<p>also, i’d be sure to pick a school that offers flexibility with your major, because if you’re terrible at math, you may discover that you really don’t want to be an Econ major. I’m pretty sure it will be very statistical and math-driven (I could be wrong, but you should check that out).</p>
<p>here is the list of colleges that meet full need:
[Which</a> Colleges Claim to Meet Students’ Full Financial Need? - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2011/02/16/which-colleges-claim-to-meet-students-full-financial-need]Which”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2011/02/16/which-colleges-claim-to-meet-students-full-financial-need)</p>
<p>this offers a broader range of selectivity and you will find your intellectual needs and ambitions met as well from any one of these, I’d wager.</p>
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<p>The dominant atmosphere at these schools is exactly what the OP is trying to avoid.</p>
<p>OP: are you considering LACs? You will find community, curiosity, and personal growth valued at many of these.</p>
<p>^^ That full-need list is a good one to know about. However, it is top-heavy with most-selective schools. Exceptions include Gettysburg, Occidental, and U Dayton. The reality is that some slightly less selective schools, while not committing to need-blind admission and to meeting 100% of need, will in fact cover more than 90%. Look at the Kiplinger numbers (cited above) or at the Common Data Set (section H) for any schools of interest.</p>
<p>I am completely fine with LAC’s.</p>
<p>You guys are completely right, I have been trying to lie to myself this whole time.
Thank you for the help.</p>
<p>I’ll go ahead and find some other less selection schools.
I had forgotten that both Chicago’s and Cornell’s average ACT increased and admissions rate decreased.</p>
<p>I guess I could always transfer from a school I am in into a school I am not in.</p>
<p>I wish I had the cognitive abilities to do better on standardized tests to increase my human worth score, unfortunately I guess I’m just a worthless human being.</p>
<p>BTW, doesn’t Bowdoin not have testing requirements? Thats why I thought about applying, either way apparently it wouldnt be a good fit for me, right?</p>
<p>So for you more experience people, should I even bother applying to any of those schools on my list.
I always thought I had a good chance since they liked me enough to award me all this good stuff, even the Amherst telementoring. But in all honesty, if I have absolutely no chance at some of those schools no matter how good my recommendations and essays are, I would rather not bother applying and wasting $30 on sending stuff.</p>
<p>Which one’s should I not even bother with?
Good suggestions with Colby, Colgate, and Grinnel (so far what I have looked at), my stats fall right in line.</p>
<p>Colby, Colgate and Grinnell are excellent. You’d get more personal attention at these LACs than you would at larger schools. Grinnell in particular educates more PhDs per capita than the Ivies do. No point beating up on yourself.</p>
<p>tk, do you or others think that it is worth spending the money to apply to those more selective QB schools?
QB scholars have told me that for QB finalist standardized tests are not the end all be all as with normal applicants.</p>
<p>I guess I would rather apply so that I don’t end up wondering whether or not I would have been accepted.</p>
<p>EDIT: why did not one mention Pitzer? seedms like a good fit.</p>
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<p>No, not really. You already applied to a bunch of them. At this point you need to build a better balance of reach-match-safety schools. Pitzer might fall in your match range.</p>
<p>I’d look into Oberlin. They are a QuestBridge partner and have a reputation of cultivating a very intellectually stimulating atmosphere.</p>
<p>Under your circumstances, getting a 29 ACT score, becoming a quest bridge finalist, and having the grades and the achievements you do shows great strength of character. You shouldn’t let people on here get you down. Many of them don’t know what they’re talking about, but they’re still willing to share their opinions. Who are you going to trust, a Yale admin or an angsty teenager? IMO, you should apply to all the schools you think you’ll be happy at. Having a safety never hurt anyone, but if you don’t take risks how will you get anywhere in life? If you get only one or two acceptances, that’s all you need. A vast majority of schools will meet your financial need, and then you’re set. Good luck!</p>
<p>^^Listen to this guy. That kid “Perfect36” says a lot from his name alone.</p>
<p>I hope you’re not seriously going to abandon the app to Yale. But you should have a range (I’m sure lots of people have told you this.) I had stats similar to yours and got into Wesleyan. It was a school exactly like you describe - serious intellectualism, not a “bro” school at all (pretty hard-core feminist actually) - with a good number of kids who got into Ivies but wanted the smaller LAC environment.</p>
<p>Your background will mean a lot at a place like Wesleyan, Grinnell, Pomona, and Carleton, where diversity is important. You might think about Rice and Washington U - St. Louis also. Great schools, but not as cut-throat as the Ivies. Don’t knock out the less competitive schools such as Whitman College, U Richmond, or Clark U. There’s a lot of great schools out there that will give you a terrific educational experience.</p>
<p>You’ll be fine. QB is huge. Amherst is a big plus. Your class and ethnic background makes you unusual and interesting. Your recs and essays matter. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I’m just going to point out that you COME ACROSS as arrogant and pretentious in your initial post about how you’re so much better than the people around you. Your dramatic angsty word choice (“despicable”) and attitude in particular. This probably accounts for why you’ve gotten so many negative responses in this thread.</p>
