Have any suggestions??

College Search & Selection
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<p>Hi everyone! I'm not totally sure if i can post this on here, if not please let me know and I'll remove it ASAP! Anyway, I'm currently searching for a college and everyone on here seems pretty knowledgeable...if I post my stats and you have some free time could you please throw in your thoughts as to which colleges would be suitable for me?</p>

<p>I'll start with classes....</p>

<p>9th grade:</p>

<p>honors earth science
algebra
honors english
honors global history
honors spanish
studio art</p>

<p>10th</p>

<p>honors biology
honors geometry
honors english
honors spanish
honors global history
sculpture</p>

<p>11th</p>

<p>AP biology
AP us history
SUNY spanish (gives college credit)
english 11
algebra 2/trig
honors chemistry</p>

<p>12th (next year)</p>

<p>AP macroeconomics
AP chemistry
health/photography (b/c health is only half year)
honors physics
mythology/creative writing 1 (half year courses)
pre-calc (switches to SUNY mid-year and gives college credit)</p>

<p>Awards...</p>

<p>member of NHS
english award (top student in course)
sculpture award (top student in course)</p>

<p>EC's...</p>

<p>-equestrian for 8 consecutive years, 9 1/2 years total;i compete inividually and on a team
-on an Interscholastic Equestrian Association team. This year i went to Nationals and was ranked 8th in the nation for my division, and amassed more points than any other team member. I have done this for two going on three years, and it is about 5 hours a week with the team from August through May, with 12-hours show days 5-8 times a year.
-approx. 400 hours as CIT at horse camp, i was one of the counselors with more responsibility and so often taught anatomy and horsemanship lessons and supervised groups of 10-20 kids. and made morning plans for the other CITs (volunteer)
-about 100 hours of random barn work, from assisting lessons to breaking ice and watering the horses in ten degree weather (volunteer)
-volunteered time giving pony rides at birthday parties and festivals, approx. 40 hours
-i volunteer for the local SPCA; i do marketing and will have most likely published writing in the newspaper by fall
-volunteered for the local nature museum assisting with maple sugaring tours, as well as their annual Earth Day festivals
-I do paid work each summer for a local pet-sitting business, including walking, feeding, grooming, etc.
-I started a project horse in the fall that had zero hunt seat experience, and put in approximately 3 hours each day after school to train her, more on the weekends. I was able to balance a demanding junior year schedule while training a mare that i was able to successfully show come spring and summer, and do very well.
-i also exercise a handful of horses for the barn owners on occasion because they haven't the time
-i volunteer with the local acupuncture office
-i volunteered time with therapeutic riding lessons for 2.5 years, a total of about 10 hours a week, 44 months out of the year
-this summer i am interning with a geneticist at a nearby hospital
-for NHS, i have assisted with senior graduation, and will soon be doing car-washes and orientation for the freshmen, atop numerous other activities
-i hope to join the environmental club at school next year, but i have not yet done so
-for fun, i also raise Light Brahma layer hens, and experiment with botany a bit, growing and grafting cacti and such</p>

<p>GPA, test scores...</p>

<p>my unweighted GPA is a 94 (3.9), my weighted GPA is a 97 (4.0)
I have only taken the SAT and ACT once each; i scored poorly on the SAT with an 1890, and well-enough on the ACT with a 30; i had no preparation for the ACT, i went in blind, so i plan to study this summer for both tests and re-take to score higher. I would love to land in the 32-33 range.</p>

<p>I am in the top 10% of my class.</p>

<p>Other...</p>

<p>I live in New York, and would like to stay in state or within 5-6 hours of home. I live in the Hudson Valley. I am unable to spend 200k on college, but i will consider private schools if i can find a scholarship opportunity. I recently discovered that Governor Coumo's STEM program will allow me to attend any state school (SUNYs) or state-funded school (those in Cornell and Alfred) with tuition FULLY paid...and the offer is QUITE enticing! I hope to go into the sciences, such as genetics, biochemistry, or something of the sort, you get the idea. If you're still with me after all of this, you rock and i would be terribly grateful for any thoughts, comments, or school suggestions! thanks so much (:</p>

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<p>please view this version (: thanks again! </p>

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<p>also, I have been on High Honor Roll very single semester of school since fifth grade. Of course, only high school counts, but i figured I’d throw it in there! </p>

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<p>Have you looked at colleges with division 1 (NCEA) equestrian teams. Both Cornell and Brown have division 1 teams. Consider contacting the coaches.</p>

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<p>thank you for your reply fogcity! Although IHSA is not a requirement in my search it would be nice and I would like to contact the coaches now that you mention it! The only thing about those two is that they’re Ivied though and I doubt I’d be anywhere close to getting in…thanks for your input! </p>

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<p>Go the Financial Aid forum and look at the pinned threads for some merit aid options that will give you $.</p>

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<p>You are fortunate to live in a state that values public higher education to the degree that NY does. Without any aid at all, you could attend a good undergraduate science program for no more than 22K/yr. </p>

