Hi! I’d like some help with forming my college list. I’m pretty stuck as I don’t know what type of atmosphere I’d like (US citizen living abroad) since I’ve never been on a US college campus and won’t be able to go on a college tour before or after applying to colleges.
Stats: Straight A/A* in IGCSE, currently doing the IB diploma and finished last semester with 41 points (out of 42). I took the ACT/writing in December and got a score of 31 (32E, 34M, 31 R, 28S, 9 essay), I didn’t revise much so I’m going to retake in September to improve my score to a 33-34.
I’m interested in looking into colleges in the Boston and DC metro areas as well as Virginia and Seattle (where my relative live). I’m planning on majoring in something business related (considering accounting/supply chain & logistics NOT finance - not interested in Wall Street), so I will only consider colleges that have got business schools, I’m NOT interested in majoring in economics or the likes. I’m also very interested in foreign languages, specifically Spanish and Arabic as well as the human sciences (psychology, anthropology etc), so I’d prefer college that offer a wide selection of those courses. My parents will be full pay (already checked NPCs). Money isn’t a concern as they’re willing to pay full freight.
The preliminary list I’ve come up with is:
*Boston College
*Northeastern University
*University of Virginia
*Georgetown
*UMN - TC
*George Mason University
*University of Maryland - College Park
*University of Washington - Seattle
*University of Richmond
My main concern is fit. I’m an Ethiopian-American Muslim so I’m pretty concerned about the lack of diversity at schools like Boston College as well as the Jesuit culture of Georgetown and what not. Should that be a concern? Plus the core curriculum at Georgetown and Boston College don’t really appeal to me as I HATE English and history. Should I take them off my list? From the research I’ve done I think I’d prefer the big state school atmosphere but I’m not too sure…
I honestly don’t know what my preferences are other than good academics, good job placement, diverse student body, near or in a city etc.
How should I determine which type of college atmosphere I would prefer w/o visiting colleges? Do you think the colleges I’ve currently got on my list are a good fit?
Thanks
International students (and thus Americans like you living abroad) tend to prefer the large universities and those in/near major cities, where they can walk or take public transportation to all types of places and activities, like at Northeastern or UMD, rather than going to a smaller, more isolated place like University of Richmond or George Mason. Also, you are spot on regarding Georgetown and Boston College – they are very Catholic, and although plenty of non-Catholics attend, the “culture” of the students and campus environment and activities are very Catholic and you will feel out of place. I would take those off your list.
Atlanta has a lot of Ethiopians (don’t know their religion), so you might consider adding Georgia Tech to your list. They have a BS in Business Administration with concentrations in Accounting and Supply Chain plus a supply chain institute. The Ga Tech campus is in the heart of midtown Atlanta. It also offers Arabic.
http://www.admission.gatech.edu/academics/colleges-and-majors/business-administration
http://www.scl.gatech.edu/
http://www.modlangs.gatech.edu/arabic
Michigan State has the number one ranked supply chain program, and although it is not in a large city, it’s a happening place with about 50,000 students. MSU also has an Arabic language “flagship” program, which is a very intensive study of Arabic that you can add to any major, and that includes study abroad.
https://supplychain.broad.msu.edu/
http://arabicflagship.msu.edu/
Arizona State University in Tempe also has a highly regarded supply chain major, and is in/near a metro area (it’s in a suburb of Phoenix). ASU offers Arabic, and would be a good location to practice your Spanish because of a large population of Latinos there (about 1/3 of population in Phoenix metro area is Spanish-speaking).
