<p>I'm currently a rising junior and looking for colleges to apply to next year.</p>
<p>My most important criteria for colleges are that they are private, preppy, in New York City, New England, or California, and preferably with a suburban or urban campus. My interests include political science, international relations, and languages. I plan to go on to some type of graduate school, which will probably law or business. For size, I don't want an extremely small college. Around 3,000 - 6,000 undergraduates is ideal.</p>
<p>I'm an active member of Model UN, Debate, and JSA. I also am an editor for the student newspaper, play two instruments, and volunteer. (~300 hours so far in high school) I play squash at a club, take golf lessons, and a member of the crew team at school. </p>
<p>As for academics, I haven't taken the SAT yet but I'm projecting around a 2150. I have an upward trend with my GPA, and intend to get all A's next year. I go to an excellent private school, so my school does not rank.</p>
<p>Schedule for junior year - AP Spanish Lit, APUSH, Precalculus, AP English, AP US Gov, Physics Honors, AP French</p>
<p>Just a note, you’re going to be able to find “preppy” students at pretty much any school you go to. Why do you list this as a criterion?</p>
<p>Might I suggest heading off to the USNews rankings or the Princeton review, finding a program, and start filtering by location and size? It’s as good a place as any to get broad information.</p>
<p>Sounds like it’s time to check out the guidebooks as well - Fiske’s Guide to Colleges and Princeton’s Top 368 Colleges are good starts. Many, many colleges meet your criteria - I think a good guidebook or two will help you narrow down what you’re looking for. Happy hunting!</p>
<p>Get a current copy of Barron’s Guide to American Colleges and Universities. The Barron’s Guide is THE definitive source for all possible information about universities in the U.S., and I’ll bet you’ll find some detail about these places you’re considering that will help you make up your mind.</p>
<p>You may have trouble with the size criteria. Schools in that range are a little harder to find. Some of the Ivys are in that range, and have a substantial preppy contingent, but from the sound of your stats would be super-reaches for you. Many other preppy schools in NE or near it–Colgate, Dickinson, Bowdoin, Middlebury,Trinity, for example–are smaller than you want.</p>
<p>the search for a combination of “preppy” and “California” won’t result in any colleges. Calif colleges, and the students who attend them, are noted for being “laid back” and casual in dress, including the most academically rigorous ones, and it would be a strange sight indeed to find male students in Calif walking around in khakis and polo shirts with topsiders on their feet or girls in dresses with pearls at football games! Jeans, tee shirts, shorts and flip flops are standard campus apparel on the west coast, with the addition of polarfleece or northface jackets in the winter. You need to focus on the eastern half of the county, and focus on the south especially, if you wish to limit your search to those considered to be "preppy "schools.
If you eliminate preppy from your requirements, then take a look at Claremont college, which is one of 5 small colleges in the Claremont Consortium [ 5000 UG students total on a spread out suburban campus] in Southern Calif. It is located in the northern part of the LA area, and is well known for it’s poly sci program. Students at Claremont can take classes at other colleges in the consortium.</p>
<p>-private? check!
-preppy? the closest thing in CA to preppy is the Orange County kids who are all-around achievers but more laid-back than east coast hyper kids. look no further! check!
-New York City, New England, or California? CA = check!
-suburban or urban campus? urban and it ranks #9 Most Beautiful Campus on The Princeton Review. checkity check check!
-political science, international relations, and language? OK, these aren’t its strong suits, but they are all available. I will tell you that foreign language is a required in your learning. semi-check.
-law or business grad school? the law school is ranked 61 on USN if you are interested in that and I can’t remember the business’ ranking but it’s undergrad is spectacular so… check!
-3,000 - 6,000 undergraduates? 5,119 = check!</p>
<p>^^^^ From the above information alone, it may sound a little premature to suggest all the Ivies will be super reaches. On the other hand, the above ECs may not be enough to move the application very far up a big Ivy League pile, if the stats are only average for the pool and there are no hooks. </p>
<p>How about Tufts? The undergraduate size is right and it is supposed to be strong in International Relations. Preppy enough? I don’t know. It’s slightly less selective than some of the Ivies.</p>
<p>I’m with the other posters who suggest looking to the south or midwest. Washington, DC at least.</p>
<p>“look at Claremont college, which is one of 5 small colleges in the Claremont Consortium [ 5000 UG students total on a spread out suburban campus] in Southern Calif.”</p>
<p>You we referring to Claremont-Mckenna? The others are Harvey-Mudd, Scripps, Pfitzer, and Pomona.</p>
<p>Tufts sound perfect for your interests. Right outside of Boston, very preppy, private, with a suburban campus with easy access to Boston, and extremely strong in international relations and political science.</p>
<p>I guess preppiness isn’t absolutely required, but it is preferable. </p>
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<p>I live here and absolutely hate it.</p>
<p>Consolation, how are the Ivies an absolute reach for me? I’ll be a junior next year, so I have time to improve on my ECs. I have others, including summer programs, my volunteering perfectly suits my interests, awards in both instruments, founder of a club, extremely committed to rowing, (will try to get recruited), and will potentially be considered an URM. (I’m listing Native America and White on the common app, I’m 1/16).</p>
<p>Snarf, I visited Tufts and liked it, but I didn’t think there was anything special when I visited. All the minorities hung out with each other, and that is honestly the last thing I would want at a school.</p>
<p>Menloparkmom, I’ve been looking at the Claremont Colleges since freshman year and I really hope to visit. I’ve talked to students from my school who are going there now and all of them love it.</p>
<p>So far, I’m considering Yale, Columbia, Georgetown, American (safety?), George Washington, Claremont McKenna, USC, Middlebury, and Stanford.</p>
<p>As Shrinkrap suggested, you might want to add Santa Clara University - it seems to meet most of your criteria well and has a rowing team.</p>
<p>USC is a great school (my personal favorite!), but are you aware it is considerably larger than your target of 3,000 - 6,000? USC has over 16,000 undergraduates and a total student population of 33,000.</p>
<p>“As for academics, I haven’t taken the SAT yet but I’m projecting around a 2150. I have an upward trend with my GPA, and intend to get all A’s next year.”
I think the reason Consolation said that some Ivy’s are super reaches for you is they reject 90% of applicants and the majority of those rejects are stellar students, many with 4.0GPA’s, 2350 SATs, multiple leadership EC’s, NMFinalists etc, etc. There are just so many great kids applying and only so many spots open. Take a look at this years “results” threads in the various college forums to see the stats of students that were rejected. If you haven’t already maintained a 4.0 GPA, and have SAT scores above 2300, and aren’t a DA, legacy, or athletic recruit, in reality you chances of acceptance are less than 5%, when you deduct out the above categories. He is not trying to burst your bubble, but give you straight advice about how competitive it really is to get into the Ivy’s and top colleges, like Stanford. You really need to find matches that you would be happy to go to, and safeties where you can be almost certain you will be admitted. But don’t make the mistake of so many “top” students, and forget to “show the love” to your safeties.</p>