<p>I live on the west coast, and until recently, I had been thinking that I'd stay somewhere around here. I thought I'd take a shot at Stanford, Pomona, and Berkeley and see where I ended up. However, I got my SAT scores back and they are very competitive at 2270. I also realized that my aversion to going too far away from home wasn't actually that big of a deal to me. So now I'd like your help in picking some colleges to apply to on the other side of the country.</p>
<p>Here's what's important to me (it doesn't have to have all of these factors):
- Location. I want a college with a sense of community, the college town type feel. I don't want to be in a big city, and there doesn't have to be always something happening 20 minutes away. Isolation is actually okay by me.
- Money. My family is pretty well off and we could scrape up full price if necessary, but this is a factor. Merit aid scholarships, or just colleges that are very generous with need based aid.
- Prestige. I think it's very real that going to a certain college will open more doors than another college.
- Sports. Not necessarily to play, but I want a college that people are at least fairly excited to go watch their football and basketball teams play. Intramural sports also sound fun.
- Christianity. The school doesn't have to be officially religious, just that there's the opportunity for fellowship available. I realize I can probably find this at almost every school.
- Good prep for law school. That's where I want to go after college.
- Selectivity. It's okay to suggest safeties that fit the factors above, but I do want to go to a college with high standards.</p>
<p>Any thoughts/suggestions? To ask a specific question, which of the Ivy League schools best fit my list? What other schools on the east coast would you suggest?</p>
<p>df, You sound like a good fit for Williams and Amherst which are the East Coast versions of Pomona. You definitely get Strong community, prestige, sports, excellent law school placements Youll find a fair number of practicing Christians. Both are extremely rigorous academically with fine department across the academic spectrum. Small classes with accessible teaching professors. Amherst is in a lively small town. Williams is in an insular but spectacularly beautiful mountain village. </p>
<p>Neither offers merit aid, but they have good need based aid. Both are VERY selective. Your SATI puts you in the running but itwont guarantee admissions. All selective LACs lean heavily on other factors like GPA, rank, recommendations, essays and ECs/talent. My son goes to Williams so please let me know if you have any further questions.</p>
<p>Other recommendations would be Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton for ivies and Hamilton, Colgate and Bowdoin for slightly less selective.</p>
<p>I would look at Washington University in St Louis.</p>
<p>You will need a merit aid school if your family is well off enough to 'scrape together' full tuition. A need-based school will absolutely expect you to scrape it together</p>
<p>There is a thread on merit aid in the parents forum. Schools like Vanderbilt, WashU, Tulane, and others...</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the replies. Interesting especially that Duke came up in the first two posts, that's one I've recently been looking into. Wake Forest sounds intruiging from what little I know, I'll definitely look into that.</p>
<p>Momrath, thanks for LAC advice. I love Pomona except for a few things, and I'll definitely research Williams and Amherst more. I completely realize that my SAT score doesn't guarantee anything, but it's competitive enough (combined with no big problems in the other factors) that I have a somewhat decent shot anywhere. I do expect to have that reach/match/safety balance with the schools I apply to and fully expect to get rejected by some of the schools I end up applying to. I'm just trying to figure out what those schools should be. </p>
<p>SBmom, I figured I would have to forget serious need-based aid, but Princeton's online estimation says I stand to get a little less than 20K from them (and my mom swears she entered everything accurately). Maybe this is just because of the large endowments of Ivy League schools, etc, and I'm not going to find that kind of assistance at other schools, especially LACs. Is that on target?</p>
<p>Any other suggestions? Dartmouth, Cornell, Princeton for the Ivy League Schools?</p>
<p>"I'm not going to find that kind of assistance at other schools, especially LACs. Is that on target?"</p>
<p>Williams, Amherst and Swarthmore and several other LACs are VERY well endowed. You could expect the same need-based aid from them as you would at Princeton. Having said that it seems that different colleges interpret your EFC differently so there can be a range in actual packages even with the exact same figures. If you apply RD and get several offers you can always go back to the colleges and negotiate with them. Often they will match others' offers.</p>
<p>Merit aid is something else altogether and isn't related to what you need. It's more like the colleges offering YOU incentive to attend. The Ivies and superselective LACs like AWS don't offer any merit aid, but many excellent LACs do.</p>
<p>sense of community.. check.
need based aid... check.
prestige... check check check.
sports.. check check check too.
christianity... check. (yup you got that right.. you could probably find it at any school)
law school prep.. check. admission stats at williams are comparable to upper-tier Ivies. this probably ties in with prestige.
selectivity.. check.</p>
<p>I would definitely echo the Wake Forest sentiment...you seem like a good fit...I would suggest taking a southeast tour and visiting schools like Wake Forest, Davidson, Duke, etc and seeing how you like the feel of the campuses. Especially coming from a little further from home, it will be important to have that sense of community or home away from home feel.</p>
<p>I find your logic strange--since you will need really good stats to get into the in-state schools you mention, why do your SAT's then indicate that you should try out-state schools? Makes no sense.</p>
<p>Anyway Stanf. is more competitive for in-state ppl since more apply. Berkeley stats will not matter as much as grades. Pomona is also very selective.</p>
<p>You should rule out Ivy League if you want merit-aid. They don't give it.
If you like Pomona, then look at the other 20 top LAC's. (factoid, the current President of Pomona's dd turned down Harvard for Carleton recently.)</p>
<p>I don't really know much about Williams, etc, but I know that Princeton and even more Cornell match that description perfectly. Cornell kids have more fun with sports, I think, but Princeton is more prestigious.</p>
<p>You sound like an excellent candidate for Davidson, which is consistently a top ten LAC with lots of school spirit, fine academics, and a substantial Christian presence (also a very ethical place with a very open atmosphere).</p>
<p>Ditto on Wake Forest, Vanderbilt and Davidson. Duke sounds like a good fit, but don't count on any merit aid unless you hit the jackpot with one of their big scholarships. A little further South, you might want to consider Furman. Beautiful campus, good with merit aid for someone with your stats and very successful for future lawyer wannabees.</p>