Help finding a good college fit? :)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi. So, I'm kind of starting my actual college search and I was hoping you guys could help me :). I'm from Ohio, but I don't really have any restrictions as to where I could go. I'm looking more for a prestigious school/a school with a good reputation. I'd like to go to the best school I can, but obviously I do need a few safeties. Some of the schools I'm interested in so far are: UChicago, Vanderbilt, Cornell, Emory, Tulane, Brown, Notre Dame, and Rice. My ultimate dream school would be Stanford or Yale, but, you know, they've got the whole super selectivity thing going, ha.</p>

<p>I'm only a junior, but here are my stats so far:
1st ACT: English (29), Math (30), Reading (34), Science (28) -- Composite: 30.
SAT: took my first official SAT on Saturday, but my PSAT Scores are: Verbal (600), Math (720), Writing (640) -- Total: 196; but I've taken prep classes and I'm sure this has increased.
GPA: 3.96, and I go to a prestigious high school that stresses writing, so my essay should be pretty good.
ECs:
- sports: softball 3 years, basketball 1 year
-academic: mock trial 2 years, Latin competition (where I've won a few awards), SUAT Team (selective technology team) 2 years
-clubs: classics club (Latin) for 3 years (co-historian this year), EARTH club 2 years
-service: 1 mission trip, many service projects through my youth group, and hopefully volunteering at a hospital over the summer
AP/Honors Classes:
-AP Latin 5
-AP environmental science
-AP Psych
-honors math 4 years
-honors social studies
-honors critical thinking (an essay writing class)
-honors biology
-& honors physics</p>

<p>Finally, I would have taken more AP/Honor classes, but I'm tripling up on sciences next year so that I'm more prepared for my core classes in college, since I'm planning on doing something in the pre-med track.</p>

<p>Sorry for the long post, and thanks for any suggestions :)</p>

2

<p>What is your budget? Are your parents able to afford anything you want, or will you need Financial Aid? (If you think you need financial aid–do you know if your parents will qualify for financial aid?)</p>

3

<p>The second key question is–what area(s) of study are you interested in?</p>

4

<p>Is that GPA weighted or unweighted? </p>

<p>Take a look at the Common Data Set for each school you are interested in to get a better sense of your chances for admission. </p>

<p>Since you say you are pre-med, I assume you are interested in the sciences? Bio or Chem?</p>

<p>Is it fair to say that you are only looking at schools in urban areas? That seems to be the common characteristic among those you’ve selected so far. Any other criteria?</p>

5

<p>I overlooked the pre-med notation–sorry–but should we assume sciences of some sort as your major, or something else? And the money angle is even more important if you’ll be going on to med school…so just let us know if there are unlimited funds or if you need to stay within a budget. You don’t want much undergrad debt if you’re going to med school.</p>

6

<p>*since I’m planning on doing something in the pre-med track.</p>

<p>*</p>

<p>What will your likely major be? Bio? Chem? Something in the Humanities?</p>

<p>Much is going to depend on how much your parents will pay. Have you talked to your parents about how much they’ll spend? If you don’t know, ask them.</p>

7

<p>gpa: unweighted
money: my parents say they’re okay paying for wherever I decide to go, but if a good school accepts me or would offer me money, it’d be beneficial
major: I’m interested in chemistry more than biology. I talked to my school councilor however, and she said I should pick a major that I can fall back on in case I decide not to go on to med school, so I’ve been thinking about studying something like environmental engineering. Any suggestions about that?</p>

8

<p>*and she said I should pick a major that I can fall back on in case I decide not to go on to med school, so I’ve been thinking about studying something like environmental engineering. Any suggestions about that? *</p>

<p>My son is pre-med and his major is Chemical Engineering…so he would have something to fall back on in case he changed his mind. So, you’re idea sounds fine. :)</p>

<p>What else do you want in a school outside of academics?</p>

9

<p>Sorry for the late response, I’ve had exams to study for all week!<br>
Academics are definitely my main concern, but intramural softball would be a nice additive. I’ve used collegeboard’s search engine, but there’s really no way to tell how good a school is unless I go search them all.</p>