<p>I am a high school senior, mostly homeschooled with 4 college classes and an environmental semester school experience.
I will be taking 10 more (hard science) classes at local college for my senior year.
Stats:
IOWA Test 90+%
SAT --I took it once "cold turkey" and got 1660--planning to retake Oct., Nov. December and pull way up
GPA 3.5
Volunteered over 150 hours
Homeschool Honors Society
Latino/Hispanic
I am doing my senior research project on bees</p>
<p>I want to major in chemistry or biology (hard sciences) with an emphasis on the environment.</p>
<p>I visited Johns Hopkins this summer and it is my dream school.
I am also looking at Univ. of Rochester, Middlebury, New College of Florida and Oberlin.</p>
<p>I want to be at a school with a very solid science program. I don't care about Greek or party scene. I lean more Liberal but its not a requirement. I live in Florida but want to be in the Northeast. I love the cold and the outdoors.</p>
<p>You need to get that SAT way up for the schools you’re looking into. Bowdoin, Bates, and Brandeis are great test-optional science schools but I don’t know how much that will help since you didn’t provide a class rank.</p>
<p>Edit: LOL I didn’t notice you were homeschooled, so ignore that last statement.</p>
<p>My senior year includes science but I should clarify. I’ll be taking the following courses at my local college: 1st semester- Chem., Chem lab, College Algebra, American History and Meteorology 2nd semester - Physics, Trig/Calc, Botany, General Chemistry and Qualitative Analysis and geology (or other science).</p>
<p>I"m looking at:
Bates College
Bowdoin College
Case Western Reserve University
Colby College
Goucher College
Grinnell College
Hamilton College
Johns Hopkins University
Middlebury College
New College of Florida
Oberlin College
University of Rochester
University of Virginia
Wesleyan University</p>
<p>Any other thoughts ideas?
Besides raising my SAT scores and getting good grades in those college classes…where else do you think I should concentrate this first semester of my senior year?</p>
<p>Note, however, that chemistry and biology do not have very good job and career prospects at the bachelor’s degree level, so you want to keep debt down.</p>
<p>You seem to have quite a few Liberal Arts Colleges on that list. You seem to be very focused on studying science so I’m not sure if a liberal arts college would be best for you, since you would probably have to take more humanities/social science courses and less hard science courses. Several of the listed schools only offer Bachelor of Arts and not Bachelor of Science degrees (which might not mean anything, but I think it would result in a more well-rounded education and less science focused) I could very well be wrong about this so maybe someone else can comment on it.
You might want to look into more research universities.
I recommend looking into Tufts University. It is relatively small for a university(about 5000 undergrads, which you might find appealing since you are looking at LACs), is in Massachusetts, and is a very good school.
Also, on your current list, which schools are your safeties?</p>
<p>“Liberal arts” includes science, although various LACs have different emphases, strengths, and weaknesses (e.g. Harvey Mudd is science-heavy, but Sarah Lawrence is science-light). The degree title Bachelor of Arts versus Science is not really meaningful comparing between schools (there may be a difference in degree requirements if the same school offers both degrees).</p>
<p>My family will be able to pay around 50% LAC tuition–so I will need financial aid. I like the idea of a smaller school.</p>
<p>I haven’t really picked my safeties until I see my upcoming SATs and mid semester grades.</p>
<p>I know I should but I don’t have clear post grade goals yet–my ideal job would be in the former Bell Labs or type of environment…scientific research.</p>
<p>I heard Tufts was very high stress.</p>
<p>I am also very comfortable with the humanities (writing, etc.).</p>
<p>I love history, reading and learning in general.</p>
<p>Thanks. I hadn’t heard of it but I just checked it out and it it looks good for research and science. Thanks. I visited Goucher this summer (also a CTCL) and liked it a lot.</p>
<p>Is your parent’s EFC affordable or are you looking for merit aid. If the latter, definitely study for that SAT… (or ACT). If their EFC is affordable, then you’d want to be looking at decent need-based aid schools.</p>
<p>Truman State and University of Minnesota - Morris are small public LACs with out-of-state list prices about half or less than typical well known private LAC list prices. Both have ACS approved chemistry bachelor’s degree programs.</p>
<p>UNC - Asheville and SUNY - Geneseo may also be within your price range.</p>
<p>Holy Cross very good science programs with new facility 1 hour from Boston. Holy Cross is also one of the few schools that meets 100% demonstrated need. HC HAS FANTASTIC ALUMNI NETWORK -good for job placement.</p>