<p>I've been having a hard time trying to narrow down my list of colleges to 15 max...i'll be really grateful if anyone can offer me some advice!!
here're something bout myself:
-Studying in Taiwan, local system
-Us Permanent Resident
-GPA4.0(kinda different from US skools, but im straight A)
-sophomore vice president, senior class representive etc.
-TOEFL IBT114/120
-SATI 2040(retaking in Oct.)
-SATII Math II(800), World History(740), Literature(570,i dont even know why i took it lol)
-national speech/debate contest winner
-dont really care bout school size, prefer small-medium tho
-need an acceptably pretty campus...NYU and columbia were eliminated from my list for this reason:P
-need friendly and not too complicated environment....
-future major: not sure yet...but definitely NOT anything to do with science</p>
<p>okay so here's my list:
amherst
brown*
college of william and mary
cornell*
dartmouth
duke
emory
georgetown
harvard*
johns hopkins
northwestern
pomona
princeton*
stanford*
Uc<em>--berkeley, LA, San diego
Wash U at STL
Wesleyan
Yale</em>
BU
Boston college</p>
<p>Those with* are skools im almost sure bout applying, not that im confident of getting in those, but cuz my parents kinda "threatened" me..lol. u know, asian parents...and also because of them i sorta aim high...any advice?</p>
<p>It'll be great if u wanna add skools to this list too...</p>
<p>and i'll be doing common apps...:)</p>
<p>thanks for any advice!! i'll really appreciate them!!!</p>
<p>I see you have Brown, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale on your list.</p>
<p>I'd add Dartmouth and Duke for sure, they are very similar to the above schools in personality and academics, as well as nice campus. Duke is warm year-round and Dartmouth is cold, if that makes a difference. </p>
<p>For your reference, here are international rankings of colleges:</p>
<p>In order, schools on your list in the top 20 are Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, Columbia, Duke, and Cornell. Mention that to your parents to let them know all the schools are highly regarded.</p>
<p>Even though you are sure you don't want to do science, where are your general interests? Political science, Econ? Want to go into business or law? Any general idea can differentiate between the schools on your list, though all of them are great all around.</p>
<p>hi!! thanks so much for such fast reply..ha. im more interested in political science than in econ, tho not completely uninterested in the latter. and I'm considering between law and business skools still...(sorry i know how useless my answers are..but yeah..) For majors im thinking about..social studies stuff as well....if that helps. :) thanks a lot!!! btw, am i kinda aiming too high?? should i list some safety skools too???</p>
<p>cross BU off-- it's super-urban, like Columbia and NYU.</p>
<p>If you want "friendly and not too complicated," I think you'd be better off at LAC's in more rural areas. There are some really excellent small schools that are worth looking into that will take you where you want to go (Bates, Middlebury, Colby, Bowdoin, Kenyon, to name a few top schools) but you might consider them several steps down in terms of name recognition.</p>
<p>I agree with the others: cut the UCs and BU for being too big, and probably JHU for not having the right atmosphere. </p>
<p>Another (IMO important) way to cut down your list is to think about what kind of campus culture you want…not that many people apply to both Duke and Wesleyan. Do you prefer more a more liberal/quirky type of student body, or a more mainstream/sporty environment? Do you like the idea of a campus that is a bit far to one side or the other of that spectrum, or would you prefer something that's more in-between? </p>
<p>For some low matches/safeties, perhaps Skidmore, Kenyon, Occidental or Lewis+Clark might appeal to you.</p>
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I would take off the UCs and BU. They're good schools, but huge and impersonal.
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<p>I dont think we're impersonal at all. Big school and all, but professors are always available and make a big effort to have open hours to help kids. Not to mention most of the classes really arent that big.</p>
<p>the schools on your list most similar and most fitting to what you're looking for are:</p>
<p>Dartmouth
Northwestern
Duke
Princeton
Stanford</p>
<p>these schools are a lot alike in many ways, mostly in the ways that you described as important (beautiful, small-medium, friendly and not too complicated environment)</p>
<p>another to consider might be cornell, but it is reputedly both less friendly than the schools i just listed as well as BIG, but it might make up for some of that size in beauty (although it's in the middle of nowhere)</p>
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I dont think we're impersonal at all. Big school and all, but professors are always available and make a big effort to have open hours to help kids. Not to mention most of the classes really arent that big.
[/quote]
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<p>If you're the type of person who thrives in a large-school environment, that's definitely true. But for the type of person who thrives in a small-school environment, it would probably feel all wrong.</p>
<p>
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If you're the type of person who thrives in a large-school environment, that's definitely true. But for the type of person who thrives in a small-school environment, it would probably feel all wrong.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>How do you describe a person who thrives in a small-school environment? A large-school environment?</p>
<p>Since you are attending an international school, most colleges won't know what to make of your GPA and rank. Your SAT will be the big statistic: and yours is quite low for most of your schools. Retaking in Oct is great, but since you won't have those scores until it's very late to start looking at other schools, you might want a 2-pronged aproach: a list of 6-8 high-caliber schools and a list of 6-8 safety/match schools that you love. Take the schools that you like that are matches and find "overlap" schools.... where else did kids who liked William and Mary apply? If you can't find that online, specific questions like that in the Parent's forum are usually well answered.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If you're the type of person who thrives in a large-school environment, that's definitely true. But for the type of person who thrives in a small-school environment, it would probably feel all wrong.
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</p>
<p>Well then you should be looking at mostly LACs--not BU, Cornell, Duke, H, Cal, UCLA, UCSD, etc...</p>
<p>scratch wesleyan. I've heard it's campus wasn't too pretty. Also take off BU and UCs. (I agree with what the other people have said). JHU is more oriented toward the pre-med area but they do have a good international relations area as well. So keep it if you think you may want to major in that. Otherwise, scratch it. Keep duke though...it's a nice school though very into the athletic basketball thing and can be called somewhat preppy.</p>
<p>I agree with frutiaspice, but not because Wesleyan isn't pretty (it is) but, because your ECs are a little weak and I've seen stronger candidates waitlisted. Frankly, the same could be said for most of the schools on your list. I'd suggest selecting a safety and then working your way up. If you know where you would be happy if all else fails, then you can choose more selective schools in that same geographic area.</p>
<p>loslobos71 - Whats with grouping Harvard and Duke with the UCs in terms of size? Duke and Harvard are much, much smaller schools than Cal, UCLA, UCSD - they shouldn't be compared. Both are small schools, in similar size range to the rest of the privates.</p>