Schools in the West?

Applying to College
1

<p>I live in the northeastern part of the U.S. I am currently a freshman in high school and would like to attend a selective or highly selective college in the western part of the country, preferably California. I am interested in science, biology in particular.</p>

<p>My questions are: What should I be doing to prepare for acceptance to a selective school? What are some selective colleges in the west? Being from the northeast, will my chances of being accepted to a college in the west be increased, decreased, or unaffected?</p>

2

<p>California: Stanford; The UC schools, particularly LA and Berkeley, but also San Diego and Santa Barbara; the Claremont Colleges, especially Pomona, Harvey Mudd, and CMC.</p>

<p>Oregon: Reed</p>

<p>Washington: University of Washington.</p>

<p>There are many other fine western schools as well.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

3

<p>For science, don’t forget Caltech.</p>

4

<p>Colorado: Colorado College, Air Force Academy</p>

5

<p>Harvey Mudd focuses especially on the sciences. If you go to any of the Claremont Colleges (Pomona, Scripps, Claremont-McKenna, Harvey Mudd) you can take classes there.</p>

6

<p>Here is a four point program for you and stick with it:</p>

<p>1) Take the toughest classes the school has to offer, and make it all A’s. Make sure that your curriculum is balanced. May be take a foreign language all four years!</p>

<p>2) Get the highest possible scores in your standardized tests (ACT/SAT/SAT subject). Ensure you score high in PSAT and become national merit scholar!</p>

<p>3) Get involved in ECs that you are passionate of, and create some new passions along the way. Ensure you get into some noticeable leaderships positions. Make sure that you win a few state completions in science and math competitions along the way. Balance your ECs, ensuring some service. Ensure you have a thread to connect a theme!</p>

<p>4) Make sure that some of your teachers would give the best recs possible. </p>

<p>Try it, even if you fail. Go for it. Give it everything you got! America needs you in this day and age of global competition.</p>

7

<p>there are so many colleges in California, there’s also: USC, Santa Clara University, basically all the UC’s are good schools as well as CA’s state schools like Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly Pomona, San Diego State, San Jose State</p>

<p>Oregon: U. of Oregon, Gonzaga</p>

8

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<p>All else being equal, your chances at private schools in the west should be slightly increased.</p>