If You Had To Narrow These Down...

College Search & Selection
1

<p>As of right now, there are 13 schools on my list. If you had to narrow these down to 8-10 schools, which would you cut/keep and why?</p>

<p>Reaches:
Brown
Williams</p>

<p>Reach/Matches:
Haverford
Wesleyan</p>

<p>Matches:
Bryn Mawr
Mount Holyoke
Oberlin
Reed
Smith</p>

<p>Safeties:
Clark U.
Lewis and Clark
Marlboro
New College of Florida</p>

<p>I want to be a physican double specializing in psychiatry and pediatrics (possibly pediatric oncology), but as an undergrad would like to major in psychology or cognitive/neuroscience and linguisitcs.</p>

<p>What I'm looking for:</p>

<p>Academically:
strong programs in psych and/or cognitive science, linguistics, general science, and English (both literature and creative writing)
variety of languages are available
very challenging but non-competitive atmopshere
small class size
few-to-no TAs
accessible, interesting professors
freedom in steering the directon of my studies (not a huge core curriculum)</p>

<p>Administratively:
excellent study abroad program
good financial aid
students actively involved in governing the school</p>

<p>Locally:
east coast is preferable
nice local restaurants
good local music scene is a plus</p>

<p>In the Student Body:
no more than 6,000 students
accepting and liberal
actively involved in community service
quirkiness is a plus</p>

<p>On Campus:
campus is safe but not too isolated
lots of activities (organizations, performance groups, lectures and concerts to go to, et cetera)
alcohol is not a HUGE factor
little-to-no Greek system
generally decent quality of life
vocal and theater performance options for non-majors
decent campus newspaper
intramural/club basketball and equestrian sports a plus</p>

2

<p>Anyone? Anyone?</p>

3

<p>Seems remote compared to some of the things you mentioned: good local restaurants for one. Local music scene is mostly the students from Oberlin.</p>

4

<p>Your most remote school is Marlboro, a great school,but not for everyone...actually, not for most, not near much of anything. You have to really think about what you want to do, everyone steers their own path at Marlboro, it's not the community that you'll see cheering on a basketball team, there are no intercollegiate or club sports. It's pretty isolated, up in Vermont, where 6%, means there are only 20 students of color on campus, you have to think through whether are not you want to sustain through this environment, if you still want it, it's a great school.</p>

<p>Also, if you're looking for linguistics, I haven't heard anything positive about Williams foreign language departments...I'd look deeper into to that.</p>

<p>Last bit to think on, off your five matches, which three do you think will do best in getting you where you want to be in 5-10 years?</p>

5

<p>I think you should keep more reaches and fewer matches and safetys. Keep Brown, Williams, Haverford, Wesleyan, Oberlin, Reed, Clark. Add University of Rochester and a few different matches and reaches. University of Rochester sounds like a good match for you. Check it out. Excellent for pre-med, cognitive and neuroscience, concerts and music. Undergrads fewer than 6000. Strong in linguistics and English.</p>

6

<p>Nice list.</p>

<p>With a little more review I think you could eliminate one of your three single-sex match schools. I'd vote for dumping Marlboro, too, and after more review, your least favorite of the remaining safeties. </p>

<p>If you really like the schools, no problem with keeping up to 12 on your list.</p>

7

<p>Take out some safeties - chances are you wont be attending them unless its a last resort, u should narrow it down to 2 safeties, and maybe narrow down the matches list by 1 or not.</p>

8

<p>Reaches:
Brown
Williams <-- cut, too rural for you, no virtually local music scene, very isolated, does seem to be a social match at all</p>

<p>Reach/Matches:
Haverford
Wesleyan <-- cut, nearly positive they don't have linguistics (have you checked for each school?)</p>

<p>Matches:
Bryn Mawr
Mount Holyoke <-- keep, strong science programs
Oberlin
Reed <-- maybe cut, you want East Coast (L&C is a safety), academics are known for eating people alive (though they do still have fun), also big weed school
Smith <-- keep, exceptional with sciences and research, equestrian</p>

<p>Safeties:
Clark U. <-- maybe cut, nothing like your other picks for the most part
Lewis and Clark
Marlboro <-- cut, same reason as Clark, I don't think you need two safeties
New College of Florida <-- keep, I believe 4th highest med school placement</p>

9

<p>i agree with beginning. and i'd add Yale as a reach. Berkeley would be a good reach also, but it's too big for your taste. I really hope you get into Brown - it'd definitely be ideal. good luck!</p>

