Senior with good stats but no idea about college -- HELP!

College Search & Selection
1

Hi everybody,
I’m a HS senior and CC lurker who has finally decided to bite the bullet and make a post because (if you couldn’t gather from the title!) I have absolutely no idea what to do about college, and it’s really starting to stress me out since I know that the clock is ticking. If you could help me, I would really appreciate it.

A little background:
I have pretty good stats as far as numbers go: 4.0 uw gpa, 36 ACT, 8 or 9 APs in total after this year, hopefully going to be a NMF/SF, etc.
However, my extracurricular activities are a little, um, lacking compared to most other people on this site – I’m in a few clubs at school but nothing major or time-consuming; I also have a part-time job, occasional volunteering, etc as well as one internship this summer, which is the only really notable thing I’ve done.

I’m not really set on a major either, which doesn’t make things easier – possibly chem or biochem, but definitely not premed, and honestly, I’m not sure if I want to commit to a career/major that requires grad school.

Schools I’m considering so far are mostly large publics with good merit aid such as Alabama, South Carolina, etc. and some more-selective schools like Vanderbilt and WUSTL, mostly because I don’t know where/how to look (none of the search tools seem to work for me). Either public or private is fine.

What I’m mostly thinking about:

  • Size: aiming for a large school but most selective schools seem to be ~7k; not sure if it’s “enough” – would love to hear others’ advice/experiences
  • Culture/environment: I don’t want a school that’s too pretentious/preppy/rich, so I’m hesitating to apply to more selective schools – I’m not the braggy/overinvolved type and don’t like people who are, so I just don’t feel like I’d fit in at a highly-selective or Ivy League school
  • Academics: At the same time, I want a school that values academics, and although I want a social life, I would prefer a school without a huge party atmosphere (eg, Tulane). A variety of majors would help and being able to transfer AP credits is a plus.
  • Location: Mostly South/SE but would consider other areas; nothing in the West or in FL; prefer urban/suburban but with “enclosed” campus
  • Money: good financial/merit aid is obviously a plus, not sure how much my parents can afford (I know I should know by now)

Basically, I don’t mind going to a public school for a good scholarship, but I don’t want to completely ignore private schools either, although I’m worried my ECs will keep me from getting in. I don’t have a ton of preferences and so far I’m essentially neutral on most colleges. Visiting hasn’t helped either; I haven’t had that “moment” and I don’t really get it.

Sorry for the long post…tl;dr: senior in application crunch, high stats but not great ECs, not sure what I want – anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks again!!

2

You need to ask your parents what they can pay each year for college. You need to do this tonight.

Then you should ask them to run the net price calculator at some schools that interest you and see if they are in range as far as budget goes.

Get a Fiske Guide and read through it to see what schools may interest you.

3

Are you a girl or a boy?

4

Congrats on all the hard work you’ve done in high school! Regarding your extracurriculars, having a job counts! It shows you are responsible and have good time management skills.

Keep an eye on the National Merit thread to see where others are applying: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/2093570-national-merit-class-of-2019-where-are-you-considering-visiting-p1.html

If finances are a concern, you should strongly consider one of the colleges that offers a large NM package - you could possibly get 4 years of college paid for!

5

Too bad you don’t like Florida. As a NMF, the public schools would be free and many of the private ones close to that with the Benacquisto scholarship.

6

@SuperSenior19 - What a nice position to be in. You will likely be happy where ever you go because you aren’t sold on having to get into the “best” school, you are looking for the best school for you, which is awesome.

I would definitely narrow down a bit before running all over with price calculators - with your grades and scores + attitude you will have a choice, so let me give you a few tips we used in narrowing down school lists for my kids.

Size - 7,000 is a mid-sized school. That’s a great size, big enough to feel like you aren’t seeing the same people all the time and small enough not to get lost. Both of my kids did not want small schools so we went with 5,000 and above. But here’s the key on that - how did they know they didn’t want a small school? We visited schools. We didn’t visit all the schools they considered, we just visited a few schools of different sizes and they realized that the LACs felt like High School and they wanted something larger. I would highly recommend looking at different schools in your area, not as “is this my school” but “how do I feel about a school this size”. it’s really helpful.

Major - you don’t know what you want to do. That’s fine! Most large schools have a huge variety of majors and you’ll have time to decide as long as you don’t want to be an engineer or a pre-med.

Preppiness / Attitude - you’re going to get that at any Ivy League and quite a few sub-Ivy schools. It’s real and if it turns you off, that’s good to know. I took my kids to a couple of Ivy schools on our tours and neither of them liked the whole “you’d be so lucky to get in” vibe. It’s not for everyone.

Academic difficulty - You can find “match” schools for your grades and scores via Naviance or even Google but your stats are so good that will land you with the all-over-achievers-all-the-time crowd. I would suggest you consider larger schools with honor colleges. It sounds like you would totally find your peeps there, the honor colleges have the most academically ambitious kids in a larger school environment plus the schools throw merit money at their honors admits which is quite helpful!

