<p>luckybob, just fyi: theology is a required part of the core curriculum at BC but it doesn't have to be a Catholic or even a Christian theology course. I'm not Catholic and not religious, but my theo classes have been some of my favorites.</p>
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hmm well I mean I want to get the most that I can out of the hard work I put into school.
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That's the right attitude to have! But the point I want to make is that selectivity doesn't determine the quality of the education you can receive.</p>
<p>There's 2 ways of looking at the hard work you've put in. The first is that it was aimed at getting you into a selective college. Nothing wrong with that, lots of kid use that as the carrot that keeps them going.</p>
<p>The second view is that you worked hard to build a solid foundation so that you're ready for a challenging college education. In this view the task now is to find those colleges. </p>
<p>While there is a mania now about rankings, its important to keep in mind the whole trend was started by what was a third-rate magazine (US News) that needed a splashy feature to sell magazines. Rankings are arbitrary formulas and they are based on necessity of quantities that can be easily measured. These factors are worth looking at but they don't capture the full experience, nor do they take into account individual differences. Some students do better in small classes with personal attention, for example, while some are willing to trade this off for the chance to be at a large urban campus. Is one ranking right for both students?</p>
<p>Read thru the link to the article I posted because I think it can help guide your college search. Your first post is all about your qualifications, in other words what an adcom would look at. Implicitly assumed seems to be that's all that matters in picking colleges. But more important, I'd argue, is what YOU want in a college. Until you have a very detailed description of what you want such as number of students, urban/rural location, whether students live on-campus or in the community or are commuters, student-professor interaction, presence/absence of greek life, access to alumni, and the dozens of other factors that go into finding a college that is a good FIT for you than you're just throwing darts in the dark and are unlikely to recognize the right school when you see it.</p>
<p>There are good colleges out there that are selective, but there are lots more out there that aren't at the tops of the rankings and therefore don't get the flood of apps that make them selective. If you're not going to be a senior until next year, if I've read your post correctly, then you have plenty of time to figure out what you want in a college and then invest the time in a search to identify not just the most obvious candidates but a complete basket of colleges right for you.</p>
<p>im a senior right now</p>
<p>yeah looks like most colleges ive listed get a lot of applications</p>