<p>This is a good method of elimination: If you got into every school on your list, which are the ones you'd automatically eliminate?</p>
<p>As long as you keep at least one safety on the list, using this method tends to work for people.</p>
<p>I think your college list is good but doesn't really reflect what kind of person you are or what your looking for. Are you more preppy or more hippie or more in-between??? Are you looking for a small, medium or big school? etc.</p>
<p>Samies,</p>
<p>Your response regarding Vassar says a lot. It seems you may be most happy on a traditional college campus, suburban or rural, so long as there is reasonable access to a city and its amenities.</p>
<p>If you hadnt listed Vassar in your post when describing that schools appeals, I would have presumed you were talking about Carleton, a wonderful Midwesterner you are (and should be) strongly considering. Nearby Macalester has a great international and politically active student body but you may find its small, semi-urban campus much more confining than Vassars/Carletons.</p>
<p>Brown is a very different place physically but there is a fair overlap in the culture of the campus. I agree with your advisor that you should look it over seriously. Students are enthusiastic and engaged. Selectivity, though, can be brutal and unpredictable. Wesleyan is nearby and applicant overlap with Brown is significant (for good reason). Sorry to add one more to your list.</p>
<p>Occidental, Conn, Kalamazoo, Whitman are all reasonable choices but I think less consistent with your posted desires. I agree with some other posters that you may want to whittle this group of 4 down (maybe to 1 Whitman?). Oberlin seems a better match than the other 3 and you should be a very strong applicant there.</p>
<p>I would agree with Reed, Pomona and Tufts - all excellent if imperfect choices (by your criteria, no personal bias here). Swarthmore is certainly one of the most - ? the most - intellectual LAC out there but its certainly not laid back (dont know how much of an issue this is for you). Haverford, next door, could be viewed as a less intense cousin.</p>
<p>If I add it all up, Im suggesting you strongly consider (not necessarily apply to) 9-11 schools outside the UCs. Good luck!</p>
<p>april stewart,
I am more of a hippy than a prep but I'm sort of in between on both. I like small school; I am mainly applying to the instate schools because they are really good and i want to keep my options open, plus they are much less expensive. I want an intellectual feel but I also want a school that is somewhat laidback and there is a good balance between work and fun. </p>
<p>so I've narrowed out reed and swarthmore because i think they are just too intense for me and i feel as though i could be overwhelmed. I also narrowed out kalamazoo.
-I have heard/seen a lot of conflicting things about conn and how preppy it is. Could anyone give me more info on this?
-Is there a sense of community at Macalester even though it is very urban and somewhat of a cramped?
thanks!
p.s. thanks for suggesting haverford wbwa. im looking at it and i really like it so far</p>
<p>I actually met somebody who just graduated from Conn Coll today. She's the first person I know who actually went to the school and she absolutely adored it. She struck me as the kind of person who dresses well, but is extremely open and friendly and would not stick her nose up at somebody who didn't. She had no problem talking to yours truly, who doesn't own a shirt that costs more than 20 bucks and wears zero makeup.</p>
<p>I wonder if that's a fair summary of the Conn College atmosphere.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Is the frat prescence at Tufts enough to be a concern?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Not at all. Much smaller part of the social scene, but existant. I overnighted, and while there was a frat party or two, plenty of other things to do. % of students in frats is very small (15% i believe) and much smaller for sororities.</p>
<p>It seems like a good fit for you. I wouldn't agree about unvaloves comment about it being mainstream. I hope you apply.</p>
<p>have you visited pomona yet?</p>
<p>i was set on it until i visited, and found out pitzer (one of the other claremont colleges, dk how familiar you are with them) was much more my style</p>
<p>its much more liberal/activist/artsy</p>
<p>
[quote]
-Oberlin: How is the location? is it remote? (anything with coffeeshops, restaurants, bookstores and movie theaters is fine with me as long as its within an hour or so of a decently sized city)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Oberlin is 30-45 minutes from Cleveland - you can get there with a car or you can use the [url=<a href="http://oberwiki.net/Lorain_County_Transit%5DLCT%5B/url">http://oberwiki.net/Lorain_County_Transit]LCT[/url</a>]. Note that within a 10-15 mile radius of Oberlin you'll be driving through fields and small midwestern towns. I don't know what you're used to, so it's hard to compare - I'm from a town of 6,000ish in Vermont and I felt right at home in the town of Oberlin. There's one movie theater, lots of small shops, decent variety of restaurants, as well as (on-campus) a coffeehouse, a club, and a bowling alley.</p>
