WashU is currently my top choice. I really like the students and the look of the campus. Considering I’m a good applicant at WashU what are other schools that I might also be interested in. I want to study economics or a business major because some of the top schools don’t have business majors. I would also appreciate some safety school suggestions. Thank you!
You might consider the University of Richmond. Beautiful campus, and it has business.
“3.7 UW … scored a 31 on the ACT on my first attempt”
Get a Fiske Guide to Colleges and do some research. We have no idea what makes you think you’re a “good applicant.” It’s more than stats. You’ll need to learn enough to answer, “They’d want me because…”
Emory, Brown, Johns Hopkins, Tufts.
Yes, the difficult part of college search is finding the school that isn’t high name recognition with the attributes of that easy find school. It’s ever so easy to list Wash U, Tufts, JHU, Emory, Brown, HPY et al. So easy. Finding schools you might want that aren’t all of the Top College lists is a a lot of work and very much an individual search.
What is it about Wash U , that attracts you? Is it St Louis? Is it the Midwest? Is it size? Many schools have the programs of study. You have to take the essence of what you like about Wash U and look for schools that also have this, but not it’s renown and name recognition, to find matches and safety.
In this process, many find that they have no clue what attracts them to that school. It’s just that it’s on s Top school list and looks like it might be attainable. In that case, you may want to reprise what you want in school.
Posters will throw out a barrel of random suggestions that appeal to them.
You need to find colleges where you match what they look for. You need to understand what that is. You’ve shared little here, not enough for anyone.
Lots and lots of colleges have strong econ depts and nice campuses.
Thank you lookingforward, very cool!
Based on the OP’s criteria, the University of Richmond, mentioned above, would seem to make an excellent suggestion.
Not knowing why you are attracted to Washington University, my best suggestion would be to look at the other schools in the University Athletic Association–a geographically spread-out sports league of similar-sized, similarly-regarded private Division III schools (well, other than NYU, which is the outlier on size). In addition to WashU (and the aforementioned NYU), it includes Carnegie Mellon, Emory, Case Western, Rochester, Brandeis, and Chicago, and formerly Johns Hopkins. They are affiliated with each other for a reason–they consider themselves peers. One of those may be what you are looking for.
Get a Fiske Guide to Colleges. I think it still has a feature where it shows overlaps in where students apply- something like, “students who applied to xxx also looked at…”
My middle lad was interested in WUSTL. Others he highly considered were Pittsburgh (safety, but he found himself liking it on the same level), Emory (didn’t apply, but considered it briefly), and Case Western (didn’t apply because in the end they didn’t do as much in his preferred major as the other schools). He ended up at U Rochester - his top choice (above WUSTL - but not a business/economics major).
He applied to and was accepted at three others too, but I don’t consider them similar. (U Alabama, Baylor, and Furman) They appealed enough to apply to them, but not enough to be his top choice. U Alabama was another safety TBH - just no love after visiting esp since they didn’t have his preferred major (and talked far more about sports than academics when he visited).
Here is some more info about me and some of my preferences
Income: (85k); My parents say they will pay for my college but they haven’t given me a maximum price which isn’t very helpful
African-American; Both parents are immigrants from the Ivory Coast
GPA: 3.7 UW/4.3 W taking the most rigourous courseload at a “highly rated” public school in Missouri. School offers a lot more honors and CC than APs. Also sends a couple of kids to T20 schools every year
ACT: 31(33E, 35R, 30S, 27M) Took it once but confident I could get a 33+ with a little bit of prep. Only need 5 points
APs: Euro(5), US History(4), Chemistry (3);Senior - Calc AB, Gov, Psych, Lang
Rank: 23/377; like top 5-6%
ECs/Activities:
Track and Field(Varsity 3 years, Captain, All-Conference, State Qualifier, Regional Champion, National Qualifier, Should be All-American after Nationals); Getting recruited by WashU, Amherst, etc.
Soccer(JV 2 years, V 1 year, Academic All-Conference)
Senior Class Vice President
Boy Scouts(Life Scout, Senior Patrol Leader)
Mock Trial(Captain, Regional Qualifier, Best Novice)
Rho Kappa(President)
French National Honor Society(More of an honor than a club at my school)
Missouri Boys State Alumni(Mayor and will probably write my essay on one of my experiences here and ask my city counselour for a letter of rec)
Host(Summer Job)
Preferences:
Want to feel like I’m on a college campus but have easy access to the city
Don’t like campuses like NYU’s that is all over the city
Internships within a reasonable distance of the school
Good alumni network
Study abroad opportunities
Social scene; greek life is an added bonus
Cooperative over cutthroat environment
I prefer mid to large sized unis(tiebreaker)
Would like to go either North or West(tiebreaker)
Prefer an actual business school to economics(weak)
Case Western Reserve University
Carnegie Mellon University
and other members of the University Athletic Association (UAA)