early list

College Search & Selection
1

<p>i didn't really know how to start off my college hunting process, so i went to college board and used the college search. i am intending to be a bio or pre-dental major en route to a dental school, so i was wondering if these schools would be good:</p>

<p>BC
Colgate
Fordham
G-town
Lehigh
Marist College
Skidmore
SUNY Binghamton
TCNJ
Trinity College
U of Rochester
Villanova</p>

<p>i know most of these are reaches</p>

<p>my profile:</p>

<p>male/asian/nj</p>

<p>gpa: 91.5 weighted (did better soph yr than frosh)</p>

<p>Junior schedule:
AP Calc AB
AP Physics B
Eng 3 H
Span 3 H
US History 2 H
Scripture H</p>

<p>EC's (so far):
JV math team (10)
school newspaper (9, 10)
S.A.D.D. (10)
Jazz band (9, 10)
spanish club (10)
intramural basketball (10)</p>

<p>Test scores:
SAT 2 Bio: 650 (9)
SAT 2 Chem: 660 (10)
Soph PSAT: 188 (w/o studying)</p>

<p>150+ service hours at a hospital, going to work as emt this year</p>

2

<p>Pre-dental isnt a major, it’s an intention. And on that note, it doesn’t matter what you major in for dental school, as long as you take the required classes. </p>

<p>That said, I think you have a pretty balanced list. The only reaches are BC, Colgate, and Georgetown. The other nine should be matches and safeties.</p>

3

<p>thanks. how do you feel about the sci departments at those schools?</p>

4

<p>bump 10 char</p>

5

<p>Rochester is probably a reach; consider St. Josephs. Biology is a pretty popular major and can be a source of research grants, so most universities of any size should have a reasonably good department.</p>

<p>You should be thinking about the cost of attending any of these schools and whether you would fit better into a larger or smaller school.</p>

6

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...d.php?t=377931[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/...d.php?t=377931&lt;/a&gt; Read it!!!</p>

<p>Also, consider looking at a book like The Complete Idiot’s Guide to College Planning by Dr. O’Neal Turner or Looking Beyond the Ivy League by Loren Pope. I made another post in this forum that is really helpful.</p>

<p>Do you want large classes or small class sizes? Do you need a sense of community, or do you want to be lost in the crowd? Do you prefer a school that politically leans left or right? If you don’t know what you want to major in, ask the schools on your list when you have to choose a major and what would happen if you decide to change your major. Are there any programs that are important to you that you want to continue in college, like cultural clubs, or anything that interests you? Do you prefer lecture or discussion? </p>

<p>You’ve gotta be more specific in telling us what you’re looking for. </p>

<p>You should take one free day and think seriously: Why do I want to go to college? What are my goals in college? What do I want to get out of college that I don’t have yet? Do I want to go to college to get a degree, or do I want more, less tangible things? And what school environment will best suit what I want? These questions take time to answer. Make sure you’re honest with yourself and you aren’t distracted.</p>

<p>For example, my goals in college are to become well-educated, to learn the skills I need at work and for the rest of my life, to have great intellectual conversations with students and faculty before I graduate and go off to work, to have fun, and to learn more about what I want to do in my life. Ultimately my goal is to enhance the quality of my life. </p>

<p>From this, I thought, okay, what do I need to become well-educated in a broad range of subjects? I want a liberal arts education. I reasoned that a sense of community and an intellectually curious student body who want to stay up late talking about ethics over a cup of hot cocoa is vital to my happiness in college. To become well educated I want to have access to professors, tutors, and the library. I also want to study abroad for a term to learn more about the world. And so on. From these needs, I found a list of schools and I made a list of questions to ask students at these schools to find the schools that best match what I am looking for in a college experience. After I came up with my initial list of 10-30 colleges I had to think more about the specifics. All the schools in my initial list will help me fulfill my main goals. Now I have to think, When is the library open? How often do people party? What would happen if I decide to change my major? What specific extracurriculars do I want to continue or try in college? And so on. I group the colleges into schools I’m unlikely to get into, schools I have a good chance of getting into, and schools I am confident I will get into. I ask students from my colleges these questions, read guidebooks, look at school websites, look at viewbooks, I try to find out everything I can about all my colleges, and then I narrow down the colleges in each group so that I will have 2-3 schools in each group. I will apply to those schools, and I will have a great time at whatever final school I choose to go to, because it meets the major goals of my college education.</p>

<p>See how this is much more meaningful than saying, “I need to find a prestigious school with the best biology program?” as lots of people here seem to ask?</p>

<p>This will be your home for the next four years. You need to do a critical examination of you, who you are, what you want in life (you may not know yet, but it’s good to think about it), what your idea of success is, and what you want out of college. Whom do you want to talk with for four years? Then figure out the qualities that will help meet your goals. </p>

<p>That is how people should go about their college searches. Too many people on CollegeConfidential and all over are doing their college application process incorrectly. And that’s just too bad.</p>

<p>Happy Trails!</p>