Finding a good match

<p>Hey guys, so I have a little bit of a dilemma, I need help finding a match school that I actually would like to attend. Right now my dream school is Dartmouth, but its an ivy so everything is uncertain. What I'm looking for is a rural school in Vermont or New Hampshire with very good financial aid (merit or need based) that has good research opportunities and a decent physics department. The rural vt or nh is not a must I just want to be close to skiing because is a huge part of my life.</p>

<p>Here's my stats:</p>

<p>-2220 SAT
-33 ACT
-4.0 GPA
-class rank 1out of 32
-101.2 weighted GPA (don't know on a 4 point scale)</p>

<p>ECs
-nationally ranked freestyle skier ( went to junior Olympics last year and will make JOs and possibly nationals this year)
-varsity school ski race team
-varsity tennis
-senior band flautist
-jazz band saxophonist
-all-county band
-nhs
-student council
-treasurer of science club
-vp of interact club
-I own and operate a small business which sells fudge
-I work at a small cafe/bakery/gourmet store</p>

<p>Community service
-50 random hours
-my town was destroyed in hurricane Irene and I have 200+ hours from cleanup</p>

<p>Other
-white female from tiny rural school in NY
-income <30000</p>

<p>I've tried to use search tools and they're helpful, but I think actual peoples input is the best. Thank you guys so much!</p>

<p>Look here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Skiing is also a huge part of my life. I want to get west but the colleges are all so bad.
University of Utah would be a safety but the location is unbeatable, big school, not rural, not vermont, not great need aid but you could get merit money, 15 minitutes from the resorts.</p>

<p>I don’t know if these meet all of your criteria - Bates, Colby, Bowdoin, Bennington, Middlebury - these are the most selective in the areas you targeted. Of course there are the state schools, UVM is pretty popular with the skiing crowd!
Why not upstate New York? How far would Syracuse, Union, RPI, RIT, U. Rochester be from ski areas?
For other choices use the College Search tool here on CC or College Navigator and then do some research from there…</p>

<p>Thanks guys, erinsdad, i have looked at that thread, but basically none of the schools are in the Northeast. Yoskis, I am looking out west, but I’m graduating school a year early so I’ll be 16 when I start college, my parents want me to be within driving distance.
That’s again!
Bump.</p>

<p>How close is close enough? A lot of schools in Massachusetts are 1.5 or 2 hours from ski areas in NH. And many of them have ski/snowboarding clubs so you just get on the bus every weekend you want to go. You don’t have to worry about transportation.
How big do you need the mountain to be? There are lots of good schools with easy access to Wachusett [Wachusett</a> Mountain Ski Area - Princeton, Massachusetts](<a href=“http://www.wachusett.com/]Wachusett”>http://www.wachusett.com/)</p>

<p>Thank you bean town girl! Some of those schools seem like good matches, I’ll look into them. I really like Bowdoin, but its too far. I really do want to be within an hour of ski mountains, so although I do have a lot of match schools in mass, I was looking for some closer to skiing. The reason I made this thread is because its hard to put something like “proximity to a ski area” into a search tool. Right now I ski basically every day (after school with ski team, on weekend with my freestyle team) and I can’t imagine not skiing at least fairly often.</p>

<p>might look at Holy Cross(don’t have to be religious) very good school that is need-blind for admissions-good financial aid. HC has beautiful campus and is 20 minutes away from ski area. Holy Cross is also an athletic rival of Dartmouth. The HC website is informative.</p>

<p>I thought Middlebury had its own ski facility, go check it out…</p>

<p>Definitely consider Middlebury if you want to stick to New England. Yes, it has its own ski facility.</p>

<p>If you want to get into serious mountain skiing, look West. Reed College has a ski cabin on Mt. Hood. It also has an interesting Physics department (with its own research nuclear reactor). Reed has the 3rd highest per capita rate of PhD production of all US institutions (after Cal Tech and Harvey Mudd). It is less selective than Dartmouth or Middlebury.</p>

<p>For access to world class Rocky Mountain skiing, consider Colorado College. It has a lower admit rate but also slightly lower SAT averages than Reed.</p>

<p>The Claremont Colleges (Pomona, Harvey Mudd etc.) have what appears to be good skiing within 1/2 hour of campus.
[Pomona</a> College Magazine :: PCM Online](<a href=“http://www.pomona.edu/magazine/pcmfl04/47thingspg08.shtml]Pomona”>http://www.pomona.edu/magazine/pcmfl04/47thingspg08.shtml)</p>

<p>Bump… Thank you guys I’ve been able to add some very good schools to my list</p>

<p>Williams is close to Jiminy Peak. Binghamton is in-state and about an hour from Greek Peak. Cornell is even closer.</p>

<p>I know a girl on the ski team at St. Olaf in MN, might be worth an application.</p>