<p>Hey all, I am going to be a senior in HS in this upcoming school year and have found myself to be quite overwhelmed with this whole process of college selection. I have made and narrowed down a list of qualities that I would like in a school (in order of importance) and have included some statistics about my academic background and extracurriculars, if any of you CC-ers would like to throw out some names of schools that could be a good match for me, that would be fantastic! Thanks so much for reading!</p>
<p>College Criteria (in order of importance)
1) 5,000-15,000 undergrads (or at least pretty small class sizes)
2) in or near a big city (geographical location doesn't matter much to me, I love all types of weather!)
3) must be decently selective, have a good academic reputation but not necessarily top tier
4) a good amount of school spirit
5) good pre-law programs or advisors
6) a decent party scene or good nightlife
7) a decent jewish population (no SMU or TCU)</p>
<p>Academic/Extracurricular Background:
-33 ACT
-760 English and 700 Math II SAT IIs
-3.77 GPA with 4 APs and all honors/advanced, as well as upward trend of mostly Bs to mostly As
-will be taking 5 APs senior year
-highly competitive public school in suburban missouri
-white, semi-wealthy female
-varsity cheerleader for 3 years and captain this year, JV cheer for 1 year and was captain (very time consuming)
-girl scout for 12 years and gold award recipient
-band for 7 years
-mu alpha theta for 2 years
-just started hostessing at local restaurant last semester and will continue to do it throughout senior year, also time consuming
-will be a counselor in training at the camp I have been going to for 6 years this upcoming year, basically like an intense 8 week leadership program</p>
<p>Why are you planning to continue the hostessing job during the school year? Your senior year course load of 5 APs plus cheer sounds like a full plate.</p>
<p>@siliconvalleymom because it is a good source of money and I pay for my own gas, phone bills, and basically everything except for food. Plus I really like the job and the people at the restaurant.</p>
<p>Small class sizes are best checked by looking at the school’s on-line schedule of classes to see what the class size limits are. (However, not all schools have this information in their on-line schedule of classes.) Using total student population may not be an accurate indicator of class sizes. But note that your lower limit on number of students eliminates most “liberal arts colleges” that emphasize small class sizes at all levels of undergraduate courses (at many other schools, freshman and sophomore courses tend to have large class sizes, while more specialized junior and senior courses tend to be smaller).</p>
<p>Common data sets show percentages of classes in given ranges, but be aware that any given student is likely to encounter larger classes more often than the percentages indicate, especially if s/he is in a popular major like political science or biology, since the larger classes will enroll a higher percentage of students than they are a percentage of classes (e.g. if each student is in 1 class, and there is 1 class of 100 students and 9 classes of 10 students, then 10% of the classes are large, but 52.6% (100 out of 190) of the students are in the large class).</p>
<p>Pre-law can be done from any major. Political science and English are the most popular undergraduate majors among LSAT takers, but math, physics, and philosophy produce the highest scoring LSAT takers on average.</p>
<p>Don’t forget to check each school’s net price calculator to see if it will be affordable to you on need-based financial aid. If it is not, check to see whether there are in-reach merit scholarships that may make it affordable (if so, you are aiming for the scholarships, not just admission; if not, the school is unaffordable and not worth applying to).</p>
<p>Is your family planning to assist you in paying for college? It sounds like you probably have limited eligibility for need-based aid, given your statement that your family is “semi-wealthy”.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus thanks so much! @siliconvalleymom well yeah obviously I have a college fund, I can afford to pay a net total of about $40 K per year. I am not sure of how much aid I will be receiving though, since that is dependent on what schools I apply to, which is the whole point of this thread haha</p>
<p>Well, there are a number of schools whose list prices are under the $40,000 per year limit. The following thread describes schools that are likely under $35,000 per year, though you can go to the linked search site to adjust the parameters to run your own search:</p>
<p>Regarding your fifth criterion, don’t bother looking for “pre-law” programs (or advisers). There’s no such animal, since law schools do not require or favor any particular undergrad major, program or even individual courses. In addition, no course you can take in college will give you the remotest idea of what law school courses are like. So if you see a criminal justice or constitutional law course listed in a catalog, its presence will be meaningful to you only if you’re interested in that particular subject and will have no relevance to your future admission to law school.</p>
<p>The University of Maryland College Park fits every criteria you want except that it is a bit larger than you would like. It is ranked as one of the top schools in the US and Globally, but still approachable. Great for pre-law and near enough to Washington DC so you can experience the biggest legal experiment in history – the US Government, the legislature, the Supreme Court, enforcement agencies, all of it. Moreover, the school has an excellent Jewish population with every Jewish activity you could want and still provides a highly diverse campus experience with students from all walks of life. Don’t be afraid that it is a bit larger than your criteria. It has everything that you want.</p>