<p>If you want more info, you should check out the OberWiki pages for [url=<a href="http://oberwiki.net/Category:Stores%5Dstores%5B/url">http://oberwiki.net/Category:Stores]stores[/url</a>], [url=<a href="http://oberwiki.net/Dining_%28downtown%29%5Ddining%5B/url">http://oberwiki.net/Dining_%28downtown%29]dining[/url</a>], and [url=<a href="http://oberwiki.net/Category:Entertainment%5Dentertainment%5B/url">http://oberwiki.net/Category:Entertainment]entertainment[/url</a>] - they give you a pretty good idea of what's available. In fact, OberWiki is a great resource for any questions you have about Oberlin.</p>
<p>FYI, if you liked Vassar, you'll probably like Oberlin as well. I found Obies to be more welcoming than Vassar students, but that may just be me.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Reed (really need info on social life there)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>A few of my impressions from when I visited (pretty unscientific):</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Reedies are really nice and welcoming. Everyone I met was thrilled to meet a prospie; people saw me around, knew I wasn't a student, and immediately came over to say hi and ask if I had questions or needed any help.</p></li>
<li><p>It's a small campus. I was only there for 24 hours and I started recognizing people pretty quickly.</p></li>
<li><p>Tight community. Many Reedies are people who didn't fit in in high school / didn't have the greatest time / are slightly socially awkward or unconventional, and there's a very strong sense of collective identity and what it means to be a Reedie. (I'd strongly recommend visiting - it's a unique, intense community and I think you'll know pretty quickly whether or not you "fit".)</p></li>
<li><p>Academic life there is intense. People tend to swing back and forth between working very hard and being wild and ridiculous (everything from Renn Fayre to motorizing couches). Be aware that there's not really an in-between - students don't have a lot of time or energy to sustain serious extracurriculars like music, political groups, etc. I do think people exaggerate the level of substance use, though.</p></li>
<li><p>A note about the political scene: people are very socially conscious and tend to have strong opinions, but I was a little disappointed by the lack of activism on campus - it seemed like there was a lot of talk and little action.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>"Haverford, next door, could be viewed as a less intense cousin"</p>
<p>Less intense than Swarthmore, perhaps, but it seemed pretty much a pressure cooker when we visited. The students we met all seemed to be bending under the weight of their enormous academic burden. And very vocal about it too; practically first thing out of their mouths.</p>
<p>Same with Bryn Mawr,though our tour guide only complained when we brought it up.</p>
<p>Made the PA tour with D1, and unfortunately came up with no schools for the effort.</p>
<p>OP might think about preferred size of student bodies, as well. And number of upper-level course offerings, and # profs, in fields of likely interest. When schools get very small this can matter.</p>
<p>Quite a dichotomy between UC universities and these small schools/ LACs.</p>
<p>OP...I hate to add another one to your list, but is there a reason you're not considering Wesleyan? Because it fits right in with the Vassar/Brown/Oberlin thing you're looking at. (In fact, Wes was my first choice, and your most recent list includes a LOT of my other choices: Brown, Vassar, Reed--which I also thought was a bit intense for me, Pomona, Carleton and Occidental). It also completely fufills your critiria of "I want an intellectual feel but I also want a school that is somewhat laidback and there is a good balance between work and fun," as well as having a location with coffee shops, resturants, etc. and being within an hour of a city.</p>
<p>Oh, and another thought: since you are worried about a sense of community at Mac (which I can’t comment on), I think you should also be slightly hesitant about Occidental. The sense I got from my tour guide was that everyone went into the city on the weekend (as well as people living off campus in the city), so wasn't as much as much of a community feel as at most LACs. Of course, that could just be my tour guide's experience, so you might want to ask other students if you can find any (maybe on CC?). But something ot think about has you try to whittle down your list. (I know you said you wanted an LAC is Cali, but maybe one of the Claremonts would be a better choice).</p>
<p>I agree that Wesleyan looks like a great fit. You could use more reaches!</p>
<p>Weskid,
I haven't really given wesleyan that much thought mainly because the one person i know going there next year really doesn't embody that sort of feel you're describing and i know someone else who hates it and is transferring (which is probably a really unfair way for me to judge a school). I will definitely give it a look. I live a couple of hours away from oxy and i have a friend who goes there so i'll ask him about it.
