<p>There's so many colleges out there, it's so hard to navigate them! I'm from Wisconsin so I definitely will apply to UW-Madison and I realize it is a great school. I would prefer schools with good financial aid and/or merit scholarships. My GPA is 4.0 (soon to get my first B in the hardest class in my school) with a fairly hard schedule rigor. My senior year schedule will be AP Gov, AP Stats, AP Calc, AP Spanish, Contemporary issues, english lit honors, european lit honors, advanced physics, advanced astrophysics, and intro to philosophy. My ACT is 31 with an SAT of 2050 (1380). I am the captain of my wrestling team, I am the president of Spanish Honors Society, and will hopefully be the president of NHS. I will also be traveling to Paraguay for 6 weeks to do volunteer work in a rural community this summer. </p>
<p>Intended major/career: Economics
big campus: no preference
small/med campus (less than 10k undergrads): no preference
quiet campus: As long as there are some parties
rah rah big sports to watch: not necessary, but nice
honors college on campus?: if it's already a great school, no, but it also would be nice
greek systems as an option: not necessary
Catholic schools ok?: yes, but not preferred
single sex: NO. NO. NO.
co-ed 50/50 split: would be nice. Also wouldn't mind more girls
rural setting: Eh, not preferred
big city setting: Yes please
collegetown/suburban setting: Very acceptable
nice dorms: Would be preferred, as long as they are not run down
recreation availability: At least a decent weight room
warm weather: not necessary
cold/snowy weather: I'm used to it, so it's not the end of the world
regional preference: none, but I would like to stay away from the deep south
is regional preference a requirement?: no</p>
<p>You might take a look at some of the threads that are stickied at the top of pages. One talks about schools with great merit money, which you might be eligible for.</p>
<p>Your SAT score makes top ten LAC’s possible but slight reaches; however, if you want a City you can eliminate all of them, so that narrows things down! Haverford is close to Philly and Bowdoin actually isn’t that far from Portland, though. Before you get too set on a City/suburban setting you might visit one more rural place to see what it feels like. Most of them have a lot of activities on campus. Other thoughts— Macalaster is less of a reach and is in a City. You might also want to think about the funky to preppy spectrum and which is right for you. There are lots of threads on that. Most good schools are going to have good economics, so that doesn’t really help to narrow down. Among smaller universities Hopkins would be somewhat of a reach and Carnegie Mellon might be closer to a match. You will start to narrow down as you read more, visit and figure out what is reasonable with your stats. Good luck!</p>
<p>You might consider retaking the SAT. If you can raise your score by 150 or so, it would open up more possibilities. As far as schools that fit your preferences and offer good aid, how about Rice (reach), USC, Vanderbilt (too Southern?), Washington University (reach), Boston College, George Washington University, Duke (reach), Claremont McKenna (great econ department), Pomona (reach), and Santa Clara University.</p>
<p>You may have an idea of what area of economics interests you (i.e. international ); or you may have a language or a secondary interest that is important to you: (i.e.: a double major or minor in Spanish). Research schools that have good programs in your primary and secondary interests.
Do you want an international mix of students? then look at those percentages also. </p>
<p>If money is an issue, you are not going to do better than UW-Madison if you are in-state. For colleges that offer merit scholarships, check out the website MeritAid.com, and Kiplingers best college values (public, private, LAC). I recommend that families build the financial piece into their college search strategy so they don’t waste time pursuing colleges that don’t offer the kind of money support they need. You can find out most of that up front.</p>
<p>The best Economics schools (based on The College Finder by Steven Antonoff) include: Claremont McKenna, Pomona, U Mich, Northwestern, Penn, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, UC Berkeley, U Chicago, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Villanova. Carnegie-Mellon offers merit money. For merit money, your credentials generally have to place you a step above the school you’re applying to—so they need to entice you to come there with merit money.</p>
<p>Before you rule out the South (we’re from the Northeast and my son is at Emory and totally loves it), elite southern schools offer excellent merit scholarship programs (Emory, Vanderbilt, Rice, Tulane, U Richmond). William & Mary is a pubic institution with a private school feel, one of Kiplinger’s best public school values. UVA and UNC are excellent but favor in-state students so strongly that it would not be a good use of time & energy to pursue them.</p>
<p>Thanks for your advise! Here are some more details that I can add in:</p>
<p>I’m going to study for the ACT this summer and retake, so hoping for a 32 or 33. I’m most interested in macroeconomics, but in undergraduate I don’t believe this makes as much of a difference; however, I want to go to a school where there would be numerous research opportunities. A good study abroad program is pretty important, and I would like there to be some diversity. To give you an idea, the schools that have been most interesting to me are UW-Madison, McGill, Wake Forest, Middlebury, and Colorado College</p>
<p>“I would prefer schools with good financial aid and/or merit scholarships.”</p>
<p>Sit down with your parents and run the FAFSA EFC calculators at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and at [College</a> Calculators - savings calculators - college costs, loans](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Calculate Your Cost – BigFuture | College Board) Find out if they can meet the EFC or not. Find out how much student debt they are willing for you to take on. Find out how much money they expect you to earn in the summers and/or during the school years to put toward your expenses. </p>
<p>Then go read up on merit aid in the Financial Aid forum. Your stats are good. There is money out there for students like you, but you may need to attend a college/university that you have never heard of before in order to receive it.</p>