Looking for Colleges -- Please Help!

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Thank you for taking the time to read my post. </p>

<p>I'm currently a sophomore in high school and am starting to look at colleges and plan my classes for junior year. Any tips/advice or suggestions for colleges to consider would be greatly appreciated. </p>

<p>General Info:
I'm in 10th grade at a private high school in Washington state. I'm a Hispanic (Mexican-American) female with an interest in possibly majoring in physics.
GPA: 3.99 uw on a 4 pt. scale (school doesn't weight gpa)
Rank: School doesn't rank
Courses: Most rigorous possible for my school, currently taking AP Calculus, plan to take 3 APs junior year (including physics and US History) and 3 APs senior year, the rest would be honors classes</p>

<p>Test Scores:
PSAT: 80 CR, 73 Math, 80 Writing (as a sophomore)
Old SAT: 800 verbal, 700 math (taken in 8th grade)</p>

<p>ECs/Volunteering/Employment/Awards:
Peer Tutor (math, science, French) - 10th grade
Activities Assistant at Nursing Home
Library Volunteer
Math Team - 9th, 10th (President in 10th grade)
Meydenbauer Youth Sailing Team
-Junior Olympics 2006
-Assistant Sailing Instructor - summer before 10th
1st Place in State National Spanish Exam - 9th
Lacrosse Team - 9th, 10th</p>

<p>I will hopefully have a science-related internship this summer and will continue the activities listed above. I know it might seem early to start thinking about college, but I want to start planning my classes and activities for junior year and beyond. Any recommendations for colleges with a strong science department (especially physics) which I should look into? </p>

<p>Thanks for your help!</p>

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<p>Any suggestions?</p>

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<p>bummmmp... anyone?</p>

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<p>You have a good resume so far. But what are you looking for in a college? What part of the US? What general sizes? Here are some rankings for physics, just for some ideas, but do not assume that you should attend #5 over #15 because it's ranked higher in physics.</p>

<p>NRC 1995 grad ranking for physics (a bit old, newer ones come out this year):</p>

<p>1 Harvard 4.91
2 Princeton 4.89
3 MIT 4.87
4 Cal Berkeley 4.87
5 Cal Tech 4.81
6 Cornell 4.75
7 Chicago 4.69
8 Illinois 4.66
9 Stanford 4.53
10 Cal Santa Barbara 4.43
11 Texas 4.33
12 Columbia 4.25
13 Yale 4.21
14 Washington 4.20
15 UCLA 4.18
16 Cal San Diego 4.10
17 Penn 4.09
18 Maryland 4.02
19 Michigan 3.96
20 Rutgers 3.82
...</p>

<p><a href="http://www.stat.tamu.edu/%7Ejnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41.html#area33%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41.html#area33&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The Gourman undergraduate physics ranking:</p>

<p>Caltech
Harvard
Cornell
Princeton
MIT
UC Berkeley
Stanford
U Chicago
U Illinois Urbana Champaign
Columbia
Yale
Georgia Tech
UC San Diego
UCLA
U Penn
U Wisconsin Madison
U Washington
U Michigan Ann Arbor
U Maryland College Park
UC Santa Barbara
U Texas Austin
Carnegie Mellon
U Minnesota
RPI
Brown
Johns Hopkins
Michigan State
Notre Dame
SUNY Stony Brook
Case Western
Northwestern
U Rochester
U Pittsburgh
Penn State University Park</p>

<p>Hope that helps. =]</p>