Help!! I Have No Idea Where to Go to College!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>What I'm looking for in a college
• A college whose main priority is education
• A college that isn't very focused on athletics, but has a healthy life style
• A college that will help me reach my potential and get me into one of the top med-schools in the country
• A college that is not extremely conservative
• I am Catholic, so I wouldn't mind going to a Catholic school, but definitely isn't neccesary
• I'd be willing to go anyway in the country for the most part, excluding a few states.
• If I must, I'll take the SAT I & II Tests</p>

<p>Here are my stats</p>

<p>Objective:</p>

<p>SAT I: Did not take.
ACT: 32-Composite, 32-English, 33-Math, 29-Reading, 34-Science, 8-Writing
SAT II: Did not take.
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1 out of 16
AP (place score in parenthesis): Not available at my school.
IB (place score in parenthesis): Not available at my school.
Senior Year Course Load: Physics, Anatomy, Senior Math, Problems of Democracy, Spanish II (highest foreign language we can take at our school, Trigonometry (Dual Credit), English Composition I & II (Dual Credit), Introduction to Philosophy (Dual Credit), Calculus I (Dual Credit), U.S. History: after 1866 (Dual Credit).
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): State FFA Championships, Meats Judging State Champion</p>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): FFA (President), Track & Field (Varsity), Sunday School (CCD) Teacher, Meats Judging (Captain/Creator of team at my school), Drama Club, Football (Varsity), Parliamentary Prodecure (Chair/Captain), Basketball (Varsity), FBLA (Treasurer).
Job/Work Experience: Lifeguard/CPO trainee at the local pool during the summer. Work on my dad's farm all year round.
Volunteer/Community service: Teaching Sunday School to 5-7 year-olds every week during the school year, mowing the lawn for my local church, making benches and various woodwork for the community in my shop classes.
Summer Activities: Shadowing physicians and other medical professionals, WORK, church trips to rallies, basketball camps.
Essays: CommonApp essay based on living and working on a farm my entire life.
Teacher Recommendation: Will have my English teacher and Ag teacher write these.
Counselor Rec: Might be a little weak. Will have a new guidance counselor this year who is from out of state. Has my old counselor's contact information, however.
Additional Rec: None.
Interview: No interview so far.</p>

<p>Other</p>

<p>Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Psychology (with pre-med)
State: North Dakota (on an Indian Reservation)
School Type: Rural with no more than 80 kids in my high school.
Ethnicity (Hispanic Y/N/not reported): None
Race(s) (AI/AN, Asian, AA, NH/PI, White, not reported): White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: around $100,000
Hooks/tips (URM, athlete, legacy, 1st gen, etc.): underrepresented state and social area.</p>

<p>If any has any suggestions for me on where I should explore it would be greatly appreciated. </p>

2

<p>You left off the major factor of what your family plans to pay each year. I think you should also do some thinking if about some other factors you would like in a college so you can narrow it down. </p>

3

<p>How far are you willing to travel and what sort of weather do you like? Coming from North Dakota can help you a bit as a geographic hook if you were to head east. So many colleges we visited like to have all states represented and yours is often missing.</p>

<p>For med school, practically any school will work. It will all depend on what YOU do at your college. YOU will have to get a good GPA while participating in activities you like, etc.</p>

<p>Are you wanting more of a rural school or do you want to experience the city life?</p>

<p>Would you like a smaller Liberal Arts College with smaller classes or would you prefer something larger with oodles of research options?</p>

<p>A healthy lifestyle will be available at any college and will be popular among some students, but not so much with others.</p>

<p>There are many, many places people can suggest, but if you narrow it down a little more, it would be easier.</p>

<p>I can say my middle son (pre-med, Behavioral and Cognitive Science major who isn’t into Greek life or sports) loves the University of Rochester in NY. It’s a medium sized school in the city, but with its own campus.</p>

<p>U Pittsburgh ended up being his second choice. It’s a large school and is more urban as it doesn’t really have a designated campus. It also might have more of a sports love than you are looking for.</p>

<p>We visited Franklin & Marshall and he liked it. It’s a Liberal Arts College with its own campus in a smaller city.</p>

<p>Juniata would be a Liberal Arts College that is good with pre-med, but in a more rural location.</p>

<p>You could also consider places like Georgetown in DC, WUSTL in St Louis or, well, oodles of other places.</p>

4

<p>Also, have you got a Fiske Guide to read so you can form some better opinion of what you’d like in a college. Have you looked over the Jesuit colleges in areas you are interested in? I see you have another thread asking about Yale and JHU. You are an unusual enough candidate that you could apply anywhere even though your ACT is a little low, but you will have to take SAT II for those and a lot of other ones that give good aid.</p>

<p>ps please don’t caplock next time</p>

5

<p>Macalester and Carleton in MN. Grinnell in IA. Creighton (Catholic) in Nebraska. St. John’s in MN (Catholic).</p>

6

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<p>???
I think you are confused when you say a college that you want a school that isn’t focused on athletics. Schools are not focused on athletics during class time. Class time is class time. Profs arent’ focused on sports. Profs are focused on the materials that they are presenting. The fact that a school may have some successful sports teams is a NON-ISSUE in the classroom. </p>

<p>Colleges do not “get you into a top med school.” BTW…all US MD schools are EXCELLENT. They are all awesome. Getting into any ONE of them is an achievement. To get into any of them requires top grades and strong MCAT scores…and getting those are up to YOU…not the school. </p>

