I grew up in NJ and moved to CA the summer before freshman year of high school. After living in both places, I can say definitively that I prefer the northeast. It just feels more like home to me. With that said, I’ve been having a lot of trouble finding a college in the northeast that I feel is a good fit for me. I am gonna tell you guys some of my stats & criteria and maybe you can mention some east coast schools I can look into.
Colleges I am applying to: UCLA, USC, UCSB, U of Oregon (safety), U of Washington, U of Michigan, U of Wisconsin, UMD
UW GPA: 4.0
W GPA: 4.16
RANK: 67/589
ACT: 32 (35,27,32,32)
MAJOR: BIO
White, female
Past AP classes I have taken: AP Lang (4), AP Bio (4)
Senior yr course-load: AP Physics 1, AP Gov, AP Lit, AP Calc AB, Journalism 2
Fortunately, money is not an issue.
Things I look for in a college:
-Has a nice college town or is near a city.
-10,000+ students (no max)
-Lots of school spirit (a football team would be a plus)
-No religious affiliation
-“work hard, play hard” atmosphere would be nice.
-Prefer a more liberal atmosphere.
-A concentrated campus that is not dispersed throughout a city.
-Study abroad opportunities
NOTE: Basically my ideal school at the moment is University of Michigan. If you can think of a school in the northeast similar to it in terms of size/student life/selectivity that’d be awesome!
Thank you to anyone who took time to actually read this all
Not a lot in the northeast would check all of those boxes. The closest match I can think of is Cornell. Go a little further south and Virginia Tech and UVA fit.
Ditto, hard to find big, school-spirit type colleges in the NE.
Consider University of Pittsburgh (amazing bio program, nice city atmosphere), Rutgers (NJ, birthplace of football, honors college would be a good fit for you), or UMass Amhearst (nice college town, thriving social scene). I dunno about Boston University, but try checking it out.
Pitt (possibly the honors program) and Syracuse may be ideas. Further south there is William and Mary, UVa, Vanderbilt, Duke, UNC, and Tulane.
If you haven’t done so yet I would suggest you get your hands on some good college guide books (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review, Insiders Guide) and start reading. The books can probably be found in your guidance office or library.
U of Delaware, U of Massachusetts Amherst may also be worth a look. Both are in very nice college towns. UD also has regional rail service to Philadelphia, which is about an hour away.
UMass is part of the 5 college consortium, with opportunities to take courses at Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Hampshire, and Amherst Colleges.
@happy1@KaifortheWin I’ve always been intrigued by Pitt. However, the only thing holding me back from applying is that it is like right in the urban city. Do you guys know if the campus is condensed within the city or if it is dispersed throughout?
@happy1@KaifortheWin Thank you guys for the Pitt suggestion. I have been researching it for the past few hours and think I may apply. I will keep looking into the other suggestions as well.
“my ideal school at the moment is University of Michigan”
I think of McGill as being quite similar to Michigan. Admissions there is very stats based with unweighted GPA being key, which combined with your perfect unweighted GPA means that you chances for admission would be excellent (probably a safety, although you might want to check on test requirements). “Work hard, play hard” is a very good description.
I agree with the post above that mentioned UVM. It is also a very good university in a very attractive location. Burlington is a great small city.
Large universities are found in the South, Midwest & West–not so much in the Northeastern US. As you already have the University of Maryland on your list, you are done.
If you don’t mind relaxing the selectivity relative to Michigan then many of the schools mentioned would meet your other wants. Boston College is also an option but it is Jesuit. Northeastern also, but not much school spirit. Both are very selective. You might also consider Penn State though I don’t know a lot about the town.
