Help me find a school I'm actually excited about

So freshman year was rough. I just moved from out of state I was being bullied and a very overloaded schedule killed me. Even though I have not gotten anything lower than an A in a year and a half my gpa is only a 3.6. I’ve calculated it and even with straight A’s it might just barely touch a 3.7. As you all know, colleges are extremely competitive. I grew up dreaming of Yale and Stanford and those schools are just out of reach for me. I’ll be applying for Fall of 2017. I do have some good things on my record like two years of being dual- enrolled. I have a 4.0 at the local and reputable CC. I’ll have completed through multivariable calculus. I have lots of volunteering hours including at Portland’s science museum.

I think I’m going to major in mathematics. Comp sic is an often too. I’d definitely be going to grad school so I’d like a school that is known for being a path for competitive programs. I’d like the chance to do undergraduate research. The farther the school is from the west coast, the better choice it would have to be for me to go that far. I prefer lively areas, so a lively college town or metropolitan area is great. I don’t like super small schools.

I’ve been searching actively for months and I haven’t found any matches or reasonable reaches that I’m excited about.

So please any suggestions would be so helpful!

U of colorado. U of Arizona, u of British Columbia. U of Iowa.

First of all, there are sooooo many other amazing colleges than Yale and Stanford. Unless you are Malia Obama, you can assume that you have a minuscule chance of getting into those colleges. Secondly, I am confused. Are you a sophomore now? But you are applying for college next year? Thirdly, if your courses are overloaded, it seems a no-brainer that you ease up in the course load. High grades and class rigor are very important, but if your load has so much rigor that you can’t cope and get high grades, that’s a problem. Your GPA as it is isn’t quite strong enough for the HYPSMs out there, but it is great for many other excellent schools.

Try some of the LACs, which have excellent math and science programs and tons of research opportunities. Use the Supermatch tool on this site. You haven’t given any idea of test scores, what type of college you are interested in, big or small, what kind of vibe, what your budget is, where you want to be located. There are 4000 colleges just in the US, and it isn’t reasonable to expect people to randomly provide you with ideas without a bit more effort on your part.

You need matches and safeties. Reaches are easy. If you aren’t getting excited about any colleges you are looking at, you are not looking hard enough. I suggest you FORGET about all super elite schools. Gone, banished, forgotten. If you are going to college, it’s in your interest to like the college you go to. Stop focussing on the ideal, and work on the realistic. You will have to compromise. That means you might have to look at small schools, or public schools, or not being near a metropolitan area. Start by honing in on colleges that fit your stats, and that offer your majors. You need to be able to get in, so plug in your test scores and grades. I rely very much on the website college data, so try that. Now, you might have a long list of colleges which match your stats. Start crossing off the ones that kill the deal, the ones that you absolutely refuse to consider, such as any colleges in Oklahoma or Florida, or any Jesuit schools, or anything smaller than 2000 students, or too much Greek life, or not enough Greek life, and so on. Prirotize what IS really important: strong academics and access to professors? Diverse student body? In a city?

It’s been said many times, and there are many ways to figure out match and safety schools, but for matches, you ideally want your stats to be near the 75th percentile, certainly above the 50th. For safeties, you should be at or above the 75th. Also, acceptance rate is important. For matches, around 40%, for safeties, around 60%, but do some research to determine what your OWN match and safety stats might be. After you find several match and safety schools (2 safety, 3 or 4 match, as an idea), put in a few reaches, with the understanding that they will be difficult for you to get into, that you may not get in, and that you will be happy to attend one of your match or safety schools.

We literally started by looking at 50 colleges and whittled the list down to 12. My D learned early on that her first and most important compromise was geography, becasue it was unlikely she was going to get into the colleges she was interested in that were on the edge of a city. She opened up her choices by deciding she could live with being an hour or two away from a metropolitan area. She alos decided she could tolerate a little Greek life, as long as it wasn’t too prominent. That opened up more choices. All 12 of her colleges had great things to offer: clubs, study abroad, good academics, interesting students, access to a different part of the country, and so on. If you fixate on just two colleges, you will not be happy come decision time. So be open, be willing to compromise. Come back when you have more specific criteria in mind, and be flexible. Good luck.

What does your family say about paying for college? Have the talk now, about what they can actually pay, each year, and run the Net Price Calculator on various schools’ websites, inputting your family’s tax info from 2015 taxes, to get an estimate of what the schools require you to pay.

Many schools which will match your interests are going to include strong public flagships, but those are going to be more expensive for out of state students.

If you only got A’s, your GPA should be in th 3.7-4.0 range, so you made a mistake.
Don’t dream of Yale or Stanford.
Instead, buy those books:

  • AdMission Impossible! or The College Solution
  • Colleges that Change Lives
  • The Princeton Review’s Best Colleges
    Start reading, putting post-its next to the narratives you like.

As for math:
Harvey Mudd, Northwestern, Williams would be logical reaches.
What State do you live in? => to see if your flagship and Honors College would work.

