<p>Iust some thoughts as you sort out the process: if you think Emory is too preprofessional, you might want to re-examine the cultures at Penn, Northwestern and CMC – their student body tend to be quite pre-professional.</p>
<p>Also I have a hard time envisioning an overlap between Vassar and the schools listed above.</p>
<p>Hm…maybe preprofessional was the wrong way to word that. I am considering the pre-med track, so I wouldn’t mind a preprofessional environment, but I wouldn’t want it to be an overly serious environment.</p>
<p>And how does Vassar not fit in?</p>
<p>Have you visited Hamilton? It would seem to be both too small and too isolated for your taste, the town is at the bottom of a steep climb and is almost non-existent. I’d keep Trinity because you’ve visited and already indicated you liked it.</p>
<p>Does PC=Pomona? I imagine it’s on your list because of the Claremont Consortium, otherwise, it’s a tad small and you seem to indicate not liking it as a stand-alone entity.</p>
<p>All your other reaches have solid reasons for likiing them, particularly if you’ve visited. You need to work on matches, IMHO.</p>
<p>PC=Providence College, most likely.</p>
<p>I have not visited Hamilton, but the reason it was on my list was because of its open curriculum. I’m planning on visiting it soon.</p>
<p>PC = Providence College</p>
<p>As for matches, what do I need to work on about them?</p>
<p>OK, I have a bit more time right now, so let’s really look at your list. I understand wanting to narrow it down, the problem is two fold: 1) You are a really good student (nice problem!) and so there are tons of schools open to you and 2) you are very flexible (another nice problem) and that makes it hard to narrow things down. So I am going to use your initial comments about wanting warmer weather (which I am extrapolating from the fact that you were initially looking at the south), mid sized (therefore eliminating large and small), not too intense (therefore eliminating Northwestern which is on the quarter system. That will elicit some howls, but with quaters instead of semesters things get really crammed. Moot point I suppose anyway, since I am eliminating bad weather schools), and urban/suburban therefore eliminating more rural schools.</p>
<p>So looking at all schools named so far, with my comments:</p>
<p>Notre Dame (cold weather and rural, but leaving on as an exception, because you seem to like it)
BC (cold weather)
Trinity (cold weather, only 2,300 total enrolled)
Wake Forest (somewhat rural)
Wesleyan University (cold weather, only 2,800 enrolled)
Brown University (cold weather)
Vanderbilt (fits)
Duke (fits)
University of Miami (fits, although a bit on the large side at 10,500 enrolled)
Emory (fits)
Claremont McKenna (small, only 1,217 enrolled)
Pomona (small, only 1,550 enrolled although of coure CMC and Pomona have the consotium thing going for them)
Stanford (fits, although pretty competitive academic environment)
Northeastern (too urban, no campus, no real school spirit, 15,700 enrolled)
NYU (too urban, no campus, 21,600 enrolled)
Columbia (cold weather, fairly intense)
Yale (cold weather, fairly intense)
Tulane (fits)
Tufts (you already said you don’t like)
WUSTL (some cold weather, otherwise fits. People are right, the campus is very nice)
Princeton (cold weather, intense)
BU (you hated)
Holy Cross (you hated)
Bates (you hated)
UConn (rural, cold)
PC (you hated)
Harvard (cold, intense)
Elon (you hated)
Amherst (cold, only 1,744 enrolled)
Williams (cold, only 2,067 enrolled)
USC (large at 16,700 students, otherwise fits)
Rice (a bit small at 3,150 students, otherwise fits)
William & Mary (fits)
Northwestern (cold weather, intense)
Chicago (cold weather, intense)
Vassar (cold weather, only 2,450 enrolled)</p>
<p>Now there is nothing wrong with having weather as a factor, but obviously that would probably be the first thing you would remove as a restriction. If so, then I would bring Brown in for sure. For some of the others, when I say intense, I don’t mean people don’t party. All colleges party. What I do mean is that the level of the students and the way the school is generally means you have to put in quite some study time to keep up. And in the case of Northwestern and Chicago, the quarter system makes it that much more so, since there are tests and papers every time you turn around. Chicago of course has the virtual opposite of an open curriculum, although I love the school personally.</p>
<p>So taking all that into account, I would say you should think about narrowing it to:</p>
<p>Notre Dame (the exception, lol)
Vanderbilt
Duke
University of Miami
Emory
Stanford
Tulane
WUSTL
USC
Rice
William & Mary</p>
<p>That’s 11, and you could throw back in Brown and BC if you decide weather not so much of a factor. Princeton too if you really loved it that much (it is gorgeous).</p>
