<p>I am new to this site, so sorry if I posted this in the wrong place! I need help finding the right college. Here are my stats.</p>
<p>Location: Nebraska
Ethnicity: White
ACT: 35
SAT: 2340
GPA: 4.0 UW, something high UW (have taken most rigorous classes offered to me)
This sounds strange, but I feel if I reveal my course load, it will be easy to find the school I go to
Class Rank: 3 / 1800
I feel that my EC's, volunteering, essays, recs, etc are competitive for top schools.</p>
<p>What I would like in a college --
-small to medium in size of student body
-preferably warm weather (if it has cold weather and I love the school, then cold weather is fine)
-nice, green campus
-near a big city
-diverse student body
-preferably a couple of merit scholarships available</p>
<p>So far I like Stanford, Pomona, Wash U, and Rice.</p>
<p>If I could get some financial aid from a school that would help my family a lot. We're probably willing to spend $25,000 a year
Thanks for your time!</p>
<p>What’s your academic interest? For example I’d take Wash U or Stanford over the others in Bio/Pre-med, but that doesn’t necessarily hold true for other majors</p>
<p>I plan on going to medical school, probably going to be a Biology/Psychology/Neuroscience Major. Do you have any other schools I should look at?</p>
<p>Make sure to consider LACs - they can be a strong option for premed (I sound like a broken record because I say this a lot). LACs tend to be more collaborative than competitive, and offer lots of support from professors. This is really valuable, especially for med school applications. They can also be less expensive, but this depends on the school and your financial situation.</p>
<p>How about University of Michigan? They have a good reputation as a competitive medical school. (top 10 I think).
You’ll like Ann Arbor. It’s a great college city. </p>
<p>Why not UNL though? Because of your high competitiveness, you can easily get a full ride scholarship. And UNO Medical Center is #6 in the world for Primary Medical Care according to US news & world report!</p>
<p>University of Virginia - warm weather, beautiful town, strong sciences and has the Jefferson scholarship (full tuition, although very competitive)</p>
<p>I agree about going to UNL if you are planning to go to medical school. Keep undergrad costs as low as possible considering how expensive medical school is.</p>
<p>UAB (birmingham al) would give you a full ride if nmf… warm weather, 11k undergrads, urban campus, town with airport, has a neuroscience major, great sci/tech honors program geared for research…, very strong for sciences, campus surrounded by about 7 hospitals for shadowing and volunteering opportunities…home of a top medical school (multiple programs in top 10) think ranked 27th overall for med school)
[UAB</a> - The University of Alabama at Birmingham](<a href=“http://www.uab.edu%5DUAB”>http://www.uab.edu)
[University</a> of Alabama at Birmingham - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Alabama_at_Birmingham]University”>University of Alabama at Birmingham - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>us and world reports ranks high for race interactions and student happiness…26% AA, about 6% greek involvement</p>
<p>Might look at Duke-great academics, strong med school acceptance rate and warm weather. Also agree about LAC’S-might look at Holy Cross(don’t have to be religious)-HC has a beautiful campus 1 hour from Boston and offers good financial aid. Holy Cross has a great pre-med program(alums include Nobel Prize winner, several Meical school Presidents) and a new science facility. The Holy Cross and Duke websites are very informative.</p>
<p>Yeah I agree with par72 about Duke, except that the merit scholarships are extremely, extremely, extremely selective. Also, kinda off topic, but you have 1800 kids in your class? That is ridiculous.</p>
<p>If I could get some financial aid from a school that would help my family a lot. We’re probably willing to spend $25,000 a year</p>
<p>Have your parents use the Net Price Calculators on SEVERAL different schools sites to find out if you QUALIFY for aid. Wanting aid isn’t enough. Your schools may look at your family’s income and decide that your family should pay $40k per year…or maybe $50k per year. Schools that give a lot of aid do NOT give a lot of aid to those that don’t qualify for lots of aid. </p>
<p>Since you’re a likely NMSF/F, be sure to apply to a couple of schools that give large merit for that…those can be your financial safeties.</p>
<p>These can provide safeties if you want alternatives to University of Nebraska - Lincoln (whose list price cost of attendance of about $17,000 should be well within your budget).</p>
<p>NB1, I think you’d be a reasonable contendor for any college in the country, so you should concentrate on what you want. Of course there’s no guarantee so make sure you have a good balance of reach/match/safety.</p>
<p>The most important point is to clarify your financial situation. Most of the top selective colleges and universities cost around $50 to $60,000 a year. If you qualify for NEED based aid (and you get admitted) top schools will usually make it work for you financially. However, if you do not qualify for any or enough need based aid, you either have to ask your parents take out loans or find colleges that offer MERIT aid. Most of the selective colleges on either coast do not offer merit aid, period. But they are generous with need based aid. So you first step is to know the difference.</p>
<p>If you like Pomona other LACs I’d suggest are Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Kenyon, Davidson, Carleton, Grinnell, Macalester, Rhodes. Many of these are nowhere near a city (though some are) and many get a fair amount of snow, but I’m focusing ambience and general personality. All have excellent academics and very good to excellent sciences and medical school admissions.</p>