<p>Hey there! I'm a rising senior, and right now I only really have two colleges on my list.. One is CWRU (preferred choice, I will fill out for EA) and the other is OSU. I live in Northeast Ohio. I am trying really hard to bring up my grades- Despite getting 4.25s/4.3s all last year my W GPA is still just under a 4.0 (3.977). UW, I believe it is something like 3.71 (according to the most recent time I took the ACT). Speaking of which:
ACT: 29 Composite (32W, 31R, 29W + essay combined, 27M, 25S)
SAT: 590 in W and R; 620 in M; 10/12 on essay
AP: Took Bio junior year and got a 5.</p>
<p>Yeah.. I'm going to retake the ACT and SAT and hope for the best scores possible. I will need as many scholarships as I can get if I can go to CWRU.</p>
<p>Anyway, I feel as though I need more colleges on my list.. I'm seeing others with 6-7, even more. Education, I believe, is my top priority, and I want to go to the best schools that I can. Of course, I didn't really start thinking this way until halfway through sophomore year, so my quarterly grade went from a 3.9 to a 4.3. I wish I had that attitude freshmen year, but I sort of had to discover it myself.
Also, I am taking 3 more AP course, if that means anything. My decision with physics is currently tentative; I'm just now taking a physics class (honors, unfortunately my school doesn't offer AP).</p>
<p>So yeah, any help is appreciated.</p>
<p>EDIT: Extracurriculars! Duh!
Marching band; concert band; pep band (4)
Academic team (3)
Full Orchestra (3) (For some reason, they're canceling it senior year.. Hope it gets changed, but it probably will not).</p>
<p>I didn't get accepted into NHS last year.. I'm hoping to get in this year, but I need to find a volunteer job to get some hours in first.</p>
<p>You do realize that you’re recommending me to a Catholic school to learn about physics, right? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as long as the programs are good.</p>
<p>If you can get your test scores up, I’d look at Grinnell. If you do the SAT, they don’t look at your writing score, which might help you. And they have no distribution requirements, so you won’t be forced to take humanities classes you aren’t interested in. They also have a really cool observatory, amazing facilities and terrific science faculty, with the smallest class sizes of any of the LACs we visited. Still, you’d have to get your V and M up. Take a look at the Common Data Set for each school you are considering to see how you stack up against the admitted students. (google it)</p>
<p>If you are interested in attending the best schools that you can, University of Illinois has a top ten ranked graduate physics program, and its undergraduate physics program isn’t too difficult to get into if you apply to the college of liberal arts and sciences and not the engineering college.</p>
<p>My personal recommendation however is to strongly look at Ohio State. The price can’t be beat, and it has a top 25 graduate physics program. </p>
<p>If you want to have a career in physics, in my opinion, it is best to look at schools with research programs. These tend to be larger schools, although there are exceptions. There, there are more opportunities to get a little experience in the field by working for professors, which helps with physics graduate school applications.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input, everyone, especially for the links, ldwendy! I’m thinking of adding U of Rochester, Carnegie Mellon, and perhaps Grinnell to my lists.</p>
<p>Also, I know OSU has a pretty good graduate program, but what about undergrad?</p>
<p>If a school has a good graduate program, it probably has a good undergraduate program as well. The same faculty who lead the research programs teach the classes. This is actually a plus, and not a drawback like a lot of people claim. Some of the best teachers I had in college were old research professors who really knew what they were talking about.</p>
<p>Going to Ohio State on instate tuition is a much better value than going to most of the private schools you listed. I think that it would be difficult to pass that up.</p>
<p>While I haven’t quite given up hope yet for Case, it is looking like I will be heading to OSU, unless of course other colleges give me money to come to their school haha… I just want to see if there are any other colleges that people recommend.</p>
<p>I’m just not sure how I feel about gigantic lectures. I also do not care whatsoever for football, which is another reason I’m not all that excited (although that may change) if I go to OSU…</p>
<p>Chapman University has an excellent physics program with a National Medal of Science professor for quantum physics. Sounds like you might qualify for the Chapman merit-aid scholarship. If you’re interested in the West Coast in anyway, give it a shot.</p>
<p>I’m confused. Why do you think Holy Cross (or any Catholic university) would be inferior in terms of their Physics department? I am speaking as both a former Catholic and former physics major–I didn’t go to a Catholic university but I never found any inherent contradiction between my chosen major and the teachings of the Catholic Church. </p>
<p>I cannot personally comment in any way on the quality of the Holy Cross physics program, but to dismiss it simply because the institution is Jesuit/Catholic seems, well, uninformed.</p>
<p>Sorry about that… I’ve done some research on colleges since then and I realize that religious affiliations have no impact on the quality of education.</p>
<p>Still, though, I would like to be somewhere that is not centered mainly around one faith. I think diversity is a good thing.</p>
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as long as the programs are good.</p>