I need LOADS of help deciding where to apply.I am almost COMPLETELY lost, help please

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Could you guys please give me a list of colleges that I should apply to (including matches, safeties, and reaches, and a place to ED to); also, please tell me why I would like that particular school.</p>

<p>Please don't critique me, please just give me a list of colleges you think I should consider applying to and why.</p>

<p>Currently, I have not decided on a single college I definetely want to apply to.</p>

<p>My sat is 2150 (hopefully 2200 at least with a retake) , my sat 2s hopefully will be 720-750 at least, my gpa is a 91 (with very slight up ward trend), and at my high school the target gpa for Princeton is 93, for Rice it's 92 (there are like 20 ppl with 93s or above, 30 with 91-93, 140 altogether. My high school sends tons and tons of people to top schools (everyone gets good scores).</p>

<p>I didn't take the hardest course load available, but it was still pretty hard, for me at least (2 ap's junior year, 3 ap's and an honors senior year, didn't take 3 available honors courses soph year and 1 freshman year).</p>

<p>I did like 400 hours of community service that was actually fun and rewarding and centered around helping sick and poor and the less fortunate (for example, giving guitar lessons to Ronald Mcdonald House kids for a summer and getting a guitar company to donate an acoustic to the center) , was an event organizer for my jewish youth group, did 4 of football, 2 of wrestling, 2 of track, I think my recs will be good.</p>

<p>my criteria: smallish middle sized (but I did like UPenn because it seemed really fun and lively even though it was it was big),preferrably near a city with museums and the like but if it's really beautiful like Dartmouth I could live with that, strong undergrad focus, not like NYU, it would be cool if there was some school spirit and some great sports teams to cheer for instead of just studying ALL the time, I really want small classes sizes (where I really get to know my teachers) and group discussions and hate large lectures. I also want to be able to be kind of like in a unified student body where I'll feel important and know a lot of people and won't kind of feel like I'm falling through the cracks, but I don't want to be seeing the exact same people every day, a residential college system would be nice.
I like english, history, psychology, astronomy, psychology, politics, philosphy, and the like but am not that interested in math, (nearly all) science, foreign language.</p>

<p>I'm a legacy at Rice Univeristy and Cornell, and my high school is a feeder school to rice, and rice accepts around 50 percent of all applicants from my high school.</p>

<p>I saw Upenn and thought it looked really fun and big and with a lot of different things to do, and I loved the pretty campus; I looked at a calendar of all the things going on, like lectures.</p>

<p>I liked Haverford and Swathmore but thought they were too small.</p>

<p>I also liked Brown a lot for its open curriculum and its feeling of laid-backness.</p>

<p>I didn't like Harvard (I wouldn't get in anyways) brvuse it seems to snobby, not enough school spirit, seems like there's little focus on undergrads, and too many large lectures, where I really get to know my teachers.</p>

<p>I really ike Rice's residential college system, great sports teams, proximity to Houston (which has great museums, restaurants, sports teams), small class size, I'll get to know the professors pretty well.</p>

<p>Even though I like Houston, a lot of people I know have been telling me that it would be a good idea to get out of state (I live in Houston) and broaden my horizons.</p>

<p>I kind of want to ED to Rice because I'd have a really really good chance of getting in and then I'd be able to avoid a bunch of nervousness and the possibility of not getting into any other schools I really like.</p>

<p>I also really really support gay rights and am not a heavy drinker.</p>

<p>algorecousin, I am not obsessed with the Ivies. Saying that I love 2 Ivy schools does not mean I am obsessed with the Ivies. Besides, I said I disliked Harvard a lot.
Just because other people are obsessed with the Ivies does not mean I am.</p>

<p>It's ust that a lot of my friends already know where they
are going to apply and I have not decided on one school I am definetely going to apply to, so I was asking for a little advice in an Internet forum.</p>

<p>Also, it is true that I have gotten "brilliant," as I have been spending a lot of time at the beach and got an impressive tan.</p>

2

<p>I just love these threads from "brilliant kids" obessed with the Ivy's and top schools who say they have no idea and cant' decide. I am very sorry. I just get tired of this stuff.</p>

3

<p>You should apply to U Chicago for a reach.</p>

4

<p>You are not brilliant. You are not even "brilliant."</p>

<p>My advice for you is to apply to Rice ED.</p>

<p>Look into Yale, which also has a residential system, I believe.</p>

<p>Every single school you spoke of in your post will be a high reach for you.</p>

<p>UPenn
Dartmouth
Brown
Cornell
Rice
Match 1
Match 2
Safety</p>

5

<p>How would you know you have never seen my tan (ps I was not calling myself smart, I was making a joke)</p>

<p>So even with my legacy status, Rice and Cornell would be far reaches? I hoped that the fact that my high school is a feeder to Rice combined with my legacy status would help me out a fair amount. Oh well... at least I don't have an 1800 sat... maybe that test-taking gods will favor me and I'll get a 2400 when I retake...</p>