https://wpcarey.asu.edu/supply-chain-management-degrees
https://silc.asu.edu/about/arabic
Ditto for University of Arizona, plus it has an Arabic language flagship program:
http://ugrad.eller.arizona.edu/academics/majors/operationsmanagement/
http://arabicflagship.arizona.edu/
University of Texas-Austin has a supply chain major, and also an Arabic language flagship program, and everyone I know who’s ever lived in Austin loves it there:
https://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/Centers/SCMC
http://utarabicflagship.org/
UMN-TC – already on your list – is in a fantastic location (my daughter will be starting there this fall), and there seems to be a substantial Ethiopian community in the area. There is a new light rail train that stops in the middle of campus, and you can take that to downtown Minneapolis or downtown St. Paul, and the Mississippi River cuts through campus so it’s very beautiful. As you know, the university offers a supply chain major in the Carson school of Business as well as Arabic.
http://www.ethiomn.org/home.aspx
UMD is not only a subway ride away from Washington, DC, but it also has a supply chain major and an Arabic language “flagship” program (which you probably already know about).
http://sllc.umd.edu/flagship/arabic
I am a supply chain leader at a fortune 500 company. List above by mommy rocks is a good one. University of Tennessee and northwestern are also good. Northwestern is really more operations but that’s very similar to supply chain. I don’t agree that georgetown would be a poor fit. Colleges like this are far more inclusive and have a very diverse, global student body. if you get your ACT up a few points you would have a very broad range of colleges to pick from. If money is a factor at all consider schools that give a lot of merit aid to strong students, George washington for example
Thank you so much @mommyrocks for all that! I’ll look into some of those colleges but I’m hesitant about applying to colleges that are > 2 hours away from my relatives as I rarely go to the US so I’m not familiar with the culture and what not, so I’d prefer to have a support system nearby because coming to the US from the region of the world I’ve grown up in (Middle East) will definitely be a culture shock!
I’ve been reading up some more on Boston College and I’ve decided to take it off my list. Same with Georgetown as I honestly can’t think of reasons why I’d want to go there other than it’s location and prestige. Do you think applying to UVA is a waste of time considering how you aren’t directly admitted to McIntire (avg. accepted GPA last year was a 3.7!!)??
@Wje9164be Does prestige matter in the field you work in? Or is the strength of the college’s supply chain program more important?
Consider adding Pitt (University of Pittsburgh), Temple, and American University to your list.
Why U Minnesota? Do you have relatives nearby?
Boston U. And if you’re full pay and can afford NYC, NYU is a decent option (you won’t find more diversity than in NYC). George Washington U.
USC! Amazing business school with a ton of resources and study abroad programs and a strong alumni network. I know a ton of super smart kids at the business school and they all LOVE it. It is in LA and VERY diverse, and a flight from LA to Seattle is pretty cheap. There’s a school of accounting within in business school.
Santa Clara University is good for accounting (tons of people get offers from the big 4 firms) and it’s near San Jose and an hour from San Francisco.
Fordham University is in NYC and has a lot of recruitment by big 4 firms.
Seconding the additions of BU, NYU, and UT Austin and the removal of UMN and BC.
Thanks for all the suggests. I’ll look more into USC and Santa Clara as they interest me. As for the other suggestions, I should have mentioned in my original post that I prefer to attend a college that has a residential campus so schools like BU, NYU and GWU aren’t what I’m looking for.
@Dunboyne Yah my relatives live in Minnesota, forgot to mention that in my original post.
I’m still contemplating over whether I should take Georgetown and UVA off my list. Any input?
I would definitely look more into UMN if I were you. Carlson School of Management is a fantastic business school and from what I hear, has amazing recruiting opportunities because of the location. University of Minnesota also has a massive foreign language department if you’re interested in that too.
Having not spent much time in the US, you might appreciate the fact that UMN has a relatively high percentage of international students.
Best of luck!
If math and statistics are subjects you like, you may also want to consider industrial engineering or operations research (the latter is sometimes an applied math subarea).
Would fit be affected by religious matters, such as convenient access to houses of worship, food satisfying religious rules in the dining hall, etc.?
@ucbalumnus I do love maths but I know I’m not good enough at it to major in it so I’d rather do something business related that includes quite a lot of maths (doesn’t have to be advanced or anything). Engineering? Definitely not, I hate physics.
