<p>Hey, I'm a junior at a college prep school in Illinois, and I'm just starting the college process. I took the PSAT twice, each time getting very high marks (around 2000). However, my GPA is fairly low, around a 3.0. I am in medium-hard classes, and will be taking at least 3 APs. Assuming I do ok on those, what are some colleges that I should consider? Money is not a huge issue, just not insanely expensive. I also think I would like a small-medium size school; I think I would get overwhelmed if there were more than 12,000 or so students on campus. Thank you for reading, and any help would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>In state or are you looking oos?</p>
<p>Either, but for OOS I would prefer to stay in the Midwest or the East Coast.</p>
<p>Some of the public schools (EIU, WIU, UIS) appear to be within your size limit.</p>
<p>If you get around a 28 ACT score, you might get into Truman State in MO. It would help if you are in the top 50% class ranking.</p>
<p>Truman State is a liberal arts university of 5500 students. It is very highly regarded in the academic community. From an academic perspective, it is considered a superior school to the Illinois directional schools (by higher ed academics). If your future may include graduate school, then Truman State should be at the top of your list. ALos, very inexpensive, about $22,000 per year for OOS students.</p>
<p>I would also recommend Iowa State and Iowa. Both use the RAI index to determine admissions. You can go to their websites, enter in your grades, courses, and score data and know immediately if you are admissable. Iowa is fairly expensive OOS, about $34,000 per year. Iowa State is a bargain for OOS students, $27,000 per year. Thet are both large universities, but pretty easy to get into.</p>
<p>We need more information:</p>
<p>1) what are you planning to study/do professionally?
2) what kind of environment do you prefer: urban, suburban, small college town
3) what kind of school culture do you want: frats, single-sex, religious, preppy, conservative/liberal politically, artsy, granola, intellectual, quirky, rah-rah
4) any special features, deal-breakers, etc…
5) is that 3.0 because of a weak freshman year and your trend is upward or is 3.0 pretty representative of your grades overall?
6) anything else that would make you stand out? special achievements, legacy anywhere, first generation, URM, recruited athlete
7) What’s your class rank (if your school ranks)?</p>
<p>1: I am planning on studying either Economics, History, or Political Science.
2: I would prefer urban or suburban, but it is not a huge deal.
3: I don’t want a massive party school, but not a completely socially dead school either. Somewhere where parties exist, but don’t dominate the school would be perfect.
4: I’m not sure if you mean EC’s, but I was on the Model UN, did a service trip to the Dominican Republic, and was on a couple community service clubs.
5: Yeah, I had a weak freshman year. I got one C+ for this year, but it was in Computer Science 1st semester, and that class is completely new to me and very difficult.
6: Not really, My dad went to Chicago Law School and Iowa undergrad, and my mom went to Illinois State and DePaul.
7: My school doesn’t rank, so I’m not sure.</p>