LAC - in a city

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello.
Please help me find uni's!!!!
3.4-3.5 GPA unweighted. upward trend.
30 ACT.
I go to a highly competitive public school.
I have taken all honors where possible (with the exception of a math course sophomore year... scheduling conflict).<br>
I took AP European History (score = 4).<br>
I am taking AP Spanish, AP Government, and AP United States History currently.
I am conversationally fluent in Finnish. I would like to continue my Finnish studies if possible.
ECs:
was Exchange Student for a year in Finland.
Swimming. 3 years. JV captain for 2.
Track. 3 years. Varsity. field captain.
Girl Scouts. 1 year (during High School, many more before).
4-H. 4 years. Vice-President, President, Leader.
Ohio 4-H Ambassador. current.
Ohio Teen Council. current.
Leadership Camp (2006, Camper; 2008 Counselor)
County Fairboard. member. elected to represent at state level conference.
Knitting Club during summers.
Book Club during summers (one of my favorite things ever!)
Mentor for youth in community.
Awards: 4-H Youth of the Year (county-wide, 3 years). Exchange Student scholarship award. 4-H Leadership Camp (chosen to represent my county).</p>

<p>About the school:
Possible major: I like humanities. I am thinking of English, Communications, Creative Writing, Philosophy, etc. Oh, and I like languages.
Study abroad is a must.
Internships would be good.
City setting.
Residential Campus.
Learning for learnings sake.
In all honesty, I don't like the idea of a protest-y student body. So it's a no go for places like Oberlin.
Liberal feel.
No greek life, but the social scene is still decent.
I need lots of scholarship money (and with my GPA too...).
I don't want to go to the West Coast. no farther than Iowa. Anywhere down south or east is fine.
I would like a school larger than 1600 people (double the size of my high school:D) and smaller than 5000 people. </p>

<p>Alright, this sounds about right. If I need to post more information, tell me!
Please get back to me! Any help is appreciated!</p>

2

<p>How about Barnard in NYC? All girl, BUT next door to Columbia and you can take classes there. Or Macalester in Minneapolis-your international background might be attractive to them. Too bad you don't want to LA because the Claremont Colleges (Claremont, Pomona, Scripps, etc... ) might be interesting. Vassar is in Poughkeepsie so it's urban too.</p>

3

<p>Macalester College possibly</p>

4

<p>Clark University in Worcester, MA</p>

5

<p>I wouldn't say that Vassar is an "urban" school. Sure, it's in Poughkeepsie, which is technically a city, but there's not much in the way of a city life. That being said, if you don't mind going somewhere where you could have access to a major city on weekends (via an hour and a half train ride), you should definitely look at Vassar.</p>

<p>In regards to some more places for you to look at... what I've listed below are some schools that fit most of what you've requested. You list a lot of characteristics you'd like your school to have (which is great... it makes things much easier than when someone has no idea what they want), so you might find yourself needing to compromise a bit on some of these. For example, could you deal with a school with a Greek system involving less than 20% of the campus if it met all of your other preferences? I've included some schools on this list like that, to keep more options open...</p>

<p>REACH: Swarthmore College (11 miles from Philadelphia, PA), Wesleyan University (15 miles from Hartford, CT), Wellesley College (12 miles from Boston, MA), Haverford College (11 miles from Philadelphia, PA)</p>

<p>SEMI-REACH: Barnard College (in NYC), Brandeis University (10 miles from Boston, MA)</p>

<p>GOOD FIT: Trinity College (in Hartford, CT), Macalester College (5 miles from Minneapolis-St. Paul), Bryn Mawr College (11 miles from Philadelphia, PA)</p>

<p>LIKELY: Wheaton College (15 miles from Providence, RI & 35 miles from Boston, MA), Providence College (in Providence, RI), American University (in Washington DC)</p>

<p>SAFETY: Manhattanville College (25 miles from NYC), Simmons College (in Boston, MA)</p>