10

<p>Thanks to everyone who responded. Okay, maybe I should explain a few of the schools that don't seem to quite fit with the rest.<br>
Beginning -
Clark U. is on there for one reason - they have a fantastic psychology program. Their obsession with Freud is a little overwhelming, in fact.
Wesleyan has a Neuro/Behavioral sciences major and the College of Letters program, so I've decided to temporarily ignore the lack of a linguistics program. I have checked with all the schools, (it's suprising how many people don't, I know) and my safeties and Oberlin are also lacking linguistics. Oberlin, however, has a nice cog. science program that includes some cognitive linguistics and such.<br>
I am seriously considering dropping Williams (too preppy, too remote. et cetera) and Marlboro (although I'm very fond of the concept of the school, I'm not sure how I'd do there).
I want to visit Reed before a make a decision to apply or not because I'm utterly in love with what I hear about the school one day and kind of worried about the workload and generally hippie-dom the next.
Again, thank you so much for helping me out.</p>

<p>Collegehelp -
I was considering U. Rochester for a while, but I've heard that the Greek system has a large presence on campus, and I'm definitely trying to avoid that. Thanks so much for the suggestion, though.</p>

<p>Ptmagnolia -
Thank you for such a nice comment. I really hope I get into Brown too. I'm taking classes here over the summer, and I really just love this place to pieces. Yale? Wow! Do you think I even have a remote chance of getting in? I was dead-set on applying for years, but then I decided it was a waste of my time because they would never accept me.</p>

11

<p>Also, what do you think of me adding Swarthmore as a reach?</p>

12

<p>Reaches:
Brown
Williams - I would cut out Williams and add Amherst. </p>

<p>Reach/Matches:
Haverford
Wesleyan
- You need to add Vassar. Its a HUGE hole on your list
- Add Wellesley another HUGE hole</p>

<p>Matches: - cut out Btyn Mawr or Mt. Holyoke.
Bryn Mawr
Mount Holyoke
Oberlin
Reed
Smith</p>

<p>Safeties: - make cuts here. Applying to many matches is like having safeties except its smarter. WAY too many safeties. Cut the two you dont like. I would say cut Clark and New College.<br>
Clark U.
Lewis and Clark
Marlboro
New College of Florida</p>

13

<p>Thank you, slipper1234. Amherst, Wellesley, and Vassar are all borderline schools (I can't decide whether to add them to my list or not) for me right now. I'll definitely continue to consider them, though.</p>

14

<p>If any, I would add Vassar. I have hung out/ been to a ton of colleges and I have spent more than a few days at Brown, Vassar, Oberlin, Wesleyan, and Haverford since many of my friends went to top schools. Out of all these, Brown and Vassar were the most fun. Vassar's student body was as open minded but less "weird" than Oberlin and the campus life was a lot better. Haverford wasnt that fun at all, people were more nerdy than "open." Wesleyan was militantly Politically Correct it seemed, moreso than Vassar. </p>

<p>I have no reas association with Vassar, but from my experience and after talking with many people it seems like an amazing experience and a must apply. Well worth an extra $65.</p>

15

<p>yodelleaheywho..whomever told you that the Greek presence on campus was big lied :) it's not true at all</p>

16

<p>Really? Good, then. May I ask how you know this? Do you go there, have a friend who goes there, et cetera? Thanks for the info.</p>

17

<p>You should definitely apply to Yale, but don't stress too much over it. If you don't get in, at least you'll know you gave it a shot. Aside from the given [great GPA and SAT], you'll have to wow them through your essay. It looks great if you focus on one thing and show you're really passionate about it. heh, Brown & Yale are the only ivy's i'd love to go to as well, and I'm applying to Yale for grad school...but that won't be for another 3 years :-P.</p>

18

<p>PR has this to say about the Greek scene: <a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/profiles/studentsSay.asp?listing=1024047&category=6&LTID=1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/profiles/studentsSay.asp?listing=1024047&category=6&LTID=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

19

<p>Wesleyan has more political activists (as opposed to armchair liberals) than a lot of places. But, I would hesitate to say the whole student body is that way. The most aggressively promoted direct action last winter only attracted 200 people, and that was at its height. That probably works out to be about the same percentage of right-wing nut jobs at Dartmouth. ;)</p>

20

<p>I'm glad that political activism is prevalent there. I tend to be bothered by coffee-shop intellectuals blowing smoke but not actually acting on what they beleive in. I'm not an extremist, you won't see me on the 6 o'clock news for blowing up a Nike factory or a Wal-Mart ;), but I really believe in people making a statement about what they believe.</p>