Yes in a way. Having access to halal food would be a plus - doesn’t have to be on campus or anything since I can go without meat/chicken for a while. A mosque nearby would be a bonus but it isn’t necessary as I know that most colleges have MSAs which host Friday prayers etc.
By fit I mean things like LAC vs research university, campus vibe, and other stuff I can’t figure out without visiting colleges.
Well, supposedly http://www.ifanca.org/HFSK/Halal%20Food%20Options%20in%20US%20Higher%20Education%20Campus%20Cafeterias%20-%20An%20IFANCA%20White%20Paper.pdf is about schools with halal food dining halls, but the web site seems to be down at the moment.
You can check the presence of mosques by searching for “mosque near [school]” on a mapping web site.
A LAC is a smaller school that focuses on undergraduate education in the liberal arts. Class size tends to be smaller, but offerings of more advanced courses tend to be fewer. A research university has a PhD program and PhD students. They may have larger classes, particularly at the frosh/soph level, where a faculty member gives the main lecture, but PhD student TAs handle smaller discussion sections and labs. A research university is more likely to have more obviously pre-professional majors like business and its sub majors.
By “campus vibe”, what characteristics are you looking for? Since you may be religiously observant enough to consider halal food and presence of mosques, you might not want a campus where the predominant form of social activity is fraternity parties with their sometimes heavy alcohol consumption.
@ucbalumnus I know there are mosques near by where my relatives live so that isn’t a concern. Although I may need to look into it if I decide to apply to college that aren’t near them.
By campus vibe I mean whether the environment is collaborative/competitive/laid back etc as well as the general nature of the student e.g. the U of Chicago representative that came to my school emphasized how the students there are very ‘‘intellectual’’ and what not.
From what I’ve gathered finding a college that meets my basic requirements and doesn’t have a lot (or some) drinking is very difficult. I’ve already discussed this with my cousins that have attended university in the US. They all said that (particularly at large state schools) that I won’t need to get involved to fit in and that I’ll find like-minded people who aren’t interested in drinking, or partying. So I’m not worried about that aspect of things especially since I’m mainly considering large schools where there’ll be people with a wide range of interests.
Hmm I see. From your descriptions a research university would likely be a better fit because I like the wide selection of courses as well as large classes (odd I know, but I really can’t wait to have some animosity in classes as I’m picked on by some of my teachers for being pretty quiet - I’m the listening type).
I read the fiske guide descriptions of the colleges on my preliminary list today and it definitely gave me a better perspective.
Thanks for the help!
I don’t hire a lot of people right out of college. Many of the strong supply chain colleges aren’t “prestigious” in terms of high USNWR rankings or even selectivity. Their supply chain program may be strong but the overall colleges are not necessarily. Of the colleges on your list Georgetown would impress me but otherwise you’d get the job based on your project management skills, aggressiveness, technical strength and smarts
Try looking at University of Michigan Ann Arbor.
You may not want to rule out an applied math or statistics major with an operations research concentration or electives, or a specific operations research major. Female students often underestimate their math skills, so if you like math, you may want to at least keep that option open through course selection in your first year of college, rather than ruling it out from the start.
Industrial engineering would be similar, but you would have to take a year of physics and some various sophomore level engineering courses. But its junior/senior level work is mainly math and statistics based, rather than physics based.
The following well known schools have business-based supply chain management majors:
Arizona State *
Maryland
Michigan State
Ohio State *
Pennsylvania State *
Purdue *
- = also has industrial engineering
https://www.informs.org/Build-Your-Career/INFORMS-Student-Union/ORMS-Educational-Programs/ORMS-Educational-Programs-in-the-U.S lists a number of schools which have what they consider to be operations research majors. This seems to include some business based majors, as well as industrial engineering majors, operations research majors, and math/statistics majors where an operations research concentration or electives are available. You may have to check each major at each school to see if it is suitable for your interests.