Can you list your classes per category (with level, ie., regular, AP, Honors…)
English =
Math =
Foreign Language=
Science=
Social Science/History=
Art=
Electives=

Have you taken the SAT or the ACT? SAT Subjects?

What’s your parents’ budget for college?
Is that different from their EFC?
If they don’t know their EFC, get them to calculate it ASAP:
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/paying-your-share/expected-family-contribution-calculator

Hey Elena,

So sorry your Freshman year was rough, mine was a little bit too. I think that it’s cool that you reached for Stanford and Yale because it shows how serious you are about academics. But Lindagaf hit the nail in the head, everybody dreams of going to Stanford and Yale and all these fun schools. But literally, they are so hard to get into that you don’t only need brains, but a lot of luck too because they’re almost impossible to get into. Plus, there is also an enormous number of great colleges that you can go to. I’ve heard that some colleges like UC Berkeley, UCLA, MIT, and NYU have some of the best Math programs in the world, while at the same time, they’re in lively cities (LA, Boston, NYC.) These colleges are also still very hard to get into, but not as hard as Stanford and Yale.

Hope this helps and best of luck Sophomore Year!

Sounds like you are finishing your junior year of high school. You don’t mention SAT/ACT scores. In the end, your performance in high school is what it is without asterisks. For Yale and such just look at the scattergrams and see how many GPA 4.0 and ACT 36 students are rejected.

Look at these parents on the forum that have thousands of posts like @Lindagaf. They give excellent advice. I find that the best advice is often the most difficult to take.

Perhaps Northeastern University could be a possibility? It is in a lively metropolitan area and has the co-op experience that will give you real-world experience in many different fields. It may be a high match/low reach school for you

I think if your only problem is your freshman year you might be able to explain that well and show the difference you’ve made. You will need ACT or SAT scores to match, of course.

Try Pittsburgh, CMU, and U Rochester. All have oodles of research opportunities and plenty of students go on to grad school afterward. They’re far from the west coast and students who attend those schools tell me they’re never bored due to lack of things available for them to do.

What colleges have you actually toured? Go on a few tours may help get you excited. It will at least help you decide what you like or don’t like in a college.

Great advice above. I will echo Lindagaf and MYOS - forget the dream schools (for now). First, focus on your safety. How about Lawrence in WI? St. Olaf? After you have a couple of schools you would be happy to attend (they don’t have to be your favorites but you can’t mentally say “they’re my safeties but I hope I don’t have to go there”). Then work on your matches. Reed is probably a solid match school for you but I suspect you think the school is too close to home.

It’s hard to give recommendations without knowing cost limits. If you need merit, that leads to a very different list than if you have no upper cost limit or if you qualify for need-based aid.

With an average unweighted GPA of 3.9 (but funky holistic admissions), Reed is probably a low reach for this student. It also might be a bit small for them (1400 students), although it certainly meets the metro area and grad school prep requirements.

^seconding St Olaf , Case Western, URochester , Lawrence.
Fill out the “join the mailing list”/“request info” forms on their websites.
Go visit a few colleges (a LAC, a regional medium university, a state university).

This student wants to be near the West Coast if possible.

^^^ Good point. I read the OP incorrectly when skimming. It seemed to read the farther the school is from the west coast, the better…

It’s always interesting when our brains fill in things for us!

Can’t be of much help with west coast schools other than hearsay (which isn’t worthwhile IMO). We’re in the east and the bulk of our students stay in the eastern half of the US.

Are you California? Some schools ignore freshman year grades. Some refugee GPA to A (- or (- or +) = 4.0. You need to research a lot!

Sounds like you’re instate for Oregon.

What are your test scores?

How much will your parents pay each year?

Colleges from a Princeton Review category, “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors” (unscreened):

Agnes Scott
Bowdoin
Bryant
Bryn Mawr
Caltech
Carleton
Holy Cross
College of Idaho
Grinnell
Hamilton
Hampton
Harvard
HMC
Haverford
Macalester
MIT
Randolph
Reed
Rice
St. Lawrence
St. Olaf
SUNY-Albany
Coast Guard
UChicago
URochester
Wabash

@Creekland : I always appreciate your posts.

@elena3142 - You sound like my son, who could not get excited about any one school. We did a lot of visits, and each time, as we were driving away, his attitude was… meh. It seems like he found something wrong with every school. But one day we visited a school I suggested, but he was not too enthused about. And from the moment we got out of the car, his body language showed that he had found his place in the world.

Now, such a school will vary from person to person. That’s why I’m not suggesting a specific school. But I am saying VISIT. You may find that when you experience one of those ‘meh’ schools on your list that you fall in love with it.

AS MANY VISITS AS YOU CAN, once you have your list narrowed a bit.

In terms of your setting preferences, these Newsweek articles would be worth reading: “The 25 Most Desirable Urban Schools,” “The 25 Most Desirable Suburban Schools.”