Hi everyone! I’m a 17 year old that’s just finishing up my junior year, and I’m at kind of a loss with college. It’s something that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about, but it seems the more I think about it, the more confused I get.
So here’s what I’m asking. With the requirements I’ve listed below, what school(s) do you see me really matching up with?
Undergrad of around 6,000-10,000 (no smaller than 4.500, no bigger than 18,00)
Private
Low SFR (preferably 10:1 and below)
Small classes (preferably average class size 30 and below)
Highly ranked in computer science
Highly ranked in Chinese program
Good suburban college town
Preferably warm (but not at all required)
Preferably some sort of sports to watch
A university with very interesting, intellectual people that also like to have a good time
Prestigious, preferably in the top 30-50 schools
I’m NOT concerned if any of the schools suggested are reaches. I’d love to get a bunch of reaches and safety options from this. To give some context…
I have a 1550 SAT
So far have gotten all A’s in high honors classes
Male who loves theater and is in the process of directing and acting in a self-written 90 minute long musical
So ya! Let me know what your thoughts are, and hopefully you guys can help me find my perfect match! Thanks!
As a serious reach, Stanford is great, Northwestern also has an excellent theater department, UCB and UCLA are larger than you prefer, but otherwise fill your requirements. I’m pretty sure that Columbia University would work as well, and WashU. I think that USC may be the best for your interests.
Have you already identified at least one True Safety and are building your list upwards from that?
The single most important places on your list are your True Safeties. Try to identify more than one so that you have options. A True Safety is a place that
is affordable for your family without any aid other than federal (FAFSA) aid and/or guaranteed state aid and/or aid guaranteed by the university itself for your stats,
is an auto-admit for your stats (an everyone-like-me-from-my-high-school-has-always-been-admitted situation is just a pretty safe option, not a truly safe one),
offers your likely major(s),
you would be happy to attend if everything else goes wrong in the admission and financial aid process.
What have your parents told you about how they expect you to pay for your education? Have you run any of the Net Price Calculators with them? If not, sit down this weekend and run the NPCs at the websites of at least one of your home-state public Us, the University of Alabama (you are likely to be an auto-admit there with aid so it might work out as a True Safety), and the privates listed by MWolf. Have some adult beverages and soft tissues on hand in case your parental units have an emotional experience about the numbers.
Since you want competitive schools, you will probably want at least 8 or 10 to apply to. You have a lot of criteria, some of which are a bit conflicting, & you will be lucky to find even 5 that fit all your criteria. I suggest you identify 2 or 3 criteria that are must-haves, and identify the others as optional.
By the way, the requirement that the school be private indicates you have a very inaccurate view of the college landscape. I know there are some enclaves in the country (apparently mostly in the Northeast) where public colleges are thought to be a completely different & inferior species from private ones. This is probably the most irritating & patently untrue assumption on cc.
William and Mary pretty much meets all your criteria. Approximately 6400 undergrads. Very nice historical area immediately adjacent to campus, with pizza places, delis, bars, coffee shops, etc. Intellectual vibe. Academics as good as anywhere. CS grads do great (and I am VERY familiar with this)! Chinese major, though I can’t speak to how the department is ranked. D-1 sports, though obviously not at same level as ACC schools, for example. Greek system–big enough to be a thing if you want it to, small enough to ignore if not. Great weather! It is a public university, which, frankly, I have come to really think of as an advantage. Very competitive, especially for OOS applicants, more challenging for females than males (just more female applicants).
Santa Clara University also meets your criteria (not sure about Chinese studies). CS? Yes, and it’s in Silicon Valley! Weather is an A+. Basketball but no football.
Hi, I’m a rising senior as well and I’m in a similar spot as you. I’m not into theater or comp sci, but I’m very involved in Chinese and I prefer medium size private schools as well. I know these don’t fit all your criteria, but have you heard of the Chinese Flagship Program? It’s a prestigious program sponsored partly by the U.S. government at only 12 universities in the country (https://www.thelanguageflagship.org/content/chinese). They pretty much guarantee you’ll be professionally fluent after the 5-year program, which includes a year after graduation of interning in China. I’m considering applying to the programs at Arizona State, University of Mississippi, and University of Oregon. Even though they aren’t medium size or private, I’m also applying for the honors colleges there which, combined with the Flagship program, will give you smaller class sizes in a more intellectual environment than just a huge state school. They may not be top 50, but they’re still pretty well regarded. And they’ll probably give you a ton of merit aid with your SAT score.
Also take a look at schools that have Confucius Institutes. There’s been some controversy with them, but schools that have one usually have strong Chinese programs and travel opportunities that come with it.
Some other schools to maybe look into:
Yale has the most well known stand-alone undergrad Chinese program that I know of. In addition to having very strong language classes, they have a whole campus in Beijing, and they also have the Yale-China Association.
Duke also has a very strong Chinese program and matches your criteria pretty well. They even partner with a university in China to create Duke Kunshan University near Shanghai
Emory
Wake Forest
William and Mary
Miami University in Ohio. It’s public and not top 50, but it’s in a great college town and is called a “public ivy”. It’s very respected in Ohio and the Midwest especially. I actually traveled to China with the director of their Confucius Institute, and she’s pretty awesome. They have a strong Chinese program and a well-respected honors program, so maybe consider it for a safety. I know they offer comp sci and theater opportunities as well.