<p>Hi! I posted a thread a couple months ago about a previous college list, but I think, thanks to everyone's suggestions and further reflection, that I've finally narrowed it down. I thought I wanted to major in engineering, but I realized that actually I just wanted to because other people thought I should. My high areas of interests are Middle Eastern Studies, astrophysics/astronomy & physics, International Relations, POSSIBLY engineering (maybe), and a whole plethora of other possibilities.
ACT 33
GPA 3.9
Homeschooled, but I've spent my junior and senior years at local universities and the first two years taking a mix of self study and online classes. So I don't have entirely "mommy grades."
Oh, I should add that I don't plan on taking SAT subject tests. </p>
<p>And I guess I'll copy and paste my EC's again?
professionally trained as a ballet dancer (a former NYCB dancer retired in my area)
Flute player, like half the people in the world. I also play in a somewhat large city's youth outreach program sponsored by the philharmonic, but I'm not eligible for competitions because of my non-traditional schooling.
I'm big on foreign languages; I'm learning Arabic, Russian, Chinese, and Spanish--fluent in Spanish, relatively proficient in Arabic and Chinese.
I'm also treasurer of my university's Arabic Club
I also know how to program
Bible quiz captain for midwest region for all four years
Wrote, staged, costumed, and performed a musical
Theatre
Tutored peers in Spanish and calculus
I'm most focused, though, on a volunteering aspect. At my church and hometown I'm Core Leader of a fundraising group to raise money for us to travel outside the US to build schools (we've done this twice now), and also Core Leader also of a service team to help impoverished individuals however they need. To narrow it down further, I've started programs to raise awareness of human and child labour in other countries and how American companies are contributing to the problem. I've done research on that and presented my findings at a leading university a few hours away to leading professionals in the field of human rights and worldwide problems. I also won an award there.
I think that's it.
Anyway, my list.
Reaches:
WUSTL
Tufts
Wellesley</p>
<p>Matches:
Smith
Bryn Mawr
Mount Holyoke</p>
<p>Safeties:
IU
Purdue</p>
<p>Suggestions? Comments? Concerns? I'll take them all. Thanks guys! ^-^</p>
<p>Looks like a pretty good list. I assume you are in-state for Illinois. Curious about whether you have visited all these schools. Smith seems kind of edgy compared to the rest of your list.</p>
<p>@intparent yeah…I’ve visited all of them except for Smith and Tufts, and your comment about it being edgy is what worries me. I do like Smith because it does include engineering along with a bunch of other majors I have an interest in. Then I’d have a wide range of options. But I’ve heard that Smith is a bit more in-your-face, for lack of a better term…
If anyone has any input on Smith, I’d really appreciate it. </p>
<p>Sorry, yes, @mom2collegekids I’m in-state for Indiana. My parents will pay for them; though if the net price calculators are close to being accurate, all the other schools are considerably less than those. But of course they could be wrong. I do know that if the cost exceeds $25000 including books, room and board, and tuition, they won’t pay for it and will have me go to IU or Purdue. But these other schools are estimating about 15000 for our everything. Don’t know how accurate they are. @intparent do you happen do know if the Smith stereotype if true? Because I’m really more of a laid-back, rather disturbed by combative, audacious environments. Of course there’s nothing wrong with those, but I just wouldn’t mesh well with it.
I’m also considering substituting Scripps, if anyone knows anything about it. I haven’t looked into it mainly because I can’t visit it, but perhaps it would be a better option?</p>
<p>Well… one of my D2’s best friends is a sophomore there. And I think it is true… she thrives on it, but not everyone would. My D2 happens to go to Harvey Mudd, which is right next to Scripps in the Claremont Consortium. She hangs out there and has friends from high school who are students there. It is less edgy than Smith, more so than Mount Holyoke. Probably on par with Bryn Mawr.</p>
<p>@intparent hmm…I really appreciate this comment. I was hoping that Smith was just an overexaggeration, but I don’t know anyone who goes there. I might end up switching out for Scripps after all. I did quite like Bryn Mawr; Mount Holyoke and BMC were my two favorite.
