Prep School Junior IN NEED OF A COLLEGE LIST

<p>Hey guys, I'm currently an 11th grader at Phillips Exeter Academy, a private boarding school in Exeter, New Hampshire. My preliminary college list is due next term (10-15 schools with an acceptance rate > 50, 10-15 schools with a rate < than 50%.) </p>

<p>I'm interested in East Asian Studies, economics, international relations, and maybe philosophy. </p>

<p>I don't have a whole lot of stats yet, but my gpa places me pretty high in my class (10.43/11.0), my psat scores were 225/240. I just need a broad preliminary list of schools of varying selectivities that might suit me, any suggestions? </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>more selective:
Cornell
Georgetown
Stanford
Wesleyan
Yale
U of Chicago
Johns Hopkins
Harvard
Washington U St Louis
Princeton
Columbia
Haverford
U Penn
Brown
Middlebury
Vanderbilt
UVA
U Michigan</p>

<p>less selective:
UCLA
USC
Connecticut College
Bates
Colby
Boston U
Tufts
Hamilton
NYU
Oberlin
Bucknell
Dickinson
Gettysburg
Wm and Mary
Washington and Lee</p>

<p>I would consider UCLA and Tufts to be considered more selective, especially since Tufts has an acceptance rate in the 20s, and now is on par with many of the lower ivies pool. I don't consider Michigan to be extremely selective, though it is an excellent school.</p>

<p>NYU, UCLA, and Tufts all have acceptance rates in the 20s. Washington and Lee is pretty tough too, as is W&M since he'll be out of state. UMich's acceptance rate is in the 60s. U of Chicago also has high acceptance rate, but it still belongs in the most selective group since the applicant pool is very self selected, thus those who apply tend to be overqualified.</p>

<p>I'm sure your guidance counselor has stats on Exexter kids who applied to these schools and you can guage your chances that way.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>What type of school do you want? Size, urban/ rural, etc.</p>

<p>If you're really at Exeter, part of the advantage of that education is the college counselling available.</p>

<p>hence the lists of colleges that are actually DUE this term. That's insane! </p>

<p>Do you have universities or LACs in mind?</p>

<p>collegehelp, the W&M acceptance rate this year will very likely be 27-29%. Not exactly what I would call less selective. And certainly not close to > than 50%.</p>

<p>In approximate order of selectivity:</p>

<p>Selective:
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
Brown
Dartmouth
Amherst
Williams
Duke
Penn
Cornell
Georgetown
Northwestern
UVA</p>

<p>For the non-selective, just use collegehelp's list. You are getting into a selective school so its sort of silly.</p>

<p>Speaking seriously, you're not going to get a better opinion on colleges to select than Exeter's college admission office. Not even in college confidential.</p>

<p>Might look at Holy Cross or Colgate.</p>

<p>Wow, thanks for the suggestions. </p>

<p>I would prefer a larger research university over the small liberal arts school, though only by virtue of wanting a very different experience in college (Exeter is kind of like a mini-liberal arts college). Also, East Asian Studies tends to be stronger in the larger schools with more prominent faculty in the field. </p>

<p>Slipper 1234, I don't want to restrict myself by location, but I woud prefer an urban environment and a medium to large student body. So far, I have the following schools entered in my online account:</p>

<p>Georgetown
Columbia
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
U. Penn
Yale
George Washington
Princeton
Duke
Stanford
U. Chicago
U. Michigan </p>

<p>My college counselor would probably want some more less selective schools to balance the list. So medium-sized research universities that are less selective than the schools listed in the above? (public or private). I'm thinking along the lines of wisconsin-madison or Boston University. Any other suggestions?</p>

<p>I do not think George Washington and Duke have majors in East Asian Studies. Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams, and Northwestern lack an East Asian Studies major. UVA offers a masters in EAS but not bachelors. However, they might have something similar like "Asian History". Check it out. I could be wrong. The schools I listed earlier all had "East Asian Studies". I think Lawrence U is the only college in Wisconsin that has "East Asian Studies", not U Wisc.</p>

<p>gw majors in asian studies: Asian Studies (elliot school) International Affairs with concentration on Asia (elliot school), Japanese Language and Literature (cas)</p>

<p>what about some schools whose acceptance rate is definitively higher than 50%? I know that most people won't be applying to these schools from my class, but the counselors are still adamant about us exploring the range of possibilities this early in the process. </p>

<p>so far the only one i really like is michigan.</p>

<p>cfunkexonian, given what you have said about yourself, I think your list is pretty good. If you like Michigan, I would recommend Indiana-Bloomington and the University of Wisconsin-Madison as your safeties. Both are located in awesome towns, both have gorgeous campuses, both have great college spirit and atmospheres and both have strong East Asian Studies program. Michigan and Chicago are good bets, espeically if you write good essays for Chicago. Stanford, Harvard, Penn, Columbia and Princeton are great reaches. I would look into UC Berkeley too.</p>

<p>cfunk- please don't rule out Wash U in St. L. I know a couple people there, and one in particular who is studying what you noted- she could not be happier.
Exeter note- don't just use expan for finding "less selective schools" dig into all the binders of info they have in the CC office, that stuff is really useful.</p>

<p>You might want to add Brown to the list.</p>

<p>The GCs at Exeter are excellent. They will recommend the appropriate guidebooks. As with all the elite preps I sure the creme at Exeter all have HYP in their sites as reaches and the others falling to probable and safety categories.<br>
You might want to look at the big 3 rankings for selectivity: US News, PR, and Atlantic Monthly. On a pure selectivity level, Yale and Princeton receive the greatest number of apps (14) per slot.</p>