Pretty high SATs, decent GPA, pretty good ECs, need help finding a school

College Search & Selection
1

<p>What type of schools could be a safety/match/reach for me?
I'm a junior, 3.45 gpa in a very competitive high school, ~2100 SATs, probably NMSC commended, track and football(2 years), vice president of 2 clubs, member of 5 different clubs. My rank is not the greatest because my school is so competitive but its optional to send.</p>

<p>I would prefer a school on the east coast, but would not be completely against a school far.</p>

<p>I'm looking into business (stock market or entreupenurial (sp))</p>

<p>My school doesn't have unweighted GPAs because honors give less credit.</p>

<p>I took a few honors classes my freshman year, none sophomore year, now i'm in two this year.</p>

<p>I'm also taking two languages (italian 2 honors and spanish 4)</p>

<p>any help would be greatfully appreciated (i really have no idea what schools would be within my reach)
thanks</p>

2

<p>IMHO you're doing the process entirely wrong. You're saying "who will take me"? Truth be told, outside of 50-100 or so colleges in high demand, there are 2400+ other colleges that accept most of their applicants. If your dream is to go to a name-brand school that will make people say "wow" when they hear the name, then skip the rest of this post. If, on the other hand, you're interested in finding a college that is a fit for you and will deliver a great education then read on ...</p>

<p>As a junior there is no rush to pick a school. You have time to figure out what's best for you, then apply. Here's what I suggest:</p>

<p>) Learn whats out there. Get 2 or 3 books about college admissions since each author has a different point of view. Start with a book like I suggest "Admission Matters" by Springer and Franck, and perhaps also read by Loren Pope such as "Colleges that Change Lives", and a second book for a different perspective which pushes LACs.</p>

<p>2) Set expectations. This means having your parents fill out one of the financial aid estimators to see what they are expected to contribute, and see if they can/will do that. This means evaluating your stats critically and choosing colleges that are realistic and not just dreaming of the same set of Ivy's and top LACs everyone else lists.</p>

<p>3) Investigate. Visit nearby of various types; a large U, a smaller U, a LAC, an urban school, a rural school. Talk to people, take the tour. Find out what environment you prefer. Do this before you start narrowing your list. This is why I think you're rushing down the wrong path; you haven't even figured out (or posted, anyway) what you want and yet you're already asking who'll take you. Wrong priority!!</p>

<p>4) Set criteria. With the info you've gathered in step (1-3) put together a list of what you're looking for. What type school? What type of students does it attract? What activities do you want/dont-want at the school? A big-time sports program, for example? A large studies-abroad program? The chance to take music classes? The better informed you are about what you're looking for, the easier it is to recognize it when you see it.</p>

<p>5) Select. Get one of the books that lists hundreds of colleges. Read thru and find colleges that provide what you want. Pay particular attention to a safety and matches. Then blow one or two picks on a reach. Most students do just the opposite; they fill out a list of reaches, then try to pick a safety and a match or two. Just look at some threads on this forum to see what I mean.</p>

<p>6) Check it out. Visit the schools if you can when its back in session, preferably overnite. Ask the school to put you in touch with current students home for the summer in your area. Read the school paper online, look for live-journal entries by current students, etc. Try to build a picture in your mind of whether you'd really be happy there.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the informative response, but frankly i don't care about prestige.</p>

<p>I want to be an entrepenure(sp) so I could care less about prestige, but i do want to be surrounded by students like me, so i want to see what types of schools i could get into first, before deciding which ones to choose.</p>

<p>If i knew what schools i could get into, then from that list of schools, i can find those with strong academics, and a good social environment.</p>

<p>Although I respect your strategy, I do not want to choose through thousands of schools. For example, i mentioned i liked business, so if somebody said, well i think you could go to U Mich business school, then i would look into it.</p>

4

<p>BUMP, i want some ideas to what i should look into</p>

5

<p>Check out Babson College and Bentley College in Boston. </p>

<p>Babson's undergraduate program is ranked #1 in Entrepreneurship by U.S. News & World Report.</p>

6

<p>babson really intrigued me, but i read into it and found out that it was not a social campus. I am looking for a mixture of a social campus and a serious one.</p>

7

<p>Get yourself some college guides (Fiske, Princeton Review, US News) and look them over. Get an on-line subscription to the US News College Guide service and do some searches. Visit some local schools just to get a feel for big universities, small LACs, urban, rural, etc. so you can define better what you are looking for. Do some research. Then come back here with a narrower list and some of your own ideas. This is your process. Own it.</p>

8

<p>how about colgate, match or reach? and if reach, slight reach or big reach?</p>

9

<p>colgate is a pretty selective school. With your GPA, its prolly a reach. I want to say its a high reach. But i'm not exactly sure.</p>

10

<p>Don't study business, a liberal arts major would be much better if you want to be an entrepreneur.
A couple of suggestions: Suffolk University, Allegheny College.</p>