Do you know, if you don’t mind, if there’s a sense of superiority over the different campuses in the Claremont Colleges? Because I do know that it’s harder to get into, say, Harvey Mudd and Pomona than Scripps. Maybe I shouldn’t say superiority; more like rivalry? Sorry, my question doesn’t make much sense, haha.</p>
<p>No, I get your question. I don’t know… I guess my feeling is that each college does its own thing. You do take more (most) classes at your own college. But I think most students appreciate the bigger social pool of the shared larger campus area, and the ability to take classes across the campuses. I know the Mudders are working so hard they don’t have time to worry about rivalry (seriously…it was midterm week at Mudd, and I don’t know if my kid slept AT ALL for 5 days…). Last thing on her mind is worrying about students from other schools, unless they are a partner on a project or something in a class. She loves to hang out at Scripps coffee shop when she has time, and finds the guys from CMC in her gym class who flirt with her to be annoying. Haven’t actually heard her talk about Pitzer or Pomona students. So that is a sample of one… But I think generally the students respect that each college is unique, and the students that attend them chose that school for a reason.</p>
<p>@intparent oh wow, that’s insane! I’m glad I’m not interested in Harvey Mudd; not my kind of atmosphere ^-^ What year is your daughter in, if you don’t mind my asking? Do you know if she and other students easily intermix and socialize with each other due to the proximity of the campuses? (since, you know, Mount Holyoke and Smith for example are more than half an hour away, students probably aren’t such good friends with each other and probably only see each other in classes and such.) Sorry to bother you! </p>
<p>She is s sophomore. Yes, she does socialize with some students on other campuses. Now that I think about it, there was a Pitzer student on a research team she worked with on campus this summer. And I know she hangs out with some friends at Scripps. Students are generally welcome to attend parties across the campuses, although she isn’t much for that kind of socializing. She does love the weather there, too. We do know about MHC, as she (and my older D) were both admitted there. I think there is a tighter connection across the Claremont campuses just because of the proximity, as you suggested. Easier to run into someone you know from a class when eating in the other cafeterias (which she does a few times a week). I really like the Claremont model – you get the benefits of a small school with some of the synergies of a bigger school.</p>
<p>I realized I should’ve mentioned that I’m interested in law school–does anyone know if these are good schools for that particular interest? And if so, which ones are the best? If anyone happens to know. </p>
<p>You can get to law school from any of these colleges. There is no specific pre-law set of courses to take. Many students who end up in law school are political science or history majors, but I know an engineering major who recently went to law school. It mostly about having a good GPA and doing well on the LSATs. </p>
<p>Law school is expensive, so keeping your debt down as an undergraduate is probably a good idea.</p>
<p>I would say that I don’t think of Purdue as very strong in the humanities… someone else can correct me if they think otherwise, though.</p>
<p>that’s my impression, too, @intparent. IU can be quite good in social sciences and languages. btw, OP, you don’t need to go anywhere anyone will recognize in order to go to law school. just get the grades, letters of rec, and lsat. so if these schools require debt, think about cheaper ones. </p>
<p>@intparent no, they’re really not, but I do like Purdue’s science program. It’s a safety school, though, so while I’d be totally happy going there, it’s at the bottom of my list. @jkeil911 I suppose I should say good in terms of pre-law advising. One of my friends goes to a local university, and he’s interested in law. However, he’s hardly getting any kind of support or help; the “pre-law adviser” is one history professor who’s not interested in helping. He basically just sends him to google everything. The other students are also very competitive and cutthroat towards each other. I prefer a collaborative, solid advising kind of environment.
IU is very desirable to me, though. They do have great social studies and so, so many languages. Also, the have a direct admit into their law school, which would be great because I wouldn’t have to take the LSAT assuming I made the cut. Plus I’d get in-state tuition. I guess I’m not sure if having the option of possibly getting the direct admit into IU’s law school is a better option than going to, say, Wellesley…</p>
<p>well, yeah, OP, but we cannot really know how good a school’s law school advising is, esp in a smaller school where to a lot of lawyers originate. Besides, the quality of law school you get into is not very dependent on the advice you get from pre-law advisers. Either you have the stats or you do something else. they can help a lot with how well a school might fit you. Well, if you don’t like cutthroat competition why do you want to be a lawyer. Perhaps your legal education can begin here: people who go to and graduate from law schools are among the most competitive, cutthroat people you will ever meet outside of a pre-med program. </p>
<p>Do check on IU’s competitiveness, and as for collaboration, ask the IU pre-law major professors how easy it is for them to convince their majors to study together rather than singly. If they’re like my English majors, their response is generally yeah, yeah, yeah. Study after study shows that 80-85% of us do better on an exam if we study with a cohort. Each of my students, admittedly not stats majors, think they are in the 10-15% group. They tell me they don’t want to give anyone who is missing a day’s notes any leg up on them, esp when they’ve made it to every class. And this was true even when I taught at a Quaker college, where the ethic is supposed to be collaborative. Hah. Sure, some people help others, but the helped are not helping anyone else, in general. They’d sooner plagiarize from wikipedia or dictionary.com than study with another, so I get my share of stupid plagiarism, too. Maybe I should do a discussion on plagiarism.</p>
<p>@jkeil911 Ahaha no sorry, that part wasn’t directed towards you, but to anyone who might have direct experience with the colleges. But I’d have better luck asking that in the specific college forums ^-^ I suppose I ought to rephrase–I don’t mind competition, I typically thrive on it–but in terms of academic environments, I prefer collaborative. Exactly what you said–the whole don’t give people notes, plagiarizing, is the precise situation I’d like to avoid. (Maybe one reason why I hated UPenn, that was the vibe I got from there.) Probably won’t be able to, though ^-^ I didn’t know about those statistics though, that’s interesting! Thanks for your help! </p>
<p>Maybe you should major in engineering. Many engg schools are miles ahead of liberal arts majors in this regard. Collaboration is required for success in engg. Perhaps some engg majors would be willing to address this reputation for collaborativeness. So maybe you should ask if anyone knows of schools that are strong academically and reputed to have strong collaboration between students. I’ve heard people speak of them, but I can’t confirm what they say. I’ve heard admissions officers at elite schools praise their students for their willingness to help others, but I always took that with a dump truck full of salt. I went to a large state school where within the honors program the majors were in competition with each other but we spent a lot of time supporting each other, too. Maybe you could look at honors programs in large state schools where your major is not one of the strongest majors at the school. I don’t know.</p>
<p>@jkeil911 I thought for a while I wanted to major in engineering, but then I realized I really don’t give a crap how or why things work, haha. Nor do I care to learn. If I could pick any job, honestly, I’d go with archaeologist, but that’s such an awful field now that it’s not a good idea to attempt to make a living with that. But I’d like to stay in the humanities/social science, or at least have one of my majors be related to those fields. </p>
And you read my concern about Smith in your case correctly.</p>
Haven’t actually heard her talk about Pitzer or Pomona students. So that is a sample of one… But I think generally the students respect that each college is unique, and the students that attend them chose that school for a reason.</p>