<p>I'm a senior and by now most people have their lists of schools and know where they really want to go. I've been looking at colleges all summer, but I can't seem to find a school that actually fits what I want. If someone would help me I would be really greatful.</p>
<p>Location: Midwest, East Coast. Basically nothing on the West Coast because its too far away.
Environment: City or Suburb with easy access to a city
Size: Flexible. Not too big though (no where near OSU size)</p>
<p>This is the hard part-
Good music program (violin). I probably won't major in music but i still want to take lessons, play in orchestras, and possibly minor in music.
Good law school placement rates.
Public health policy programs. Or public policy and political science.
Not too much partying. I don't want the social scene to revolve around drinking and partying all the time. </p>
<p>Good financial aid/merit scholarships would be nice too.</p>
<p>I am going to be biased towards my university, Indiana University, but I have good reasons.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Suburban and in the midwest.</p></li>
<li><p>Easy access to Indianapolis ($15 bus ride, the bus stops at every dorm once an hour from 6am-8pm).</p></li>
<li><p>One of the best music schools in the country (is constantly #1 or #2 every year with Juilliard).</p></li>
<li><p>Law schools don’t care about undergrad schools, they only care about undergrad GPA and LSAT scores. But, I do have a friend who graduated last year who got a full ride to Washington University in St. Louis for law school.</p></li>
<li><p>You can major in public policy either through the Kelley School of Business (ranked 12th in the nation) or our School of Public and Environmental Affairs (ranked 2nd behind Harvard last year, not sure about this year). </p></li>
<li><p>Great automatic merit scholarships. 9k/year if you have a SAT score of 1330 or ACT of 30 and a 3.8 GPA (weighted as long as your school sends it), 5k/year for SAT 1260/ACT 28 and 3.8 GPA, or 2k/year for 1170 SAT/26 ACT and 3.7 GPA. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The bad reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Big school (about 31,000 undergrads). You can live in themed dorms or join a tightly knit club (what I did), which makes the university seem a lot smaller.</p></li>
<li><p>There is a lot of partying on the weekends, but you don’t have to party to have a good time. I have friends who don’t party and still love it. Personally, I show up to parties but don’t drink. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>That is my two cents. I am biased towards my university, but for good reason.</p>
<p>Here’s a great school for you: Northwestern. They have an amazing music program, very close to a major city. As for partying, they take their academics seriously, Sure, you can find frats, but not everyone’s into that (esp the engineering crowd) and it’s more about school pride than being stupid and drunk. Good size, about 8M. And for $2and 25 minutes, you’re in the city.</p>
<p>Rhodes is on the smaller end of the spectrum. Not sure if you’d consider the south. We’re in heart of Memphis, TN, which has a metro pop around 1 million. We do have a good music program including violin, you get credit for individual lessons. Urban studies would be an interesting major for you. You could also design an interdisciplinary that hits exactly what you want out of biology, economics, political science, urban studies, etc.</p>
<p>Take a look at Oberlin (music conservatory attached) and Hopkins. I believe JH has a graduate program in public health policy and a music school.</p>
<p>You might try checking airline schedules and prices before you narrow your list.
Depending on where you live, it can sometimes be surprisingly fast to fly and surprisingly slow to drive to a school that looks closer on the map.</p>
<p>One more thing I forgot, having a debate or mock trial team would be nice too.</p>
<p>I really like Northwestern, but they offer no merit scholarships what so ever and I’ve heard that their financial aid isn’t very good.
Oberlin is way too liberal artsy for me. And its in the middle of no where.</p>
<p>University of Rochester, Eastman School of music is famous, but non-music majors can also take classes. They have a public health policy major. University has only about 5000 students.</p>
<p>The reason that top law schools usually take students from a better ranked undergrad school is because those schools usually give out higher GPA’s (do to higher achieving students) and those students usually perform better in the LSAT’s. Correlation does not prove causation. </p>
<p>I stand by my statement that undergrad school makes no significant impact on law school admissions.</p>
<p>HC has one of the highest percentage of grads going on to law school of any LAC in the nation and they also have a strong up and coming Music program and offer several full Merit scholarships in Music.</p>
<p>I’m guessing this would be a safety for you, but Bradley in Peoria (IL) might fit much of what you want. Smaller city (major city a couple hours away) with about 5000 undergrads. Music school, both performance and teaching. Don’t know law school placement rates, but know they have mock trial and a national powerhouse speech team (many national championships). Low tuition for a private U (a “best bargain”), plus merit money to top applicants. Partying… well, it is college, so that’s tough for most places - Bradley is probably middling here. Worth investigating, if nothing else…</p>
<p>Well, for your requirements (major, student groups, location) use the CollegeBoard search engine on Collegeboard.com ,
and for checking out things like the nightlife and partying, check **************.com .
Both are awesome and free!</p>