<p>Can you tell us what kind of characteristics you want in a college? You may have already said it, but I'm too lazy to flip back through 7 pages. I know more about national unviersities than LACs, but I'll try to help you out.</p>
<p>Small college, not many students, good student-to-teacher ratio, small class size, seminars and not many lectures, good liberal arts curriculum (obviously), school spirit, beautiful campus (I like middle-of-nowhere more than urban), safe campus, many things to do on campus. </p>
<p>As I promised yet still failed to keep, I will post a new Chance thread with almost everything about me in a matter of hours.</p>
<p>Maybe Macalester or Whitman as matches? Take my recommendations with a grain of salt, though. I've done barely any research into LACs.</p>
<p>" Prestige is important because my parents didn't go to college, so the pressure's on to show everyone in my family (I'm the first to go to college in the history of my family) that I could make a name for myself."</p>
<p>Is the pressure coming from your parents / family, or from you?</p>
<p>And why is the "make something of yourself" dependent on the college name? It's what you do afterwards. BTW, do you have to make a splash? What if you just wound up with a nice comfortable upper middle class job, but weren't the VP of this or the president of that? Would that be ok with you?</p>
<p>Falthor, if you want to succeed in life (by whatever definition of 'success' you choose) you have to get better at reality checking. If you focus all your attention and energy on fabulous schools where your chances of admission are really low, then the consequence is that you won't be doing a good enough job on identifying and applying to pretty-good schools where you <em>have a good chance</em> of getting in if you work at it. </p>
<p>If that happens, then your results at the end of the day could be:
NO acceptances at schools where your chances of admission were laughable -
NO acceptances at schools where your chances of admission were medium -
ACCEPTANCES only at schools that are insufficiently challenging/rigorous...</p>
<p>Having your head in the clouds and fooling yourself about your grades and scores will have consequences -- you can choose now whether you want to make the best of your situation as viewed REALISTICALLY, or not. </p>
<p>You may or may not be able to change your scores - and you definitely can't change your past high school grades. So what can you actually do that will make a difference to your future? 1) Put energy on finding GOOD MATCH SCHOOLS, 2) work at doing well in your classes, 3) work to improve your standardized test scores.</p>
<p>Your current attitude is STANDING IN THE WAY of your getting the best possible outcome from your college application process. Think about that.</p>
<p>Its a game. Ignore him.</p>
<p>"What if you just wound up with a nice comfortable upper middle class job, but weren't the VP of this or the president of that? Would that be ok with you?"</p>
<p>My father has an upper-middle class job, but he is still in tremendous amounts of debt. He's also had some major psychological problems that are linked to his work. I don't want to end up like him. The pressure's coming from both sides of the spectrum.</p>
<p>As for Match schools, which LACs are good matches? I visited Bucknell and Gettysburg this weekend, and I was told those were matches by someone (I forgot whom). Was that person correct?</p>
<p>EDIT: I managed to create that thread I was talking about - Here</a> it is.</p>
<p>I read this entire thread, and then went back to your original list:</p>
<p>Middlebury
Dartmouth*
U of Vermont*
Bowdoin
Fordham
Skidmore*
Providence
Brown
Amherst*
BC*
BU
Bucknell
Gettysburg
Fairfield
Villanova
Loyola of Maryland*
Washington and Lee
U of Richmond*
Catholic*
U of Chicago
Saint Joe's of Maine
Colgate*
Holy Cross
Trinity College
Georgetown*
U of Maryland*
UMBC
Rutgers</p>
<p>IMHO, the only prayer you have of getting into Dartmouth, Georgetown, Middlebury, Bowdoin, U of C, Amherst, and Brown is your URM status and the possibility that you write an essay that catches someone's fancy. Sure, pick a couple and try. But don't count on anything.</p>
<p>The same may be true to a lesser extent of a bunch more of them, such as BC, Holy Cross, Colgate, and Trinity. (I don't have time right now to find your stats again and compare them to all of these schools, but they sound like reaches. Very likely some of the rest are at best reachy matches.)</p>
<p>I would suggest that you look closely at The College of Wooster. You might also want to look at Stonehill and Elon.</p>
<p>People have given you excellent advice here. Time to get real and listen to it.</p>
<p>I managed to narrow it down to the following, adding some of the other matches you guys had in mind, along with the reaches I was looking at. The list will be narrowed down even more; I'm going to see one of my teachers who knows me exceptionally well (My English II teacher) to have him help me with the process.</p>
<p>The list also has what you guys said about reaching, matching, etc. Tell me if I'm right.</p>
<p>Middlebury (Reach)
Dartmouth (High Reach)
U of Vermont (Match or reach? No one said anything about this school.)
