Reach/Target/Saftey/Anything-at-all College Suggstions

College Search & Selection
1

<p>First of all, I would like to thank you in advance for any suggestions you may have considering my academic future. Basically, my school suffers from the most incompetent counselor in the world. In addition to extremely aggravating characteristics, she has no suggestions college wise. Anyways, here are the basics.....</p>

<p>Me....
Caucasian Female Junior
Middle/Upper Class (My family could probably send me to a private college w/o financial aid for 4 years, but I am definitely considering grad school, so somewhere where I could get aid is fairly important)
I reside in Nevada, and I really despise our state schools with a fiery passion.</p>

<p>School....
I attend an extremely small school, maybe 50 students in my grade. If it matters, we were one of 5 schools in Nevada defined as 'exemplary' according to No Child Left Behind (a fact my principal will never let us forget). I am in the top 3 students (we are currently tied), unweighted GPA of 4.0.... Weighted, 4.33. Unfortunately, my school offers very few honors or AP classes, but I'm taking all that are available.... It also deviates from the standard math curriculum in that it combines everything into a dreadful 'Integrated' system. In addition, I am taking classes at the local community college in an effort to expand my curriculum.</p>

<p>Freshmen Year (we were on a block schedule w/ 8 periods)
English Honors I
Science Foundations (a stupid, required elementary science class)
Integrated II (my school's idiotic equivalent of Geometry)
Spanish II
Art I
Band
P.E.
Health/Speech</p>

<p>Sophomore Year (We switched to a 6 period schedule)
English II Honors
Integrated III Algebra/Geometry Honors (pointless equivalent of Algebra II)
Band
Biology
Chemistry
World History
I also took one trimester of Spanish at the community college</p>

<p>Junior Year
English III Honors
AP US History
Trig/Precalc (H)
T.A. for a Chem Class
Psychology
Physics
3 Quarters of Spanish at community college</p>

<p>Senior Year (projected, but I doubt it will change much)
English Honors IV
Calculus (honors or AP, I'm not sure which)
U.S. Gov't (I'm trying to convince the principal to make this AP, but I'm not sure if it will happen)
Philosophy or Sociology (both aren't offered in the same year, so I'm not sure which it will be)
AP Chemistry
Economics
Possible Spanish at Community College, or 'fun' classes like Java programming...</p>

<p>Extracurriculars</p>

<p>Freshmen
Christian Club
Newspaper Writer</p>

<p>Sophomore
Varsity Cross Country (We won the 2A State Championship as well as Academic Championship)
Key Club
Christian Club
Academic Team (3rd in region)
I played a minor roll in starting a new school newspaper, but nothing major.</p>

<p>Junior (projected)
Varsity Cross Country (We most likely won't win State this year)
Key Club
Christian Club w/ semi-leadership role
Academic Team, maybe Science Bowl
More involved role w/ newspaper
Independent Band (as a result of it not fitting in my schedule)</p>

<p>Tests
My sophomore year I took the PSAT without any preparation. I literally got to school and realized we were taking it.... Anyways, I got CR:60 M:69 W:71 (total of 200).... The general consensus amongst the staff is that I have a decent chance at the National Merit Program this year, but I'm not sure if this is valid. I plan on taking my first SAT 1/28/2006, and am starting to prepare.</p>

<p>College
I would honestly prefer to go out of state. I am definitely interested in the sciences... possibly engineering, or chemistry. I am also interested in physics. Depending on how that class goes, it could become a passion, or a lukewarm interest. I think I would prefer somewhere that has undergrad opportunities for research. Coming from a very small high school, I don't think I would feel comfortable in a school with 15,000 students. I absolutely love cold weather, and I am an avid skier. However, climate is not a huge factor for me. I'm open to pretty much anything, and would really appreciate some general suggestions.</p>

<p>Thanks Again!</p>

2

<p>It's a little hard to say without more testing. I think most of the ivies are a stretch because I don't see any "hook" or anything that jumps off the page, but you're a strong student from Nevada, which could definitely help for colleges looking for geographic diversity (most area).</p>

<p>Might want to look at Case Western Reserve, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Lehigh, UCSD (too big?), Northwestern.</p>

3

<p>also RPI, Rice, Washington U St Louis, Vanderbilt, WPI, U of Rochester</p>

<p>How sure are you that 15,000 would be too big? Many of the best engineering programs are at large schools. BTW, Cornell is pretty big.</p>

4

<p>Agree with Collegehelp's list - no snow at some of those schools and way too much snow at others, but geography would be a big boost at almost all of them.</p>

<p>Safeties with engineering are mostly going to be state schools and a bit larger as someone else said - take a look at LSU, Clemson, and (seriously) there are some good individual programs in Montana. Ga Tech is another possiblity, travel home will be very easy from Atl.</p>

5

<p>Thank you for the input so far. I'm not dead set on a small school, I just don't want to get lost among the student population. 15,000 students all in one place just seems overwhelming on paper. However, that's just on paper.... and I'm sure the atmosphere at some are wonderful. If you could possibly suggest some of the 'bigger schools' too, that would be excellent. Thanks!</p>

6

<p>You have done a great job so far in your High School career, but you need to complete your junior year and take tests before we start picking colleges for you. Just focus on keeping your JR year grades as high as they have been, and you should be able to get in anywhere.</p>

7

<p>Plan your testing right now. Take the SAT1 twice before July 2006 and take two SAT Subject tests before the same date.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/calenfees.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/calenfees.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

8

<p>If you did have to go to a large school for engineering, you could always be in the honors program with small classes, less students, that could help.</p>