<p>I've been going through this college site that grades different colleges on aspects of the school, and I still can't narrow my list from 18 colleges to about 8-12 colleges. Can you please help?
My 18 colleges:
Villanova University (Definite, Safety)
New York University (Definite, Target)
Macaulay Honors at Baruch (Definite, Target)
Columbia University (Definite, Reach)
University of Pennsylvania (Definite, Reach)
Boston College
Wake Forest University
Fordham University
University of Michigan
Carnegie Mellon University
Duke University
Tufts University
Northwestern University
Princeton University
Dartmouth College
MIT
Brown University
University of Virginia</p>
<p>Penn is my #1, followed by NYU and Macaulay Honors. Columbia and Villanova are also in my definite, but the rest are not. I have a 2310 SAT and 94.04 average, with several extracurriculars. I want to go to an excellent business school.</p>
<p>I want to major in finance/economics. My ideal college is on the east coast (or relatively close by, I live in NYC), and has to be coed with a diverse, open minded student body (that’s the criteria that took Notre Dame off my list). My high school stats are posted in the first post. My school (Bronx HS of Science) doesn’t rank.</p>
<p>If distance from NYC is a big issue, you can take off Wake Forest, UMich, Duke, Northwestern, and UVA. You haven’t specified how big a deal it is to you/your parents, but it’s something to think about as it would shorten your list considerably.</p>
<p>Dartmouth and MIT stand out to me. Dartmouth is incredibly rural, which is different from your top choices. MIT…maybe I just don’t know this because I haven’t researched it too well, but does MIT even offer business? And even if they do, business is by no means the first thing I think of academically at MIT, whereas it is the first thing I think of at Penn, NYU, and UVA.</p>
<p>It has to be within driving distance or an inexpensive airplane flight away. MIT does, according to US News and World Report it has the 2nd best undergrad business program (Penn is first). I was already considering taking UMich off because I hate hate hate really cold weather. I’m used to NYC weather and would rather not go colder.</p>
<p>I do, but I won’t qualify because of my mom’s salary. She won’t be paying for college, I am, but I am still a dependent. When applying for FA they’ll look at my mom’s salary and won’t give me any.</p>
<p>I do not think of Villanova as diverse, although it has other qualities. Note that Swarthmore and Haverford allow cross registration with Penn (for finance, economics they do well) and are very open minded</p>
<p>I don’t think Villanova can be considered to be a safety. It’s become very selective. You don’t list your stats, but it’s a match or reach for most/many.</p>
<p>Wait, you won’t qualify for FA because of your mom’s salary, but she’s not paying???</p>
<p>Then what are you doing applying to such expensive schools that don’t give merit??? (Fordham will give you merit for NM)</p>
<p>What good will it do you to get an F/A package that won’t come close to what you’ll need (if you even get an F/A package at all)??</p>
<p>Most of these schools have COAs of over $50k per year. How are you going to come up with $200K+???</p>
<p>You can’t borrow that much or anywhere close (nor should you!!)<br>
Do you know that borrowing $100k will give you a $1200 per month payment for 10 long years???</p>
<p>If you’re considering student loans, what kind of monthy payment would you be comfortable with for 10 long years while paying for all of your own living expenses??</p>
<p>** You need to have some schools that will give you awesome merit (like a full ride).</p>