<p>Go visit a college or two! Any college, the closest one, whatever college is in your city. The idea is to stimulate a reaction: notice what you like, what you don't like. Maybe take a tour, maybe just look at the Library, dorms. Talk to a few kids. Your reactions to College X will help you figure out what to look into next.</p>
<p>Maybe this was mentioned already, but do you have a guidance counselor? He/she knows or can find out enough about you to help you identify what is a "reach", a "safety", etc., given the experience of previous kids at your school; as well as what colleges might suit your interest.</p>
<p>Go to the chances forum, tell people a little about yourself, and then tell them what kind of school you are looking for. More often than not, its helpful. >></p>
<p>While this can be fun and sometimes provide insights, I wouldn't rely on it too much. Most of the posters here haven't looked at the actual admissions figures of various schools in great detail. Also, admissions committees look at much more than the typical "soundbite" of stats most people give here on CC. </p>
<p>Much better is to look at each school's common data set information (do a search on their web site) which details the breakdown on test scores, grades, etc. in much more depth. Much of that same info. can be obtained at the US News & World Reports online premium edition
for about $15. It's worth it.</p>
<p>As a general rule of thumb, try to think of reach-match-safety this way:</p>
<p>Unrealistic reach - schools where your test scores, GPA, etc. are below the 25% median, regardless of how many students they accept </p>
<p>Realistic reach - schools where you are in the lower half of the 25-75 percentile medians OR where the percentage of students accepted fall below 30%. No matter WHAT your stats are, these are reaches for everyone.</p>
<p>Maybe schools (or matches) - these are schools where your stats fall in the upper 25-75 percentile but accept more than 30% of applicants.</p>
<p>Safeties - schools where your stats fall above the 75% or schools where you are in the 50-75% but the school accepts well over 60% of students.</p>
<p>Once again, thanks for the replys! It's very helpful. So I went out & bought Fiske Guide & Greenes' guide and decided that I would prefer
1. Small College <2000 or so undergrads
- still preferably suburban/ urban
- But interestingly, there are quite a few small colleges in rural areas. So should I just ignore how much I dislike too much trees & nature? </p>
<pre><code>2. non-conservative (lean towards liberal)
3. NEVER an all girl's school! MY GOODNESS!....so Co-ed
- and I realize that boots out a lot of good colleges, but I really don't think I can handle being in an all girl's sch.
NO Mountains
offers academic scholarships
bright people around me
don't want to be at the top
I'm not sure if I want to study abroad... it sounds interesting, but I'm not obsessed over it either....iffy
Oh yeah, and I don't have a problem w/ people drinking-- but preferably not EXCESSIVELY:: self-control is valued....
---and I believe doing drugs is a personal issue that I really have no control over....but I don't think I want a college where there are peddlers all over either...
--- and about sororities/frats: I don't think I would want 80% of the people in it... kind of limits interaction btw/ diff people... too centralized
</code></pre>
<p>wondrlst: so do you think I should apply to a college that I really want to go to but can't pay? no? what if I'm hoping for merit aid?</p>
<p>raven001: does that mean that small colleges are weaker in the research areas? why are large uni "large"-- is it b/c they have large facilities and state $ so they can pay for advanced equip? oh and do the colleges require that I state my intended major when applying? what if I'm unsure btw/ a few?</p>
<p>mikemac: Well, they pay for a bit, but the chunk my parents have to pay is IMPOSSIBLE...there's no way they can pay for what EFC says they can... we have other expenses too!...oh and thanks for the distinction btw/ majors & careers</p>
<p>carolyn: Yeah, I got a copy of US News but it's kind of hard to sort through all the statistical data and make meaning out of it. I think I'll use the back section that gives a briefing on the colleges</p>
<p>Oh, I'm just saying keep finances in mind. I would still apply wherever you want to, but make sure you have some schools that you can definitely pay for/definitely get merit aid from. By the way, you might like Swarthmore/Haverford... I'm not exactly sure if they're suburban/urban but they fit most other requirements. Merit aid is iffy though.</p>
