<p>I'm a rising senior from WA and am in the midst of my college search, but I need a little help on finding the right school for me. I like small liberal arts schools a lot, but there are also a few mid-to-large schools (such as USC and Duke) that have caught my eye. I really could go for any location, whether it be in the middle of the city, on the outskirts or in the suburbs, except I do not like isolated, rural, college towns and I'd lake to stay relatively close to the coasts (though I am open to exceptions). I'm not sure what I want to do yet, but two routes that I'm thinking about are Communications/Film and Economics/Social Sciences. I know they are completely different, but my interests are always morphing and changing so who knows what I will end up getting into (this makes me think like I should apply to a versatile liberal arts school).</p>
<p>Here's a general outline of my profile to help gauge what schools might fit:</p>
<p>SAT: 2200
ACT: 33
SAT II: 750 (Math 2), 680 (Spanish), 660 (Lit)
APs: around 10 total, 5's on most, 4's on a couple</p>
<p>I would say my extracurriculars show depth rather than breadth, but overall are fairly extensive and show that I am passionate about what I do.</p>
<p>So far my list of “for sure” schools is: Columbia, Pomona, Claremont Mckenna, Boston U, Chapman, Wesleyan. Can anyone offer me any more to check out? It would be awesome if you could give me one reach, one safety and one target. Thanks!</p>
<p>What’s your weighted and unweighted GPA? For LACs, this is typically weighted at about 50% of the admissions decision, so it matters a great deal more than your test scores.</p>
<p>Assuming you have grades above 3.7 unweighted, take a look at Vassar (urban), Swarthmore and Haverford (both suburban) for mathc/reaches. (Swarthmore and Haverford are part of the three school consortium with Bryn Mawr-also a match if you are female and are okay with all girls schools). Macalester (urban) would be a match. Reed (urban) is also a match. Brown, although not a LAC, is LAC-like, urban and coastal, so take a look, but it’s definitely a reach. </p>
<p>Your best safety-financial and otherwise-is often your state school, especially if they have an honors program.</p>
<p>All these schools have strong personalities, so you might want to read up to see which are the best potential fit for you.</p>
<p>Definitely look into Northwestern considering you’re looking at Film/Communications. The Communications school is GREAT and NU is renowned for Econ too. The number of undergraduate schools at NU ensure that you can switch easily if you want to plus double majoring is also quite easy. I’d say it’s a low reach.</p>
<p>And the location also fits into what you’re looking for. It’s a college town but it’s like 20-25 mts from downtown Chicago. Plus it’s ON the lakeside. And we have a beach. Ok ok it might not be a coast but you defo. can’t tell it’s Lake Michigan and not the Atlantic :P</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. For more info on stats:
UW GPA: 4.0
W GPA: ~4.4 but hard to know for sure b/c school doesn’t weight
Top 5% of very competitive high school</p>