Seeing is believing when it comes to college choices??

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Right now my college list has 25ish schools on it. Obviously that is waaay too many. With application fees being so expensive, I need to narrow it down to 7-8. But how do you choose if you can't afford to visit anywhere?</p>

<p>If you go through college guidebooks, college's websites, and sites like CC you can get a general feel for the college, but how do you know if you're wasting your time by applying or if you'll even potentially like it there? I'm worried that I will cut a school from my list that could have maybe been the best thing for me, or that I'll apply to a lot of schools and end up disliking them.</p>

<p>Anybody have any advice? Or does anyone want to help me with my list? It's pretty much all over the place.</p>

<p>I've requested guidebooks from schools but in the end a lot of that literature tends to run together: all colleges want to market themselves as being diverse, flexible, traditional yet modern, (etc., etc.) and as having the best intellectuals and student body. To what extent do you trust this? Is seeing really believing when it comes to pickign a college?</p>

2

<p>bump? please help me out.</p>

3

<p>It seems that you could prioritize your list based on what's important to you - cost, location, distance from home, size, major, reach factor, sports, music, etc.</p>

<p>If you applied to all of them and got accepted by all, you'd be in the same boat you are now so maybe it's worth trying to come up with a way to visit at least some of them beforehand and maybe saving some money. The greater the reach of the school for you, the further down you might want to put it on the visit list.</p>

4

<p>Unfortunately there's really no way to visit any of the schools I want to apply to except for my safeties (UT-Austin and Texas A&M that I'm already accepted, top 10% rule). My family has financial struggles...application fees will be a strain; there's no way we can fly cross-country to visit schools. Everyone on my list is Cali or somewhere East Coast.</p>

5

<p>why dont you give us your list and we can provide some feedback?</p>

6

<p>My list might seem a little pompous or arrogant...but I don't want to come across that way at all. </p>

<p>UT-Austin (already accepted)
Texas A&M (same as above, Texas top 10% rule)
Duke
UNC-Chapel Hill
UC-Berkeley
UCLA
USC
Stanford
Princeton
Yale
Harvard
Dartmouth
Georgetown
Amherst
Williams
William & Mary
UVA
UPenn
U-Chicago
Northwestern </p>

<p>A lot of these schools are obviously very difficult to get into...if you want to look at my stats they are posted in the What Are My Chances thread for a few days ago...I am probably setting my sights too high but maybe looking at my stats could help?</p>

<p>If anyoneb knows of any other schools that would put me on a good track for heading to a top law school or ones that are known for international relations programs (but not in NYC), then that would be extremely helpful.</p>

<p>My main concern here is that I won't be able to visit any of these schools before I choose which ones to apply to. I know the deal about safeties-matches-reaches, but calculating that is difficult for me. Any advice would be welcome and appreciated. Thank you all so much in advance.</p>

7

<p>The schools on your list are all over the place ... UCLA and Williams? Northwestern AND U Chicago? They're completely different species. Are you happy with UT Austin? If not, you need a safety that you can honestly say you wouldn't mind attending ... your list screams prestige whore. </p>

<p>With regards to your question, I applied to 5 schools and never visited any of them (I was abroad during the application process) ... so orientation week was the first time I'd ever seen my campus, and I loved it right away. Make sure you look at lots of pictures, use the campus visits feature on this website, check out the surrounding areas, etc.</p>

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<p>Yeah, my list is all over the place. Most of the really prestigious places are on there because they could offer me the best financial aid (such as Harvard, which is free if family income under 60K) on the off-chance that I am accepted. My list is mainly based on my naive and probably uninformed location preferences in that I want to be in California, somewhere near Chicago, or East Coast. </p>

<p>I'm sorry that it comes across as prestige whore. I have looked at pictures and things like that, but I'm just wondering how telling that all is. How much can you believe a school's literature? Isn't it all written geared towards attracting students to a school?</p>

9

<p>For law school, ot comes down to overall reputation mixed with GPA. So go to the school with the best name where you'll do well. Here's what I would do if I were you:</p>

<p>UT-Austin (already accepted)
Texas A&M (same as above, Texas top 10% rule)
Duke- keep it
UNC-Chapel Hill- maybe keep it
UC-Berkeley- dump it
UCLA- dump it
USC- dump it
Stanford- keep it
Princeton- keep it
Yale- keep it
Harvard- keep it
Dartmouth- keep it
Georgetown- keep it
Amherst- keep it
Williams- keep it
William & Mary- dump it
UVA- maybe keep it
UPenn- maybe keep it
U-Chicago- dump it
Northwestern- keep it</p>

10

<p>Thanks slipper. I really appreciate it.</p>

11

<p>Easiest one to dump in my book: Chicago</p>

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<p>This is really lame...but the thing that attracted me to University of Chicago (besides it being in Chicago) was the really unusual and specific essay questions. I know you can't judge a school by its application, but it sure stood out from all of the "person who influenced your life" or "facing adversity" essay topics.</p>

<p>Anyway, does anybody else have any advice on my list?</p>

13

<p>
[quote]
Northwestern AND U Chicago? They're completely different species. Are you happy with UT Austin? If not, you need a safety that you can honestly say you wouldn't mind attending ... your list screams prestige whore.

