Possible Colleges?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm new to college confidential, so I'm not entirely sure how this all works, but I would love help in finding colleges that might suit me, in addition to having a reality check on the colleges I'm currently considering. Here are some things about me:</p>

<p>Junior in High School
GPA: Unweighted 3.97(one B in AP Calc AB), weighted 4.08 (honors classes from freshman year aren't counted at my new school)
APs: 5 on AP Euro, taking AP Lit, AP Calc AB, and AP US this year. Next year I'll continue with AP math, history, and english, but also AP Chem/Bio (my school offers few AP's considering)
SAT: Haven't taken it yet, but a conservative estimate would be a 2100 (I usually do better on practice tests, but just to be safe)
School doesn't assign class rank, closes the school gives out is that I'm somewhere in the top 6% of 430 students.</p>

<p>ECs: Treasurer of DECA (won various awards at state and regional level)
On science olympiad team (various awards at state level, team has gone to nationals for the past four years)
Section leader in the marching band
Writer for the student newspaper
Joining NHS (running for president of volunteering)
In the process of creating a small volunteering network for my city, we have some press lined up and it's basically off the ground.
Tons of volunteering with many different organizations around my city</p>

<p>Work: Self employed doing web design</p>

<p>Possible careers & majors: Architecture, Journalism, English (I realize that this isn't exactly indicative of hope in that field, but a definite interest of mine), Advertising (as a career, probably a copywriter, so I'd assume english is the best major for this), Marketing Management, Business (general)</p>

<p>Location: I'd personally <em>love</em> to return to the east coast.</p>

<p>So, given all of these things, do these schools (and others! I would love to hear about others!) seem like good fits?</p>

<p>Princeton
Swarthmore
Haverford
NYU
Northwestern
Syracuse
Drexel
University of Virginia
University of Arizona</p>

<p>Thank you so much!
MC</p>

2

<p>1) Do you need financial aid? If so, how much?</p>

<p>2) What’s the logic behind the schools you’ve got on the list? They seem to be quite a disparate group.</p>

3

<p>^ I agree with M’s Mom, how did you develop that initial list? I am not sure I have ever seen Princeton on the same list with Drexel or Arizona. Are you a resident of Arizona and using that as your safety? You have a lot of reaches and safeties but you really need some matches.</p>

4

<p>If you truly like your safety(ies), then I don’t necessarily agree that you would need any matches. Every year some students who have good solid safeties opt for a list that has one locked-down safety and a bunch of reaches. If that works for you, then it’s OK.</p>

<p>Just make certain that your safety does indeed meet these four criteria: You can afford it without aid other than federally determined (FAFSA) aid and/or guaranteed state aid and/or aid from the college/university itself; You are dead certain of admission (the stats required are right on the website or your high school has sent lots of students there and no one with your stats was ever denied admission); Your major(s) is(are) offered; You will be perfectly happy to attend if you don’t get in anywhere else that is affordable.</p>

5

<p>If you do need FA have you calculated your EFC and can your family afford it?</p>

6

<p>Financial Aid would be really nice, but my family doesn’t qualify for much, so it isn’t a necessity for a match. Some justifications for the schools on my list:</p>

<p>Princeton
Far and away my favorite Ivy. While any ivy league is going to be a great school, Princeton seemed to speak to me the most from my visits (I grew up in New Jersey, so I’ve been there many times). All general reasons for Ivies apply, and they seem to have majors which I’m interested in.</p>

<p>Swarthmore & Haverford
While not offering any of the majors I listed (other than English), LACs seem really compelling to me, although I do need to do more research on these. These both seem really rigorous and like places where I could both learn and discover new interests. However, I would love ideas on LACs, since none of my friends/families know much about them.</p>

<p>NYU
New York City is one of my favorite places, and they seem to have a great business program, good reputation for journalism, and being in NYC I assume has good connections for advertising agencies (or certainly better than those in small towns). </p>

<p>Northwestern
Really strong journalism school, although I’m not wild about the location. </p>

<p>Syracuse
I love upstate New York (yes, I’m insane). The school has a great architecture program and journalism programs, not sure about business and english programs.</p>

<p>Drexel
Honestly I’m not sure why Drexel interests me, but it does. Can’t really put a finger on it, but I feel as though I’d be happy going there.</p>

<p>University of Virginia
Out of state safety. From all that I’ve heard, they have fantastic architecture, business, and english programs. I have close family friends who’ve gone there, and I’ve been out there. My only concern is how remote it is, but I really like the college.</p>

<p>University of Arizona
Local safety school. They have a great architecture program, business school, and acceptable english programs. Unfortunately, it’s only 20 minutes from my house, and I really would like college to be a new experience, rather than living 20 minutes from my parents. </p>

<p>@happymomof1 I definitely would do well at my safeties, but I would be much happier in a smaller college (I enjoy having a closer student body).</p>

<p>If any of these are misconceptions, PLEASE correct me — I would hate to end up going somewhere to find that I went there for a program that’s only available for graduate students (or anything along those lines). Thank you!</p>

7

<p>The top LACs have a lot to offer a student who is intellectually inclined, likes smaller classes, wants a strong sense of community and values a high level of faculty interaction - but they generally have very few professional majors, which describes nearly everything on your list except English. You’ll find economics, not business. English, not journalism or communications. No architecture except as part of an art history class or an anthropology course.</p>

<p>More LACs like Swarthmore and Haverford? Here’s a few: Vassar, Pomona, Macalester, Brown (this last one isn’t an urban or suburban LAC, but has strong similarities). U Chicago (not a LAC) gets a lot of cross applicants with Swarthmore - same reputation for intellectual intensity.</p>

<p>More like Princeton and UVA? That’s a somewhat different model. Look at Rice and WUSTL for starters. Emory night work too. These schools will have more of the majors you are interested in.</p>

8

<p>UVA is not a safety, IS or OOS.</p>