<p>Hi, I'm a rising senior and need some help in picking the right school for me. I am not sure if I want to go to a LAC or a nation university but I do know i want to study business(econ or finance) and go toward a premed track (bio or neuro sci). Right now I have the following schools</p>
<p>Stanford SCEA
Harvard
Princeton
Dartmouth
Pomona
Williams
Wash U
UW (hopefully honors) <---- Safety</p>
<p>please advise on which schools are good for my interests and help me add/subtract schools from my list.
Thanks</p>
<p>GPA: 4.0
Class rank: 1st
SAT: 2200 (740CR, 800M, 660W)
SATII: 800 Math IIC, 770 Physics, 760 US History
AP: English(5), Calculus AB(5), Physics B(5), APUSH(5)</p>
<p>E/C
District Treasurer for Key Club
Co-captain for math team-won state twice
President for Future Business Leaders of America
co-captain for Knowledge Bowl-2nd at districts, 10th at state
Varsity Track
Church Basketball
Volunteering</p>
<p>That’s it. Thanks for recommending Duke, but I just don’t feel it’s the right type of school for me.</p>
<p>I am interested in studying neurosci and I will be premed. Of the schools you listed, I am applying to Stanford, Dartmouth, Williams, WashU, and Pomona, and all of these have great premed or neurosci programs. I’m not sure about econ, although I know Dartmouth has a very strong econ program. In addition, I would suggest Amherst(good neurosci), Yale (good everything, especially bio), Duke and Johns Hopkins(great for premed).</p>
<p>My advice is to start stocking up on UW sweatshirts.</p>
<p>Look, you’re a bright kid and will do well no matter where you go. Problem is, the schools you listed are the most selective in the country and attract the best from every school and every state. Your accomplishments are wonderful at your school, but hardly extraordinary at the schools you list. So you have a shot, but its by no means a certainty or even likely (meaning greater than 70% chance). While its fine to dream about these schools (and you can’t get in if you don’t apply) you’re time is much better spent finding match schools that you’d like. Spend 80% of your time on schools that are likely to take you, not the longshots.</p>
<p>What strikes me even more about your post is you want advice about schools to pick and yet the only thing we know about what you want is econ and premed. I suspect that even you don’t really know except that it should be a name brand school, that’s why you’re applying to a small rural school (Dartmouth) and a large urban one (Harvard), to sizeable universities with large stables of grad students and to small LACs that don’t have them. If its a name at the top of some US News list it has to be good for everyone, right? So before you can do what I said previously and pick match schools, you need to figure out how to recognize one when you see it.</p>
<p>The clock is ticking because its Sept. and you only have a little time to get this right. My advice is to get a good book on college admissions such as “Admission Matters” and figure out what you want in a college. Small or large. Urban or rural. Class size. Then find some matches, visiting if possible. If money is no object then apply to all those reaches, too.</p>
<p>and mikemac, I am not applying to any schools you would call “matches” because why would I? I mean why would I go to Notre Dame or USC if I can go to UW for less than half the price? Why even apply to those “matches” if I already know I can get into UW and possibly the honors program? Plus the cost of a mid-tier private and a top-tier one is virtually the same, so if I am accepted into, say one of my reaches, then I would definitely not choose the “mid-tier” private school even if I get in.</p>
<p>The way I see it, its either Top 20 or UW. the rest of the colleges are a waste of money (unless you get scholarships to cover part of the $45,000 per year tuition). </p>
<p>And to address the Small vs Big college issue: I just want all of my options open. if I get into a rural college but find that it’s not right for me, then I can choose a college that has an urban setting. However, if I do what you say, that is focus on “Small or large. Urban or rural. Class size.” then I’ll end up with a bunch of acceptances from schools that are relatively similar, so there is no way to change my mind, if i decide that i don’t like a small LAC.</p>
<p>dizzy, how you do your college search is up to you. What I’m trying to do here is give the kind of advice I wish I had been given; if it doesn’t strike a chord with you, I’m not hurt if you ignore it.</p>
<p>To address a few things in your reply for the benefit of others reading thru this thread – “why would I go to Notre Dame or USC if I can go to UW for less than half the price?” Perhaps because the college experience (class size, type of student, personal attention, connections with alums, setting, extracurricular activities, etc) is different?</p>
<p>*“just want all of my options open.” * What magical event is going to happen in the spring to reveal the right type of school to you that is not available right now? Applying to a scatterbasket of schools lets you make up or change your mind later at the cost of having few of any given type to choose from (and with selective colleges, few may be none). IMHO this approach to life is a big flaw for a lot of people. Few decisions are irreversible, so if you make a decision odds are you won’t be stuck with it forever. But people fearful of decisions in the first place, who want to keep their options open, have trouble deciding what major is right, what career to pursue, where to live, whom to marry. Paralysis by indecision closes more options than it preserves, IMHO. </p>
<p>*The way I see it, its either Top 20 or UW. the rest of the colleges are a waste of money. *You’re completely entitled to your opinion. You do realize, though, that the rankings are not the result of careful peer-reviewed research by PhD-holding authors, but the product of some reporters sitting around a table? Care to explain why the peer assessment factor is 25% and not 20% or 30%, or for that matter not 50%? Why alumni giving rate is 5% of the final score? And so on for each of the factors US News has decided matter (and why every other factor is ignored)? You’re just kidding yourself if you think the “top 20” list is anything other than the result of an arbitrary formula, and that there aren’t 50 other schools who would be “top 20” under other equally reasonable formulas. The ones you so dismissively refer to as “a waste of money”. Ah, the certainty of youth! But it’s your money and your life. I hope it works out for you.</p>
<p>Judging by your other choices (Stanford, Dartmouth, WashU) I’m not so sure.</p>
<p>I go to Duke. if you’re interested, you can PM me questions about the University or what your preconceptions of Duke are, and I can give you some insight. It’s an incredibly diverse school in terms of the kinds of people who attend.</p>