[/quote]

I wouldn't say that. I was admitted to Duke and Chicago and had an extremely difficult time deciding between the two, although (perhaps because) they're so different.</p>

<p>I think you need to decide exactly what you're looking for. Any top college (and many others) will have a good pre-law program, and the location is easy to match. Do you want a large public university or LAC? Rural or urban? Pre-professional or "intellectual" student body? Housing available? Study abroad? Dining? Sports and extracurricular offerings? There's a ton of stuff you can consider to cut down your list. Get a copy of the Fiske Guide, if you haven't already. I know a great deal about Duke and a fair amount about UNC and Chicago, but we need to have a better idea of what you're looking for before we can trim your list.</p>

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<p>Princeton is my number one choice. As for the others...I'm a really indecisive person and so I would like to apply to a couple of different types of schools so that when April rolls around (and assuming I've been accepted at a few of these schools) I will be able to make my decision then. </p>

<p>Ideally, I would like a campus where there is at least a marginal focus on undergrads (which is what attracted me to schools like Dartmouth). I'd also a school where a majority of undergrads live on campus. Basically, the Ivies are on my list because of the financial aid available, in addition to the fact that...they're the Ivies. A larger school with an emphasis on sports like UNC appeals to me; at the same time a smaller LAC like Amherst does in a different way. I know that it's up to me to pick which type I want, but ideally I would be able to apply to a few of each genre so that after admissions decisions come in I can evaluate where I really want to be spending the next four years of my life. </p>

<p>Also, I'm not sure how many "matches" I have on my list. I would be fine going to school at UT-Austin (probably Plan II) because Austin is an amazing city in general and would be a cool place to go to college. That's really my only safety, but I don't know if I need to...lower my standards a bit for the rest of the list. Any opinions?</p>

15

<p>You said you liked sports emphasis and LACs...there are a few LAC schools with Div. I sports.</p>

<p>Colgate, Bucknell, Lafayette, Holy Cross, and Davidson are some top ones i know of. Some of these could be matches, though probably not safeties.</p>

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<p>Oh, wait...i don't know if Holy Cross is a lac. Oh well.</p>

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<p>Pretty much all the schools on your list have very random admission processes ... I would say that yes, you need another safety you're happy with. The only school that might be a safe match is USC, but even then you never know.</p>

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<p>Holy Cross IS and LAC.</p>

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<p>Clendenenator has a great list; I'd add Amherst, Williams, Bates, and Colby to it. If you are absolutely sure Princeton is THE place for you, applying ED might be a very good idea.</p>

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<p>Duke UNC-Chapel Hill UC-Berkeley UCLA USC Stanford Princeton Yale Harvard
Dartmouth Georgetown Amherst Williams William & Mary UVA UPenn
U-Chicago Northwestern</p>

<p>Your list is really top heavy with few matches (if any) and no safeties (outside of your state U) in the bunch. </p>

<p>Keep in mind that the bar will be raise for student who are out of state applying to public schools (UNC, UVA, UCLA, Berkley, William and Mary) If money is an issue attending to a pulbic school as an oos applicant places you financially on the downside of this power dynamic. Even if admitted, at a cost of almost 40K+ for out of state, you may not get the $$ you need because their first priority is to provide an affordable education for their state residents.</p>

<p>You already know that HYP have single digit acceptance rates so there is over a 90% chance that you won't be admitted. </p>

<p>Dartmouth, Penn, Duke, Amherst, Williams Northwestern and Chicago are also going to be extreme reaches for the sheer number of applicants vs. the number of students admitted. (Your URM status will defintely give your application a look but you have no idea as to what the rest of the URM pool is going to look like so it does not make you a shoo-in as there were a few high scoring URM students that were shut out last admissions cycle as even this pool is becoming more competitive).</p>

<p>
[quote]
Most of the really prestigious places are on there because they could offer me the best financial aid (such as Harvard, which is free if family income under 60K) on the off-chance that I am accepted.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Harvard has a offers great financial aid but you will not attend Harvard for free as there will be some out of pocket expenses on your part .Most schools that give need based financial aid do not give out "full rides" and are not free because there is an expectation that the student is gong to be an active participant in the financing of his/her education. This means there will be a student contribution from summer earnings and self help once the student is on campus in the forms or work-study and/or subsidized loans.</p>

<p>Harvard states:</p>

<p>You will also have non-billed (out-of-pocket)nexpenses for books, personal and travel expenses — costs which will vary depending on your own
style and habits. For purposes of determining your eligibility for financial aid, we are using a combined book and personal expense allowance
of $2,795.</p>

<p>Student Contribution</p>

<p>We normally expect that incoming students willnearn money for college expenses by working during the summer. We believe a reasonable goal for
this summer in most cases is $1,500, or approximately $150 per week during the summer vacation period. (Summer expectations for upperclass
students are higher due to a longer summer working period.)</p>

<p>If you are not able to save enough from your summer earnings
to meet part or all of the expectation, it may be possible for you to borrow an additional amount.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/downloads/understanding_your_award.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.fao.fas.harvard.edu/downloads/understanding_your_award.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>