Rising Senior College List

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi guys,</p>

<p>I posted a couple of weeks ago and asked you to recommend schools. You were really helpful, so thanks a lot. However, I'd appreciate it if you would comment on the list that I've come up with.</p>

<p>Desired Major: Classics
Desired Location: Urban
Desired School Size: More than 1000 students</p>

<p>My EFC is $7500, which my parents can afford.</p>

<p>Here are my expected stats:</p>

<p>SAT (CR/M/W): 2130 (730/700/700)
SAT II: Literature: 700 US History: 750 World History: 750
AP: Environmental Science 4, English Language 5, US History 5, Latin Vergil 4, US Government 5, English Literature 5, Statistics 4, Chemistry 4
GPA (W/UW): 4.35/3.75
Class Rank: 20/265</p>

<p>Extra Curricular Activities: Eagle Scout, Founder and Captain of Debate Team, National Honor Society, Regional Science Fair winner, Vice-chief of Administration for local Order of the Arrow (head administrator for 1100 people), part-time job (12 hours a week)</p>

<p>My List:</p>

<p>Reach:
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
Emory
Rice</p>

<p>Match:
UNC Chapel Hill
University of Richmond
Tulane</p>

<p>Safety:
UNC Asheville</p>

2

<p>I’m assuming you are instate NC? I think you have a good list here!</p>

<p>Are you National Merit “commended”? What was your junior year PSAT score?</p>

<p>I’d suggest looking at Washington & Lee and Davidson.</p>

3

<p>You don’t like us in Durham? From what I heard, Durham Classics is pretty good.</p>

4

<p>Your FAFSA EFC is $7500, doesn’t mean the school will determine it to be the same number.</p>

5

<p>I am in NC, I’m glad that my list seems solid. I’m not a big fan of Durham. I’ll spend some time there this summer, maybe it will change my mind.</p>

<p>I didn’t take the PSAT this year. My guidance counselor didn’t tell me about it. :frowning: </p>

<p>Sent from my ADR6300 using CC</p>

6

<p>Hey guys. After some more time reading about these schools, I’m worried about Tulane and Richmond.
I’ve read that Tulane is in a bad area, and that for students who don’t drink there isn’t much to do. I’ve also read that Richmond is more Greek centric than I had thought.
What would be some other match schools that I could look into?
Thanks. </p>

<p>Sent from my ADR6300 using CC</p>

7

<p>Maybe George Washington. Also, for classics if you are considering Chicago anyway, shouldn’t you look at U. Chicago? Maybe Pitt instead of Tulane.</p>

8

<p>I would have to say U Richmond is a preppy school. I toured the school last summer and really loved the feel of the school and I had a fantastic tour guide, though I visited when classes were out and there were not many people around. The people I did see were preppy (most likely Greeks), but were all very nice (waved, said hello, etc). A friend recently attended an admitted students day and thought some of the students around the campus seemed kind of judgemental. I am planning to go back to the campus this week to take another look around and get a feel for the campus with the people. Overall, I would say UR is a private, kind of Southern type school, so there will definitely be some differences from other schools like Emory and George Washington. My advice would be to visit Richmond for yourself sometime when classes are in session.</p>

9

<p>@Hitch: I would love to go to U Chicago, but I’m worried that it might be too much of a reach. I’d love to go there though, and I’ll probably apply “just to see.” I’ll look into Pitt, thank you. EDIT: Apparently Pitt is public, which would make it difficult for me to be able to afford to go there.</p>

<p>@JPEC16: I should be able to visit Richmond, seeing as I only live a few hours away. When you say it is a “southern private school” but that it differs from Emory and George Washington, what do you mean? I’ve lived in the South for my whole life, so even if I don’t necessarily feel that I’m a part of “southern culture” I don’t dislike it. I just wonder what you mean by saying Emory and George Washington aren’t that way.</p>

10

<p>Found this list of top Classics departments from Overseas in a 2008 thread that others thought was very complete and covers a wide range in selectivity and size. I would look at the CDS listings to see if some of these schools are matches or reaches:</p>

<p>Ruggs: Agnes Scott, Amherst, Barnard, Bowdoin, Brown, Bryn Mawr, Buffalo SUNY, U of C Berkeley, Carleton, Case Western, Centre, U of Chicago, Colgate, Columbia, Connecticut College, U of Tx Dallas, Dartmouth, Drew, Duke, Emory, Franklin and Marshall, Georgetown, Grinnell, Gustavus Adolphus, Harvard, Haverford, Holy Cross, Johns Hopkins, Kalamazoo, Kenyon, Macalester, U of Maryland (Baltimore county), U of Michigan, Middlebury, New York U, U of North Carolina, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Oberlin, U of Penn, U of Pittsburgh, Princeton, Rhodes, St. Olaf, Scripps, Skidmore, Stanford, Swarthmore, U of Tx Austin, Trinity (TX), Tufts, Vanderbilt, U of Virginia, Wabash, Whitman, Willamette, William and Mary, Williams, U of Wisconsin, Yale.</p>

