<p>Hey, everyone. I have 18 schools on my Common App, and while I'd like to apply to all of them I feel like I should cut a few of them for financial reasons ($70 app fees? ouch). I'd like your opinions on these schools.</p>
<p>I have a 33 ACT, 3.8 GPA, top 3%, strong ECs...</p>
<p>I don’t think Whitman is a safety. It’s about as selective as some of those matches.</p>
<p>USC is SoCal or SoCarolina? In either case, it’s an outlier. </p>
<p>Why do you need as many as 4 or 5 safeties?</p>
<p>Pomona is extremely selective. If your question mark indicates you don’t strongly prefer it to less selective schools, you might want to drop it.</p>
<p>SoCal. I visited it and loved it, though I know it doesn’t fit my list.</p>
<p>My main concern is financial aid. With an EFC of around 17k, I’m casting a wide net in the hopes of getting a really good package.</p>
<p>I’ve thought about dropping Pomona because I don’t think I’ll get in, and I really only like it because it’s in California and because of the 5C’s. I feel like socially it may not suit me.</p>
<p>Yeah, most schools that use the College Board NPC are like 5k more expensive, but the ones that don’t tend to be affordable. I’m hoping that my safeties will give me some merit aid, and I don’t think it’s that unlikely, maybe a few of my matches.</p>
<p>I’m kind of thinking that some of these will end up being a lot more than their NPCs and a few will be more affordable, but I’m not sure that’s something that can be predicted.</p>
<p>Anyways, if I were you I would cross off Bates, Wesleyan, Grinnell, and Oberlin. Bates is located in the sketchy neighborhood of Lewiston, ME. My friend’s sister goes to Wesleyan and apparently the kids there are politically correct to the point of being ridiculous (they use the gender neutral pronoun “ze”). One of my homeroom teachers grew up near Grinnell and she said the kids there were, to put it in her words, “very strange”. After researching Oberlin, I decided not to apply because I just didn’t like the vibe of that school. Don’t take my anecdotal evidence too seriously, though! All are great schools, but maybe this information will help you narrow down your list.</p>
<p>Maybe you should investigate the merit aid statistics for the schools on your list, here you can find the % of students receiving merit aid and the average amount of merit aid. I bet your schools vary a lot in what they offer!</p>
<p>It might help you decide on your list…Note that you can sort the list by any of the columns…</p>
<p>Oberlin is overwhelmingly my first choice, perhaps I should have made that clear. Other favorites include Macalester, Carleton, Whitman, and Grinnell (I’d call myself fairly “strange”), though I really liked Wesleyan and Bates when I visited them both.</p>
<p>Thanks for that list, BeanTownGirl. Only a couple of my schools don’t give any merit aid at all, it seems.</p>
<p>Although the Kiplinger list is interesting it’s not very useful, lots of schools that aren’t on the list give merit and/or need based and will give plenty of it to kids they see as desirable for their campuses.</p>
<p>What more input do you want? How is someone that knows nothing about you going to help? As an example, YOU need to decide which 2 of these 4 FIT YOU BEST…Grinnell, Kenyon, Macalester, Oberlin…not people that know nothing about you. Then apply to those 2.</p>
<p>Which 3 of these do you like best…Beloit, Wooster, Lewis & Clark, Occidental? Apply to those.</p>
<p>Scour their websites. Read the Fiske Guide. You have listed nothing but really good schools. You can’t make a bad decision from your list unless you let some stranger make that decision for you.</p>
<p>Look a little more closely at that web page. You pick a category, either private universities OR Liberal Arts Colleges and it gives you a list. So there are TWO lists. Whitman is listed. </p>
<p>Ah, I see. Thanks BTG, that makes a lot more sense. </p>
<p>SgtDonut, you’re list is made up of all LACs but there is a huge variety of school “personalities” represented. Read up as much as you can, and visit where it’s possible before acceptances, definitely visit top three choices after acceptances. My son picked his school because he felt completely at home when visiting for a scholarship weekend. He found Bowdoin and Whitman to be similar in feel of campus and friendly sportiness of students. Vassar was more arty than he wanted. He loved Macalester, but wanted more outdoor activities and IM sports. Colby was great, but he wasn’t crazy about being so far from town.</p>
<p>I could go on and on, but what my son valued won’t be precisely what you value, so it’s more productive to go to the schools’ forums, websites, college guides, etc. Pretty much do what Haystack said. Good luck!</p>
<p>I don’t know how helpful you’ll find these websites, but when doing my college search I relied a lot on the following:</p>
<p>The Princeton Review rankings give you a feel for each school you’re applying to.</p>
<p>College Prow-ler rates things such as dorm quality, food quality, among other things. I’m sure it’s not completely reliable, but it’s a fun and interactive website. It helped me a lot with choosing schools.</p>
<p>Un-igo has tons of information, both factual and anecdotal, that makes it easier to determine which school is a fit for you.</p>
<p>** I don’t know why the forum won’t let me post websites, but hopefully you’re able to use them.</p>
<p>sgtDonut, i think you pretty much answered your own question in post 8. That’s a fabulous list of schools, so I would keep that as your reach / match list and then add two safeties.</p>
<p>My S attends Grinnell and we looked at alot of schools on your list – I think you got it exactly right in post #8, based on what you present about yourself. </p>
<p>I can’t help you with safeties, as we did not need any (S got in EA to a school he was happy with).</p>
<p>“Oberlin is overwhelmingly my first choice, perhaps I should have made that clear. Other favorites include Macalester, Carleton, Whitman, and Grinnell (I’d call myself fairly “strange”), though I really liked Wesleyan and Bates when I visited them both.”</p>
<p>If that’s your sweet spot, then you should add Pomona to your reaches. Remove Occidental - more conservative than all the others. Vassar was too artsy for my son. Bowdoin and Colby too preppy. And Colorado’s block plan wasn’t a fit for him.</p>
<p>Also, take what you read with a grain of salt on some of those college review web sites. We found them to be pretty good in terms of describing the ‘vibe’ and highlighting areas of potential concern but often the information was years out of date. For example, Grinnell was slammed for its food in one prominent guide - but this LAC has had a new and excellent student center and dining hall for about 6 years now. The guide still hasn’t caught up (although I haven’t seen it last year so maybe that changed.)</p>