Help a junior narrow down schools!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Please help me narrow down colleges and/or give me suggestions for others</p>

<p>Female
Junior
White
Jewish</p>

<p>School: public, about ~1200 students, small town in MA(although close to NH border), sends students to an Ivy or two every couple years or so.</p>

<p>GPA:
Freshman: 3.45UW, 3.82W
Sophomore: 3.31UW, 3.67W
Junior: 3.56UW, 3.81W
Cumulative: 3.44UW, 3.77W
mostly honors</p>

<p>Senior Schedule:
British Lit Accelerated
Intro to Sociology and Psychology
AP Biology
AP Spanish Language
AP Statistics(online)</p>

<p>SATs:
SAT(superscore): 630 CR, 690M, 640W(essay 8) (retaking in Oct.
SAT II Bio M:650
SAT II Math I being taken on this Saturday</p>

<p>ECs:
GS(since kindergarten, working on Gold Award)
SADD
Relay For Life
Student Council
Powderpuff
Community Service Trip to Louisiana(this April, 31 other students and I each raised $700 to go to Louisiana over spring break to do volunteer work)
Volunteered at hospital last summer
Hopefully getting job this summer</p>

<p>Other:
Recs- I’m considering asking for them from: 1)my GC(he loves me), 2)my Spanish teacher(who I’ve had for Spanish 3H, 4H, and AP next year), 3) my trig teacher from this year</p>

<p>Essay(s): Either about my trip to Louisiana and its effects on me/my life or dealing with my father’s illness and death that occurred throughout most of highschool.</p>

<p>Applying for mucho financial aid</p>

<p>Schools considering:
tufts university
duke university
brown university
amherst college
georgetown university
northeastern university
emory university
lehigh university
vassar college
bucknell university
lafayette college
trinity college
gettysburg college
colgate university
uconn
brandeis university
university of rhode island
university of new hampshire
syracuse university
university of new hampshire
boston college
boston university
university of massachusetts amherst
university of massachustts lowell
university of massachusetts darthmouth</p>

<p>Intended major(s): Economics or international business</p>

<p>Hoping to go to college most anywhere on east coast and with at least one traffic light(unlike my hometown).</p>

<p>I'm looking for 8-10 colleges to apply to preferably (I'm thinking maybe 1-2 reaches,5-7 matches, 2-3 safeties)</p>

2

<p>You may want to take out UConn and Colgate as I believe they are located in pretty rural areas. Also, I think Syracuse and URI can be good with aid. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>It seems like you have too many public schools that look like they're thrown in there for the heck of it. Get rid of some of those. Do you really want to attend all of those UMass campuses? </p>

<p>I'd say your list should be this:</p>

<p>Reach: Tufts, Duke, Brown, Amherst, Emory
Match: Bucknell, Northeastern, Boston University
Safety: Syracuse, UMass Amherst, New Hampshire</p>

<p>That leaves you with 11 schools. Try to apply to more reaches and more safeties while eliminating the matches. For students in financial need, match schools are not the best options. They have small endowments, so they can't give loads of need-based aid, but you won't be academically unique enough to receive merit scholarships. Try to aim for the two extremes on the college food chain.</p>

4

<p>I bet if you make a list of what you want in a school and what you don't want, you will narrow down some of those schools.</p>

5

<p>Easy. Georgetown is the best inter. business school you have listed! next is duke. consider umich for business. the rest are lac's and i don't know anything about those (best engineering schools are mostly D1)</p>

6

<p>I would suggest even fewer than 8-10 schools. I know many people disagree with me and would tell you that you have a good target, I'd say try to narrow it to 5-7 if you can. </p>

<p>Georgetown is solid for what you want to major in. I'll be attending next year and I had similar SAT scores. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about the admissions process with Georgetown. </p>

<p>Of the schools you've listed, Bucknell, Northeastern and BU look like good matches that I think will most likely accept you. Bucknell is probably the most competitive of the three.</p>

7

<p>It sounds like you'd be happy with:
Tufts, Boston U, and Georgetown. Georgetown sounds a good match to your prospective major, Tufts is probably still a reach, but they would prize your volunteer work, and Boston U is a very good school in a city that would be the exact opposite of your hometown. Also, I've heard BU has a very large/active Jewish community, and a lot of my Jewish friends chose to apply there this year. So that may be important aspect for you, if you're very religious. </p>

<p>Those are about the only three I can comment on. Make sure you like the safety school you pick, but don't feel compelled to pick too many safeties. I chose 4 safeties, when I could've just applied to 2 and chosen one more match and reach.</p>

<p>It may help if you go through your list and mock-explain to someone the positives and negatives in each school. If you can't explain a lot of reasons why you like a school, it might be a good school, but maybe not for you. Some will weed themselves out.</p>

<p>And 8 sounds like a great number. Good luck. Try to narrow it down to at least 10-12 by the end of the summer so that you won't miss any early scholarship or priority deadlines.</p>