I am a first-gen white female high school student from an IL public high school
I am not 100% decided on a major but am very interested in English, Comparitive Lit, Philosophy, Poli Sci, or a general pre-law track
I definitely see myself going on to grad school or law school in the future
I have a 3.95/4 UW GPA, my school does not do class rank, and I’m still waiting for my SAT score but I am currently around 1390, hoping to get to at least 1450 when I retake
By the end of my HS career I will have taken 11 APs, likely all at least scores or 3 or higher
I have some local state awards, one for 5th in Illinois for infographic design, another really local 1st place award for a mixed media art piece
Extracurriculars include: dedicated volunteer for my local library, editor for my school newspaper for 3 years, editor in chief for the yearbook (involved for 3 years), leader of my french club, briefly involved for 1 year in a few other random clubs, babysitting experience, waiting to hear back from an IL program that involved shadowing a woman in state gov’t
Starting to work on my essays and writing is one of my strongest skills and is something I have always excelled at so I hope to dedicate lots of time to them
In terms of budget, my family is an average middle class family and I would love to make a cost-concious choice and save anywhere that I can, but I am also likely going to take out a loan anyway and know that I will have some help from my family
Some schools I am very interested in are (many reaches ik)
→ reach: Williams, Amherst, Georgetown, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Vassar, Carleton, Colgate
→ target: Kenyon, Oberlin, Macalester
→ saftey: Knox, St. Olaf
For location, I am looking to stay closer to home with midwest schools but also love the east coast vibe
It is important to me that the school has a community feeling, has nature, good grad school placement / general job prospects, and would prefer a less urban environment more peaceful small town feeling
I don’t really care for sororities / party scenes
I would really appreciate general feedback on this list (especially with target/saftey reca) and any advice or recommendations! Ty!
You’re reaches are truly reaches (for anyone), but the good news is that one of your safeties, St. Olaf, is a school you can really love and they will probably love you back with good merit. Start showing interest early.
DS23 was only interested in big, state schools, but we did take a look at St. Olaf and there is a lot to love about it. If you do a search on CC, you will find a lot of good information on it.
Also, read some of the threads about building a list with titles such as “loving your safeties”. Lots of good info.
Finally, talk to your parents and find out what your budget is. You can save yourself a lot of trouble and heartache if you have a frank discussion sooner rather than later.
If you like St. Olaf and Knox, you might want to take a look at Luther and Lawrence.
Pre-law can be done with any major, not just the pre-law stereotype majors named above.
Also, you may want to get a firm budget limit from your parents, and use the net price calculator on each college’s web site to see if it is affordable. Remember that law school is expensive.
My concern is the money. You have very expensive schools and some don’t have merit. And should you not go to grad school you have low paying majors. If you do go, that’s even more money.
So take a school like Middlebury and run the net price calculator. Or have your family do it. College for you will be near $400k. Will they be giving aid ? You can only borrow $27k and that’s even too much.
So with your stats you can go to many schools for less including LACs.
But you need a budget - what can your family afford ? $40k? $60k? $10k?
And what do those schools say they’ll provide for you.
As a follow-up to the comments of @tsbna44: Should you plan on going to grad/law school, then depending on what your/your family’s assets are, consider going to a less expensive school for your undergraduate education, and spending more for graduate/law school – because your graduate/law education will have more of an impact on your future than where you get your undergraduate education.
Some ideas of other schools to consider, would be likelies for you:
Beloit College
They also have a program to match cost to other midwest state’s flagships, I believe. Has a lot of the characteristics you seem to be looking for.
Lake Forest College
You would qualify for for $34k in automatic merit scholarships before you even fill out the FAFSA to see what need based aid you might also qualify for. Very cute campus close to an adorable downtown.
College of Wooster
Since you are willing to look at Kenyon and Oberlin, Wooster might also be worth checking out. More merit aid than either Kenyon or Oberlin, and a very attractive campus.
Lawrence
Another Wisconsin choice, a lot to recommend it. If you have any interest in music, they are very strong.
Ohio Wesleyan
Smaller than some of the others you are looking at (I think they are around 1400 or so) but very hands on and a cute little town, within a half hour of Columbus, OH.
Once you let us know your family’s budget and whether it qualifies for any financial aid, then we can help in giving you additional suggestions, although you’ve already received some excellent ones. I just want to know whether any of them will meet the budget before brainstorming for others.
Another school you might consider is Whitman. It isn’t in the midwest, but Walla Walla feels like it COULD be. And it is less of a reach and a little more budget friendly.
If you would like an estimate of expenses for a lot of colleges quickly, this site can be helpful:
Note that the listed colleges are “participating schools” and endorse the use of this site. For further substantiation, you can compare results to those of individual Net Price Calculators.
Are you able to use Naviance? I am thinking that your chances for Amherst and Williams are remote, I am sorry. I also think Vassar, Georgetown and Swarthmore are extremely unlikely. But Naviance would give you a better picture.
I would focus on the MANY excellent schools that would love to have you, and where you might get merit aid. Here are some to check out:
Connecticut College
Trinity
Union
Hobart
St. Lawrence
Denison
Dickinson
Gettysburg
Franklin & Marshall
Furman
Rhodes
Sewanee
Lewis & Clark
A couple of IL choices that might fit your campus look would be Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights (very small but plenty of kids get into law school and VERY affordable), and Wheaton (if you’re ok with strict rules).
They are also pretty serious about their Christianity, far more so than St Olaf’s. While they seem socially liberal, I don’t see that anybody who is not an active member of their denomination would be comfortable as a student there. First line of their mission statement:
“The mission of Trinity Christian College is to provide Biblically informed liberal arts education in the Reformed tradition.”
To compare, here is the first line of St Olaf’s Mission statement:
“St. Olaf College challenges students to excel in the liberal arts, examine faith and values, and explore meaningful vocation in an inclusive, globally engaged community nourished by Lutheran tradition.”
Since the OP didn;t state that they were looking for that type of college experience, Trinity may not be a good fit.
And it seems also to be an excellent college, as well. It just doesn’t look like a good fit for this particular OP. I will keep it in mind for students who are looking for a college with the particular attributes that Trinity has.
I don’t think you should have Kenyon as a target. We have a friend who was in the 99th percentile on the ACT, with all As, highest rigor, got into even better schools, and rejected by Kenyon. OTOH, a student with much weaker credentials, who got into only weaker schools, was accepted from our school. They pick based on either full pay or certain to come not in order of highest qualifications. This means you have to guess how they see you. Are they sure you will definitely come or are they sure you are full pay. This makes admission a lottery for high stats kids. It’s a great school and you should apply but don’t treat it like a target.
Kenyon’s admission process is holistic, similar to the vast majority of selective schools. That means many factors come into play beyond academic stats and rigor.