Recommendations for schools please.

Parents Forum
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<p>I'm a 23 year old CC student and was told to post this here because I am a "non-traditional" student, apparently. I feel traditional. Either way, please give me some answers! Thanks. </p>

<p>I was hoping some of you would recommend colleges for me based on my interests and stats. Let me try to keep this concise but informative.</p>

<h2>College Info and Stats:</h2>

<p>Age: 23
Gender: Male
Race: Caucasian American
State: Iowa
City: Des Moines
School: Des Moines Area Community College - Urban Campus
Major: Law, Politics, and Society or Political Science or similar program
Minor: Philosophy and Economics
Credit Hours: 48
Cum. GPA: 3.55
Dean's List: 2 semesters
President's List: 1 semester
SAT: Not taken
ACT: Not taken
LSAT: 164</p>

<h2>EC's</h2>

<p>Clubs: Showed up for one ecology club meeting
Work: Part-time at Blockbuster Video
Tutoring: I tutor Comp. I and II, Intro to Computers, Intro to Programming, Biology I, Health Science Anatomy, Intro to Philosophy, Intro to Sociology, and Intro to Chemistry.</p>

<h2>My interests pertaining to colleges</h2>

<p>Location: would prefer to be somewhere warm, sunny, relatively progressive, and hopefully cheap
Size: Class sizes preferably smaller than 30:1
Preferred Schools: In a perfect world I would like to go somewhere with great professors like Georgetown or Berkeley where I can explore not only my core polisci or law courses, but also cool courses like Berkeley's Astronomy courses with Alex Fillipenko. I also want schools with a good emphasis or grasp on classical education like greco-roman philosophy and culture and with a great history department.
Career Goals: I hate to use that word career. My goal is to attend law school at Emory or U of Iowa and hopefully join an organization like F.A.I.R to help implement media reform or with the Public Broadcasting Service on programs like Frontline or with National Public Radio for programs like Talk of the Nation or with independent radio/broadcast programs like Democracy Now.</p>

<h2>High School Info and Stats</h2>

<p>High school was a total disaster. I smoked a lot of marijuana and slept through most of my classes and failed to pass Algebra or anything farther than Freshman level English. My ranking Junior year was 3rd from bottom of the class. Senior year I transferred to an alternative high school where academics were the equivalent of crossword puzzles and I managed to get my high school diploma.</p>

<p>Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope that given this information you can recommend at least a handful of schools I should consider.</p>

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<p>Before anyone can help, we'd need to know a bit more - especially about money. If you won't be 24 by Jan 1, you will be considered a dependent of your parents even if you haven't asked them for a dime in the last 5 years. Read through the FAFSA site. Another good reference is finaid.org Private colleges may ask for parental info even if you are over 24, I'm not sure - get familiar with the CSS Profile as well.
Read the Transfer Students forum on this site for questions about whether you will need an SAT or ACT score. I don't know of any schools who will use an LSAT for undergrad admissions.
Also remember that "hopefully cheap" might mean in state universities, which means not sunny and warm but friendly and down-to-earth Iowa.
You sound like a great student who has really pulled his "stuff" together. Congratulations!</p>

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<p>As far as money goes...I'm in the same boat as most older undergrads. I received support from my dad the first two years of community college but I'm on my own now. I should be able to put a few grand a year towards my education through working but the rest will have to be loans. I'm fine with taking out loans considering it's a necessary evil and when I end up at law school there won't be any cheap options, anyway. I'll be turning 24 in May of next year so it probably won't apply for the 2009-2010 year when i'll be transferring. As far as financing and the transfer process goes, I'm really clueless and plan on doing some research but it's daunting to get started. I was really hoping to transfer to a good school for undergrad and I know that I definitely do not want to go to Iowa City or Ames for the state schools because I can't handle the environment. It's for this reason that I really prefer a more academic oriented and smaller school environment. Thanks for the help.</p>

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<p>"Academic environment"- your flagship schools can offer you that; you make the environment and you won't be a freshman in the dorms facing freedom for the first time... After two years of college those grades, not your HS grades count. Check the transfer admissions requirements for some schools in your target states and determine the feasibility of your dreams; modify them as necessary. You may want to use US News and World Reports for a comprehensive list of regional schools for ideas. None of us can do your homework for you- you have to figure out your list of priorities for the best, never perfect, fit. Good luck.</p>

5

<p>You are in Iowa and don't want to go to U of Iowa or Iowa State. You would prefer to be somewhere warm, sunny, relatively progressive, and hopefully cheap with small class sizes.</p>

<p>I don't know about warm and cheap both. I think that the way you are going to cut costs is most likely by getting in state tuition; I don't think you are likely to get good merit aid as a transfer student. I totally understand wanting to leave your home state and broaden your horizons. I think you should look at the public colleges in Wisconsin because I think Iowa and Wisconsin have tuition reciprocity.</p>

<p>If you can get into UW Madison I think it would be a very good fit for you. Strong academics, progressive politics, and many slightly older students. The freshman classes there can be large but upper level classes in your major will meet your "small class size" criterion. I think UW Eau Claire would be a good back up. </p>

<p>Let me think about the "warm" criterion.</p>

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<p>All right. Here are five warm weather colleges that I do not know much about except that they have inexpensive (cheap) tuition, even for an out of state student. They are not going to be as "scholarly" as what you are looking for but every college has a few great professors as a transfer student, you are not going to be in classes with young, confused freshmen who may drop out before sophomore year - you will be taking classes in your major, generally be with upperclassmen who are more interested in their academics. And going to one of these schools will get you out of Iowa, further away than Wisconsin, to where it is warm. An adventure.</p>

<p>University of South Alabama ($8000 annual out of state tuition)
Alabama Ag and Mech in Normal, Alabama ($8300 annual out of state tuition)
Alabama State University ($8500 annual out of state tuition).
(U of West Alabama and U of North Alabama are not much more expensive and could be added to this list.)<br>
If you want to look into this further, you could check the publication records of the professors at these colleges in your academic field of interest. See which offer which of the majors you are interested in. Then visit.</p>

<p>I still prefer UW-Madison for you but after the snow in the Midwest last winter, I understand "looking for warm" - and Alabama would expose you to an interesting new culture. (And if you didn't like that culture you can head somewhere else when you graduate.)</p>

<p>Congratulations on your academic turn around in the last five years. You are doing a great job with in your life as a 23-year-old!</p>

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<p>OP - Congrats on turning your life around. Twenty-three may seem "old" to you, but trust me on this one -- it's young.</p>

<p>If your goal is law school at a school like Emory, you have bigger issues than a warm climate. Your stats (i.e., 3.55 GPA and 164 LSAT) place you into the bottom quartile of law schools like Emory. If U of Iowa is acceptable for law school, you may be better off attending your Junior and Senior years there polishing your credentials. JMHO.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all of the replies, guys. It's been helpful.</p>

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<p>Zarathustra...not sure what the history dept is like but you might want to look into U of the Pacific University</a> of the Pacific - University of the Pacific -- Stockton, San Francisco, Sacramento in Stockton California. The school is about 35 minutes from Sacramento (lots of potential law jobs there!). In fact the law school, McGeorge School of Law is in Sacramento. They have an accelerated law program, take transfers and have some generous financial aid. Stockton is city (pop in the 200,000) in an agricultural area. The schooi is also very well known in California for their dental school. The campus looks like an eastern coast school as it is over 100 years old. Small and friendly. Give it a look.</p>

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<p>Wisconsin and Minnesota have reciprocity, not with Iowa.</p>