I'm not sure why.. but I was told to post this here lol.

Parents Forum
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<p>Hey everybody I'm a junior at a huge public high school in Michigan. I will be the first in my family to go to college and I grew up very low income.</p>

<p>My GPA is (after 1st semester junior year) 3.63 UW, 3.73 W.</p>

<p>All A's and with 1 B each semester in Spanish up until my junior year.</p>

<p>Junior year:
AP English: A-
AP World History: A
AP Calc AB: D+
Chemistry: B
Honors Anthro: B
Spanish 3: B-</p>

<p>Really bad semester with lots of medical issues that my counselor will explain when she sends my transcript.</p>

<p>Anyways, I have really good ECs. Hundreds of hours of community service, started 1 club and 1 nonprofit organization (my passion), a few leadership positions including president of 2 clubs my senior year, and a few hundred hours of tech on plays. I am in NHS and am a Thespian. I did 9 years of dance but had to quit before high school due to knee injuries. I have also done 10 years of softball, 7 of basketball and volleyball, 2 of swim, and I've coached basketball for 3 years. [No varsity sports due to the knee injuries.]</p>

<p>Scores:
ACT: 30 (Don't remember the breakdown but I had a 31 in English lol)
SAT IIs:
-Math 2: 650.
-Bio M: 640.</p>

<p>AP tests: (all self-study) Bio-3, Psych-4, Gov-4.
Taking this year: World History, English Language, English literature, Calculus AB, and Chemistry (self-study).</p>

<p>I am also self-studying Latin.</p>

<p>I'd like to go to a good school with good programs in history (preferably emphasis on ancient/classic civilizations), classics, or anthropology.</p>

<p>I want to go to a smaller school (maybe 10,000 students max?) with little to no Greek life.</p>

<p>Please and thank you for any and all suggestions =].</p>

<p>This was originally posted in the college search forum but a few moms told me I would get more suggestions here so...</p>

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<p>Do you want to be in the midwest or does it not matter?
Do you want to be in/near a city or does it not matter?</p>

<p>I would suggest you might read "colleges that change lives" by Loren Pope (get it from the library) or look at the CTCL web site
<a href="http://www.ctcl.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ctcl.com/&lt;/a>
These are great schools and many of them are on the small side.</p>

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<p>Honestly, it doesn't matter where it's at. The only request I have is that if it is in a city that I could easily drive around 30 minutes to open nature or nature parks because I hike and enjoy nature walks. </p>

<p>Does that make sense?</p>

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<p>Beloit in WI comes immediately to mind. They have one of the best anthrpology undergrad programs in the country, a few frats I think, but it's not at all a "fratty" place. Very friendly and inclusive. I think the'd be interested in you.</p>

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<p>Too bad you don't want a large campus because UW- Madison has the nature you're looking for. Definitely read the book suggested and others from your public library.</p>

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<p>You might emphasize your tech interest in colleges with strong performing arts programs, such as Ithaca College (beautiful, rural, upstate NY) or possibly NOrthwestern (nearer to you, in suburban Chicago)..actually my brain is slow today, is that Northwestern or Northeastern?! </p>

<p>Theater Tech could be a valuable EC to mention in terms of being part of the campus community. Schools with a non-audition BA theater major (not a Bachelor of Fine Arts) are always putting on shows and need people who are enthusiastic about tech and backstage work. Odd hook, but it's worth devoting one paragraph somewhere on why you want to attend. They have plenty of onstage applicants, but you'd stand out that way.</p>

<p>Also look around for some places where there are easements on the math distribution requirement. Everyplace wants you to take some math, but if yuou study the course catalogues you migth find some with a "zero-level" pre-math, or some system of quantitative distribution/math-like classes.
All this shows is that they've thought about that there might be some kids who struggle with Math, and are trying to get them through somehow.
My younger two found this their biggest problem on the applications. They went with their strength areas (literature, history) but did acknowledge their math weakness and said one reason they applied was they wanted to address it through X college's thoughtful approach for math-challenged students. Sometimes they put that into the "is there anything else you want to tell us?" catch-all question on the application. Short, a sentence, but acknowledge the math difficulty (elephant in the room) and that with their college you look forward to addressing it.</p>

<p>EDIT: Not that 650 on Math is bad!! It's good! I was responding to that D on the transcript re: APCalculus course. Are your other math courses stronger, or did you just overreach a bit to attempt APCalc? That's a tough class!</p>

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<p>wis, I'm not totally against a large campus, but I want somewhere where I won't just be a face in the crowd. That was my turnoff to U Mich, you just become a number. If there are large schools where that won't happen, I'd be more than willingly to give them a shot.</p>

<p>Thanks, 3tuitions. Northwestern is the VERY selective college and Northeastern is less selective. I went to a summer program at Northwestern and I fell in love, but I don't have the stats nor the money to go there. Eh. </p>

<p>I'd love to continue tech work somewhere. And I was never math-challenged but I skipped pre-calc which is where I went wrong haha.</p>

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<p>"I am also self-studying Latin. I'd like to go to a good school with good programs in history (preferably emphasis on ancient/classic civilizations), classics, or anthropology."</p>

