<p>Heya! I have little to no help planning out where to go to college because my parents aren't really interested and my guidance counselor just wants everyone to go to community college.</p>
<p>I'm white, living in Illinois, and a first-generation.
ACT: 31 (33 superscored)
I'm considering taking the SATs in October and the subject tests in November.
GPA: UW3.99 W4.33
Class Rank: 2/90, it should be 1 by the end of the year, but not in time to put on apps. =/
I've taken all the hardest classes at my school (including all THREE APs, lol).
I would consider my ECs decent. I founded the Spanish Club and am very involved in that, and I also had the lead role in the school production of Grease! I have around 3 other leadership positions, and I am a Crew Trainer at McDonald's and work about 25 hours a week during school and full-time during the summer.</p>
<p>The colleges I've been looking at:
Northwestern
NYU
University of Southern California
Stanford</p>
<p>The problem is that these are all probably reaches, so I need some matches and safeties. I'd really like to go to a college that is near a big city and I would like to major in English and minor in Journalism. It would also be wonderful if the college was pretty liberal and accepting because I'm gay and I would want to feel comfortable.</p>
<p>I would REALLY appreciate anyone's help and ideas! Thanks.</p>
<p>do you have any idea about what you’re gonna study? i guess it’ll be easier if you look at schools that are good in your future dedication. what about UIUC? pretty safe for you right 
? i don’t know… maybe you could go see usnews college rankings and pick your own safeties</p>
<p>I’m guessin’ he’s gonna major in English and study some journalism too. How about Tufts, Emory, Clark U., Washington U. (St.Louis), Boston University, George Washington U., McGill, U of Toronto, U of British Columbia, U of Washington (Seattle).</p>
<p>Not a lot of the top schools have an entire journalism department, but they sometimes have some journalism classes offered through the communcations department.</p>
<p>Off topic a bit:</p>
<p>“my guidance counselor just wants everyone to go to community college.”</p>
<p>I keep trying to tell people on collegeconfidential that there are big parts of the country where just about nobody is obsessing on which elite college to go to. McHammer1100’s guidance counselor reflects this. I started high school in a small town in Michigan and finished up at a high school in suburban Boston. At the Michigan high school, the guidance counselors pretty much gave the students 3 choices:</p>
<p>Some really smart kids were advised to Michigan State.
Some really smart kids and other kids who had clear career goals were advised to go to Central Michigan.
Some really smart kids and everybody else were advised to go to the local community college, figure out what they wanted to study, and THEN transfer to Michgian State of Central Michigan.</p>
<p>If you had the gall to think you needed a college better than Michigan State, well, you were on your own.</p>
<p>In contrast, at the (lower class) Massachusetts high school I went to, the guidance counselors were regularly steering students to places like Colby, Boston U., MIT, Harvard, and the U of Vermont.</p>
<p>Check out DePauw University in Indiana. They have a really interesting Media Fellows program. With your initiative, grades, ECs and the fact that you’re a first gen - they’ll be extremely interested in you. Good luck!</p>
<p>i would call your ECs great, not just ‘decent’. & as for USC, i would call it a match, & maybe recommend BU & fordham as matches, too. some others u might want to look into:wesleyan, oberlin, other LACs. gl (:</p>
<p>Also Kenyon and Denison (good potential for merit aid).</p>
<p>The schools you listed look like good solid matches with the exception of Stanford which is a reach.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great replies! Yeah, I don’t really need to minor in journalism, I just want to take some classes because I think I’d really enjoy journalism as a career, and I want to be prepared.
I’ve been considering WashU-St. Louis, but I looked at their course listings and they only have one journalism class.
UIUC is too close to home for me. It’s only about 40 minutes away, and I want to get a little farther. =/ I was also considering Amherst (they superscore the ACT!), but wasn’t sure how I’d like living in Massachusetts, lol.
My top two choices are USC and Northwestern, though. Do you think I should take the SATI or just focus on my essays and study for the subject tests?
Would taking the subject tests really improve my chances?
Sorry for all the questions! I just don’t have anyone to ask, and google isn’t the most reliable. =] Thanks everyone.</p>
<p>Oh, and on the subject of my guidance counselor, she is relentlessly trying to get me to go to the local community college because I could get the full scholarship. She just makes me really mad because she never helps me with anything. At the beginning of Junior year she told me the PSAT was just practice for the ACT, so I didn’t even take it, lol.</p>
<p>“I’m white, living in (rural) Illinois, and a first-generation.”</p>
<p>Ah, it appears that you’re repeating my DW’s journey. HS Val, politely declined the GC’s suggestions she attend community college or the local teacher’s college, and became the first in her town to attend UICU. When she announced after UICU she was going to Grad School OOS, her parents refused to let her drive there. Dad welded a triangle bar to the frame of her car and towed it cross-country behind the family pickup … non-stop … with dad, mom and DW in the cab. </p>
<p>And so MC, I offer hope … and the assurance that if you make that “leap of faith” that your GC and Parents are comparatively poor resources for guidance … that things could work out just fine.</p>
<p>What you need from your GC is competent handling of your application. And what you need from your parents is a frank discussion of how much they can afford to pay for college. Oh yeah, you also need them to fill out the FAFSA and PROFILE worksheets so you have some idea of what your EFC is.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>