Help a homeschooler narrow down her list of colleges to apply to!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm a junior right now, and I currently have nine schools on my list, but I'd like to get it down to 8 (preferrably 6 or 7, though). I'll list my stats, what I want in a college, and the colleges I'm looking at. Also, feel free to suggest other schools that would truly suit me.</p>

<p>STATS
Female, Caucasian, from the Bay Area
Homeschooled since kindergarten, currently taking some courses at a community college in addition to my coursework at home
SAT I: 1510 (790M, 720V)
SAT II: 750 (Chem), 760 (Math IIC), 780 (Writing)
AP: 5's (Chem & Euro)</p>

<p>COURSEWORK
Sophomore:
English 10 (Honors)
European History (AP)
General Chemistry (CC/AP)
Russian 2
Trig/Pre-Calc. (Honors)
Physics</p>

<p>Junior:
English Language (AP)
US History (AP)
Calculus (CC/AP BC)
Cell Biology (CC)
Genetics (CC)
Human Anatomy (CC)
Russian 3
Shakespeare
Economics (one semester)
(also self-studying AP Bio)</p>

<p>Senior (proposed):
English Literature (AP)
US/Comparative Government (AP)
Engineering Physics (CC/AP C)
Human Physiology (CC)
Microbiology (CC)
Russian 4
Statistics (AP)
(maybe another CC calculus class)</p>

<p>EC'S
Independent epidemiology research
Writing a book manuscript with my mom (we'll see where it goes)
Probably going to do some summer research at a local medical school
Teaching a Shakespeare class for homeschoolers
Direction of a summer science day camp for kids (proceeds went to relief efforts for Zambian AIDS orphans)
Probably going to organize a similar science program for local after-school disadvantaged kids
Church choir
AWANA Journey 24-7 Club
Eta Sigma Alpha Homeschool Honor Society
Tutoring biology, chemistry, and math at the community college
Volunteering with a program that matches Russian orphans with adoptive families
Public library volunteer</p>

<p>WHAT I WANT IN A COLLEGE
My ideal college would be small and personal with opportunities to get to know the faculty (like my CC is). On the other hand, I would like the chance to do research at a college/university affiliated with a medical school (anyone know of any colleges with such disparate qualities?!) I plan on majoring in biology/biochem, and I would like the option of double-majoring or minoring in Slavic Studies. My goal is to eventually complete an MD/PhD program (the latter degree being in immunology) and to become an oncologist, likely in the academic arena. I don't want to go to a "science-heavy" school ,per se (i.e., MIT or Caltech), as I love the humanities, but I don't want to compromise my desire to study biology in great depth.</p>

<p>SCHOOLS I'M CONSIDERING
Columbia University
Harvard University
Pomona College
Saint Mary's College of California
Santa Clara University
Stanford University
UC Berkeley
UC San Diego
Yale University</p>

<p>lol, I know it's a wide variety of colleges in terms of what they do/don't offer.</p>

<p>Let me know:
A) if this list is realistic for me,
B) which colleges on the list I shouldn't consider (in terms of admissions and/or academics), and
C) which other colleges I may want to consider</p>

<p>Thanks for your input!</p>

2

<p>Too early to "narrow down!" You might look at Brown and Duke. You could also add another UC or two for safeties, although they don't fit you "ideal" criteria.<br>
You seem like an interesting person. :)</p>

3

<p>bump!!! ;)</p>

4

<p>I would say that all the top ivies are a real reach for you as well as Stanford. But Penn... are matches.</p>

5

<p>Avalon, you have a very nice list of colleges. A few likely matches like Vanderbilt, Tulane, Emory might round out your list, and some merit aid ma be a possiblility at those schools.</p>

6

<p>Other possibilities are Boston College, BU, Tufts, Fordham. Smith would have all kinds of research and special opportunities for you as well.</p>