11

<p>Thanks a lot Yale Grad. I’ll look into these.</p>

12

<p>Okay guys, how do I decide what is a match?</p>

<p>With my projected scores, (which are conservative to be safe) my CR+M will be 1430.</p>

<p>If I would be above the 50% at a school with a 20%-30% acceptance rate, could it be a match?</p>

<p>Examples are John Hopkins (1400, 27.8%) or even Emory (1405, 26.6%)?</p>

<p>Those are awesome schools that I would love to go to, I’m just curious about how I should categorize them. I don’t even know what really makes a school a “reach” vs a “match.”</p>

13

<p>I hope you mean middle 50% scores…
Hopkins is 2260. Where are you getting this 27.8% from? Their acceptance rate is 18%.</p>

<p>Your data is off.
Nevertheless, they both would be reaches.</p>

14

<p>I’m pretty sure that their CR+M is not over 1600. :stuck_out_tongue: </p>

<p>As for admission rate, that was from ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■</p>

<p>Sent from my ADR6300 using CC</p>

15

<p>I’m aware of your intention when you posted 1400, but Hopkins looks at the writing score.
College Board is far more accurate and useful.
<a href=“BigFuture College Search”>BigFuture College Search;

16

<p>I agree with the poster who said that just because your EFC is $7,500 that schools will actually give you money to make up the difference. Every school has its own way of determining how much they expect you to pay. . . and a lot of aid comes in the form of loans. </p>

<p>I would add several financial safeties to your list–schools that have good classic programs where you would be considered a top student. Those are the schools that can potentially give you merit money. You can use CC’s search engine to find schools–there’s even an area where you can put in your scores and click a box saying that you want to consider schools where your scores are much higher than the average. </p>

<p>Also, regarding the list above: I’m assuming you’re a guy, since you’re an eagle scout. . . that would put Agnes Scott, an all-women’s school, out of your reach. . . but there’s still Wabash, the all-men’s school in Indiana. </p>

<p>Also, Holy Cross has full ride tuition scholarships for Classics majors:
<a href=“http://academics.holycross.edu/classics/scholarships[/url]”>http://academics.holycross.edu/classics/scholarships&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Good luck.</p>

17

<p>Alright, thanks Lakeawead. I’m amazed that between 2010 and 2012 the admissions rate jumped down so low. (I’m assuming that was the difference between collegeresults and College Board) I looked and saw that the SAT data was the same between the two sites, so I dunno what is going on there. I’ll stick to College Board.</p>

<p>Thanks for that Gettinin. That’s good to know about Holy Cross. My concerns about that particular school are the location and how religious it is. When I go on my Boston schools trip this summer I will check it out and see if I think I would fit in.</p>

<p>I went back and looked into the financial aid. The first time I “figured it out” I thought that my EFC WAS how much a colleges expected me to pay on average. Then I read more about financial aid and got my real EFC from the calculator on College Board. It was $4400, and my Dad says he can do that. On top of that, my Grandfather has pledged to give me another $4000 a year. I also have a college fund with $6000 in it. That brings what my family can pay up to $9900 a year. I’ve gone and run the College Board net cost calculators for all of the schools on my list and some others and found that U Chicago, Vandy, Duke, Chapel Hill, Asheville, Rice, Northwestern, Tufts, and Richmond would all be around or less than $9500. Boston College, Emory, and John Hopkins would all be too expensive without merit aid that I probably couldn’t get at those schools.</p>

18

<p>Syracuse apparently has a wonderful classics program.</p>

19

<p>

Any college with a mere two classicists on staff has an adequate program at best. The OP would do well to avoid such programs, especially coming in with a good grasp of Latin. </p>

<p>Classics is not like economics or biology. After a handful of good programs, there is a very steep drop-off into programs that range from decent to poor.</p>

<p>As a NC resident, UNC is a match, should be affordable, and has one of the best classics programs in the country. I wouldn’t bother applying to any school below it in quality unless you want an additional safety (e.g. UNCA) or think you could get a lot of merit aid somewhere. For the latter, see the following links:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>As it stands, I think your list is a good one. I admittedly don’t know much about Richmond. Questions about Tulane should be directed to [its</a> forum](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/tulane-university/]its”>Tulane University - College Confidential Forums); there are several Tulane posters around.</p>

20

<p>Thanks Warblers. After what you said I actually went and counted how many faculty the classics departments at all the schools on my College Board list had. Luckily all of them had at least 6 or 7 faculty, which seems pretty reasonable to me for a small school like Richmond or Asheville.</p>

<p>Thus far I have visited Northwestern, U Chicago, and Vanderbilt.</p>

<p>This summer I plan to visit UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Asheville, Duke, Rice, Tulane, Emory, John Hopkins, Boston College, and Tufts.</p>

<p>EDIT: As a non-religious person, I don’t know that I would be comfortable at a school like Holy Cross.</p>