<p>Mid-sized School (5k-15k students) or small school(5k<) </p>
<p>In or very close to a city</p>
<p>Prestige isn't a factor at all, just looking for a good history department - but I'm going to be history pre-med, so good science department would be nice(it also helps if pre-med isn't cut-throat/weed-out.)</p>
<p>Catholic/Protestant/Jewish schools are not off limit, I'm Catholic myself but wouldn't mind a religious type of enviornment no matter what the religion may be. </p>
<p>Now here is what makes it difficult - my stats.</p>
<p>White Male, Catholic
NY State resident
3.6 UW GPA
assume my senior SAT is 1850-(550m 650v 650w)
No SATIIs, APs, or Honors(no aps or honors offered by school)
250 hours volunteered hospital
Co-founder of Basketball Team, Will play all 4 Years
Co-founder of Soccer Team, but only playing my Senior year
Chosen for Boys State</p>
<hr>
<p>So far I have:
Catholic U(great city nearby, pretty good school, great hospitals nearby to volunteer at, and many needy people to help out by my volunteering..) </p>
<p>Trinity University (my future home! less than a month!) has a really strong history program (especially Classics! I went to a humanities sample class last spring and the professor had his B.A. in Classics from Yale and his Ph.D from Harvard; they offer an archeological dig in Turkey) and there are a ton of pre-med people there as well (stronger in biology than chemistry, I understand), but by no means is it Johns Hopkins cutthroat. One '06 student graduated with a double major in Biochemistry and Ancient Mediterranean Studies. Dorothy Kearns Goodwin spoke about her Abraham Lincoln biography last spring, to great controversy, of course, due to her alleged plagarism. </p>
<p>It's a school of 2500 in San Antonio, TX. It has a covenant bond with the Presbyterians (and so the head chaplain is Presbyterian and the major youth group, The Well, claims a Presbyterian background even though it's just general Protestant Christians); encouraging all religious pursuits is part of the university's mission. There's a small but strong Sikh community (they did something last fall on racism and religious issues in a post-9/11 world, it recieved some sort of commendation from the Ford Foundation), there's a Hillel, Catholic Youth Group (though their website hasn't been updated since 2001, which annoys me, but they're there). It's not all that conservative, pretty middle of the road, socio-politically speaking. </p>
<p>As for volunteering--Trinity has a HUGE group called TUVAC--Trinity University Volunteer Action Committee. It acts, from what I can understand, as an umbrella organization for all sorts of volunteer activites--Habitat, tutoring children, animal shelters, reading to the elderly, all sorts of things.</p>
<p>Yeah, Trinity is ranked #1 (I think) by USNews for masters degree programs in the West. My school, Westminster College of SLC, is #20 on that same list.</p>
<p>I'd suggest St. Joseph's, right on the western border of Philadelphia (I'm a Philly area resident) and Villanova (on the Main Line, also west of Philly).</p>
<p>Boston College is somewhat small, has the religious environment and is near Boston. It's also a good school. May be a bit of a reach with your stats.</p>
<p>You have lots of choices of solid mid-sized private universities (often Catholic ones) in (or near) major cities. But before I start, let me second the recommendations for schools in several cities I have lived in including the University of Pittsburgh (lots of choices in a very liveable city), Trinity University (small, dynamic and well-regarded in San Antonio), St. Joe's on the edge of Philly and Villanova (in lush "old money" Philly suburbs). </p>
<p>Catholic U. is a great choice for D.C. (though you have to have your "streets smarts" as some close-by neighborhoods can be rough). Here are a few other urban Catholic universities to consider. Loyola University and DePaul University in dynamic, thriving Chicago (where I went to college) are two possibilities on the "north side" of the city (both in relatively safe environs). St. Louis University, Marquette University in Milwaulkee, Creighton University in Omaha, and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh (on a hill-top ridge overlooking downtown Pittsburgh) are some others. Loyola in Baltimore gets some good press too. </p>
<p>A couple others to mention - a personal favorite, University of Tulsa on a handsome campus a few miles from downtown, and University of Denver (Codi Rice's alma mater). The University of Tulsa in particular is one of those "hidden gems" that often gets overlooked as a solid alternative.</p>
<p>Some more general advice from someone like you who likes urban universities. As I reflected on my prior post to you, I was thinking that with your prospective credentials (1850 - 1900 SAT's, etc.) you will have a huge number of possible choices that can provide an excellent education locatedl in many cities. </p>
<p>Overall, you will have less competition for applicant spaces outside of the always popular Northeast and West coasts at colleges and universities that will offer you equivalent (or better) opportunities in terms of campus resources, academic offerings, strength of faculty, alumni networks, etc. For instance, the co-op centered Northeastern University in Boston is challenging for many/most students to get into while the co-op friendly University of Cincinnati (with equivalent opportunities) is much less popular with applicants (Cincinnati is headquarters to Procter & Gamble and Kroger supermarkets, for instance). Another example, the University of Pittsburgh, though in Pennsylvania is away from the coast and would be much more difficult to gain entry into if it were located in Boston, New York City, or Philly. </p>
<p>So pick some areas and cities of the country away from the two coasts that you might like to consider and then google up some colleges/universities in those cities. Among those colleges/universities then consider your tastes for small liberal arts (like Trinity in San Antonio) to large comprehensive (like Loyola in Chicago and University of Pittsburgh) and then start narrowing down. As for cities Chicago is great (and my favorite) in the Midwest, but Indianapolis (Butler University), Milwaulkee (Marquette), Cleveland (John Carroll University in the suburbs), Cincinnati, St. Louis, etc. also have lots to offer. In the South, Birmingham (Samford and Birmingham-Southern), Dallas (University of Dallas), Houston (University of Houston, University of St. Thomas, and others) also have considerable assets to offer a potential college applicant.</p>
<p>Catholic University sounds like a good choice. Boston College would be great, if you can get in. It may be worth trying. For history, you may want to check that the schools have good semester or year abroad programs.</p>