<p>You will get into most, I think. Of course the Ivies are always a crapshoot. But it gives you a pretty solid list of great schools, and maybe you can visit some of the ones you have not yet.</p>
<p>Needless to say, this is just a stranger offering some analysis based on personal opinion and minimal information. I hope it helps some.</p>
<p>I’d say definitely cut Wes and Vassar if you’re looking for strong school spirit and sports. Students at both schools love their schools and do express it, but not in typical “rah rah, lets go out and support the sports teams!” way, so if that’s what you’re looking for, you might as well cut them (especially because you have so many other good options).</p>
<p>Also, Wes, at least, is very big on having dialogues about diversity, oppression, etc, which it sounds like might not be your thing. Obviously, I love Wes, and was also a big fan of Vassar, but I was also specifically looking for schools that DIDN’T have a sports culture.</p>
<p>I really appreciate all the help, especially thank you to fallenchemist for the help. The only problem is that I didn’t really explain why I wanted to go South originally…I think I want some distance from home, and I am from the Northeast. I do actually kind of like cold weather, but your comments aside from the ones about weather were extremely helpful! </p>
<p>Princeton and Brown are definitely going on my list, and I’m a legacy at both, so I think this should be helpful. (Right?) In any case, my family really wants me to apply to both of those places.</p>
<p>Also, I have relatives from Virginia, so I have visited there on multiple occasions and it is really not my cup of tea, so I’m going to have to eliminate William & Mary.</p>
<p>Sounds reasonable. Yeah, I was just guessing on the south thing. Most kids do it for the weather, but getting further from home is extremely valid. I only looked at schools more than 300 miles from my hometown, and that was in the days when flying wasn’t as common as it is now, due to expense. Still, at least you now have a list that is manageable and quite nice in terms of variety and reach/match/safety mix. I would think you could be happy at almost any of those schools.</p>
<p>Yes, being a legacy still helps, and since your grades and scores are up to their standards, it should help cement the deal. Obviously Brown has a VERY open curriculum, lol. I am sure you have a lot of friends that go there already, but if you want to communicate with a current student, my D is good friends with a guy that just finished his 2nd year. He is in their 8 year med program, so REALLY smart. Anyway, I am sure she would be happy to put you in touch. If you have any questions about Tulane, she or I could help. She just finished freshman year, and I am an alum. Just private message if that is the case. Good luck!</p>
<p>In answer to #25, almost all your matches are in the south.</p>
<p>Think about the “one plane ride rule.” Go to a great school where you can get there without changing planes-cheaper transportation, more trips home, less likely to miss a connection. That can be tough depending on where you’re located, but chances are that you’ll find some great schools that make the cut. You’ll get home more than at just the semester break, and be less likely to get snowed in at an airport…Ypur parents will appreciate seeing you more often, and you’re going to be more homesick than you think!!</p>
<p>Hello! So I have thought a lot about colleges and what I want, and done some visiting. My safeties and matches are set (two safeties, three matches), but my list is feeling a little (or a lot) reach-heavy. I was hoping to get some input.</p>
<p>Here they are:
Brown
Dartmouth
Davidson
Duke
Princeton
Stanford
Wesleyan
Williams
Yale</p>
<p>I want to strike the right balance. I don’t want to put off the decision making until acceptance letters come around, and have to decide between eight schools. But at the same time, I don’t want to apply to only two reaches because nowadays, admissions is so unpredictable.</p>
<p>To reiterate what I put earlier in this post, I want a school that is liberal-leaning, but with a strong sense of school spirit/pride (whether it be sports-centric or not), more open curriculum, sororities and fraternities would be nice (but I can do without them, and I wouldn’t want them to be too dominating), must have a campus (i.e. nothing like NYU, BU), and the closer to a city, the better. I also want a medium sized student body.</p>
<p>And I want to be premed, but am also interested in a wide variety of other things, and do not want to be a Bio/Chem major.</p>