<p>Each school has a net price calculator. Take five or six schools like Cornell, Albany, Brown, Buffalo, Bard, and Princeton, run the npcs, and see what one of these school is likely to cost your family. Then ask your family for a hard number that they can commit to providing you each year for your education. The difference between what your parents can commit to and what the Expected Family Contribution at each school is will help you to decide what kinds of schools you might afford to attend. You might need to look at some 100% meets need schools, or you might need a full tuition scholarship and so you’d look at those schools. Or perhaps you will qualify for one of Gov. Cuomo’s tuition scholarships at a NY public. Any time you’re within 13K of closing the gap, as you would be with a full tuition scholarship just about anywhere, you can probably make that happen with 5500 in loans (the max you can borrow first year), savings, year-round work, contributions from parents, etc.</p>

<p>If you wanted to look outside of your home state, there are a lot of colleges that would be happy to have you with your stats and ECs and that would pay you enough to go there such that the gap would be no more than 13K. You can find out about them at the pinned threads to which @Erin’s Dad refers:</p>

<p><a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;

<p><a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;

<p>I don’t have a CC thread for 100% meets need schools, but check it out here:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2013/09/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need-2014”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2013/09/18/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need-2014&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>The tuition for Cornell’s land grant college will not be fully paid. They will give you $6,170 towards tuition, which is approximately $31,000 without this discount. </p>

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<p>Run the net price calculator for Mount Holyoke, too (they have a nice riding facility on campus). They give merit aid, too.</p>

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<p>Thank you for your replies everyone! I am slowly but surely getting through each posts inquiries and suggestions…I would still appreciate more though too! Also, I didn’t add that I ride western as well, and so have been doing double disciplines for the last 3.5 years. Plus, I had 6 months of natural horsemanship training in 9th grade, which allowed me insight into equine psychology and behavior. Sorry, I keep forgetting ECs! Furthermore, my gap is out of a 4.0 scale, I haven’t converted it to the others yet. </p>

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<p>*GPA</p>

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<p>You know, I kept thinking of you as a possible pre-vet. But what if instead your undergraduate focus was on animal behavior, cognition, and neuroscience? You probably have a keen understanding of horses. What if that could be amplified or generalized to include other mammals and a scientific understanding of their behavior? Just thinking aloud.</p>

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<p>Interesting thought @jkeil911…I’ve found that I’m very interested in biology at its most basic level, hence my striving towards genetics, biochem, or molecular bio…but I believe that may be satisfied by the neuroscience aspect and the behavior and cognition aspects would fulfill the love of animals and understanding them. Do you know anyone or have any personal experience with the field? And what the demand is looking like? </p>

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<p>Well, I read a lot of neuroscience and someone in my household has a lot of experience with neuro research but it’s largely laboratory work leading to human behavior. The study of wild and domesticated animal behavior has been around a long time; it is called ethology, and it is not to be confused with behavioralism, which is usually conducted in a laboratory in order to learn more about human behavior. My own interest, frankly, is in research that leads to a better understanding of human behavior, but there are lots of biologists out there thinking about animal behavior and its relationship to the nervous system.</p>

<p>There’s a newer field of ethology called neuroethology, and that’s the one I’m referring to. My understanding is that there are lots of researchers studying certain species and their behavior, usually in order to understand the evolution of the animal brain and nervous system. For instance, how and why did certain species of crows, these creatures with such tiny brains that we call nincompoops “bird-brains,” evolve such elaborate communication and social systems? What in their brains enabled such complexity? and what in their environment encouraged these developments?</p>

<p>There’s no doubt that if you pursue animal behavior as a field you will have to learn the basics of biology, chemistry, physics, genetics, etc. There’s no understanding behavior without a good understanding of traditional biology before the advent of new screening technologies in humans (PET scans, MRIs, fMRIs, etc.) that have made neuroethology possible. After all, one of the assumptions of neuroscience is that behavior is largely determined by what is going on at the genetic and biochemical levels of nervous system cells. I cannot speak to the demand for neuroethologists, except to say that research science is usually a struggle for funding and resources. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. Writing grants won’t becomes your concern until you finish undergrad. You might contribute to grant writing, that would be great experience, but your education and immediate future will not depend on your success. </p>

<p>One of the interesting aspects of neuroscience in general is that it brings together so many different fields of inquiry. You have to learn a lot about a lot of things that you might think have nothing to do with biology, and you meet a lot of people who have a lot to learn about biology. So it’s a very collaborationist enterprise, as good science should be, across disciplines. You’ll find biologists working with anthropologists and sociologists and music theory scholars, veterinarians, compsci people, and philosophers, to name a few elements of this multidisciplinary died. </p>

<p>It’s just a thought. You might investigate further. </p>

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<p>@jkeil911‌ thank you for such an in-depth answer concerning the topic, I really appreciate it. It has certainly grabbed my interest though and I would like to research it further.</p>

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<p>i apologize for the bullet about therapeutic riding, it should be WEEKS, not months!!</p>