Senior in highschool unsure about college choices

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Let me start by saying that I know I should have done a lot more searching for colleges earlier than this, but I didn't. Right now I'm a senior in high school (school starts next monday for me), and I'm trying to decide on colleges to apply to. The amount of mail that I've received has completely overwhelmed me (I have three giant boxes full) and the mailings all seem the same, anyway -- a few kids sitting on the grass in front of the University's best looking building, with a couple paragraphs about how it's absolutely perfect for me.</p>

<p>I'd like to go into an engineering (chemical, nuclear, aerospace, whatever... I haven't decided yet) program most likely, so those would be my top choices right now, though I haven't ruled out a more research-oriented career in chemistry. Location isn't too important to me. A college around where I am now (Minnesota) would be best, but from the west coast to the east coast is really okay. I don't think that I'd enjoy going to a purely technical school; I'd like to be able to take some humanities courses that interest me and get a more rounded education and have a more typical college experience. I'm also not sure if I'd like going to a college such as MIT, Harvard, Yale, etc., because of the aura of arrogance and pretentiousness that surrounds them and the extreme intensity of the students and coursework. I don't know if I could even get in to any of them anyway.</p>

<p>And to determine what schools I can get accepted to:
35 on the ACT. (Haven't taken the SAT - will I need to take SAT subject tests?)
4.21 GPA weighted, 3.97 unweighted.
Most rigorous courses (AP, honors) taken.
5 on AP US History and AP English Language exams (will be taking AP English Lit. and AP Calculus this year)
National Honors Society for two years
I'm not really sure what else you'd need to determine it.</p>

<p>Thanks a lot for any help. Right now I'm feeling very slow as I get applications in the mail, early action deadlines are approaching and I don't even have any list of potential colleges.</p>

2

<p>How about Columbia? Your stats seem good enough.</p>

3

<p>seanbow, it's quite obvious that you're overwhelmed by all the college literature, because you haven't taken the time to research what you really want in college.</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=377931%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=377931&lt;/a> Read it!!!</p>

<p>Also, consider looking at a book like The Complete Idiot's Guide to College Planning by Dr. O'Neal Turner or Looking Beyond the Ivy League by Loren Pope. I made another post in this forum that is really helpful.</p>

<p>I just copied and pasted it (I was responding to someone who had similar concerns):</p>

<p>Do you want large classes or small class sizes? Do you need a sense of community, or do you want to be lost in the crowd? Do you prefer a school that politically leans left or right? If you don't know what you want to major in, ask the schools on your list when you have to choose a major and what would happen if you decide to change your major. Are there any programs that are important to you that you want to continue in college, like cultural clubs, or anything that interests you? Do you prefer lecture or discussion? </p>

<p>You've gotta be more specific in telling us what you're looking for. </p>

<p>You should take one free day and think seriously: Why do I want to go to college? What are my goals in college? What do I want to get out of college that I don't have yet? Do I want to go to college to get a degree, or do I want more, less tangible things? And what school environment will best suit what I want? These questions take time to answer. Make sure you're honest with yourself and you aren't distracted.</p>

<p>For example, my goals in college are to become well-educated, to learn the skills I need at work and for the rest of my life, to have great intellectual conversations with students and faculty before I graduate and go off to work, to have fun, and to learn more about what I want to do in my life. Ultimately my goal is to enhance the quality of my life. </p>

<p>From this, I thought, okay, what do I need to become well-educated in a broad range of subjects? I want a liberal arts education. I reasoned that a sense of community and an intellectually curious student body who want to stay up late talking about ethics over a cup of hot cocoa is vital to my happiness in college. To become well educated I want to have access to professors, tutors, and the library. I also want to study abroad for a term to learn more about the world. And so on. From these needs, I found a list of schools and I made a list of questions to ask students at these schools to find the schools that best match what I am looking for in a college experience. After I came up with my initial list of 10-30 colleges I had to think more about the specifics. All the schools in my initial list will help me fulfill my main goals. Now I have to think, When is the library open? How often do people party? What would happen if I decide to change my major? What specific extracurriculars do I want to continue or try in college? And so on. I group the colleges into schools I'm unlikely to get into, schools I have a good chance of getting into, and schools I am confident I will get into. I ask students from my colleges these questions, read guidebooks, look at school websites, look at viewbooks, I try to find out everything I can about all my colleges, and then I narrow down the colleges in each group so that I will have 2-3 schools in each group. I will apply to those schools, and I will have a great time at whatever final school I choose to go to, because it meets the major goals of my college education.</p>

