Help an international, please? [RECOMMENDATIONS]

<p>** General Info*[ul]
[<em>] Gender: F
[</em>] Location: South-East Asia, ORM
[<em>] Ethnicity: Mixed race, still South-East Asian though
[</em>] College Class Year: 2016
[<em>] High School Type: sends many grads to top schools
[</em>] Income Bracket: High
[<em>] Will apply for financial aid: Yes, probably won’t get it though
[</em>] Interests: Anthropology, Sociology, Art History, History, Political Science
[/ul]
**Objective:
[ul]
[<em>] ACT: 32 Composite, 28E, 33M, 36R, 31S
[</em>] SAT II: Math 1 750, Physics 760, Chemistry 720
[<em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): IDK, we don’t have GPA. Should be 3.9+
[</em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Doesn’t rank, according to counselor.
[<em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): European History (4), Comp. Gov (4)
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: A Levels for Physics, Math, Chemistry, Economics. APs in WH, USH and Psych.
[<em>] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National astronomy awards, Asia Pacific Astronomy Olympiad Honorable Mention
[/ul]
**Subjective:
[ul]
[</em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Science Club (Secretary 2008, Vice-chairperson 2009), Astronomy Club (Treasurer 2010), Current Affairs Society (Part of newspaper team)
[<em>] Job/Work Experience: Volunteered at a museum in 2009; Planning to volunteer there again soon
[</em>] Volunteer/Community service: Part of concert organizing team
[<em>] Summer Activities: International Year of Astronomy Holiday Workshops (2009)
[/ul]
*
Desired College Characteristics:**[ul]
[</em>] Location type: Anything really
[<em>] Size: Small (Under 2,500), Medium Small (2,500 - 5,000)
[</em>] Area: East Coast, West Coast
[/ul]</p>

<p>I want to go to a small college so places like Cornell are out. I’m more interested in LACs, so do recommend some!</p>

<p>Thank you and a very Happy New Year to you!</p>

<p>[National</a> Liberal Arts Rankings - Best Colleges - Education - US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/liberal-arts-rankings]National”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/liberal-arts-rankings)</p>

<p>check the top 50</p>

<p>[College</a> Search - College Confidential](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/]College”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/)</p>

<p>All schools love full pay students with great stats.
If you are flying in from Southeast Asia and going home at least once a year, do you want to be near a major international airport, or are you willing to fly in to LA, transfer to a NYC flight, and then get on a 5 hr bus ride to another destination?<br>
My suggestions are:
Reed, Portland, Oregon
Pomona, Claremont, CA
Barnard College (you will be in a small college of a bigger university, but able to take any Columbia classes in your field.)</p>

<p>Thank you, marymac.</p>

<p>I’ve pretty much decided that I want to apply for Swarthmore and Amherst but I need to expand my search!</p>

<p>Bowdoin college
Bryn Mawr College
Georgetown College
Northwestern University
Pomona College
Yale University</p>

<p>Northwestern, Georgetown and Yale aren’t LACs and they all have undergraduate enrollment that exceeds 5,000 students.</p>

<p>If you like Amherst and Swarthmore, consider Williams, and Pomona. These are all reaches. Matches would be Middlebury, Bowdoin, Vassar, Davidson and Barnard. Safe options might be Colby, Bates, and Hamilton. (I wouldn’t choose Reed for someone who is keen on Amherst.) Small universities with a LAC-like feel might be Brown and Wesleyan.</p>

<p>M’s Mom, I am well aware of Georgetown, NU and Yale’s sizes. Regardless, the OP merely stated she did not want a school that was large (Cornell hads 14,000 undergrads). </p>

<p>With 5,000-8,000 undergrads, I do not consider any of those universities to be large. With 5,200 undergrads, Yale has in fact fewer undergrads than Brown (6,000 undergrads) and Georgetown, with 7,000 undergrads is not much larger. And the OP did not ask only for LACs, she merely asked us to include LACs.</p>

<p>I forgot to mention the University of Chicago.</p>

<p>Pomona or Claremont McKenna would give you the same consortium advantages you get from Amherst or Swarthmore, but with reduced travel time from SE Asia as well as much better weather.</p>

<p>Alexandre, the OP gave her criteria quite clearly: “Size: Small (Under 2,500), Medium Small (2,500 - 5,000).” You are welcome to ignore it.</p>

<p>Thanks for all your replies.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I’m interested to know why you put Middlebury as a match.</p>

<p>An admissions officer from Middlebury visited my school and I found out that out of 32 applicants from my country, only 2 were accepted. That would seem much like a reach to me!</p>

<p>Thanks for your comprehensive breakdown of the different schools. I will look into them.</p>

<p>“Alexandre, the OP gave her criteria quite clearly: “Size: Small (Under 2,500), Medium Small (2,500 - 5,000).” You are welcome to ignore it.”</p>

<p>True. I gnored it in the case of Georgetown and Northwestern, though Yale first the bill, albeit at the margin. My other three schools all fall well within the OP’s parameters. </p>

<p>You are also guilty of ignoring it. With over 6,000 undergrads, Brown is also larger than “medium”.</p>

<p>Oh yes, I forgot one very important thing. I do not want to attend a women’s college possibly with the exception of Barnard.</p>

<p>I would suggest Mt. Holyoke except that you did say that you don’t want to attend a women’s college. As a poster mentioned above, Reed could be a possible choice too.</p>

<p>Thanks w1a9l9n3ut for replying! Good luck on your college search too!</p>

<p>Middlebury is a match IF you are able to pay full freight. (Check their Common Data Set.) If you are seeking financial aid, it is a reach, as is every other school listed here. But there is another factor here, which ought to be mentioned: Colleges (especially small schools like Middlebury) want to admit students from a variety of schools to increase their name recognition, so even if every student in your school could pay and had grades and test scores like yours, they would not all be admitted. Two out of 32 is probably pretty comparable to what would happen at a top American high school where all the kids in the top 20% of the class are highly competitive and tend to apply to the same schools. </p>

<p>I had assumed that you were one out of only a few in your school that would apply to Middlebury (or any of these other LACs). If that is not true, then you will find you are being compared to the other students in your school. </p>

<p>This is one of the reasons that students are encouraged to apply to schools that may not be on everyone else’s radar screen: The midwestern LACs, for example, if you live on the east or west coast or are an international student seeking financial aid. Likewise, if you are Asian, the midwest is one area of the country where Asians are still under-represented and therefore have a bit of a boost.</p>

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<p>Your assumption holds true. Not many people in my school have heard of LACs, let alone apply for them.</p>

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

<p>Sorry, I misread your earlier post - 32 in the country, not in your school.</p>

<p>Pardon me, but how would that affect what you suggested?</p>

<p>St. Lawrence University (NY)
Hobart & William Smith (NY)
Wheaton College (MA)
Connecticut College (CT)
Sarah Lawrence College (NY)
College of the Holy Cross (MA)
Alfred University (NY) Not an LAC, but a Regional University, very nice hidden gem! </p>

<p>Good Luck to you!</p>

<p>Thanks for the recommendations, SLUMOM. </p>

<p>However, as I am non-religious, I wouldn’t apply to Wheaton and College of the Holy Cross. </p>

<p>I will consider the rest though I’m looking for more selective schools.</p>