1320/1520
SAT II (US History): 710
AP Scores: 5 (APUSH)
Weighted GPA: 4.4/5.0
Unweighted GPA: 3.95/4.0
Rank: 8/260
Leadership: Secretary of biotech club, co-president of Culture Club
Other Extracurriculars: Green club, Science League, part time job, volunteer at local science museum
Home State: Massachusetts
Hooks: URM (African American female), first generation college student

What I’m looking for in a college:
I think I would want to major in biology or biotechnology, so I would want a school with a good program and research opportunities. Also, I don’t want to go to a medium sized school, hopefully close to a city. And I wouldn’t want to go too far from home, and I would probably stay in the New England area, and maybe be willing to venture down into New York or Washington D.C.

Thanks for all your help!

2

Have you talked with your parents on what they can afford?

If the college search function on this website is not working, you could try the “college navigator” website. It is a federal government site and you can choose schools by location or distance from a zip code along with other filters. Other filters include public/private, size, cost, rural/urban, sports, etc.

3

Not Medium, so big or small?

Prep using khanacademy and retest so your scores can be as high as your gpa.

Maybe BU or UMass

4

If you meant you DO want medium, put Tufts, Northeastern and Brandeis on your radar. Also look at Wesleyan U. in CT. See whether Worcester Polytech floats your boat. Try to bring up SAT a little.

5

Dickinson, Franklin and Marshall, Muhlenberg, Connecticut College, Brandeis, U of Rochester, American

6

Thank you all! And it was a typo on my part, I meant that I DID want a medium size school

7

Anyone else have any suggestions?

8

Consider these:
UConn, uMaryland, uDelaware, Temple, Towson, Fordham, Rutgers

9

UVM is very popular on one of the Class of 2017 discussion groups.

10

Anyone else with suggestions?

11

U of Rochester. If you’re willing to consider Ohio, Case Western Reserve in Cleveland. For both, demonstrated interest is important.

12

Any other suggestions?

13

What do you think about Howard? You might qualify for a free tuition scholarship there.

14

Perhaps you can provide feedback on suggestions provided.

15

Since @mamadefamilia and @TheGreyKing both suggested U of Rochester, what is the caliber of academics like? Also, is there a lot of diversity on campus? I’m not too familiar with New York state, what is the area around Rochester like?

16

@ClarinetDad16 Thanks for the suggestions! I think I might look into Fordham and UConn. Would you know about what the academics are like and if there are a lot of research opportunities, as well as the diversity and the areas around campus? Thanks!

17

@MatzoBall I looked into Wesleyan and Tufts a little bit, and their acceptance rates look sort of low. They seem like great schools, but would I have a chance in getting into any of those schools?

18

Rochester is cold…a mid sized city not unlike Cleveland.

19

You have time, and your SAT may rise. But what about BU or Northeastern?

20

@HRSMom The thing about BU and Northeastern, and even Tufts is that they are EXTREMELY close to home (a walk or a train ride away) but they’re all great schools. My sister went to BU and really liked it, so I’d definitely want to consider it. I’m also interested in Northeastern’s co-op programs as well