<p>I'm currently an african-america female sophomore in a specialized high school. I've recently become really anxious about college admissions, because my grades for the first semester have not been that great. I've always been a solid B+/A- student, but this year I've been having a rough time in French and Math (which is usually one of my best subjects), receiving B-'s for first quarter and B's for the semester.
My school doesn't send GPA or class rank to colleges. I'm a member of Young Democrats, Model UN and I'm on varsity cross country, track and lacrosse. I plan to take AP French and AP Econ next year (we cannot take APs until junior year), along with the ACT in the fall.
While I'm not asking you to chance me, I'm just curious as to what types of colleges do you think I could get into? I'm going to try as hard as I can to raise my grades this year and next year, but the only colleges I have in mind are schools that would be reach schools for my transcript. (Duke is my dream school and Rice is a close second)
I'm a first generation american, if you think that helps?
So do you know any good colleges for B+/A- students?</p>
<p>there are hundreds of schools out there for someone of your caliber. here’s a list of about a hundred, but there are many more:</p>
<p><a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/a-plus”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/a-plus</a></p>
<p>It’s good that you’re thinking of this early, but you need to pour your energy into your schoolwork and sports this semester and leave most of this research til the summer. Have a peek at it now and then just to remind you of why you’re working so hard in French and Math. Come back and tell us you got mostly A’s this semester.</p>
<p>Use rankings and focus on the ranks 20-50 and of course one safety school. I like the Meta ranking as it uses all three major rankings (THE, QS, ARWU).</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.metauniversityranking.com/meta-university-ranking-201314/”>http://www.metauniversityranking.com/meta-university-ranking-201314/</a></p>
<p>Ursi: Virtually all of the American schools ranked 20-50 are almost entirely for A students. </p>
<p>The problem with your question is that a B+ student might have a range of options depending on their financial status, test scores, state, and to a lesser extent, ECs. Though it’s great that you’re thinking about colleges, post back here when you’ve taken your ACT and/or SAT. You might also want to check out the SAT/ACT prep section for tips on how to do well on the test the first time around. </p>
<p>As far as college suggestions go, if you’d be ok with being a racial minority on campus, a number of liberal arts colleges are looking to become more racially, and to a lesser extent, financially diverse. For instance, Whitman generally gives pretty good financial aid and may offer a more intimate environment than most places. </p>
<p>If you think you’ll be a STEM student in college, many STEM (or “tech” schools) are quite motivated to recruit and admit able female applicants. Of course if Math is not your strength, a STEM school probably isn’t for you. But even comprehensive colleges and universities want to bring more female science majors to their campuses. You need to determine the criteria that are important to you; location, academic departments of interest, campus life etc. and MONEY!</p>
<p>Take a look at the Colleges That Change Lives if you’re interested in LACs. They are for the B/B+ students so you’ll probably look very good to them and have a good chance for merit aid.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the responses! But I don’t think my family qualifies for financial aid, so I don’t think thats really an issue. However, if it helps I would like to go to a bigger size school 4k+, somewhere warm, preferably. </p>
<p>Have you talked to your parents about what they will contribute? Not qualifying for financial aid means that you could be paying list price of over $60,000 per year, but your parents may not be able to contribute anywhere near that much. If what they will contribute is much less, then you need to consider schools with lower list prices and schools where you can get merit scholarships (there are lists of these in the financial aid and scholarships section of these forums).</p>
<p>Relax…you are only a sophomore. You are doing well and could qualify for a multitude of fine schools. As of now I’d say your “dream” schools are reaches, but it is really too early to focus on any specific schools. </p>