7

<p>I would definitely suggest that you consider Rice. In terms of your stats, you are definitely a match (READ: You have a good shot, but no guarantee) and might get some merit based aid. Rice only has 2800 undergrads, and student to faculty ratio of 5:1, which is really great. I know you said that it's important to you to have access to your profs, and that seems to be a priority of the Rice administration (this is what Rice's president told me yesterday at his office hours, one more benefit of going to a small school). In terms of opportinites in healthcare and biological research, internships, volunteering, etc., I am not lying when I say that you cannot beat Rice. In addition to to research going on on the campus (which is very easy to get involved in and there are so many projects in so many different fields, you are sure to find SOMETHING that you love), there are a HUGE HUGE HUGE number of opportunites literally across the street in the Texas Medical Center. In case you aren't aware, the texas medical center is basically a city onto itself - 13 hospitals, 2 medical schools, schools of nursing, public health, pharmacy and a whole lot of other stuff. So although Rice doesn't have it's own medical school, you have access to 2! Plus all the other institutions!
We have a really strong Biology and Biochem program, and we offer a whole lot of classes in Slavic studies (there used to be a Slavic Studies major, but they are not enrolling any new majors right now because the program is under review.)
I really think you should check it out, because it seems to really fit a lot of your needs.</p>

<p>One other school to at least read about might be U of Rochester, it's one of the smallest reasearch universities around and they give a lot of merit aid. Case Western also fits your description of a small research university, although I actually didn't like it at all when i visited.</p>

8

<p>My d. is a homeschooler, with a very similar resume to yours (similar, that is, in range and depth, and had 66 college credits when she entered Smith at 16.) She had many, many choices, and chose Smith, where she was awarded their highest academic scholarship, and a research assistantship for her first two years. NONE of the Ivies is going to give you research opportunities in your first two years, or the chance to work one-on-one with faculty in biochemical research. (In fact, we didn't find this at the other LACs either. Note, however, my d. decided to take on a research assistantship in music history, where she helping complete a score for publication of the first opera ever written by a woman, and which will be performed next year as part of the 5-College Opera Consortium.) Smith is smaller than the universities, but one of the largest of the LACs. That, together with the 5-College options, gives it a breadth and depth of offerings and opportunities that are quite rare elsewhere.)</p>

<p>Don't know about Slavic Studies, though (I know folks rave about the Russian Department.)</p>

<p>Anyhow, youll have many fine options to choose from.(You're welcome to write me privately if you'd like to know more about our search as homeschoolers.)</p>

9

<p>Yes, my sister goes to Smith (Stacy on these boards) and loves it. Both Rice and Smith have a lot to offer, but they are very very different places. One intersting thing that Mini's post reminded me of is Smith's STRIDE program, the research assistantship that Mini describes, is quite similar to Rice's Century Scholars program. Programs such as these are a really great opportunity, and one that is quite difficult to replicate at the vast majority of universities (unfortunately!)</p>

<p>One more thing about Rice, and then I will stop my shameless plugs of my school, is that it offers a combined BA/MD program with Baylor College of Medicine. It's arguably the best program of it's kind if that is something that interests you. </p>

<p>Anyway, I also welcome you to write to me with any questions you might have (e-mail in my profile)!</p>

10

<p>I would knock out Santa Clara and St. Mary. </p>

<p>Definitely check out the following schools:</p>

<p>University of Chicago (great little school, awesome research opportunities, affiliated to a top 20 medical school and of course, arguably the best in Slavic Languages/Studies!!!</p>

<p>Also check out the follwing:</p>

<p>Brown Uninversity (yet another smallish school with a strong medical affiliation, good research opportunities and strong Slavic Languages/Studies department)</p>

<p>Dartmouth College (same)</p>

<p>Duke University (same)</p>

<p>Johns Hopkins (same)</p>

<p>Northwestern University (same)</p>

<p>Princeton University (another awesome littleish school with very good medical school placement, great research opportunities and a strong Slavic Language/Studies department).</p>

<p>Stanford University (why isn't it on your list?)</p>

<p>If you don't mind slightly bigger, check out:</p>

<p>Cornell University
University of Pennsylvania.</p>

<p>And if you do not mind much bigger, check out:</p>

<p>University of Michigan-Ann Arbor</p>

11

<p>Boot some of those California schools and consider Rice, Johns Hopkins and U of Chicago.</p>

12

<p>OK, here's an extremely edited and non-abridged compilation of the schools I had originally listed and the ones you all have suggested. Take a look at this list, and let me know which one seem to match my profile and which ones could probably be taken off (and, as always, feel free to add additional questions or comments). I'll def. be e-mailing or PMing some of you.</p>

<p>BC
BU
Brown
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Emory
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Northwestern
Pomona
Rice
Saint Mary's
Smith
Stanford
Tufts
UC San Diego
U. of Chicago
U. of Michigan – Ann Arbor
U. of Pennsylvania
Vanderbilt
Yale University</p>

