HELP!! PLEASE! I need good safeties/matches

<p>H'okay, so after looking through colleges all I can seem to find are really big reach colleges/universities, and if I want to go out-of-state, I need good financial aid and merit aid with my stats. PLEASE recommend some to me, I really need help finding some I would enjoy and be interested in.</p>

<p>I want a smaller school, preferably under 5,000-10,000 (think Rice University's undergraduate size but opportunities of a university). Preferably on the west coast, but if it's decent weather (I am used to NW weather) and a good city (preferably in a city.... not too small a town. At LEAST a decent suburb). Prestige is also a bit important (for parents...), but please. I really need some recommendations.</p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>I'm currently a junior in a Washington public school. I'm not really sure if the school is competitive. I know that there are some pretty smart kids in my school, but for the most part of what I've seen, most end up going to UW. Someone said a few years ago a girl was accepted into MIT, and this year someone was accepted to UC Berkeley (but is going to UW on a full scholarship and internship). My first two years of high school were in a pretty competitive Oregon public school.</p>

<p>GRADES
approximate 3.917 unweighted cumulative GPA
approximate 40/503 class rank
(I don't know how updated this would be by the end of this year...)</p>

<p>3 B's so far:
1 in Health freshman year
2/3 trimesters of AP US History sophomore year (B, B, A trend)</p>

<p>3/6 AP classes currently
AP Calculus AB
AP Psychology
AP English Literature
Human Anatomy & Physiology
French III
Yearbook</p>

<p>forecasted 5/6 AP classes senior year
Peer Mentoring
AP English Language
AP Statistics
AP Biology
AP Physics (MIGHT be Environmental Science. Opinion to which one?)
AP Economics
Yearbook</p>

<p>I think I will drop yearbook though, so I have a 0 period of Peer Mentoring and 5 AP classes for the day.</p>

<p>ACTIVITIES
cross country jv (3 years) - most inspirational
swimming jv (2 years) - stopped due to change in schools and state
Key Club (4 years) - historian last year, vice president next year
Diversity Committee (3 years) - secretary this year and probably next year
STAND/Amnesty club (1 year) - president, starting it up for senior year
National Honor Society (1 year) - could not automatically go in to NHS junior year because the school's requirement is that you must attend the school for at least a semester.</p>

<p>TESTING</p>

<p>SAT-- MARCH 2007
610 critical reading
660 writing
700 math
(trying to work on these)</p>

<p>I'm probably going to take the ACT in September and retake the SAT in October for my applications. I'm hoping to do better or around the same area, and I think I probably will. But I don't know how better.</p>

<p>640 on SAT US History subject test
4 on AP US History exam
4/5 (projected) on AP Calculus AB
4/5 (projected) on AP Psychology</p>

<p>other stuff to know about me:
I moved the summer before junior year, and it's changed my life basically. My classes as a junior aren't up to par of what I would be doing, mostly because when I moved and was registering at the new school, it was a bit of a shock and came a bit suddenly, so I was really scatterbrained and wasn't thinking straight. I probably would've added an AP science (Bio) in there if I wasn't so scatterbrained about moving that August.</p>

<p>As for a major and career, I am completely undecided. I've SOMEWHAT narrowed it down to pre-med or some type of social work. Or psychology. But hey, anything could go. I really have no clue, but these are possibilities.</p>

<p>I really enjoy just helping people. So that's what I want to do.</p>

<p>If you can recommend any colleges that would give me pretty decent merit aid (enough to notch the tuition down to in-state UW tuition), and matches my interests in a college, please recommend them. I would really like some help so I can research and start applying over the summer!</p>

<p>The colleges I want to apply to right now are:</p>

<p>UWashington (safety for in-state. But I DON'T want to go here.)
Scripps College
Pitzer College
Stanford University
Rice University</p>

<p>(as you can see, these are reaches....)</p>

<p>PLEASE! :D</p>

<p>and I am Asian :D</p>

<p>If you like schools like Pitzer/Scripps, you might like Macalester. The weather gets extremely cold, but the twin cities are pretty cool, which makes up for it. A match, I'd say, if you're interested. </p>

<p>On the west coast, Chapman could be a good safety. Gonzaga too, if you don't mind staying in state.</p>

<p>gracie: You already got a bunch of great responses the first time you posted. Look at the Jesuit colleges. They are good with financial aid. University of San Diego is particularly good in psychology. You don't have to be Catholic to like these schools. I have a Jewish friend in Seattle whose daughter is looking at USD for psychology.</p>

<p>Also, if you're willing to consider super-cold winters, Simmons is a small LAC located in a thriving college town (Boston). A safety, most likely.</p>

<p>Apply to University of Washington and Seattle University as safeties.</p>