Help me find a fit please?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello! I just joined CC. I am a rising senior, and I am having trouble finding a college fit. Everything seems so good on the website, and for everything I have hear horror stories, so I am really lost. </p>

<p>I do not care if it's "brand name" schools, I just want a school that will prepare me the most. </p>

<p>I am looking for a a college which has a strong academic, with generally and intelligent student body, but not cut throat competition or really pretentious people, with a lot of resources (with councilors, internships, etc.), and generally small class sizes, a largely 4 year graduation rate. Preferably a college that doesn't weed out students or have grade deflation, but I think would be able to handle it. This is not important, but I come from a high school that emphasizes social justice, and really like that aspect. I would like to be able to succeed in the college, so I am looking for a place where I can kinda be in the top.
I am from California, so I am the most comfortable with the West Coast, but I am really fine with going anywhere.
I would also like a place that could provide a lot of scholarships, but I don't think I could qualify for financial need, so it would have to be merit based. </p>

<p>I want to major in biology, and eventually go into medicine, but I would like to take a bunch of different classes in college just for the learning. </p>

<p>If you could suggest schools like this at different rages of difficulties - reach, safe, match, I would really appreciate it. </p>

<p>If my stats help, I have had all A's except one B (only for one semester in AP World), and I have taken around 5 honors/AP's each year. I am a VP for a school club, debate captain, volunteer quite a bit, have a job, and dance. 33 ACT, but I am taking it again this weekend. 780 Math Sat, 710 Bio (might retake it), and I will be taking Chem and Lit in October. </p>

<p>Thank you guys so much, I appreciate your time!!! </p>

2

<p>How much in merit aid would you need? $10k-20k? Full tuition?</p>

<p>Occidental College (LAC in LA) sounds like a good fit & has some smaller scholarships. They range from $5k/year to $25k/year. Your stats should place you at the top there, although you need to determine if the amount of $$ would be enough considering the cost (uhh price tag’s $60k): <a href=“http://www.oxy.edu/sites/default/files/assets/Financial_Aid/MeritScholarships.pdf”>http://www.oxy.edu/sites/default/files/assets/Financial_Aid/MeritScholarships.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I’d suggest Pomona College/Claremont McKenna/Pitzer (SoCal LACs), but they don’t have merit at all + are reaches for everyone.</p>

<p>There are better options money-wise outside of CA, but I’m not familiar with them.</p>

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<p>^ I think you could get into one of the Claremont colleges, but again…money /:</p>

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<p>The UC schools are generally known as excellent and you seem to be in great shape for many of them. I’d recommend looking up the thread colleges that meet 100% of need or give significant merit scholarships as there have been threads about them in the past.</p>

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<p>^ A lot of UC’s wouldn’t fit this…</p>

<p>“with a lot of resources (with councilors, internships, etc.), and generally small class sizes, a largely 4 year graduation rate. Preferably a college that doesn’t weed out students”</p>

<p>Although they’re good options if you want a great education that’s affordable.</p>

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<p>Check out the column on the left margin of this page. Click on CollegeMatch and go to that webpage, plug in your information, and it will churn out a long list of schools for which you are a 100 or 99 or 98 or 97…percent “match.” You can play around with this database without trusting that the algorithm alone is going to find the right “fit” for you. When you’re worried about whether your grades and SATs are high enough, look at CollegeData, another website, and find the data about the 25-75% SAT range for any college you’re interested in. That SAT range will give you some idea whether you’re a reach, match, or academic safety for a particular school. If your SAT score comes in as about 50% then you’re about a match for that school; if at 76% then you’re a possible academic safety. And so on. This is the beginning of weeding out schools for your list and organizing the list according to one academic criterion (SAT scores). Nothing definitive here, just a beginning.</p>

<p>I agree that the UCs and CMC possibly are good academic fits for you, somewhere between a high match and a safety. But the UCs (like us) are going to want to know your GPA before we can say much of anything about academic fit.</p>

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<p>Berkeley.</p>