<p>Paradise, I’ve always sort of assumed that people who went to W&M were smart when they went in. But I only knew one person who went to W&M, because I grew up in the square states. I knew that guy was smart, but I didn’t know him well, and I didn’t really know exactly how smart. But as I said, I’ve known a lot of W&M grads who came out of there very smart.</p>
<p>I’ve always kind of figured, if smart people go there, that says something meaningful about W&M. If reasonably smart people go there, and they come out very smart, that would say something really powerful about W&M, you know?</p>
<p>Ruthism, sorry to have hijacked your thread. You may now return to your regularly scheduled college searching.</p>
<p>The UT Plan II honors program has a superb reputation. It’s a great option to have–please check it out in detail. </p>
<p>And I’ll second the importance of knowing what your budget is, and how much your family can afford to pay. Once you can compare that to your EFC (Expected Family Contribution, from the FAFSA), you’ll have a much better idea of what schools will be affordable and which won’t. You’ll know if you should be pursuing merit aid or need-based aid schools.</p>
<p>Ruthism, I really think you need to apply to more than one or two top tier schools. <em>You have the stats</em>. If you apply to more than 5, you have good chances of being accepted to at least one. The application money is a pittance compared to what you stand to gain here. Applying to more schools not only increases your chance of gaining admission to a good school, it also increases your chances of getting a good financial aid offer. These are not “dream” schools, these are realistic schools that with your stats you are certainly qualified for. The only schools that I would call “dream” schools for you right now are the Ivies.</p>
<p>And please, keep in mind, most students nowadays apply to many more schools than they did in the past. Applying to 5-10 colleges is normal. Applying to just one safety and two “dream” schools is not a good plan for applying to colleges. Applications are cheap. It’s worth putting down the time and money to at least try your chances at a wide variety of schools. You stand to gain much more than you think. If spending $1000 applying to 20 schools ended up getting you a slightly better financial aid offer, you would still come out ahead financially. Do NOT get stingy with applications.</p>
<p>Dear Kudryavka,
Wow. I really needed to hear this. Thanks for the encouragement. Many of my friends are so set on where they want to go that their list only contains up to three colleges. I’ve been wondering if it’s okay to have nearly six separate applications to fill out. It’s more work - but again, the "What if?"s are really going to bug me, and I just have to see what my chances are at each school. I won’t hold back on those chances. </p>
<p>Dear Slithey Tove,
Yeah, I heard some very credible things about the UT honors program. Thanks for the link! It’s very useful. Thanks for taking the time to compile the list. I’m sure it’s helping out numerous students out there just like myself… this is golden. </p>
<p>Dear ParadiseMT and Sikorsky,
You only hijacked my thread with great information. :3</p>