<p>Your academic interests (and desire for a non-frat school) suggest the University of Chicago; you might check that out. It is not small, though. The students who choose to go there LOVE it.</p>

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<p>@ Izzybella</p>

<p>What region are you looking at for colleges? LACs? Rural/suburban/urban environment? Do you want to stay in the Midwest? I was just like you years ago when I was a senior in high school. I chose Northwestern (I am also from Michigan) because of its smaller size, location (Chicago is the largest city in the region) and strong reputation on academics. I also felt more like an individual instead of just a number too.</p>

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<p>oops we cross-posted about the mathiness, sorry</p>

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<p>If you don't mind going to a Christian school, check out Calvin College. My husband, who was first generation college went there. He got an excellent education. Small classes. Excellent, caring professors. It also doesn't have Greek life or a heavy partying culture. It has good financial aid.</p>

<p>It is highly rated regionally by U.S. News.</p>

<p>Another similar, but a little less highly rated college to check out would be Alma college, which also is a Christian college, but is more conservative than is Calvin, which is known as one of the most liberal of the Christian colleges.</p>

<p>And check out Kalamazoo College, which is a good (non religiously affiliated) liberal arts college.</p>

<p>Since finances will be a concern, make sure that you apply to at least one college that you like, and know you'll get accepted to and can afford. For many people, their local community college fills this bill. CCs also tend to have smaller classes than do the larger universities, and have professors whose main focus is teaching, not research (which tends to be what the main focus is of professors at large universities).</p>

<p>The next time you post, try using a more descriptive subject line because if you are unclear about what you're looking for or if you indicate that your post may be a joke, some potentially helpful people may not click on it.</p>

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<p>There's a whole group of Midwestern LAC's worth checking out: Earlham, Dennison, Kenyon come to mind. What are your thoughts on these kinds of schools? You'd certainly find a family-feel there. Another thread touted Kalamazoo as having fruendly students, too. Earlham has a Quaker background. Sometimes when you say you don't want Greek liife, you're really saying, "I want nice, kind people around me with less air time devoted to discussing partying."</p>

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<p>This student got a 650 on the Math 2 SAT II. She's not weak in math.</p>

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<p>Check out Elon University in North Carolina. It's a great little LAC that is apparently on quite the upswing. The campus is beautiful and the school is not far from nature or Raleigh/Durham airport. Elon has many different programs and really focuses on developing the whole person rather than just giving you a degree. Perhaps it would be a good match for you.</p>

<p>Also, Elon has a Fellows program that offers some merit-based scholarships as well as a pretty good need-based scholarships department. And their Dean of Admissions is a really nice guy.</p>

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<p>Haha let me explain the math. I skipped pre-calc which was a bad decision, but when given just numbers I can do the calculus easily. I am dyslexic and it's the word problems (change of rate, optimization, etc) that trip me up.</p>

<p>Other than that, I had straight As in math my whole life except for one B+ my freshman year because of proofs >.<. Haha.</p>

<p>Also, I didn't mean for the subject line to be a joke. I realize now it kind of sounds like it, but it wasn't supposed to be =[.</p>

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<p>You still have next year to improve your SAT scores. Do not discount the selective colleges, you are reporting scores taken before spring of junior year. Also financial aid packages could make some schools within your budget. UW may be large, but people do find their niche- I've read some contrasts in student et al attitudes compared to Michigan in the CC forums. Read the books, come up with a list and research those schools further and visit them before applying if you can, otherwise be sure to visit before you choose. Also be sure to find out about area/school visits from admissions counselors and attend those sessions. Good luck.</p>

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<p>Northstarmom, I have no issue with going to a Christian college (I love taking religious classes and learning about religion), I went to a Catholic school for 9 years. However, I am a practicing Wiccan and I'd like to go somewhere where I could safely practice my religion. [The Catholic school put me through torture when I came out as a Wiccan and I just don't want it to happen again].</p>

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<p>Since your family is low income, I suggest that you consider the distance from home as you select colleges to apply to. If you go too far from your home, your family may not be able to transport you to and from college at the beginning and end of the year, you may not be able to afford to go home for Thanksgiving (even colleges that offer to meet full financial need calculate as part of that a trip home in December and at year's end), and your family may not be able to afford to visit you for Family Weekend, which can be a very nice time for your proud family to visit.</p>

<p>You are lucky in that there are several colleges in Michigan and nearby states that would fit what you are looking for.</p>

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<p>"Northstarmom, I have no issue with going to a Christian college (I love taking religious classes and learning about religion), I went to a Catholic school for 9 years. However, I am a practicing Wiccan and I'd like to go somewhere where I could safely practice my religion. [The Catholic school put me through torture when I came out as a Wiccan and I just don't want it to happen again]."</p>

<p>Earlham, a Quaker school, in Indiana probably would be very open minded about your religion. I don't think that you'd find Calvin and Alma as open minded. S, an agnostic, visited Calvin last year, and said that it felt too Christian for him.</p>

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<p>Link to Colleges that Change lives site, which lists some colleges that seem to fit your interests and needs: <a href="http://www.ctcl.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ctcl.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>