<p>Finally, if there are any schools not on this list that might be of interest to me, please let me know! I know I am trying to narrow down my list, but I wouldn’t want to miss out on anything, either.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Well, as you already know, Williams and Dartmouth don’t score well in the “closer to a city, the better” department. Williams with 2000 and Wesleyan with around 2700 aren’t really medium size schools, although they certainly are not as small as some LACs. I am assuming that your list does not show your safeties, since they all seem like reaches.</p>
<p>^ Right, all of those schools could be considered reaches for everyone. Is that the complete list in post 32?</p>
<p>No, those are just my reaches. I am already set on my safeties (I have 2) and matches (I have 3).</p>
<p>It’s an interesting list; they each represent a peak experience within certain criteria. In reverse order of preference I’d put them:</p>
<p>9) Dartmouth - can’t be beat for school spirit; but, wide of the mark on proximity to cities.</p>
<p>8) Davidson - ditto but, even smaller than Dartmouth. </p>
<p>7) Williams - ditto.</p>
<p>6) Princeton - I guess you could describe it as school spirit, though some, perhaps with a sour grape or two, might describe it more as Old Money Pride. “Fit” begins to enter into the picture a bit right around here. </p>
<p>5) Stanford - like Princeton but with more of a California-Aerodynamics-and-Engineering-Money Pride. </p>
<p>4) Wesleyan - definitely liberal; when Obama came to speak, one columnist said it was “like the Pope coming to Notre Dame” and, it’s located in the more populous (warmer) southern portion of New England.</p>
<p>3) Duke - I guess Durham counts as a city.</p>
<p>2) Yale - definitely near a city</p>
<p>1) Brown - liberal and a stone’s throw from the state capitol; not as sports-centric as the others on your list but I guess its still a sort of We’re-Ivy-And-Your’re-Not Pride.</p>
<p>Based on what you’ve said and what schools you like here’s my custom list for you!</p>
<p>Reach:
Yale
Princeton
Stanford (if you want to go west)
Dartmouth
Brown
Duke</p>
<p>Lower Reach
Northwestern
Rice
Georgetown
WashU</p>
<p>Match
Emory
Vanderbilt
Tufts</p>
<p>Low Match
BC
Colgate?
Wake?</p>
<p>Safeties
Pick some.</p>
<p>I also personally like Pomona and Amherst as far as smaller schools go as they are small schools within bigger communities.</p>
<p>Thanks, johnwesley! The order you put the list in is kind of the order they are in my mind right now. I would actually put Dartmouth higher on the list, though, just because I think the idea of sophomore summer is great. Would it be a good idea to maybe take Davidson off my list? I am not planning on visiting unless I get accepted, because it is pretty far from where I am.</p>
<p>Also thank you to slipper1234. I have a couple of questions…
As for Northwestern, do they have a strong core curriculum? I keep hearing that I would like Northwestern, but I don’t think I would like it if its core curriculum were too strict.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about Rice. Is it conservative, as its location would imply?</p>
<p>I also don’t know much about WashU.</p>
<p>As for Georgetown, I told myself I wouldn’t go to a school in DC, and isn’t it leaning toward conservative?</p>
<p>I’ve heard that Vanderbilt has a very cliquey sort of Greek atmosphere. Does anyone know if that is true?</p>
<p>Is Colgate conservative or liberal? Where is the nearest city (it’s in a small town, correct)?</p>
<p>Northwestern has distribution requirements, but not a core. UChicago has a core, as does Columbia. At NW, you have to take two one-quarter classes in each of these six areas:
* Area I - Natural Sciences
* Area II - Formal Studies
* Area III - Social and Behavioral Sciences
* Area IV - Historical Studies
* Area V - Ethics and Values
* Area VI - Literature and Fine Arts
There’s also a foreign language and writing requirement.</p>
<p>But considering you’re pre-med but looking to major in something non-science, and are “interested in a wide variety of other things,” I don’t see these requirements as being that hard to fulfill.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>BTW I don’t go to NW. Just looked it up online! Here’s the link: [Degree</a> Requirements - Undergraduate Advising – Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University](<a href=“http://www.weinberg.northwestern.edu/advising/degree/]Degree”>http://www.weinberg.northwestern.edu/advising/degree/)</p>
<p>
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<p>The truth is, if Davidson were the only college on your list that accepted you, you’d find a way to love it. But, it’s the smallest college on your list, not particularly known for its liberalism (it gets fairly high marks from the conservative, “Choosing A College” book) and is located in a rural part of the country. I’m just sayin’…</p>