Please Help My College List Changes Every Five Minutes

College Search & Selection
1

Hey! I really need help in picking what colleges I want to strive for. I am a junior and need to have a good general idea so that I can figure out what school I need to start touring. I’ll list my stats first and then I will put in what I want to have for my college experience.

AP Scores: World History (3), wanting to take Spanish Exam

IB Courses (2 year courses): HL History of the Americas, HL English, HL Chemistry, SL Bio, SL Math, ToK, SL Spanish

My GPA is 3.95/4.7685

Class Rank: Don’t give out

I took the ACT in December and got my scores back. Scored a 31 Composite (31 E, 30 M, 30 R, 31 S) and this was my first time taking it. I took the SAT September of my sophomore year and scored a 1650 (ouch) and will NOT be taking anything relating to this.

I had strong awards and honors with…
Keystone Award for IB
National Honors Society
Spanish NHS
Beta Club
Eagle Scout
Bronze Palm for Scouting
IB MYP Certificate

Community/School activities
Two Varsity Sports
100+ hours service last two years
Co-Founder winter running club
Active youth member at church
Interact Club Secretary
Church Youth
Young Life Club
Boy Scout for 9 years
IB DP Student
(Might have Governors School. Made it to the state round of competition, 20 out of 51 kids made it from my district)

Letters of recommendations
They will be good because I have a great work ethic and am cooperative towards others.

Hooks: None. White male medium class.

What I want in a college experience: I am a person who likes to meet new people but I also love keeping to myself. I am an introvert and an extrovert at the same time. I love academics but I also would love intramural sports. Languages are amazing and I would absolutely love studying abroad, but am afraid of costs of places to attend. The cold does not bother me and I would prefer the eastern side of the country but am not limited to it. I want to go to a great school but I do not want to feel the competition breathing down my neck. Also I do not want to go to school I think in a HUGE city but I do not want to be in the middle of no where. My majors want to include a double major in biology/chemistry (biochem if available) and then include Spanish some way (either as an additional major or a minor).

Thank you so much for taking the time for doing this! I am in state for North Carolina if that would make a difference to the choices.

2

Try using the Supermatch function to the left (under Find a College).

3

UNC and NCSU are both great places to start - in-state, neither are in the middle of nowhere but are also not huge cities, and there are lots of opportunities. If you want something a bit smaller, you may also consider some of the other regionals in your state (UNC-Greensboro and UNC-Wilmington, for example), and Wake Forest. Elon could be a good place, too, as a safety/match.

Other than that, your specifications are very broad - you can do pretty much all of what you want at most colleges (some smaller ones don’t have as many intramural options)…

4

I did @happy1 and the only colleges that came up with 100% were Dartmouth, UPenn, Harvard, Colombia, Georgetown, and NYU. I would say that this is not an accurate representation of what I need haha.

5

The amount of 99% were too plentiful to make a difference.

6

@juillet I agree with you on the UNC Chapel and NCSU options; both are VERY strong choices. If I had to go OOS though what are some state universities like those that give good financial aid?

7

When I ran it with your GPA/ACT it also included schools such as Emory, BC, URochester, Lehigh, Brandeis, Villanova, Tufts, UMiami, Tulane, WPI, Case Western. UNC is an obvious in-state choice and is an excellent university.
Also be sure to run the net price calculator and see what choices are affordable.

8

Davidson sounds like a good fit, and it’s not too far from Charlotte. It’s gotten very competitive though. If you want merit aid then look for colleges where you’ll have some of the highest stats. From what I am reading here, people tend to get lots of merit from schools on that Colleges that Change Lives list. Being that you’re from NC might make you geographically desirable to colleges in other parts of the country. From my research, it looks like Univ of Minnesota (the main campus in the Twin Cities) has reasonable out of state tuition. Places like U of Michigan is insanely expensive for a state school.

9

How about Dickinson? Are you running the net price calculators on each school’s website?

10

It seems like there are a lot of schools that may offer what you want from college. My advice would be to explore many different types of college, from large state school to private research university to liberal arts college, to see which type you like best. And since you say you change preferences often, it might not hurt to apply to at least one or two schools for all three of said types of college mentioned, in case you change your mond after you apply / get accepted.

Also, I’d advise to apply to schools all across the country, not just in your region, too, for the same reason.

11

@intparent I just looked at Dickinson and fell in love! Thank you for the amazing choice! May I ask what made you think of it?

12

My D1 graduated from Dickinson a few years ago. It just seemed to fit with your post. Run the net price calculator on the web site (you should do this for all your schools) to see if it is affordable, and try to visit if it seems like a good fit.

13

Thank you so much! @intparent

14

If you’re getting a lot of 99%s on the Supermatch, try being more strict on the criteria. Turn some of the kinda importants and very importants into must haves. Also consider lowering your GPA / test scores because it doesn’t really handle that part as well as it could.

15

Davidson as a reach and Elon as a low match would be good places to visit. Add UNC-CH to see a large university in a college town, add UNC-A, App State, and UNC-W for three very different, top tier public colleges. That should give you an idea of what you like.
I second Dickinson, and I would add Drake, St Olaf, Centre, and as a safety Goucher.

16

-Agnes Scott College
-Allegheny College
-Bennington College
-Clemson University
-Davidson University
-Franklin & Marshall College
-Gettysburg College
-Hamilton College
-Juniata College
-Lafayette College
-Marist College
-Rollins College
-Skidmore College
-Smith College
-Ursinus College
-Villanova University
-Washington & Lee University

Emory, BC, URochester, Lehigh, Brandeis, Villanova, Tufts, UMiami, Tulane, WPI, Case Western. UNC

17

The OP is male – Agnes Scott and Smith won’t work :slight_smile:

18

U Rochester is a good match. It is an underrated school and I really don’t know why. It has pretty much all you seem to be looking for, strong academics, very smart students, good size (about 6,000 undergrads), many research opportunities, especially if going into medicine, rates highly for every program my D wants to study, including Psych, Art and English. It is known for decent merit aid. I also recommend Dickinson, but it is very small and in a small town sort of middle of nowhere-ish. Very small class sizes, excellent study abroad (included in your tuition, prob true of most colleges though.) Dickinson is also known for merit aid. To me, it sounds like Cornell would be the Ivy for you. Don’t need to say too much about it, it’s an Ivy.

19

@Lindagaf What makes you say Cornell? I would’ve put myself as a Brown person but I am not too familiar with the Ivies

20

I guess because you seem sporty, maybe a little conservative, and you said you didn’t mind cold weather. Also, it,is bigger, and admits a larger number of applicants than Brown. Your ACT is probably a little low for Ivy schools, but it might work at Cornell, known as the “easy” Ivy, which of course it isn’t. Brown is, as far as I can tell, more eclectic, more liberal, more “trendy” than the other Ivies. Anyone, please feel to correct my misconceptions:-)