<p>Wow, my school counselor will not be available for the rest of the year. At which point I turn to you CC!
I have begun looking into colleges but I was wondering if you all had any recommendations to schools that may be a match for me. I'm interested in Brown, Emory, Duke, Rice, & UC Berkeley but I need assistance exploring what else is out there..</p>
<p>As for college I would really like a school with- Great academics with a collaborative (more-so than competitive) student body. Perhaps even dedicated professors ;)
Parties, but a variety of options, not just those binge-drinking frathouse horror stories..
Being a URM (black female) I'd really like a diverse and cooperative student population. All in a somewhat urban setting!</p>
<p>I am currently a Junior with a 3.96 GPA, ranked in the 6% of my class, 1950 SAT (fersure retaking). And will have finished 6/12 APs, along with tons of charity work, twelve years of piano, and an internship in Public Health. among other things...</p>
<p>Some colleges that I feel match the type of environment you’re describing include places like Brown, Smith, Rice, Pitzer College, Stanford, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Mt. Holyoke, Macalester College, Claremont McKenna, U Miami, Yale, Columbia, Tulane, Washington U in St. Louis, Barnard, Wellesley, Harvard, Vassar, Agnes Scott.</p>
<p>Some of those are reaches for you, some matches, some backups. You can look up the stats for each one at a site like college board, to see how they fit. </p>
<p>I gave some flexibility to what you meant by “urban” - some are in smaller cities than others. And for a couple of those, I admit, they aren’t in urban settings, but I thought they fit you otherwise, so I listed them. You can check them out, and weed out those that aren’t in an area that’s what you really want. </p>
<p>Your SATs are decent, but getting them higher would make some of the schools you’ve already listed be less of a reach for you.</p>
<p>Well I’m looking to go into the public health field. I’m really interested in disease prevention so majors that usually go along with that are biology, human ecology, or pre-med…(pre-med is just to keep my options open!)</p>
<p>RoaringMice, thank you for the recommendations that’s incredibly helpful!</p>
<p>I’d say you should definitely look into Tufts.</p>
<p>Re your stats, I’m assuming a rigorous courseload given the APs you cite, but is your GPA weighted or unweighted? You will probably need to take a couple of SATIIs. I’d suggest taking MathIIC–assuming you are in pre-calc this year–and one other (likely in your best AP science subject) in June if you can. That leaves you the possibility of taking another in the fall if you need to replace one of those scores or if you decide to apply to one of the few schools that still require 3. </p>
<p>I’M VISITING TUFTS IN MAY!..sorry it all makes me very excited
(Do you attend school there?)</p>
<p>Okay so as far as courseload goes.
One AP in sophomore year was unweighted. (I got an A+)
One AP in junior year was weighted. (my school changed its format)
Four APs in senior year will be unweighted. (however i am determined to do phenomenally!)</p>
<p>On my transcript it doesn’t cite whether the overall GPA is UW or W. It just places a W next to the weighted class. (because of the mid-hs career format change.) Its confusing I know…</p>
<p>SAT IIs
I’m planning to take Spanish (with a little fear. the princetonreview practice tests are TOUGH!)
Biology
& I think Literature would be smarter for me than math.</p>
<p>And YES I am planning to take them in June. Along with the ACT.</p>
<p>breakdown
M 610 (precisely why i’m not taking the sat ii)
CR 680
W 660</p>
<p>Definitely look at Wisconsin. I live in the Twin Cities, and although it is not that far away, it is definitely a good five hour drive to Madison. It is a very urban campus, although the lakeshore section of it is really nice and is nice a break from the noise of the city. The academics are great and as a Minnesota resident, you get to pay instate tution so it is fairly cheap, too. I think it would be a good match/safety for you.</p>
<p>I was gonna say Tufts, but I don’t know if I’d say they’re collaborative, just from knowing some Tufts students. Also I’ve heard (and you should take this with a grain of salt) that even though it’s racially diverse, cliques form by ethnicity, so maybe in practice it’s not a “diverse atmosphere.” I like Tufts a lot, though, and I haven’t visited yet, so don’t let me turn you off of it too much!</p>
<p>RonPaul- Yeah I’ve been to Madison and it’s beautiful.
However, I’m really trying to escape my classmates when I go to college. (U of M, UW, UND, U of Iowa are our main feeders.) I think in order to really grow as a person I’m going to have to avoid upper midwestern public schools.</p>
<p>And I’ll also check out Boston U in May…
thanks these sound good!</p>
<p>Most people don’t try to take 3 SATIIs on one date. Make sure you take the ones you feel strongest about first, so that you can bail on the third if necessary. If you haven’t paid for them yet, just sign up for two. You can take a third if you feel up to it and they will just bill you for it.</p>
<p>No, I’m not a Tufts student, I’m a parent. But I do know several kids there and have done the tour/info session. </p>
<p>Your biggest liability is your math SAT, which puts you below the middle 50% at a lot of schools that you would like. But you knew that. Do look into test-optional schools. The ones I know–like Bates and Bowdoin–are LACs that are not in an urban location. But there are others.</p>
<p>BTW, I don’t know about racial division at Tufts, but I do remember that the ad Com who did our info session–and was a recent alum–said that students at Tufts are very collaborative and that cut-throat competition was a no-no.</p>
Do look into test-optional schools. The ones I know–like Bates and Bowdoin–are LACs that are not in an urban location. But there are others.</p>