slipper1234,
is there anyway you could tell me which schools are matches/reaches/safeties (i know that's more of a what are my chances thing) because my counselor said some of them were reaches but she wasn't all that familiar with some of the schools so a second opinion would be nice so i could reevaluate my list slightly</p>
<p>Samie: Yeah, definitely give Wes a look…my experience has been that it fits your criteria to a T. </p>
<p>Also, I'll give you my general impression of your chances (I'm not sure about some because I don't know much about them). This is mainly based off of what I would/did consider the chances for myself, since I had a slightly higher GPA and SAT IIs but slightly lower SAT I and comparable ECs as you. I'm not factoring in your ethnicity for simplicity, though it will definitely be in your favor (making some of the low reaches more like high matches, etc.). This is a pretty conservative estimate, since you definitly have a decent shot at most of the low reach schools, and none of your high reaches are completely out of reach, but anyway. </p>
<p>From your most recent list (I know you've cut some, but just to give an feel)</p>
<p>HIGH REACHES: Berkeley, Swarthmore, Brown, Pomona</p>
<p>LOW REACHES: Carleton (could be a high reach?), Wesleyan (if you decide to apply), Vassar, Tufts, UCLA (?-I think, not sure though)</p>
<p>MATCHES: Reed, Oberlin</p>
<p>SAFTIES: Occidental, Whitman </p>
<p>Either a match or a safety, I don't know enough to judge: UC Santa Cruz, Kalamazoo, Conn College, Macalester</p>
<p>You probably don't need more safeties, but in case you end up cutting a bunch of the ones you have, you might also like Skidmore (often used as a safety for people applying to schools like the ones you're looking at, esp. Vassar). Really nice LAC in what is apparently a really awesome town not that far outside of NYC.</p>
<p>Samie, here are my thoughts on your chances. You probably could lose some of the safeties. </p>
<p>REACH/ SLIGHT REACH
Brown
UC Berkeley (no AA)
Pomona
Swarthmore
UCLA (low reach)</p>
<p>MATCH
Vassar
Reed (really need info on social life there)
Tufts</p>
<p>SAFE MATCH
Macalester
Carleton
Oberlin
Conn College</p>
<p>SAFETY/ SUPER SAFE
Occidental
Kalamazoo
Whitman
UCSC</p>
<p>Arguing somewhere in between:</p>
<p>REACHES: Brown, Pomona, Swarthmore</p>
<p>MATCHES: Carleton, Haverford, Tufts, Vassar, Wesleyan</p>
<p>SAFE MATCHES: Macalester, Oberlin, Reed</p>
<p>VERY SAFE: Conn, Kalamazoo, Occidental, Whitman</p>
<p>I think wbwa pretty much has the "chances" right. I would just use the terminology "high match"/"match" rather than "matches"/"safe matches" as I think that more accurately captures the prospects of acceptance.</p>
<p>thanks so much for the help everyone!
So here's my even newer more updated college list
1.UCs-Berkeley, LA, Santa Cruz (have to keep these on and am counting as one b/c it's the same exact app)
2. Brown
3.Pomona
4. Carleton
5. Tufts
6. Vassar
7. Wesleyan (thanks weskid for the suggestion)
8. Macalester
9. Oberlin
10. Conn College
11. Occidental
12. Whitman</p>
<p>Do you think 12 is a manageable number? or should i try to narrow it down more? any more chance guesses would be really appreciated as well b/c i just want to make sure it's balanced</p>
<p>UCSC, you will find wonderful people who are if anything overly socially aware and active. Very intellectual and not cut-throuat. They didn't even have grades when I went there.</p>
<p>Isn't Occidental a little preppy and not especially intellectual? If the main thing going for a school is that it's close to home, you'll probably regret going there.</p>
<p>While a lot of your colleges are in the snow belt, are you aware of just how much colder things get in Minnesota (Carlton and Macalaster) than in, say, the Philadelphia or Cleveland areas? Even people from other Midwestern states shy away from Minnesota in the winter. Since you're from Southern California, you should be certain you can stand the cold if you're going to consider those two schools.</p>