Junior needing direction.

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello, all! In a couple of days, I will be talking to my parents about colleges, and I would like to be well prepared. I'm hoping to go to a medium sized private research university (preferably with access to a city) that has a very intellectual student body. I'm not exactly sure what I would like to major in, but am leaning towards math. So far, I am interested in Chicago, WUSTL, Carnegie Mellon, Emory, and Case Western. Could you help me find colleges that fit this description, but are also an option, considering my stats?</p>

<p>Academics
-GPA: 3.85 (unweighted, out of 4)
-in top 12% of class
-by graduation, I will have taken:
[ul]
[<em>]4 yrs of high school band- oboe (played for 8)
[</em>]AP Calc AB and BC; probably AP Stats
[<em>]German 1-4 (honors, when available)
[</em>]Honors Bio; Honors Chem; AP Physics
[<em>]AP US History; AP Macroeconomics; AP Gov; AP Human Geo
[</em>]Honors English 10; AP Lang and Comp; AP Lit and Comp
[li]College Psych[/li][/ul]
-ACT: 32
-SAT II: US History- 710</p>

<p>Extracurriculars
-staff member in a program that connects teens with disabilities to other teens
-Student Council member
-"Link Crew" volunteer-- helps freshmen adjust
-NHS
-oboist in top band, percussion for marching band
-part time job as receptionist at local hair salon for kids
-petsit for more than 30 animals (total) and babysit</p>

<p>Thank you so much for your help!.. I really appreciate it :)</p>

2

<p>Well, Chicago would ideally be your target, since it has the best math department out of those schools (and has a top 5 math department nationally). It is also the most difficult to get into of those schools, although it’s definitely possible.</p>

<p>If you were to apply today, I would say that Chicago and WUStL would be reaches, Emory and Carnegie Mellon would be high matches/low reaches, and Case Western would be a low match.</p>

<p>If possible, you should try to get into the top 10% of your class. I think this would help your odds significantly.</p>

3

<p>Hello, all! In a couple of days, I will be talking to my parents about colleges,</p>

<p>Well…this is the time to determine the following because it will have a huge impact on where you can go to school.</p>

<p>1) Find out what your family’s EFC is - use this to get an idea - put 1 in college (you).<br>
<a href=“http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml;[/url]”>http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>2) Once you get that number, you need to ask your parents how much can they pay each year towards your education. If it is less than their EFC, you’ll have to have a strategy to pay for your education. Even if they can only pay exactly their EFC, you’ll need to consider that, because most colleges can’t meet need…</p>

<p>IF your parents say that they can afford to pay $55k+ per year for your education, then you’ll have tons of choices. :)</p>

4

<p>Thanks for your viewpoint, phuriku! That was quite helpful.</p>

<p>And thanks, mom2collegekids! For the time being, I am not concerning myself too much with the price and location of colleges. While these are certainly important things to consider, I am trying to build up a list of possible colleges, so that I can get a feel of things. I’ll be sure to use that site in the future, though! Thanks.</p>

5

<p>Well, at least ask your parents how much they can contribute towards your education - if it’s not at least 20% of their income, you will have a problem (unless they’re very low income). Too many kids waste hours and hours creating “lists” and then are devastated when their parents can’t contribute much towards their educations. </p>

<p>What’s the point of a list, if it’s made up of unrealistic schools?</p>

6

<p>You can tell from the conversation that behind<em>the</em>lens is a student and mom2collegekids is… well… a mom.</p>

7

<p>NYU is supposed to have a very strong math program.</p>

8

<p>^ And NYU gives almost no financial aid so I hope your family can afford $50K/year.</p>

<p>DD2 is a math major. She looked at Carleton (very good if you have financial need), Smith (if you’re female), Grinnell, Beloit, Reed, Lewis and Clark among others.</p>

9

<p>No particular order, additional medium research universities with urban access worth looking at</p>

<p>Rice
Rochester
Brandeis
Johns Hopkins
Northwestern
Tufts</p>

<p>You seem to be shying away from the most competitive schools, like ivies, MIT, Stanford, CalTech. I’d recommend at this point considering those too and carefully choosing a couple of real reaches. You also need to plan on taking the Math II Sat II and probably Physics SAT II. I think Case is a good safety for you. </p>

<p>Going big, NYU, Maryland, Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia and Ohio State are all good choices
Going smaller there are a lot of good choices. Reed is a particularly good match. </p>

<p>I think that with your stats, your have a good chance of getting into a private medium sized research university that will me your demonstrated need. However, if you do have financial need, with your ACT of 32, you should be aware that there are some pretty good schools where you have an excellent chance to win a full-ride merit scholarship (Pittsburgh, Kentucky, Alabama) and good schools where you can be a full pay student at a lot lower cost than the privates - your state flagship will often be the most cost effective, but other research universities that are often affordable even out of state are Minnesota, SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Buffalo, McGill, Toronto, Ohio State, Georgia, Delaware, Wisconsin. Some of these award partial merit scholarships. </p>

<p>I don’t think your prospects are gloomy at all. I’d focus on the medium privates for now, keeping in mind that you do need to address the financial question early because some of the merit scholarships require earlier applications.</p>

10

<p>Once again, thanks to everyone for your help! Each comment has helped me see a different perspective, and I appreciate that.</p>

<p>Regarding tuition costs and aid, I have talked to my parents about this many times. Part of the reason I am keeping my list more open (for now) is that I discovered several of the colleges I am interested in by researching other colleges. </p>

<p>And a special thanks to Erin’s Dad and ClassicRockerDad-- that was exactly the type of response I was hoping to get… I’ll be sure to research these colleges! Very helpful :)</p>

11

<p>I know it’s already been mentioned, but I’ll second Rice. I’m surprised you don’t have it on your list already; it’s basically the middle ground between Chicago and Emory, in terms of intellectualism and social life.</p>

12

<p>Interesting, cliche! I’ve never thought of Rice that way. Its admission rate and stats always have intimidated me, but I think I’ll give it a look now. Thanks!</p>

13

<p>Should you look at a very intellectual liberal arts college (i.e. Swarthmore, Reed) just for comparison?</p>

14

<p>Thanks for your response, Hitch! And I have. The one problem is that my parents do not like (read: will not let me apply to) many of them, because of their liberal and anti-religious tendencies. I do like the academics at those places, though! :)</p>