<p>So my college search has hit a standstill. My former top choice (GWU) has turned out to be not very good at what I want to do- a mix of international business, french, poli sci, legal studies. My other choice is Mount Holyoke College, but it's not exactly what I want. I love it and it would be awesome to go there, but I want to explore some other options. I have a 4.2 GPA, lots of volunteer work, diverse extracurriculars. I have a 690 in Math, 740 in CR and 730 in writing on the sats. Any/ all suggestions welcome. Thank you!</p>
<p>Vanderbilt university
Carnegie Mellon </p>
<p>Why do you think GWU isn’t strong in those fields?</p>
<p>Any of the schools below wil be great. Just find your FIT & BALANCE.</p>
<p>Yale, Princeton</p>
<p>Middlebury, Swarthmore, Banard, Pomona, Macalester</p>
<p>Carnegie Melon U, Vanderbilt, NYU</p>
<p>UCLA, C of Williams and Mary, UVA</p>
<p>That’s a combination of (IVY’s, LAC’s, Private large, Publics). The only thing missing here is a safety. You have to figure at least 2 safeties to add to the list.</p>
<p>BEST OF LUCK TO YOU.</p>
<p>If you loved Mount Holyoke, then you would probably like most other Seven Sisters colleges. Perhaps you didn’t like G’town or GWU because you have to select a specific undergraduate college, and it’s harder to combine Liberal Arts with the Law/Business programs that interest you. If you’re willing to go West, Claremont-McKenna might be a perfect match for you.</p>
<p>What Whenhen said. You didn’t explain what’s lacking at GWU.</p>
<p>How about Scripps or Dickinson? And @ccco2018, your list doesn’t make much sense. This student isn’t getting into Yale or Princeton, or Swat. And I would never recommend NYU unless someone had clearly said cost was no issue, since they give awful financial aid. And without knowing the OP’s location and financial situation, state colleges like UVA and W&M don’t make much sense given the high cost of OOS tuition.</p>
<p>@ INTPARENT; Ithink you might be under the impression that OP has already been accepted. OP is considering schools to apply to at this time. I assumed that based on the posted statement;
“but I want to explore some other options. I have a 4.2 GPA, lots of volunteer work, diverse extracurriculars. I have a 690 in Math, 740 in CR and 730 in writing on the sats. Any/ all suggestions welcome”.</p>
<p>Except OP has been admitted already, then I stand corrected.</p>
<p>I agree it was a poor list of suggestions.</p>
<p>@ccco2018, no, I am quite clear on what the OP is asking. Students with 690 Math SATs do not get into Princeton and Yale without some kind of huge hook. Which this OP does not have based on her comments so far. Your suggestions are almost random with the limited amount of information you have. Plus, the 4.2 GPA is likely weighted, so we don’t even know what this student’s GPA is. You seem to be tossing off a selection of schools you have “heard of”. In fact, a mixture of Ivies (the ones you suggested are out of reach – Princeton and Yale), publics (and you have no idea if the student is in state, so whether they would be affordable – so UCLA, William (no S) and Mary, and UVA are probably not good candidates), LACs (Swat is very likely out of reach for this student, and Pomona may very well be also), and NYU (horrible FA). So 7 of your suggestions are probably poor ones. And most students wouldn’t want all those types of schools on their lists anyway.</p>
<p>Oh, and if you are going to recommend colleges, you might learn to spell their names:
William and Mary
Barnard
Carnegie Mellon</p>
<p>@ intparent; WAOOO…
I see you “KNOW IT ALL”. Do you know where the OP lives too??
SMH…</p>
<p>ccco…Intparent is right.</p>
<br>
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<p>those stats are not high enough for P and Y…and many other suggestions wont work either.</p>
<p>we need more info:</p>
<p>home state
how much parents will pay
low income?
retesting?</p>
<p>@whenhen- I’ve read many student testimonials and talked to people who are currently at GWU, so it’s not really an assumption. I know they’re a good school, just not for me.
@ccco2018 and @intparent- i’m not considering princeton and yale at all because a) 'll never get in, B) they are waay too expensive and C) neither have my intended fields of choice.
I loved NYU, but as you said they give out basically no money, and I can’t afford a $64,000 per year tuition for a school that’s not even an Ivy.
I’m from Massachusetts, but Umass Amherst is out of the question. I hate it with a passion and they don’t have what I want.
@woogzmama- I’d love to go west but I’m restricted to east coast, within a 6 hour drive.
I took the SAT again yesterday so I’ll know in a few weeks.
Parents will be kicking in most of it, but financial aid is a necessary. We’re not low income by any means, though.
Also @intparent, my school doesn’t calculate unweighted GPAs, so no, I do have a 4.2. Not a big fan of Dickinson, though I’d welcome more suggestions from you specifically.