6

<p>I misspoke. With the exception of Rice.</p>

7

<p>
[quote]
I hoped that the fact that my high school is a feeder to Rice

[/quote]
</p>

<p>It really doesn't matter whether your school is a feeder school. It matters how qualified you are. Usually, feeder schools just tend to have more of the well-qualified applicants. It is not the school that gets them in.</p>

<p>This same mentality plagues those arrogant applicants who think that Berkeley or UCLA or Michigan is their safety just because their high schools send a bunch of kids to the school. It's illogical.</p>

8

<p>I'm not trying to sound arrogant.</p>

<p>But Rice really does accept a lot of people from our school that would have zero chance of getting into similarly competitive schools like Penn or Amherst.</p>

<p>I have a white, well-off friend with a 2100 sat, an 86 average, did not apply ed, has zero legay status or connections at rice, and he got waitlisted at Rice.</p>

<p>IRonically, my friend got capped at university of texas (his first choice), which is a far less competitive school to get in.</p>

<p>There is no chance that he would be even considered on the wailist at Penn or Amherst.</p>

<p>I'm not bragging or being arrogant, I'm just stating a fact, any college counseler at my school would say the same.</p>

9

<p>^^ I think you're misinterpreting that occurrence--you haven't seen the whole picture, so you can't really make judgments.</p>

<p>
[quote]
There is no chance that he would be even considered on the wailist at Penn or Amherst.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You don't know that--stranger things have happened.</p>

<p>I was not saying you were being arrogant, but rather warning you against that same mistake that others have made.</p>

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<p>ok, thanks.</p>

11

<p>It's easy to find reaches. It's crucial to have matches and safeties you would be happy to attend. Consider Colgate and Davidson for small but sportsy. Tufts and Brandeis for small classes and city life. What about Emory? University of Miami? </p>

<p>Actually I think you should ED to Rice or else you'll drive yourself nuts. If you get in, you're done and you can relax. You'll have the rest of your life/career to explore other parts of the country if you want to. If you don't get in, you'll be that much more aware of how important it is to find and apply to matches and safeties that each have something about them you can love.</p>

12

<p>I spent a night at Brandeis with my cousin and if I went there I would definetely be content with myself, so I guess that's matchish.</p>

<p>Doesn't Davidson have like a 27 percent acceptance rate? That's reachish.</p>

<p>I also think it would be cool to go to a school with a great sports team, so I'll consider Johns Hopkins.</p>

<p>I need more matches and reaches</p>

13

<p>Davidson is more match than reach. Every school you said is a reach/far reach.</p>

<p>Find matches and safety and don't get burned.</p>

14

<p>
[quote]
I also liked Brown a lot for its open curriculum and its feeling of laid-backness.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You might want to consider Wesleyan or Vassar, which are like smaller (though bigger than Swarthmore/Haverford) versions of Brown. Vassar esp. has pretty easy access to NYC and is beautiful. Oberlin too, though it is more isolated (but does have a museum on campus). All three are known for activism—I can personally confirm that the gay rights group on the Wes campus is huge. None of them (Brown included) are big on sports, but students also don’t study ALL the time, they just tend to attend plays instead of sports games.</p>

<p>University of Rochester is another one associated with Brown that I believe has an open curriculum. </p>

<p>You should also check out the Claremont consortium (Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Scripps, Pitzer, Harvey Mudd). Each school in the consortium is small, but they are literally right next to each other and its very easy to cross register, making the overall number of undergrads you’d be able to interact with mid-sized. It’s not that far from LA. If you end up liking it, you could apply to both reach schools from it (Pomona, and McKenna which is slightly less reachy than most of your schools) and more match-y ones (Pitzer, Scripps if you are a girl). Again, sports aren’t big, but it’s not study-study-study all the time (except at Mudd, so I’ve heard, but that’s a science/engineering school anyway). </p>

<p>Have you looked at Northwestern as another reach? It fits a lot of your criteria. Georgetown might also work. </p>

<p>Maybe BC as more of a match? </p>

<p>Also check out University of Richmond for a smaller school (considered LAC) in (or near?) a city with more of a sports scene.</p>

15

<p>First of all, now is definitely the time to be asking questions like this, researching schools, etc., but don't drive yourself crazy because 'everyone else knows where they're applying.' Their lists are likely still changing. You're fine. You need to be searching, but you are, and you still have time.</p>

<p>Second, I'd second the Claremont suggestion...Claremont McKenna kind of struck me as something that might interest you. I can't actually pinpoint why...just a hunch.</p>

<p>Finally...</p>

<p>
[quote]
I kind of want to ED to Rice because I'd have a really really good chance of getting in and then I'd be able to avoid a bunch of nervousness and the possibility of not getting into any other schools I really like.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>There are good reasons to apply ED to a school, but IMO, neither of these tops the list. If you apply ED because you're so sure of your feelings that there's no reason to bother with the rest of the application process, fine, but don't apply primarily out of nervousness.</p>

16

<p>Check out Bucknell. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere but has a lot of the other criteria you mentioned. </p>

<p>I think you have as good a chance as anyone to the schools you mentioned. UPenn may be a long shot, but the others seem reasonable to me. I think you're looking for a large LAC -- hence, Bucknell, maybe Lehigh. (Both are in PA.)</p>