<p>Yeah they said the same about my 3.8. And they said 40 hours of volunteer work in two years was crap. And anytime I suggested an improvement I could make they acted like, "Oh that's not all that matters, obviously." As if I had said that's all I'm gonna do.</p>
<p>Small, Selective Urban and Suburban Liberal Arts Colleges in and around major U.S. cities, very good departments across the board, relatively liberal political climate, co-ed, no excessive drinking. . . Pomona, Swarthmore, Haverford, Macalester, Pitzer, Occidental, Reed, Trinity (CT), Lewis & Clark. . .</p>
<p>Not quite so liberal but in a multi-school environment. . .Claremont McKenna. </p>
<p>A little larger. . .Rice, Johns Hopkins and Washington University.</p>
<p>Many of these schools are quite expensive, but you never know what the actual cost will be until you apply, provide financial aid information and get accepted. Some of them give limited merit aid. And all of them are very good schools.</p>
<p>aiming high is fine, but don't turn your nose up at schools that don't fit the prototypical "top" school. If money is an issue, apply to UT austin, which is an excellent school and a great experience/town. I had mid-A average in highschool, SAT scores at 1465, and ACT 31. I was also in debate, NHS, worked, and had numerous notches on my application. And i couldn't be happier than paying in-state tuition through reciprocity at UW-Madison The name of your school matters, sure, as does the networking. but ask yourself where you want to end up after college. the contacts you'll make out east will be, well, from out east. and if you are planning on med-school, then i would save the money on the undergrad, and still get a respectible education at a place like Austin, and put the money toward goinig to a more "name" school for med school. I know a guy who did his undergrad work at minnesota state, and then his med school at Bowman-Gray at Wake Forest. it was a great option for someone who was putting themself through school.</p>
<p>I came from a large, upper middle suburban highschool. During senior year, it seemed that a large segment of the population was obsessed with the great schools they were going to out of state. One year later, a number of them returned to the University of Minnesota. Apparently not everyone enjoys having to hop on a plane everytime they want to come home. Some do, sure, but i'm not sure that it's entirely necessary to leave TX to get a good education. but that's just me. </p>
<p>(plus, big schools can be as small as you want to make them. get involved, and it'll seem like a small community very quickly.)</p>
<p>i agree w/the suggestion to avoid the chances forum...no one, i repeat, NO ONE other than the admissions committee at any college can accurately predict your chances to said college</p>
<p>I'm glad you've come to realize that going to a school which isn't an Ivy is okay! Remember, over 99% of students in college aren't in an Ivy League school--and there's nothing wrong with that! There are also PLENTY of students who could have gone to an Ivy and chose not to, for a variety of reasons.</p>
<p>I may be a bit biased here because of where I am right now (at the honors program at a state school a few hours from my home), but I think a good option for you to keep open is an honors program at a public (or private) school that you might not have looked at otherwise. Many universities have great honors programs and the numbers (SAT scores/GPAs) of the students in these programs is comparable to those in Ivy League schools. Many larger schools also practically guarantee merit scholarships with admission to their honors programs. The best faculty often teach honors courses and class sizes are kept small within the honors program.</p>
<p>Feel free to email me if you have any questions about my experience here--I was in a similar situation to you and am very glad I made the choice i did.</p>
<p>I am a junior and I am having a hard time trying to decide on colleges to pick from. My parents are on my back, it seems like 24/7 about looking at the brochures and picking about 5 colleges to apply to. I am a good student in the classroom and get honors, in National Honor Society, in Latin Club and play basketball. I work hard in both my academics and sports. The only problem I have is that I am not a great test taker. I took the SAT and didnt do as well as I woulda liked to. How am I supposed to decide what college to go to if I my test scores dont seem to qualify?</p>
<p>Both bballmaniac and the OP made this remark. DON'T GIVE IN. IT"S A DUMB TEST, you're a smart kid, and you can beat it. </p>
