<p>Help!!! My parents/teachers are pressuring me to start looking at schools to apply next fall, I need help form people that have gone through the process and can give me a realistic opinion on where to apply. I want to major in international relations and minor in business. I apologize in advance if I post in different forums but I am not sure in where it belongs. </p>
<p>Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Mexican
Weighted GPA: 3.7
Frosh Year 3.0
Sophomore 3.9
Junior 4.1
Class Size: 1300
Class Rank: N/A
Spanish SAT II: 760
US History SAT II: 750 (projected in practice)
Lit SAT II: 680 (projected in practice)
SAT: 1900/2400 *will re-take in June</p>
<p>AP Courses
English Lit
English Lang (3/4 projected practice)
Spanish Lan (5)
Spanish Lit (4)
US History (4/5 projected practice)
Euro
Econ
Stats
Psychology</p>
<p>Community College Classes</p>
<p>Poli-Sci 103 (94%)</p>
<p>EC</p>
<p>2 years Internships
Community Resource Center<br>
Democratic Party
(100+ hours both)</p>
<p>4 years School Leadership program
Frosh Class Treasurer
Senior Class Treasurer
ASB Comm. of Assemblies/Homecoming
300+ Community service at school</p>
<p>3 years Varsity Lacrosse
1 year JV </p>
<p><em>Also, I think that the fact that I attend a all white school has some weight at the admissions departments.</em></p>
<p>We need some more information along the lines of: what size school would you like, what geographic area, what atmosphere (Div. 1 sports to play or root for, Greek life or no, urban/rural...). Will finances be an issue; do you know whether/how much your family will qualify for need-based financial aid?</p>
<p>Where do you live now? Have you visited any colleges/will you be able to?</p>
<p>With more information along these lines, we can better help you identify schools.</p>
<p>It is not too early to look into schools. Many juniors have already visited colleges while these were in session. The list of questions to consider suggested by jmmom is a good start.<br>
Another issue is whether you want to stay in your state or go away. In-state tuition is usually more affordable for residents.</p>
<p>It's not too early to start. Have you tried the College Board MatchMaker site? You get to plug in all your grades, SATs, likes, dislikes, geography and you get a list of reach, match and safety schools. It's a good starting point. You play lacrosse. Do you want to play D1 lacrosse? Your coach should be able to give you a list of all schools.</p>
<p>Also take a peek at the Princeton Review Counselor-O-Matic on their website. ALWAYS take everything with a block of salt. But it may bring up schools that would fit your criteria that you didn't even know about!</p>
<p>UCSD has a young but amazing IR program. I saw you were looking at UCLA, Stanford, Georgetown SFS, Columbia & Princeton... maybe some others... I would add Dartmouth - strong on IR and I would add Yale - which just last month rec'd an amazing gift for their International Relations dept. GL!</p>
<p>wbravo, parents are unlikely to "give you" suggestions unless you give us some more information about what you're looking for in a college. Fit is everything. If we don't know what you'd like then tossing out names is like throwing popcorn to the pigeons. </p>
<p>Statistics can be misleading, both positive and negative. Yours are good but you also have a couple of potentially very good hooks -- being Mexican and playing lacrosse.</p>
<p>It's also important to know your family's situation regarding financial aid, i.e., will you need it? If yes, will you qualify for need based aid or will you also require merit aid? It's critical to establish this BEFORE making a list as there's no point in applying to colleges that you can't afford to attend.</p>
<p>So please tell us more about you. I assure you you will get plenty of advice. :)</p>
<p>i understand, momrath
im looking for a school on either coast, medium to large, aid is not a factor. I have exelent recs and am going to devote all summer to admissions letters</p>
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<p><em>Also, I think that the fact that I attend a all white school has some weight at the admissions departments.</em><<</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Okay, wbravo. I'll bite, even though I don't feel we have enough info yet to help you identify the best possible schools for you. Promise me that you'll react to the suggestions :), so we get an idea of what sounds good to you and what sounds not so interesting (and why). That will help us fine tune our suggestions.</p>
<p>Some reach ideas: Georgetown, Johns Hopkins (if you want to play lax, it is very big there as you may know; but I have no idea if you have the interest or are the calibre to paly there).</p>
<p>Some match or safety ideas: American U, Santa Clara U.</p>
<p>When I hear more about your thoughts on college atmosphere, whether you want to play sports... I and others could have more suggestions.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Also, I think that the fact that I attend a all white school has some weight at the admissions departments
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</p>
<p>Don't make this assumption that being an URM is going to be enough to get you admitted. The URM pool as a whole is stepping up thier game and is becoming more competive with many bringing similar scores as their non-urm counterparts (even these students are not shoo-ins and are being rejected from top schools).</p>
<p>How does your 1900/2400 breadk out in terms of math, CR and writing?</p>
<p>What is your unweighted GPA (as selective schools are going to expect that you are taking the most rigerous courses your school offers)?</p>
<p>jmmom: thank you for the initial suggestions, i like both schools a lot and I am applying early to both, as for lacrosse i am not at the level in which i could be recruited but i think i can walk on almost any non-top 10 program.</p>
<p>wbravo, make sure you understand early admission vs. early decision. You can't apply early to two schools if they are binding early admission programs...you might also look at Northeastern, good business school and they give pretty good merit aid. Also look at George Washington, excellent IR, but they are pricey....</p>