<p>I'm a junior and my counselor would like me to start assembling a list of schools I'd like to go to. Right now I want to go to Cornell ED for physics. I'm limited to northeast for location. Stats so far:</p>
<p>GPA: ~96.5 (My school doesn't wait)
SAT II World History: 770
AP World: 5
Taking AP Stat, AP US History, and AP Chem this year.
Next year taking AP English, AP Economics, AP Physics, AP Calculus, and AP Environmental. I still need to take SAT I and should get at least above a 2000, probably ~2100. </p>
<p>ECs: Varsity Tennis (4 years), JV Cross Country (4 years), Black belt in karate, Key Club, NHS, Masterminds, and Model UN.</p>
<p>Other than Cornell, I'm not sure what to put on my list. My ideas so far are University of Rochester, RPI, Columbia, and University of Pennsylvania. I'm basically just looking at a list of good physics colleges though and definitely need matches/safeties.</p>
<p>Tell us what else you are looking for in a school beside location & projected major. What would you like to pursue in college, inside and outside the classroom? What do you like to do? etc.</p>
<p>I'd probably continue martial arts, but I assume most colleges have martial arts of some sort. I wouldn't be playing any sports competitively in college.</p>
<p>Do you have a preference on bigger or smaller colleges? Urban or rural? Any other info about your desires would help people suggest colleges.</p>
<p>I really have no preferences on those things. My feeling is that college will be a completely new experience and urban/rural and big/small are just things I can get used to.</p>
<p>WPI, Lehigh, RIT, CMU, NYU, Johns Hopkins (not exactly NE, though)... If you consider LACs: Williams, Colgate, Bucknell</p>
<p>Every college is going to have physics, and most top colleges, with probably a few exceptions, would seem to have challenging physics departments (I'm sure someone will be eager to correct me on this if I'm wrong). So unless you want to play the "this one's ranked #8 in physics so it must be much better than that one which is only ranked #10" game, you'll probably want to focus on criteria other than the physics dept. (you might switch majors anyway, so no sense in making that THE dominant factor).</p>
<p>You might also want to skip the more technically oriented schools (e.g. WPI, RIT, RPI, Lehigh, CMU), in favor of colleges that have more well-rounded atmospheres and a better male:female balance. Find out which of the top schools in the Northeast have a particularly weak physics dept., and avoid them. Then focus on other aspects you either like or dislike.</p>
<p>Other people have already named most of the colleges you would probably like. Anybody know if Lafayette is any good in physics? That would be a nice safety. </p>
<p>It sounds like you live in New York. If being closer to home is better than being farther from home, you might also want to forget about the ones deep in New England (Bates, Colby, Bowdoin, the Boston-area schools, and Brown). </p>
<p>Also, visit as many schools as possible. They all have different vibes. Some you will hate and some you will mysteriously fall in love with--for no clear or quantifiable reason.</p>