<p>See how this is much more meaningful than saying, "I need to find a prestigious school with the best biology program?" as lots of people here seem to ask?</p>

<p>This will be your home for the next four years. You need to do a critical examination of you, who you are, what you want in life (you may not know yet, but it's good to think about it), what your idea of success is, and what you want out of college. Whom do you want to talk with for four years? Then figure out the qualities that will help meet your goals. </p>

<p>That is how people should go about their college searches. Too many people on CollegeConfidential and all over are doing their college application process incorrectly. And that's just too bad.</p>

<p>Seanbow, there's no way around it. If you want to do a good job of finding the school for you (which you should, since it'll be your home for the next four years where a lot of your personal development will occur), you have to do a self-reflection of who you are and what you want, find colleges that match what you're looking for, and then apply. This is how you can get rid of a lot of college literature you don't want. Of course all the colleges will advertise themselves. If you know what you want, you can research colleges and throw away the stuff from colleges that don't fit you and keep the stuff you want. </p>

<p>Make sure you write your "What I Hope to Gain from My College Experience" thoughts.</p>

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<p>I think you should try community college... You should get accepted at at least one, if not two.</p>

5

<p>Have you ever visited MIT, Harvard or Yale? I found MIT to be fairly down to earth; the place was definitely full of brilliant people, but the were fairly low key about it. I didn't visit the other two, but they very well may be the same way. If you have and didn't like it, it probably isn't right for you. Just don't dismiss schools because of associated stereotypes.</p>

<p>Harvey Mudd is an undergrad-only college in Claremont CA. It's majors are purely technical, but there is cross-registration with four other neighboring liberal arts colleges. The engineering major is in general engineering, so that's also something to consider.</p>

<p>Olin College of Engineering is just outside of Boston. It started within the past few years, maybe six?, and has about 300 students. Every student is given a four-year full tuition scholarship. Very project and team oriented. No chem though. Cross-registration is offered at Wellesley, Babson, and Brandeis.</p>

<p>You also might want to consider Carnegie Mellon, Rice, some assorted UC's, Caltech, Rose Hulman, Columbia, and Cornell.</p>

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<p>Have your parents/guardians set forth any guidelines for you? How much can you and they afford? Do they have distance restrictions? Do you want to be in a city? a cornfield? near the Mall of America?</p>

<p>Yes, you really have to do some thinking... and talk to your parents and G.C., but especially to your parents.</p>

7

<p>Your stats are somewhat similar to mine. Let me provide a word of advice to you: Group schools in three tiers...more competitive, competitive, less competitive (but still good). Apply to at least one school in each category.</p>

<p>I believe that you will find that the most prestigious name is not always the best fit for you. I would try and visit the schools you decide to apply to. It really is the best way to get a feel for the school and its atmosphere.</p>

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<p>If you want to stay within a reasonable distance of Minnesota (say a 500 or 600 mile radius), your options for schools with strong engineering programs are basically as follows (* denotes the ones I personally would look into, FWIW):
Minnesota
Wisconsin*
Milwaukee SOE
Iowa State
Illinois*
Northwestern*
Missouri-Rolla
Wash U St. Louis*
Notre Dame
Purdue*
Rose Hulman*
Michigan*
Michigan St.
Michigan Tech
Case Western*
Ohio State</p>

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<p>just going off one of the asterisks above and ,you know, bringing up my school b/c I'm going there, NU's engineering program is very unique from this quote from sam lee (aka NU CC expert): </p>

<p>


</p>

<p>Honest yet shameless plug ends here.</p>

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<p>You mention that you're interested in engineering or chemistry. Also, you want to be able to take some humanities courses. If I may suggest a shameless plug for UC Berkeley, I think it would be a good fit for you. You have strong credentials and it would be a reach for OOS applicant. UC Berkeley has top undergraduate programs in engineering and is very renowned for their College of Chemistry if you're interested in research chemistry. Berkeley would require SAT.</p>

