I’m almost done crafting my college list: I have chosen my safety and match schools. I’m really stuck on choosing my reach. I have to chose 4 schools from 20 reaches. They all fit my educational needs. I’m going into pre-med, and they all have acceptance rate into medical school being 80 + with many clinical and research opportunities. I don’t care about the location, area or it’s tuition, I’m financially stable. I tried assessing the culture of a school through using Fiske, but it wasn’t helping since it merely states useless aspects like it’s architectures and the restaurants nearby, wtf. It also only gives the positive aspects of the school rather than it’s negative aspects. Is there any criteria or any resource I could use to find the school’s culture?
Asking a current student gives you more info, if not a bit biased. You can find some on here and others through school websites occasionally.
It sounds like you could afford to be pickier here. Figure out what you want in a college and the cutting down process will become easier. Do you prefer large or small schools? Any political leaning preferred? A specific club or interest you’d want on campus?
Before anything else…Just making sure you ran the NPC on all the colleges you’re considering and your parents can afford them from income and savings.
Now, on with your question:
Read Fiske critically and you’ll pick up on differences. Match those perceptions with what’s on the website. Your ability to pick up on what colleges want and hownrheybsee themselves will be crucial when writing the “why college x” essay.
A rule of thumb for premeds is to pick the colleges that mean no debt and where the applicant is clearly among the top 25%.
Finally, if you list your top 3 needs + top 3 wants for a college, and the 20 you have to pick 4 out of, people here who know them are likely to tell you what they know about them.
You could go on a site like college niche and read student reviews. I believe Unigo has reviews as well.
As for books, I really like The Hidden Ivies 3rd edition. The narratives on schools are more comprehensive and ring truer than other guide books. It only profiles 63 private schools, but if your reaches are included it’s worth a look.
Why do you need to apply to a reach? If you are happy with your safety and match schools, don’t bother. Otherwise, apply to the two you are most interested in. If finances are not an issue, choose the school where your stats put you in the top 25%.