<p>“semi-wealthy” and financial aid do not go hand in hand. You might well fall in group of students who are wealth enough not to receive any financial aid from universities but not wealthy enough to afford $220 k on expensive schools such as private schools and public elites. </p>
<p>I would definitely look at UNC-Chapel Hill. Even without FA/scholarship, the total CoA would fall right around the $40k range. Wisconsin-Madison is another excellent option. Minnesota-Twin Cities in even more addorable ($30k, all in). Obviously, your in-state flagship (Missou) is a must. You would probably get close to a full ride to go there.</p>
<p>Otherwise, I would look at universities and LACs that are known for giving generous aid and scholarships, including some of the Ivies, Vanderbilt, WUSTL etc…</p>
<p>My S is a sophomore at U of Miami in Coral Gable, FL. Miami meets all the criteria you are looking for. Although the sticker price for tuition/room/board/fees is $53K, the school is very generous with merit scholarships for top students. Your SAT, ACT, and GPA look like they would put you in the mix for a merit scholarship.</p>
<p>OP, have your parents run a FAFSA forecaster to see what your EFC (Expected Family Contribution) looks like? If your EFC is larger than your $40k/year budget, that will limit your eligibility for need-based aid.</p>
<p>For searching out schools with significant Jewish populations, start with [Reform</a> Judaism Magazine - College & Youth](<a href=“http://reformjudaismmag.org/browse/youth/]Reform”>http://reformjudaismmag.org/browse/youth/) RJ’s chart of schools with the largest number of Jewish students and highest percentage of Jews gets updated every two years; there’ll be a new version this fall.</p>
<p>Some suggestions to start: University of Pittsburgh is huge but has a small Honors college, good merit money, and rolling admissions. University of Rochester isn’t in a huge city but is private and might be affordable with merit money. When you’re looking at U Maryland, also look in DC at George Washington and American.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for your insight! I really appreciate it! After a few hours of poring over college websites and looking at statistics, I have come up with a list of starter schools that have peaked my interest and seem to fit all of my wishes.
-Vanderbilt (probably a big reach but has been my dream school for quite a while, however, and correct me if I’m wrong, I have heard that vandy gives more weight to standardized test scores than GPA (which is a weakness of mine))
-Emory
-Colorado College
-UNC Chapel Hill
-University of Miami (have visited and really liked, but not as much as vandy)
-University of Maryland College Park (looking at pictures not entirely sure if I would enjoy going to school here…)
-George Washington
-Indiana University (a little big, but wouldn’t mind going there if I didn’t get in anywhere else)
-Mizzou (backup)</p>
<p>As stated before, “semi-wealthy” means no financial aid. You will need to look for merit aid to get net cost down to your 40K budget. For large merit aid, you need to be among the top applicants for a particular school. While your stats are commendable, they are not likely to earn much merit aid from Vanderbilt or Emory. Even GW is questionable, given their nearly 60K COA. You are not very likely to get upwards of 20K merit aid from them. Miami may also be challenging but is possible. While I don’t know about Colorado College, the rest of your list are each around your budget without any aid. In fact you’ll find lots of OOS public schools around that price, though many will be larger than 15K students.</p>
<p>I’ll put in a plug for University of Alabama. Seriously. You would qualify for their honors college, the most impressive I have seen. Classes limited to 15-20 students, priority registration (priceless), honors housing (suites with private bedrooms) that is best I have ever seen (probably nicer than your first apartment will be), unbeatable school spirit (national champions in 4 sports this year), fast growing Jewish population. In this age of cutbacks, they are the rare school that is flush with cash and spending like crazy thanks to football dollars. Oh, and you would have automatic full tuition scholarship. Save your money for law school.</p>
<p>You should definitely spend some time on the Jewish B student thread. It’s not just for B students anymore. The schools they regularly discuss are exactly the ones you should be investigating.</p>
<p>How did you end up with Colorado College on this list? Definitely NOT like the others. It’s a LAC with a block program for starters. Culturally not a fit either, based on how you described yourself and it’s not culturally similar to the other schools either.</p>
<p>@m’smom one of my good friends is a freshman there and she loves it, we are very similar and she thinks I would like it too so I thought it would be worth looking into.</p>
<p>Also by semi-wealthy I meant that I live in an area with high property values and a very sought after school district. Our income bracket is definitely less than $100 K, I know that much. I’d say we are well off and live close to comfortably, probably middle middle class.</p>
<p>I would, but my parents won’t tell me how much I have to spend. They always kind of dance around the subject and say we will talk about it later but we never do. That’s why I came here.</p>
<p>I’d say to cast a wide net of safety/matches to increase your chances at merit aid, which varies widely from college to college, even similarly ranked ones. </p>
<p>I agree American might be good. And Vandy would be a reach but not an impossible one (although $40,000 won’t cut it there. You should talk to your parents to find out exactly what they are able to pay, if you’re willing to take out a small loan, etc.)
Maybe Brandeis, GW, Drexel (would probably get decent merit aid here), Northeastern (possibly some aid here), Tulane (financial reach)</p>