<p>edit: and UC Berkeley, too! (time to cut this list by 50-66%!)</p>

13

<p>Great initial list. Now you have to do your homework and narrow that list to 8-12 schools. And don't forget Cal-Berkeley!</p>

14

<p>P.S. One of my issues with my college list is my lack of a sufficient number of safeties (i.e., where I'm virtually guaranteed to be accepted). I really like Saint Mary's, which has an eighty-something percent acceptance rate and a 75th percentile SAT score of about 1200, so I think I should get in. I had previously listed Santa Clara, but I'm not terribly enthusiastic about it (it's near San Jose -- where I live -- so I guess that's part of it). If you could identify each of the above schools on the list as "reach", "reach/target", "target", "target/safety", and "safety", that would really clear up things in my mind. Thanks!</p>

15

<p>All right, to do even MORE editing (based on my personal preferences), here's an abridged version of the above list:</p>

<p>BC
BU
Brown
Columbia
Dartmouth
Duke
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Northwestern
Pomona
Rice
Saint Mary's
Smith
Stanford
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UC San Diego
U. of Chicago
U. of Rochester
Yale</p>

16

<p>I think we all forgot to mention Washington University in St. Louis. Excellent school, great medical program and give out lots of merit aid. You should also consider MIT. In its drive to improve its male/female ratio, MIT generally gives women preference. Your list is looking better and better Avalon. But I would drop 2 of the following three schools from your list: Tufts, BC or BU. Of the three, I would keep Tufts.</p>

<p>As far as safeties go, you are virtually guaranteed UC schools and St Mary's.</p>

17

<p>In my opinion (and many, many people on this board will surely disagree), if you are interested in having good relationships with your profs or getting research experience, you might want to eliminate or at least limit the number of large institutions or those that focus mainly on graduate study. This would include, from your above list, Harvard and Johns Hopkins; probably the UCs (though I certainly understand that you need safetys, so you might leave these); and Yale, Brown, Stanford, Duke and Columbia, to a lesser extent.
One of the best ways to compare colleges, in my opinion, is to think of how much they might cost (you won't know exactly until you get fin aid packages, of course), and figure out what you are getting for the extra money at the more expensive schools. Then determine if it's worth it.</p>

18

<p>PS. If you have the opportunity to visit some of these schools, you might do that - it would be a shame to knock a school that you would have loved off your list for one that you hate when you finally see it. Visiting will help you narrow your list immensely.</p>

19

<p>I agree about visiting. Frankly, we were shocked by some of the things we found out when we visited (especially at the Ivies), things we never would have expected nor read about in catalogs, etc., which made my d. cross a bunch of them immediately off her list. These included famous faculty that NEVER teach undergraduates, difficulty and discouragement of study abroad (or extra fees for doing so), large classes, lack of research opportunities in the first two years, and indifferent facilities. The schools seemed to think this was acceptable for, after all, they were Ivies! </p>

<p>Now for the majority of students, it WAS acceptable, and I don't want to belittle what is to be found there by focusing only what isn't. But I also know what the independent academic life of top homeschoolers is like (I counsel more than my share of homeschooling families). Unless you kick the tires, you aren't necessarily going to find the one that is right - for YOU.</p>

20

<p>This advice is soooo helpful. True, I feel a bit apprehensive about the faculty contact (or lack thereof) with students at some colleges (like JHU), and I'd be more likely to consider them for grad/med school. As for the Ivies and their peers (Stanford, Duke, etc.), I also realize that many of them can be stingy when it comes to allowing undergrads to to research (or at least lower division). I may know a couple people at one or two of those places who could likely get me a research position (though probably not for credit), so for now I'm keeping them on my list. Some other schools (i.e., Harvard) I'd (unfortunately) just be applying to to see if I could get in. So here's yet another revision.</p>

<p>Brown
Columbia
Dartmouth
Harvard
Northwestern
Pomona
Rice
Saint Mary's
Smith
Stanford
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UC San Diego
U. of Chicago
U. of Rochester
WUSTL
Yale</p>

<p>Keep the comments comin'!</p>

<p>edit: P.S. Would MIT be too non-undergrad focused for me to consider? Also, which of the above have reputations for cutthroat competition, esp. among pre-meds?</p>