<p>Unless the school is a bible college or maybe BYU…none are extremely conservative. Most univs are moderate to liberal…even in red states. </p>

<p>How much will your family pay each year? </p>

7

<p>If you are that focused on med school, consider a 6-year med program. It seems like you don’t care what you major in.</p>

<p>Also, I’m curious - you live on an Indian Reservation but are not Native American? I didn’t think that was allowed, unless perhaps your parents work in the community?</p>

8

<p>C’mon mom. It is not about the classroom. Alabama is one of those schools where campus identity revolves around the sports teams (football specifically) Almost every DI school is going to be like that unless they just have really bad teams.</p>

<p>Mom is right though. Very few conservative colleges anywhere. BYU, Liberty, Hillsdale…maybe a few more. Were you concerned about politically conservative, religiously conservative or both?</p>

<p>She also knows a lot more about med school, so listen to her on that.</p>

<p>How about Gonzaga? Jesuit school. Basketball is big, but they don’t even have a football team.</p>

<p>Fordham might be a good choice. </p>

<p>Are you interested more in staying in the Plains or getting further from home?</p>

9

<p>@BrownParent‌ my parents make roughly $80,000 a year but WILL NOT pay for my college. They believe that I should pay for my own college since I’ll be 18 and some other factor go into it. So I think I could qualify for some financial aid at school who have good financial aid, but I am not afraid to take out student loans.</p>

10

<p>@Creekland‌ the East actually appeals a lot to me. I’d be willing to travel anywhere in the country because I’d come home maybe during Christmas during the school year. As for a campus, I want one that is large enough where you don’t know every single person on campus, but still are a person there and not a number. I want my school to have a strong campus life so I don’t think I’d like to go to a school that focuses more on the city around it than the campus itself (like Columbia).</p>

11

<p>OP are you aware of how much loans you are eligible for? Unless you have been researching it, it’s likely less than you think unless parents will cosign (which I’d guess they won’t).</p>

12

<p>@mom2collegekids‌ When I say I don’t want a school focused on athletics, I mean I don’t want the biggest thing on campus every weekend to be the football tailgate where everyone is heading to sports games and that’s the main idea of down time. </p>

13

<p>@rhandco‌ This is a big misconception about Indian Reservations, other races can live on them, they just don’t get the benefits Natives do. For the reason I live on one, the family farm was located on an area that turned into an Indian Reservation.</p>

14

<p>Well that is unfortunate indeed. Especially the part about their income falling from 100k to 80k in a day. That might be your parents attitude but the colleges will expect your parents to share in the cost until you are 24 and your aid will be based on their income.</p>

<p>Only a fool is cavalier about loans. But all you will be able to take per year is:</p>

<p>fr 5,500
soph 6,500
jr 7,500
sr 7,500</p>

<p>Any other loan has to be taken by the parent.</p>

<p>You should look very carefully at colleges that will give you substantial merit aid. You can get full tuition, I believe, from University of Alabama–that would be guaranteed. </p>

<p><a href=“http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/”>http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>In competitive (not guaranteed) merit situations, your scores will matter a lot–it means free money to you. So you should take the SAT to see if you score higher. Did you take the PSAT?</p>

15

<p>Every Medical School in the United States is a good Med School. </p>

<p>When I read your post I instantly thought of St. Bonaventure University in New York. It is near the Seneca Nation and has a good relationship with the reservation. </p>

<p>They have working relationships with George Washington University School of Medicine and the State University of New York UpState Medical University, and Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine that are not too common. </p>

<p><a href=“Pre-Medicine Programs | St. Bonaventure University”>http://www.sbu.edu/academics/schools/arts-and-sciences/departments-majors-minors/pre-medicine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/st-bonaventure-university-2817/photos”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/st-bonaventure-university-2817/photos&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

16

<p>Holy Cross should be added and probably Rice (although test scores are on the low end, presumably URM helps) and some of the elite DIII schools</p>

<p>but really without going through the Net Price calculator with your family’s numbers it would be crazy to put together a list - the maximum reasonable debt has to be factored in (in your case smaller, due to med school plans) unless you plan on going through ROTC or some other way of paying for college and med school</p>

17

<p>@TempeMom‌ I wasn’t ever really informed on that there was a limit to the amount of student loans one could take out. So you’re saying if I want to go to an institution with a tuition $40,000 + I’m screwed?</p>

18

<p>I’m saying there is a limit of $5500 the first year and not much more in following years (unless parents cosign or are apply and are rejected which gets you a bit more.) Also the colleges expect your parents to contribute if they have the means (as defined by the college not your parents) whether or not your parents actually will. </p>

<p>Therefore, if your parents will not contribute (or not much) you need to make financials a priority in looking at schools. You need to go to the sticky and look at places with good merit scholarships. Not every school has them or in the amount you will need. </p>

19

<p>@TempeMom‌ okay thank you. I’ll look around there for some schools, or I might just end up going to an in-state university. For my back up plan, I’ll just get married so my financial aid will be ridiculously better.</p>

20

<p>Always apply to schools you’re interested in. Net price calculators are not the end all. As was alluded to by others, sometimes being a student from North Dakota going to school in NY, VA, KY, or wherever can be a hitch to get you some more aid. Applying really lets you know what it will cost and lets you weigh your options. Some schools have a $60,000 a year total cost price tag but their students typically pay a lot less than state schools with all the scholarships and aid the school awards. There is no exact formula–each school is unique. </p>