<p>You need to be very careful that this attitude doesn’t come across in your essays.</p>
<p>Note: I put COME ACROSS in caps to emphasize that I’m not saying you ARE pretentious and arrogant, but that your posts in this thread have come across as such. Be careful about your writing style in college admissions, because you don’t want them thinking the same thing that I think.</p>
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<p>Farzaad, you’re wrong about the fact that you won’t change if you go to a ‘normal’ school.</p>
<p>Firstly, any school in the top 75 of their respective field is not ‘normal’. They are the best of the best of all 197 countries IN THE WORLD. That is a HUGE thing. I’m getting the feeling that you think any school outside the top 10 or top 20 are ‘normal’. They’re not. State schools are some of the best too. </p>
<p>Secondly, even if you don’t go to an Ivy, you’ll find an amazing amount of intelligent people in other big schools. In fact, the people in those schools will be more open and friendlier. Ivies often make people pretentious and think they’re great. The intelligent stimulation you want will be avaliable even in state schools. The environment in any school is what you make of it. It’s true that for some schools sports or greek life is more prevalent than others, but if you want you have the choice not to get involved. </p>
<p>Thirdly, trust me, you will be a different person when you’re out of college regardless of where you go.</p>
<p>OP, hang in there and please ignore anyone here who bashes you. </p>
<p>I agree to leave a couple of top selective schools on your list – no harm in trying! – but I’m glad to see that you’re interested in broadening your list and that you want to put some LACs on your list.</p>
<p>Remember that for alot of these schools, particularly the Ivies, it is a total crapshoot as to who gets in, and there are plenty of 2400 valedictorians who get rejected in favor of someone with lower stats, but brought greater diversity to the class (diversity in all senses of the word).</p>
<p>One thing I would consider, though, is the academic support available on campuses you are looking at. If you come from a high school that was not at all challenging, it might also mean that no matter how smart and diligent you are, you may need some assistance in adapting to college life. </p>
<p>When you consider which schools to put on your list, however, I do hope you’ll think about travel to and from the schools during the year. Will this be an issue for you?</p>
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In a word, NO.</p>
<p>None of the top schools are in any way anti-intellectual. While Penn has the more preprofessional components of its Wharton and Nursing Schools, the vast majority of students in those schools are high academic achievers and can be quite “intellectual.” And the largest undergraduate component of Penn is its College of Arts and Sciences which, with 6400 students, is as large as the liberal arts components of any of its peers, and has a similarly “intellectual” mix of students and environment.</p>
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Wow, that’s kinda harsh. Sorry you’re too good for your “disgusting” high school and “despicable” peers.</p>
<p>SDonCC, you make a good point.
I am greatly in need of support in terms of math.
I cannot afford to travel to the schools, so I’ll just have to choose baed on info on website.</p>
<p>In regards to my tone in the first post, I realize it was very pretentious, perhaps I shouldn’t have utilized the tone I did.</p>
<p>Thanks for the support people.
Its just hard for me to explain how I feel about my environment and how much I ant something different.</p>
<p>So lets recap:
Moral of the story, apply to top schools because they will all have a good environment and great diversity.
Have some selective schools.
Come back when I have my acceptance letter, then decide which it attend?
Seems about right?
Problem is that I still have too many school I’m applying to.
If you are actually interested in helping me cut down on the list, please send me a message and we will take it from there.</p>
<p>Thank you and sorry for sounding like an arrogant a$shole</p>
<p>I didn’t think you sounded arrogant at all. </p>
<p>My point about the travel was not just about visiting to decide where to attend, but getting back and forth during vacation – or seeing what the policies are about dorms staying open during vacation if you can’t afford to go back and forth.</p>
<p>At Grinnell, where my S attends, dorms stay open during all breaks except for the long break over December and January. Grinnell also has alot of supportive services, pre-orientation programs and alot of funding for sponsored internships. </p>
<p>I would suggest you put together a list that includes a broader range of schools than in your initial post, and then we can help you cut it down. I actually think you should add to it first so that it has that depth and variety. And just keep ignoring the people who are being mean to you here!!</p>
<p>the other thing is, if you have alot of trouble with math, then you might also want to look at the distribution requirements schools may have. You don’t necessarily have to ever take math again!</p>
<p>Grinnell has no required courses, except for a freshman tutorial, which students pick out of a wide range of really interesting and offbeat topics. The advisors encourage students to explore different disciplines, but nothing is required.</p>
<p>Alot of schools have distribution requirements, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to take math. It generally means that every student has to take a specified number of courses across the three disciplines: humanities, social science and science (which generally includes the math department).</p>
<p>Some schools have required courses – often called a “core curriculum.”</p>
<p>I don’t know of looking at schools at this level of detail is of interest to you or not, but it’s worth noting.</p>