<p>A year ago, my D scored an 1100 on her first practice. She began to worry that YEARS OF studying for AP tests and honors classes were for nothing. We looked into test prep classes and realized that they're based 99% on practice-practice-practice. I looked over her practice test and realized she thinks TOO HARD on most of the questions. Relax, sweetie-pie. SO--she went out and bought "Ten REal SATs", and started studying the SAT is if it were another difficult, maddening, unfair class. She never scored above a 1250 in practice. On her first official try (March 2004) she got a 1380, proving to herself that she does better under actual combat conditions. </p>
<p>She studied the test report, said "I can do better", and spent the summer practicing some more. She was smart enough to look for PATTERNS in what she got wrong--certain types of math questions she misread, decimal point placement, geometry, etc.--and work on those over and over again. She also practiced the SATII writing and the SATII Math. She had a normal teenage summer--with an hour of homework a day.</p>
<p>She took the SAT September of her senior year and got a 1470. She was going to try one more time to crack the 1500 barrier, but decided at the last minute it was just too neurotic. </p>
<p>BTW: She's been accepted to the honors colleges at UCLA, NYU, and USC (imagine having someone like T.C. Boyle teach your writing seminar!) and we're waiting for results from the four Ivies she applied to. Even if they're all NO, she's got some good choices available to her right now. Go and do likewise!</p>
<p>"As a general rule of thumb, try to think of reach-match-safety this way:</p>
<p>Unrealistic reach - schools where your test scores, GPA, etc. are below the 25% median, regardless of how many students they accept </p>
<p>Realistic reach - schools where you are in the lower half of the 25-75 percentile medians OR where the percentage of students accepted fall below 30%. No matter WHAT your stats are, these are reaches for everyone.</p>
<p>Maybe schools (or matches) - these are schools where your stats fall in the upper 25-75 percentile but accept more than 30% of applicants.</p>
<p>Safeties - schools where your stats fall above the 75% or schools where you are in the 50-75% but the school accepts well over 60% of students."</p>
<p>The one thing I have to say to this is that you shouldn't focus on acceptance rates so much. Many strong schools have higher acceptance rates because the pool of applicants is very self-selected, and only top students apply anyways. The profile of incoming students is a much better gauge of where you would be. </p>
<p>As a general recommendation, I would suggest visiting a wide variety of schools just to get a sense of what you're looking for. You may have something in mind and find that it is not exactly what you want once you see it. Fill out this: <a href="http://apps.collegeboard.com/search/adv_typeofschool.jsp%5B/url%5D">http://apps.collegeboard.com/search/adv_typeofschool.jsp</a> and then look at the results. I would suggest based on my experience with it that you shouldn't fill out the selectivity part or the part about the average high school gpa, because it eliminates schools it shouldn't.<br>
good luck!</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As a general rule of thumb, try to think of reach-match-safety this way:</p>
</blockquote>
<br>
<p>Unrealistic reach - schools where your test scores, GPA, etc. are below the 25% median, regardless of how many students they accept </p>
<p>Realistic reach - schools where you are in the lower half of the 25-75 percentile medians OR where the percentage of students accepted fall below 30%. No matter WHAT your stats are, these are reaches for everyone.</p>
<p>Maybe schools (or matches) - these are schools where your stats fall in the upper 25-75 percentile but accept more than 30% of applicants.</p>
<p>Safeties - schools where your stats fall above the 75% or schools where you are in the 50-75% but the school accepts well over 60% of students.<<</p>
<p>Can you really distinguish schools by SAT and GPA? For several schools I'm looking at my numbers are usually around the 75th percentile but I doubt I could get into many of them because my ECs are very weak. However, could I still use this guide to determine match/reach/safety?</p>
<p>you ahve to look beyond SAT scores though. Usually you can only find the 25-75%ile in SAT scores. My scores were above the 75%ile of all of my colleges, yet i still got rejected from a few. so make sure your gpa is above the average before considering it a safety.</p>