Research done, dog on diet, college list complete! Please evaluate my LAC and 4season colleges list

@arwarw I did look at the statistics and I do know that there is unfortunately little advantage to applying to Yale early action. I’m okay with that though since I really love Yale and that is my top choice school. Despite the advantages in admissions, I don’t want to commit ED to a different school and be stuck constantly thinking about the “what if.” I definitely see your perspective and it’s something that I agonized over for a while but I ultimately came to this decision to just try for Yale early anyways. I’m trying to figure out which selective schools to remove from my list right now, I don’t want to make applications my entire life haha

@prodesse I’ve actually never heard about Honors Colleges before, could you maybe elaborate on what these are?

@mommyrocks Omg thank goodness. I can see myself as a lawyer fighting for science policies and medical malpractice cases but I could NEVER see myself as a poly sci major. I actually just went to talk to my school’s career counselor about this and your opinion made me feel a lot better. Thank you!!!

Honors colleges/programs vary a lot from school to school but in general they exist to be a sort of school-within-a-school for the top performing students at that college. They’re more common at large universities and/or somewhat less selective ones.

@MyDogsNameIsFat You said, By “liberal arts feel” I’m referring to how I don’t want too large of a college, and I don’t want to be limited by a strict core curriculum and major track. I like having smaller class sizes so I can build personal relationships with my teachers and receive more individual attention. Not a huge fan of being “just another face in the crowd.”

I’m not sure some of the colleges on your list fit your criteria that well, including small classes and access to professors, safety and college-town feel, etc. (I mean, I don’t understand if you don’t like the communities around UCLA or Cal why you’d like New Haven. Have you actually visited?)

Have you considered Dartmouth? It meets just about every one of your requirements.

Also, even with your stats, both UCI and UCSD are very competitive and I wouldn’t consider either one of them true safeties. I’d add another UC to your list, such as Davis, with a slightly higher acceptance rate.

Given your wants, Wellesley seems a perfect fit. Have you considered it?

@OHMomof2 Ooh I will look into that, thanks!

@TTdd16 I know that some of them aren’t perfect fits but I’ve researched all of these colleges and I am confident that I will be able to find a place in their communities. Plus, as long as I take advantage of all the opportunities available around me I think that I will be able to succeed no matter what college it is. And I have visited New Haven, I took a tour of colleges on the east coast over the summer, and I do know that I really liked it. I live close enough to UCLA and have gone there enough to I know that I don’t like that area, and when I went to a speech and debate tournament at Cal there were so many safety concerns that came up during those three days that I knew I wouldn’t want to spend four years there. I did consider Dartmouth but for some reason I didn’t like the campus so I decided not to apply there. Thanks for the help!

@magtf1 I was really excited about Wellesley initially since it seemed to check off everything on my list, until I found out that it was a women’s college. I prefer a coed learning environment