<p>The University of Minnesota also has a top chemical engineering program for an option closer to your home.</p>

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<p>Notre Dame has all engineering disciplines and its humanities are what the college is built on so those courses are legit. And it is relatively close to Minnesota.</p>

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<p>Go to a top school. Harvard might be snooty at times, but Brown and Dartmouth aren't. I think you would like a place like Rice. Stanford seems perfect for you, its the "chill" school with lots of technical prowess.</p>

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<p>Really, since you are flexible on location, your decision comes down to large school or small school. There are tons of great large public universities you could get into that would have great engineering programs and also offer the other courses you want to take. The top 5 I would consider (in order of likely match to you) are Michigan, Texas, Illinois UC, UCLA, Berkeley. I would check into the honors programs at these schools. Two others to consider are Maryland (lots of new money going into engineering there) and Wisconsin.</p>

<p>If you want a smaller, private engineering school then top choices in terms of your stated preferences are Stanford, Northwestern, USC, Rice, and Cornell. There are plenty of other schools to consider but these schools will give you a good start. They all have a decent male/female balance for a top school. They have a good mix of strong majors so they are not all tech kids. Some have a better sports scene than others. A midwestern kid will probably feel comfortable at most of them. IMO, the main difference between choosing private over public is that usually you get smaller classes, more opportunities for research, and it's easier to get the major you want or change majors if you find you don't like the one you started with.</p>

<p>A 35 on your ACT gives you a good shot at all the schools I've listed, but for the private schools you will need two SAT II's: Math Level II and preferably Physics or Chemistry. These schools (both public and private) are all selective so you will need to add a few safety schools that you might want to go to. Minnesota is probably your best bet there, but Maryland might fit the bill. Private safeties are a bit trickier: I hesitate to label any school as a safety, but with your ACT and grades I'm thinking Purdue might be a good choice.</p>

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<p>The Ivy Leagues are not particularly strong in engineering, with the exception of Cornell and Princeton.</p>

<p>Do you have other extracurricular activities besides National Honor Society?</p>

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<p>Just a minor correction to ricegal's final sentence - Purdue is most definitely a public university, despite the "odd" name (it would be awfully large for a private school!). But it would certainly be a good option as a safety in the midwest for engineering.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the help everyone.</p>

<p>As for some more information: I don't want too much academic competition among the students, but I know that some is inevitable. Tuition is going to be an issue for me, but I'm hoping that financial aid and scholarships can help me. I think I'd enjoy a medium sized school best, though to be honest I really don't know. I'd appreciate the large resources, and larger student body of a big college, but also the more intimate setting and personal attention that comes with a small college. Hm. I don't know. I plan on going to graduate school after getting my bachelor's for a master's or professional degree, I don't really know. I'd like it to be more or less equal male/female. Diversity doesn't matter very much to me. I don't think I'd like a college where students do nothing but study all day long, because I certainly don't want to, but I definitely want the students to care about academics and be mostly intelligent. I don't plan on joining a fraternity so I don't want the greek life to be too pronounced or important. </p>

<p>Other extracurriculars: Quiz bowl, math league, pep band, pit band for our musical, science club, and I volunteered at a food shelf for a couple summers if that counts for anything.</p>

<p>Well that's some general information. </p>

<p>Hm. The math SAT 2 shouldn't be hard. I don't know about the chemistry or physics one though. I won't be taking physics until next year so I'd probably have to take the chemistry one, and I didn't learn very much in my chemistry class last year.</p>

<p>Thanks again for the help everyone. I'll look into the schools that have been mentioned.</p>

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<p>Be sure to check the dates for SAT2s. . . . you'll probably need to take them ASAP.</p>

<p>From your description of the student atmosphere you're looking for, Olin is a school you should look at.</p>

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<p>lesserprofessor: Thanks for reminding me that Purdue is public.</p>

<p>seanbow: You might find what you want in an honors program at a large state U.</p>

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<p>Yeah, consider a state university's honors program. You'll be taught by the best professors in smaller classes, but you can still be lost among lots of people if that's your thing. But then if you do that you have to consider that it may be a commuter school, where everyone goes to class and then goes home.</p>