Just Beginning College Search.... Help?

College Search & Selection
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<p>I'm a Junior in Highschool, and I'm a little bit late starting this whole college search. Most of my friends already have decent ideas of where there applying and I'm well clueless! I skipped my freshman year of high school, so the whole thing still seems a bit surreal to me. Anyway, enough rambling.</p>

<p>The problem I'm having is that I'm really just interested in a wide variety things. I love Politics and for a long time I thought wanted to major in Political Science and perhaps become a Lawyer... but I don't know it's just not holding the same appeal it did awhile ago. I'm pretty interested in Engineering (Aerospace or Computer mostly... although Chemical interests me too), but I'm not sure that I want to go to an ALL engineering school. The one thing that I AM sure of is that I want to minor in Spanish.</p>

<p>Currently:
I have a 3.85ish GPA (unweighted).
I'm in the top quarter of my class, but not top ten. (missed it by two spots!)
I'm an IB Diploma Student and my class schedule (now, and for 12th) is like this:
IB English 11/IB English 12
IB Chemistry/IB Chemistry (two year course)
IB History of the Americas/IB History of the Americas (two year course)
IB Math Methods/Going up to VCU to take math in 12th.
*Creative Writing/ Free Period or I might take a refresher course in programming.
*IB Physics/IB Physics (two year course)
*IB Psychology/ Free Period
*IB Spanish A/IB Spanish B
*= Elective. I dropped my Study Hall to take Physics.
I also scored a 5 on my AP Government test that I took last year; that's the only AP test I've taken.
My old SAT score was 1390... not to great. I'm taking the new one in May though, so hopefully I'll do better.
I'm also involved in a lot of drama activities, SODA (mentoring-like program), I'm the Vice President of the Computer Club, and I do a lot of volunteer work (playing the piano at nursing homes). I don't play any sports though, which is probably a disadvantage. I've placed in the Science fair 3 times though (1st, 2nd, and 3rd oddly enough), and I think I'll place next year too. I'm hoping to make National Honor Society, and I'm in Beta Club.</p>

<p>My Dad thinks I should go to North Carolina State University (his alma mater; my brother is going through next fall as well), but I'm really not sold on it. I know it's a good school, but I just don't know. Something about it doesn't appeal to me. Cornell would be my DREAM school, but I don't think I could get in. UVA and William and Mary are also options I guess. My safe school (another thing I already decided haha) is Meredith College. It's a small, all girls school in North Carolina. I've visited it and I like the atmosphere, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to get into something a bit more... selective.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any suggestions on some colleges that I should look at? I'm kind of at a loss of where to even start. Any help would be very appreciated. Thank you!</p>

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<p>Just a slight bump. :). Thanks!</p>

3

<p>your question is a common one and you can find advice by using the search function on the board. See, for example, <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=47227%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=47227&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I would advise against an all engineering school. Writes one industry newspaper, "According to most statistics, engineering schools graduate between one-third and one-half of the students who start out in engineering programs." <a href="http://www.eetimes.com/issue/fp/OEG20020712S0041%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.eetimes.com/issue/fp/OEG20020712S0041&lt;/a>
So if you decide to switch at one of these schools it means transferring colleges, rather than just changing your major.</p>

<p>BTW since you mentioned you skipped a year in HS you might want to consider taking a gap year between HS and college. Your mentioning this whole thing seems "surreal" to you might be a voice from within saying that you need a bit more time before the next step! College is not just about the courses you take, or it shouldn't be. Its the transitional bridge between childhood and adulthood, and you'll be making new friends, learning how to handle problems and setbacks, dating, and so on. For most people their ability to do these things increases with age; maybe its having more experiences, maybe neurology, more likely a combination. If you graduate early then you will be surrounding yourself with grade-level peers at least a year older than you, often two. If you don't have the same skills they have then the college years can be lonely and isolating. Its a funny thing; you'd think that parents in affluent areas would be the ones pushing to get their kids to skip a grade ahead because they're convinced how bright Johnny is, but the truth is that the problem schools face in wealthy communities isn't a push to promote ahead but fighting against keeping the kids behind! Look up "academic redshirting" on google and you'll see that parents in these communities are pushing to have their kids start later. You can either take a year off after HS and then apply, or apply senior year and then ask to defer admission for a year (most colleges are ok with this, and Harvard actually offers this in the letter of acceptance it sends to every student -- see <a href="http://tinyurl.com/52rqj)%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://tinyurl.com/52rqj)&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>