D17 is a rising senior interested in majoring in either neuroscience, comp sci, or both. She is finalizing her reach/target and safety list and wants to make sure she considers all of the best fits for her. She’s targeting NE, Mid-Atlantic, and maybe Midwest, LAC’s and Universities. She’s likes smaller schools so nothing over 10,000, except Cornell at this point Academically, she’s scored a 34 single sitting ACT (may try to superscore a 35 in October), SAT 2’s of 800 Math II, and 750 Bio E, 1460/1520 PSAT with 219 SI so National Merit something, unweighted GPA of 3.8/weighted 4.15 with 6 AP classes, rest honors and will be classified as most rigorous at her very competitive HS. Will be applying EA, ED and RD without need for any financial aid.
Her list of top choices currently includes Bates, Brown, Bowdoin, Carleton, Cornell, Hamilton, Middlebury, Oberlin, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Williams. Suggestions?
No reason not to take a swing at MIT, where she will have a gender advantage for admission. The rest of the choices look solid, although Middlebury and Oberlin are probably not as strong as the other LAC’s you listed for those designated fields.
Thx, she was thinking about applying EA to MIT and Chicago - she knows they are long shots, but… She also wants to continue with Chinese. AP’s include AP Bio, AP Physics, AP Calc AB, AP Comp Sci, AP English Lit, AP Gov.
Oberlin may not be the strongest in CS, but was the first LAC with a neuroscience major and has produced multiple Nobel laureates in science categories. It’s definitely not weak in that area.
Based upon their involvement in the creation of the Associated Colleges in China program, both Hamilton and Williams appear to be top choices for the study of Chinese:
@ColdinMinny why would you single out Middlebury’s neuroscience and CS as being weaker than the others? I don’t know too much about their CS, but their neuroscience is very strong. Besides, their Chinese is the strongest of any of the mentioned schools.
Oldest son graduated as a neuroscience concentrator at brown. His safety was Pitt bc it has a leading program. He also applied EA to Michigan & uchicago. At the time, Chicago didn’t have a neuro major. You had to major in bio and then later specialize in neuro. While he loved the Chicago vibe and got accepted early, that lack of neuro major made him prefer brown, which has a leading undergrad neuro program. But Chicago just announced a neuro major beginning with the next incoming class. This should help your daughter with acceptance bc I’m sure the admissions committee will be looking for prospective neuro majors.
Other excellent neuro programs at mid-sized U’s include Johns Hopkins & Emory.
Update: Both my DD mentioned, and her twin sister, accomplished their goals of achieving a 35 superscore in September. So now they need to decide where to apply ED 1 - they are much more collaborative than competitive and are generally focused on LAC’s.
My STEM DD has narrowed her list to Brown, Middlebury and Williams with an interest in studying Neuroscience, Biology (maybe molecular), Math and Chinese - any thoughts on which would be best suited for this type of kid
Her twin is a student athlete interested in history, poli sci/international relations/changing the world and environmental science, and has decided on Bowdoin as her ED 1.
Perhaps a look at course catalogs, schedules, and faculty rosters in each subject at each school can give an idea of whether the departments are large enough and offer enough courses to keep her interested if she decides to major in the subject?