Hi, I’m a rising senior. I’ll be applying to college soon. I’m not sure where I want to go, but am looking for some recommendations for colleges I should explore.
Demographics: Asian Male (China), PA resident, Public High School (1400 ish kids)
ACT: Didn’t take
SAT: 1580
GPA: 4.0 UW (doesn’t weight any classes, nor class rank)
NMF: Not a national merit finalist or semifinalist
APs: AP Human Geo (5), AP Psych (5), Taking APES, APUSH, AP Lang this year, Taking AP Bio, AP Calc BC, AP Euro next year
Here are some of my achievements:
-Part of famous summer program (one at MIT)
-Has won a few national competitions (trying to keep this ambiguous, but STEM related)
-Published Environmental science research with T20 university
Majors: This is the part of not 100% sure of. I’d like to go into one of the following fields:
-Environmental Science
-Environmental Engineering
-Environmental Studies
-Geophysics
-Geology
Here are some things about me:
-Less partying/greek life/drinking/drugs (I’m more into hanging out with friends)
-Suburban or rural is preferred
-Cost is not a factor (family has saved up enough money for undergrad and grad school)
-I like being in nature, but this is not necessary
-Has to have one of the majors aforementioned
-Size doesn’t matter too much to me (small and medium are preferred but not necessary)
-Ok with LACs or big research university
With respect to the study of geosciences, you might consider a College Transitions site, “Best Colleges for Geology,” which manages to name most (but not all) of the country’s stronger colleges for the study of geosciences. Below is the entire list. For ease of reading, I separated LACs from universities:
Amherst College
Bates College
Bowdoin College
Carleton College
Colby College
Colgate University
Colorado College
Hamilton College
Lafayette College
Macalester College
Oberlin College
Occidental College
St. Lawrence University
Union College
Whitman College
Brown University
California Institute of Technology
College of William and Mary
Colorado School of Mines
Colorado State University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Duke University
Lehigh University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Miami University
Penn State University
Princeton University
Stanford University
Texas A&M University
University of Arizona
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Cruz
University of Colorado, Boulder
University of Florida
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
University of Texas at Austin
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Yale University
For screening by location characteristics, these articles could be helpful:
UC Berkeley has a really good environment science program though it can be expensive for out of Californians. Stanford meets all of your preferences but getting in is like a flip of a coin. Good luck!
Look into Williams, which is one of four LACs (along with Vassar, Hamilton and Wesleyan) that appear in the below world ranking pertaining to environmental economics, which further pertains to policy aspects of environmental studies.
For your interests, I would definitely look at Colby. It may have more partying than you would like but it’s not required! On everything other criteria, it could be a great fit.
Was going to say the same thing. Rice does not have a greek system. WashU does, but I don’t THINK it’s as big as on many other campuses. Both in cities but neither feel like it. Both are next to large parks that include zoos and museums that the students get into for free.
I think that the study of environmental science is enhanced if it’s done on a campus that prioritizes our interaction with the environment. Some schools have done exceptional work in that area, which begins to narrow the list:
Stanford
Middlebury
Colby
Wesleyan
University of Washington
University of Connecticut
Dickinson College
Colorado State
Oregon State
SUNY Environmental Science & Forestry at Syracuse University
Just a comment about SUNY ESF. You said that you don’t want to be in a city and this one is. But Syracuse isn’t a huge city and you can get out of it quickly. The college also has a wilderness campus in the Adirondack Forest Preserve and sites in the Thousand Islands (St Lawrence River) and Costa Rica. It was founded more than a century ago as a school of forestry, making it one of the oldest colleges in the country dedicated to studying the environment. It has always had a relationship with the Adirondack Park, the first public preservation of wild land which ultimately gave birth to the national parks movement. Although its small campus is adjacent to Syracuse University and has a relationship with them vastly increasing course the selection available to ESF students, it is a state college independent of SU and part of the SUNY system. It is truly an exceptional place with an extraordinary history and worth taking a look at.