Lost

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey,</p>

<p>I'm a junior in high school, and I need help in terms of a sense of direction in looking for a suitable college. I started out wanting to go to a California school(e.g. Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, etc), but being in New Jersey...it just didn't seem practical. So I started looking at schools like Columbia, UNC: Chapel Hill, Villanova, UMass Amherst, Boston College, and the like. Then today I stumbled across Bowdoin and the world of LAC's...so now I'm just lost. Here's some background about me to hopefully reveal something:</p>

<p>GPA: 4.1
Unweighted: ?
Class Rank: 14
Course Load: 3 AP Courses including this year (U.S. I and II, Lang and Comp, Calc) Plan to take one/two AP Sciences next year along with AP Stat, Lit, Java, and possibly Music
SAT: taking in November, aiming for at least 2100
Extracurriculars: 3 years of high school soccer (jv, sports not my forte) and a year of high school volleyball, Violin, Computer Club, Photography Club, 1 year of R.O.T.C., Deca this year and next a maybe
Volunteering: R.O.T.C., Kennedy Hospital, Church, other small one-time things, NHS soon(hopefully)
Majors: Taking Comp Sci track in high school, but it could be anything honestly...except humanities</p>

<p>I do good in all my classes, and the amount I enjoy it varies year by year depending on the teacher. Also, anything I can do to boost my credentials? (Compared to some I see on here...these seem average to say the best) </p>

<p>Oh and I guess I'm more reserved in that I take time to get a group of friends...but once I do, I'm like an extrovert around them. My ethnicity is indian but I was born and brought up in US if that makes a difference.</p>

2

<p>How much can your family pay? Need ACT or SAT score and UW gpa before we can comment, otherwise we are wasting our time.</p>

3

<p>You seem like a good candidate to spend an afternoon with the Fiske Guide to Colleges and a packet of post-it notes. :slight_smile: This will help you identify some schools that sound like good options to you. I do agree that it is hard to give many recommendations without actual test scores and an unweighted GPA. And cost is a critical component for many students. So I’d suggest you get a copy of Fiske and have a chat with your parents about finances. </p>

<p>If you aren’t aware, colleges now provide a Net Price Calculator on their financial aid website page where you can plug in your family’s income and assets to get an idea what a given college will cost you. Know that if your parents are divorced, own a small business, or rental real estate, then the calculators will probably show you would get more aid than you really will get.</p>

<p>My suggestion is that you start with the Fiske route. Identify some nearby schools to visit and see if you can go to a few between now and the end of your junior year. Go on a tour, sit in on a class if they are in session, eat in the cafeteria, etc. Since you are not sure what kind of school you want, maybe go see a research university, a liberal arts college, and a state university. Not sure if you are male or female, but if you are female you might check out a women’s college (Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, etc.). That might help you get a better idea which kind of schools to focus on in your search.</p>

4

<p>because we don’t know your unwtd or your SAT/ACT or your SATIIs, your guidance counselor could be a big help to you right now. See if you can get an appointment with him or her because the GC knows you better than we do. </p>

<p>You’ve told us your rank but not out of how many students. you don’t have a lot of rigor given the schools you express an interest in. Like most students, you probably overestimate your resumé.</p>

<p>in the interim, do some research not only on affordability but majors and non-Top 50 schools to find some matches and safeties. CS is a great major. what else might you do? any strengths in math? what math courses are you taking this semester? any interests in studying hardware? physics?</p>