<p>Does anyone know any small liberal arts colleges that are particularly strong in history programs? While I am smart I am not "Ivy league" smart or NESCAC smart either. So does anyone know of any schools that I should look at? Thanks! </p>
<p>How much can your family afford? What are your stats?</p>
<p>Hello Erin’s dad. Thanks for commenting. Money is not an issue. sorry if that sounded snobby. I don’t want to sound like that, I’m just saying the truth. I have:</p>
<p>3.88 UW GPA
4.65 W GPA. Class rank is 55 out of 515. Very competitive high school in Pennsylvania and the NHS cutoff is 4.7! the next closest school around my school has a 4.3 cut off! I will most likely be inducted next year. hopefully!
taking 3 AP this year and 6 next year. All other classes are honors (Im in 11th grade)
Lot’s of EC’s and even 2 officer positions and sports.
Volunteer experience and soon to have work experience (Just Applied at the local super market haha).</p>
<p>Sorry for the late post but if you could comment Erin’s Dad, that would be awesome!! Thanks!</p>
<p>1850 SAT :-S Math: 690 Writing: 610 Verbal: 530 :-S WILL BE TAKING AGAIN ALONG WITH ACT. I know that is a low score and it really bothers me.</p>
<p>You may want to consider test-optional colleges, because the rest of your application is strong and those scores don’t help you. The Fair Test website has a comprehensive list.</p>
<p>Okay, do retake the SAT. 1900-2000 would make many universities at least reachable. but don’t worry about it too much. Rigor of curriculum and GPA will matter more than your SAT score. NHS doesn’t matter but what you do in NHS may. Colleges aren’t interested in your belonging to a myriad clubs, they want to see if you had an impact in the few activities you chose to do. Try to be a volunteer/docent at your local museum. Become your “class historian” (if the position doesn’t exist, ask your principal to approve it). See if you can take a college-level history class at your local public university this summer along with other activities (don’t forget to have fun :p)</p>
<p>I would have to caution you against taking 6 APs next year. The workload is likely to be unmanageable. If you have 4, colleges (even highly selective ones) will be fine. However, if you get C’s, they will NOT like it. it’s very risky. There’s a law of diminishing returns once you have 6 to 8 APs, total, and you shouldn’t have less than a B in any of them (so ask your teachers to make sure you can have a B or more in every AP you plan to take.)
In your case, you should have APUSH, AP Euro and/or World and/or Art History, plus English Language.</p>
<p>Look into any of the national LACs.
Those ranked 20-40 would be your reaches, 41-60 would be your matches, and 61-80 would be your safeties.</p>
<p>Add your state flagship’s honors college - since you’re in PA, I assume that would be Penn State (and do apply to Shreyer, although the admission rate is under 10% - they do NOT factor SAT score at all. However, essay quality and EC’s are essential). For Penn State, GPA is 2/3 of the decision; it’s rolling admissions, meaning the earlier you apply, the easier it is to get in, and with that weighted GPA you could apply as soon as the app is online this August/September. Then you’ll have a safety in hand and if you’re fine with attending that university, you can focus on any college of your choice. Or, if Penn State really isn’t your cup of tea (which I understand), look into less selective LACs of your choice, especially those located in the South and Midwest.</p>
<p>Oxford of Emory, Kenyon, Gettysburg, Dickinson, Earlham would be colleges (different levels of selectivity) to look into.</p>
<p>OP, check out Gettysburg College and Washington College in Chestertown, MD.</p>
<p>I took 5 AP classes in my senior year of high school (American government, comparative government, calculus AB, physics C, English literature). It was a heavy courseload, but I got As in all of those classes and I enjoyed it a lot. I was ready for a college-level courseload by my senior year and I didn’t have any trouble managing the workload - I actually had to take two non-honors, non-AP electives (psychology and economics) and I was terribly bored. So I think it just depends on the student herself. Some students are ready for that level of work by senior year and others aren’t.</p>
<p>Also, OP, your SAT score is above average, so don’t be embarrassed by it. I know when you’re surrounded by people who are aiming for the very elite colleges it can be difficult to keep perspective, but don’t worry about your test score, really. Realistically, some of the top 25-30ish LACs will probably be reaches for you, but there are a lot of really great LACs in the middle that you can attend and even within the top 100, we’re still talking about the top 10% of colleges in the country. And honestly, your math and writing scores are within range for even some of those schools - it’s really only the CR score that’s kind of low.</p>
<p>As for history - most LACs will have a solid history department. What you might want to do is flip through the course catalog/look at the recently offered classes and see if they have classes that are interesting to you. For example, some colleges will offer lots of classes about ancient history but not so much after, say, 1870. Other schools may have a lot of European history classes but very few in African history. While you shouldn’t be looking to specialize yet, it’s never a bad idea to make sure the college offers at least 2-3 classes in an area in which you’re interested, especially if you want to study history further. </p>
<p>Some colleges that might interest you on the test optional list are Agnes Scott, Bard College, Bennington, Bowdoin, Bryn Mawr, Clark University, Colby, Colorado College, Denison, Franklin & Marshall, Furman, Hamilton, Hampshire, Ithca, Juniata, Knox, Lawrence, Marist, Middlebury, Muhlenberg, Pitzer, Sewanee, Smith, Union, Ursinus, Utica, Wake Forest, Wheaton. You honestly would be able to get into several of those schools even with submitting your scores, though. For example, your scores are in the range for Marist and Lawrence. Smith, Agnes Scott and Bryn Mawr are women’s colleges.</p>