NY, New England, California

College Search & Selection
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<p>Sorry, I don’t know why I thought you were a girl, for some reason I thought somewhere you had said that you were. My apologies.</p>

<p>I applied to Georgetown, Middlebury, Colby, Connecticut College, the University of Chicago, Claremont McKenna, American University, William and Mary, and my in-state safety school.</p>

<p>I think you should also check out Claremont McKenna. It’s in a suburb of LA and has a very unique structure–the school itself is less than 1000 but it is part of the ‘Claremont Consortium’ of 5 schools located on the same campus. A person can take classes in any of the other schools and get there with a 5-min walk. You would therefore always be meeting new people and seeing new faces around campus. It is pretty selective but if you are able to come through with your commitment to straight As and high SATs it would be an excellent choice.</p>

<p>To others who have critiqued my earlier statement about which schools the OP could get into, you are probably right. I was basing my statement off the assumption that the OP would indeed obtain straight As and a high SAT as he says he can. If this changes, obviously my projection and recommendation would change. I am an advocate of an approach where students apply to 1-2 safeties, 2-3 matches, and as many reaches as they have time and money to fill out applications well to. This certainly does not apply to everyone, but works well for ‘typical CC students’ who want to study a typical liberal arts-type discipline (like Econ or PoliSci) at a top-level school. Nearly every top school is excellent in these fields, and applying to most of the Ivies + Stanford + Chicago + top NESCACs can be a good way to increase chances of admission to a reach.</p>

<p>Oh, and as far as 2500 being enough to meet new people regularly, it absolutely has proven to be enough for me.</p>

<p>OP, just work as hard as you can next year and make this happen for yourself. No need to spend too much time on which school you’ll go to now as a sophomore but keep it in the back of your mind.</p>

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<p>menloparkmom: I know you weren’t trying to brag I was just joking. I’m just glad my dad didn’t know about CC or rankings when I was applying to schools. Heck, he barely knows how to use the Internet. If he had known about this site chock full of people with 2300+ SATs and such, he would’ve had me shoot much lower.</p>

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<p>You didn’t mention earlier that you can play the URM card. Of course, !/16th and presumably not raised on a res isn’t very URM. Nor did you indicate that you are possibly a recruitable athlete. That definitely can change the picture.</p>

<p>You said that you were “projecting” SATs of about 2100. That’s low for Ivies, and it is only a projection. You also said that your grades had an “upward trend” and that you “planned” to get all As next year, which makes it sound as if your grades now are at least 1/3 Bs, which is low for Ivies.</p>

<p>If you can get recruited for rowing, of course, things are different.</p>

<p>You’ve also added that you’ve won several writing awards and are first generation and from an “under-represented” state. All of which is new information, all of which is in your favor, although not overwhelmingly so.</p>

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<p>In New York, check out Columbia, New York University, and Fordham. Vassar and Marist are farther out – in Poughkeepsie, which is about 2 hours from NYC by public transportation, but Poughkeepsie is a suburban area. Vassar is slightly smaller than what you want (almost 2400 students), Marist is right in your range at over 5,000 undergraduates and it’s a good college. There’s also the University of Rochester, which isn’t in NYC but Rochester is a fairly decent-sized city-town. Skidmore is also not in NYC, and it’s slightly smaller than 3,000 students, but is also a good college.</p>

<p>(I thought of Sarah Lawrence and Bard, but both are quite a bit smaller. Considering that I went to a small LAC about the same size as Vassar, I completely understand your need for a medium-sized school).</p>

<p>If you are female, there is also Barnard, which is also slightly smaller than your wants – a bit over 2350 students.</p>

<p>In New England, there are a lot. Brandeis, Brown (which is a reach for everyone, of course), Boston College, College of the Holy Cross (just under 3,000 undergrads) Emerson, Providence College, Quinnipiac (I don’t really know if they’re “preppy” though), Smith (a women’s college), Stonehill College, Trinity College, Tufts, and Wellesley (which is also a bit smaller than 3,000). There’s also Wesleyan.</p>

<p>In California, there’s Pepperdine (definitely preppy) and Stanford.</p>

<p>There are a LOT of other great LACs in those areas that are left out because they are a bit too small, but I’ll list them here:</p>

<p>New England: Babson, Bates, Bowdoin, Connecticut, Wheaton</p>

<p>New York: College of New Rochelle, Union College</p>

<p>CA: Claremont McKenna, Occidental, Pitzer, Pomona, Scripps (women’s)</p>

<p>Not really sure exactly what “preppy” you’re looking for – someone else said that the Claremont Colleges aren’t preppy, but I think they could be…</p>

<p>EDIT: OP, you are NOT an underrepresented minority. Most people have some mixed ancestry somewhere back in their bloodline, but it’s somewhat disingenuous for a student to claim that they are an “underrepresented minority” when they are only 1/16 Native (or whatever) and that designation hasn’t had a huge effect on their life. Colleges aren’t looking for people with a drop of underrepresented minority blood just to put the stamp of outward diversity on their institutions; they look for underrepresented minorities so they can counteract the systematic disadvantages they encounter as minorities in the West. I think I can safely say that your great-great-grandparent’s heritage probably isn’t affecting you too much right now.</p>