Fordham (Match)
Skidmore (Match)
Providence (Match)
Brown (High Reach)
Amherst (Reach, High Reach)
Bucknell (Match)
Gettysburg (Match)
Fairfield (Match)
Loyola of Maryland (Match)
U of Richmond (Match, Reach)
Catholic (Low Match, Safety)
Colgate (Reach)
Holy Cross (Match, Reach)
Trinity College (Reach)
Elon (Match, Safety)</p>
<p>Feel free to look at that other thread and continue the discussion in there. That has pretty much a full synopsis of who I am.</p>
<p>Middlebury (and perhaps Colgate) don't belong is the same category at Trinity, Holy Cross, and U. Richmond.</p>
<p>So High Reaches, then?</p>
<p>Yeah, I'd say Midd and Colgate are high reaches while the next step up (Dartmouth, Brown, Amherst) are super-reaches. So pick one super-reach, one high reach, and one reach. Then concentrate on matches and safeties.</p>
<p>A little off-topic, but important nonetheless: Would you say Brown and Dartmouth would be colleges that would suit my tastes?</p>
<p>My tastes: </p>
<ul>
<li>Liberal Arts colleges</li>
<li>< 10,000 undergrads (Ivies could be ruled out with this, most likely)</li>
<li>Good academics and humanities programs</li>
<li>School Spirit</li>
<li>Safe campus</li>
<li>Good social scene on-campus (off-campus, no preference)</li>
<li>Greek Life</li>
<li>A sense of community</li>
<li>Seminar-based, not lecture-based</li>
<li>Class sizes are small</li>
<li>Study Abroad</li>
<li>Honors programs (depends on the college)</li>
<li>I can get in.</li>
<li>"Big fish, small pond" aspect.</li>
</ul>
<p>Brown and Dartmouth are on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of culture. I think Dartmouth would suit you more--Greek life is important there--but any of your reaches will not have a "big fish, small pond" feeling. More like "small fish, big pond." But obviously, it may be a fair tradeoff if you do get accepted.</p>
<p>So Colgate, even with very few students, will be "Small Fish, Big Pond?" I don't think that makes sense. I'm not too big on Greek life (my parents don't want me in a frat because of hazing and Hell Week. They watch too much TV), but it's somewhat important.</p>
<p>You ask about Brown and Dartmouth:</p>
<p>"- < 10,000 undergrads (Ivies could be ruled out with this, most likely)"</p>
<p>The only Ivy with more than 10,000 undergrads is Cornell, at about 13000. The only other one that is close to that figure is Penn, at 9,000+. Both Brown and Dartmouth are Ivies. </p>
<p>"-Big fish, small pond."</p>
<p>It takes an awful lot to be a "big fish" at a place like Dartmouth or Brown. For one thing, the pond isn't that small. For another, all of the other fish are highly accomplished, outstanding fish.</p>
<p>"-I can get in." </p>
<p>I think that this is your problem with both of those schools. Both are super-reaches for you.</p>
<p>Most Ivies, though, have a lot of students, more so than the LACs I'm looking at.</p>
<p>Confused as to how "Greek Life" is important to you, but you can't join a frat. I don't know too much about Greek Life, but I've heard that it is not easy to get "in" if you're not part of a frat.. I could be wrong; it's just a perception from what I read.</p>
<p>Bucknell and Lehigh seem to fit most of your requirements. Lehigh isn't in the middle of nowhere though; it's in Allentown, PA. Sort of urbany, but it's not Philly. Both are matches.</p>
<p>UVM should be a match, possibly even a safety for you. It does have a bigger enrollment though; I believe more than 10,000 or close to it. I don't know too much about Elon, but I don't think it would be a safety. Low match, maybe mid? I don't know too much about it.</p>
<p>People....can't you see this person is just playing a huge game with your heads? Ignore him.</p>