<p>So far I have applied to 5 schools, and I am set to apply to 1 more. But I still want to apply to 1-3 more schools. I've been looking around, but I just can't seem to find a good school for me that I can actually get into. First of all, here's what I want in a school.</p>
<p>-Near or in a big or decent sized city.
-No more than 25,000 students, but preferably under 20,000.
-Preferably a school with D1 athletics and big school spirit, but also D2 or D3 schools that have tons of school spirit. Also would prefer a school with a football team.
-Preferably in a warm climate, but not necessary.
-Interested in journalism/communications, but I'm still not sure.</p>
<p>What's made finding this school hard for me is my stats: 2.8 GPA, 25 on ACT, 1120/1730 on SAT, good EC's, recs and essay. I go to a fairly competitive public school in Michigan that sends around 30 kids to U of M and usually around 10-20 kids to various top schools every year.</p>
<p>to help you narrow it down, what schools are you already going to apply to?
Most of these are all Suburban/urban, warm, big school spirit/great football teams, under 20,000 people, with journalism/communications majors, and matches (in your range of being accepted)</p>
<p>East Carolina U, Elon U, Illinois state u, Syracuse u, U Alabama, U Arkansas, U Mass Amherst, U Miami, U Oregon, Auburn U</p>
<p>You might also look at some of the California State Universities - Chico State and Humboldt State are two with solid journalism programs and DII athletics. Fresno State’s j-school is OK too, and the school has a I-A WAC football team.</p>
<p>I have applied to Grand Valley State University, Central Michigan University, University of Dayton, Michigan State University and Loyola University Chicago, and I’m most likely going to be applying to Carthage College. I’ve also considered Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount, but I’m still not sure whether I’m applying to either of them yet.
Thanks for the ideas so far guys. </p>
<p>fa-la-la-lena: I’ve actually looked at Syracuse, Elon and Miami, but they seemed like they might be more along the lines of reach schools and not matches. Are you talking about Miami FL, or Miami OH?</p>
<p>Ohio U in Athens seems to fit all your desires besides warm weather, although the journalism school is very competitive. You could get into the regular school no problem.</p>
<p>Louisiana State, right around 25,000 students, can’t go anywhere better for school spirit/athletics/weather. Decent school too.</p>
<p>Drake and Butler are smaller schools around 4000 kids that I like a lot and would recommend looking at, plus application online is free.</p>
<p>Thanks notthatgood. I looked into Ohio, but I doubt I’d be able to get into the journalism program. Butler sounds like an interesting school though, and I’ll probably look more into it.</p>
<p>oops, sry i didn’t factor in your gpa. in that case, those 3 schools would be reaches (it is still possible to get in though, with good recs, essays) I meant U Miami in florida (the average GPA there is 4.1, yikes).</p>
<p>Unfortunately, your GPA is what’s hurting you.</p>
<p>I like the schools to which you are applying.<br>
If you want a warmer climate, LSU (as suggested above) is good. Also, University of Tennessee - Knoxville is a possibility.</p>
<p>But, I imagine OOS schools without at least a 3.0 or greater GPA will be a reach.</p>
<p>Besides, the OOS schools others have suggested are as good as Michigan State and the other schools you’re applying…but they will be a lot more expensive versus staying in-state.</p>
<p>look at george Mason U, Virginia Commonwealth U, and Old Dominion U. All are in Virginia and are in or near large cities. I beleive all three have overall enrollments of over 25000, but undergrad enrollments are less, and the totals quoted will also include multiple campus locations. All have some form of communication/journalism undergraduate major available, although under different departmensts/terminology (I beleive VCU calls theirs “Mass Communications with a Journalism concentration”, for example). All are D1 at least in basketball, I don’t know about all sports (you may remember Mason from the NCAA tournament a couple of years ago). Of the three I would say VCU is probably your best bet for admission.</p>
<p>I’m surprised no one has mentioned it, but Mizzou has one of the best journalism/communications programs in the country. Might be a bit large for your tastes, though.</p>
<p>It’s not so much the size, but it’s the fact that they have the second best journalism school in the country. With my stats, I would have no chance of getting into the journalism program. It’s like Ohio University. I could get into the main school there no problem, but the journalism school is one of the best in the country, and I wouldn’t be able to get into it. Same goes for Mizzou.</p>
<p>You do seem to have a good handle on what is realistic and what is not bosox, so good work there.</p>
<p>More suggestions:
Ball State- Very good communications/journalism school that I don’t believe the requirements are higher for than the regular school, you will get in here.</p>
<p>Bradley- See Drake/Butler… 5000 kids</p>
<p>By the way, I am a student who has “good” stats and I have applied to each school I have recommended, with a possibility of majoring in journalism, though I’m not sure at this point. I ended up applying to 15 schools, more than necessary but I wanted to keep my options open.</p>
<p>You could always just apply to the general school of arts and sciences, work really hard for a year or two, then upgrade to the school of journalism.</p>