Thank you so much for your input!</p>
<p>You should calculate it yourself, because colleges WILL recalculate, and you need to have some idea what you really have for a GPA. What is it you don’t like about Dickinson? One of my kids went there and loved it – they are good in all your areas of study, and give merit aid.</p>
<p>Also… mostly I can see what you don’t like in your posts. You have stated your major, and we had an idea of your test scores and possible grades (don’t know for sure, but guessing a 3.7 or higher on a 4.0 scale if you unweight). And you want to be within 6 hours drive of Mass.</p>
<p>When you say, “financial aid is a necessity. We’re not low income by any means, though”, what does that mean? Have you run net price calculators for any schools? Are you eligible for need based aid, or do you mean that you will need to find merit aid?</p>
<p>And… you dislike U Mass, Mt. Holyoke, Dickinson, and GWU. But it still isn’t clear to me why you dislike them. More specifics on this might help in narrowing down some suggestions. Just trying to get a rational read on what you are looking for – there are TONS of schools in the Northeast, so more info might help – although I have to say, I am also a fan of Mt. Holyoke, so my suggestions may or may not be helpful to you 
</p>
<p>Remember that you need to find safety, match, and (if you want to) reach colleges that you would be willing to attend. You are not looking for just one college, that is just a recipe for heartache (do NOT try to find a “dream school”. And NO college is perfect. If you can afford it and it is in the range of possibility for your acceptance, you may need to be willing to overlook a few warts.</p>
<p>I never said I don’t like MHC; it’s my top choice until I can find a better one. UMass is too big, too close to home and too kind of all over the place. Not what I want at all. Dickinson is fine, just not good enough. Same with GWU.
In terms of financial aid, we are in a strange position in that we aren’t poor enough to merit a full ride, but we’re not rich enough to afford a full ride. I’d be going for merit-based aid and scholarships.
By way of LACs, I’m looking for schools ranked in top 40 and that have high acceptance rates to graduate and professional schools. Same for Universities, but ranked in top 60.
Mainly, I want a school known for its academic rigor, high acceptance rates to grad schools, preferably in a city or medium sized town, and opportunities for study abroad and internships. My temporary list is American, Barnard, Brandeis, GWU, UMass Amherst (to make my parents happy), MHC, NYU, Northeastern, University of Richmond and Simmons College. </p>
<p>You might want to add Fordham to the list, also. You could apply to the main campus, or the Lincoln Center branch. You would probably qualify for a decent scholarship, with your stats.</p>
<p>Sorry, still not clear. What do you want that is “better” than MHC? Or Dickinson? “Not good enough” in what respect? Same question for GWC. You are not really articulating what is wrong with each of these schools. And seriously… do not develop ONE favorite school, especially as it sounds like cost is a significant issue. </p>
<p>Are you eligible for any need based aid? Have you run the net price calculators on the websites of any colleges? They are on the financial aid website page, and you will need help from your parents to run them. Note that if your parents are divorced, own a small business, or own rental real estate, you will likely get less aid than the calculators show. The real question is whether you can afford any of the schools on your list except UMass Ahmerst – it may be that the reason your parents are “happy” with this school is that it is the only one on your list that they can afford.</p>
<p>If you really are looking only for merit aid, you need to do a few things:
- Look at the Common Data Set for the section on what percentage of students get merit aid and the average amount. (Google ‘<college name=""> Common Data Set’ and you will find most of them.) Take that info combined with what their financial aid pages say about what merit scholarships are offered, and also look at the average test scores for each school. Know that at many schools, students that bring ethnic or gender or geographic diversity may have an edge the scholarship pool, too. And you would want to be in the top 25% of the applicant pool (higher for the biggest scholarships) on all your test scores to have much of a shot at merit at most schools.
- Take the amount of merit aid you might reasonably expect based on that review. Subtract it from the cost of attendance. Can you pay that? If not, drop the school. If so, think about keeping it on your list.</college></p>
<p>If you find nothing on your list but UMass Amherst is within your cost range, you are going to have to change your strategy. You could expand your geographic range to look at some schools with automatic scholarships for your stats. They may not be colleges you would consider at first glance, but if it is UMass or those…</p>
<p>Based on what you have said about needing financial aid but your family isn’t low income, I infer that you will be looking for a lot of merit aid. In order to get merit aid from a college, you have to be one of the top applicants to that school. So, you need to look for colleges to apply to where your stats are above the 75th percentiles, and which offer a lot of merit aid. </p>
<p>This thread may be helpful to you, by a student who considered merit scholarship availability in selecting which colleges to apply to.
<a href=“After the Dust Settled: Results for high-stats, merit-seeking kid - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>After the Dust Settled: Results for high-stats, merit-seeking kid - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Go to the Financial Aid forum and look at the Stickied threads there. Good Merit aid schools are listed.</p>