6

<p>Try Holy Cross in Worcester - or Fordham in NY ( Little bigger, but great campus in the city) - Both have friendly, smart "regular kids" for students</p>

7

<p>Rhodes College has a beautiful, classic LAC campus in Memphis. PM Curmudgeon if you want some insider info on it.</p>

8

<p>I think the University of Chicago would be perfect for you. Don't get too hung up on which schools have grad schools and which don't. It's a small, residential college in a great city...liberal, but not too protest-y...great humanities and learning for learning's sake...just what you're looking for.</p>

9

<p>

Are you talking merit money or need-based? If the former, forget about most every top-30 or so LAC, especially those in the northeast.</p>

<p>If you need merit money, start looking at places like Furman, Goucher, or Trinity in San Antonio.</p>

10

<p>Try Emerson College. It's ideal for communications, and it's located in the heart of Boston.
It's also realistic, given your credentials, and it'd be a great school for you.</p>

11

<p>Rice immediately comes to mind. It's in Houston with ~3000 undergraduates. It doesn't have frats or sororities but does have residential colleges like Harvard and Yale.</p>

12

<p>Eugene Lang College</p>

13

<p>Macalester in St. Paul (NOT Minneapolis, and NOT 5 miles away from St. Paul) fits you to a tee.</p>

<p>Only about a dozen schools in the U.S. teach Finnish, and I don't know of any LACs that do; they're mostly major research universities, plus Finlandia University, a small school in a very small town in northern Michigan. But the University of Minnesota does. I'm sure there must be a way to get approval from Macalester to take language classes at the U, which is only a short 10-15 min express bus ride away. Macalester itself, along with its host city of St. Paul, offers everything else you're looking for.</p>

14

<p>
[quote=]
Macalester in St. Paul (NOT Minneapolis, and NOT 5 miles away from St. Paul) fits you to a tee.

[/quote]

Thank you for making that correction. St. Paul is kinda like Barbara Bush - the forgotten twin that receives far less publicity than its more flamboyant sibling. We need to at least give the city credit where it is due!</p>

15

<p>Davidson is close to Charlotte. William & Mary is close to Norfolk and Richmond.</p>

16

<p>I think most of the schools mentioned are major reaches for a 3.5 GPA and a 30 ACT. You need to look below the top 50 for match schools. The fact that you need lots of scholarship money is another huge problem. Move that condition to the top of your list, and look at the thread on "Colleges that give Good Merit Awards."</p>

17

<p>Goucher might be a bit small, but otherwise seems like it might be good (it is 1/2 an hour outside of Baltimore, and in a pretty urban area itself). It would be a low match (or maybe safty, I haven't looked at its stats recently) school for you, too.</p>

18

<p>Macalester would be perfect for you, both its size and urban location. Your ACT is right in range, the GPA is slightly low but would easily be offset by your experience as an exchange student. It would be possible to take Finnish from the University of Minnesota through the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities (ACTC) Language exchange. Mac has a large international student population and a lot of former exchange students (my daughter being one of them). There is no merit aid (other than small NMF scholarships), but they do give full financial aid.</p>

19

<p>Thanks for all of your responses.
I will be sure to look into all of the schools mentioned.</p>

20

<p>As far as scholarship money and other factors that you listed, you may want to look at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wi. I'd be very mindful of what midwesterner posted above. Put money at the top of your list. As far as studying Finnish goes, "The Lawrence curriculum includes more than 700 structured courses—but as your interests develop and your knowledge grows, you may want to move into areas not covered by these courses or to explore certain subjects in greater depth. Lawrence encourages such initiative on the part of its students and provides a variety of opportunities for individual study. In fact, more than 90 percent of the students in each graduating class have
taken part in either tutorials or independent study." They also have internationals from Finland. Also, look at Gustavus Aldophus Scandinavian program: Scandinavian</a> Studies | Academics - Gustavus Adolphus College This is a sporty school and is not urban, but has a focus on Scandinavia including study abroad. That's my two cents.</p>