Hopefully this is okay - if the link gets removed it’s a wikipedia list of universities and colleges with honors programs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_honors_programs_and_colleges_in_the_United_States

ECs - yes, that will hurt but for what you want, I don’t think it’ll hurt much. Unless an EC is really a “hook” I think grades and scores matter first anyway with most large schools other than the absolutely most competitive ones. But once you find a list of schools you love, make sure you show interest in them! :slight_smile:

Good luck! There really are so many good schools, I am sure you’ll end up with a great list.

7

Here’s a few scholarship options. Alabama offers full tuition and your first year of room and board. TCU and Baylor will offer full tuition. There’s a strong possibility of SMU as well. LSU is another one.

8

What is your State of residence?

“I don’t want a school that’s too pretentious/preppy/rich” – take Vanderbilt off your list.

Some suggestions:

(1) College of William and Mary, although getting merit money from that school won’t be easy.

(2) College of Charleston; you should qualify for the Honors College, and have a chance at scholarship money (such as Aiken Fellows).

(3) Case Western Reserve University; you might have a better chance of getting merit aid from CWRU.

As @suzy100 suggested, have the money talk with your parents ASAP.

9

@rosered55 Does it make a difference?

@chercheur Thanks for the link – I’m really, really tempted to just look at schools with big NM scholarships and go to college basically for free, since I know that that’s obviously an extremely valuable opportunity. (It kind of skews my view for other schools tbh because it’s hard to compete with an automatic full ride at schools like UA.) At the same time, I – and more so my parents/friends – feel like it’s a “waste” not to consider all the higher-end schools, so I guess that’s part of my dilemma. I’ll probably end up applying to a lot of both types.

@CaMom13 Thank you so much for your kind words and advice! It makes me feel a lot better just to hear it because a lot of the time I feel like I’m in a not-so-nice place with college right now. You really made my day. :slight_smile:

And thank you for the detailed analysis – I have visited several colleges near me and I think I would be ok with a medium-sized university as long as the campus is larger. It’s helpful to know that the pretentious vibe exists at Ivy-type schools but part of me was hoping people would deny it…honestly, even the honors colleges at a lot of public schools seem exclusively-minded to me (for example, why do they want you to live with each other? aren’t the “regular” students good enough?) but I know that’s mostly paranoia and I’ll definitely shoot for an honors college if I go to a public school. I will try to start working my way through that list!

I will definitely look into the other suggestions like LSU. I know I need to discuss the $ issue with my parents but I don’t want to ask point-blank and they tend to say contradictory things sometimes. They keep telling me not to worry about it until after I’m admitted, but I think they’re overestimating how much I’ll get in scholarships / fin aid.

10

@SuperSenior19 To me it looks like you are doing very well.

If you wanted to attend Harvard or Stanford then you might need great ECs to go along with your perfect grades and test scores and everything else. Of course, these two schools do not seem to match what you are looking for and are not a good fit for most students.

For nearly all other schools you don’t have to be perfect. Your stats are pretty much perfect which shows a lot of work and a lot of success over the full 4 years of high school. This will take you a long way.

I agree with others that suggest that you find out what your budget is and run the NPC on schools that you are considering. What you wrote in your original post above looks like you have thought about this quite a bit, and have very reasonable and practical ideas regarding what you want in a college or university.

I think that you are in better shape that you think, and that you are on track to do well.

11

In response to what @rosered55 had said, it’s notable b/c there are some women’s colleges that fit some of your criteria that you could take a look into if you’re a girl. That’s the direction I think they were going in.

12

What @aliens20 said. If you’re a girl, there are a few all-women’s colleges I’d recommend.

13

“I – and more so my parents/friends – feel like it’s a ‘waste’ not to consider all the higher-end schools” – I think that part of your problem is that you are discussing your college choices with your friends. This is not a good idea; and in my experience (or, more correctly, in my childrens’ experiences) it only contributes to the “arms race” mentality of the college admissions process. Keep your plans/decisions to yourself (and your parents), and if any of your friends or colleagues ask you where you are applying, just tell them that you haven’t decided, or refuse to engage on that point. What is the best place for you may not be the best place for someone else; so don’t let someone else’s idea of where you ought to be applying – especially if it is based on rankings, and not on direct, personal knowledge – influence you.

14

You are a rare bird with perfect scores. You might also get a full ride at a elite type school. I wouldn’t rule it out. Every school will have the kids you don’t want to be with. Every school will have your people also. Don’t look at school due to stereotype. You evidently want /need to be challenged academically also. Always start with your home schools but don’t rule out privates etc. Lots of time the merit is much better. You might even have a chance at a full ride at a school like Michigan. Yes not what you stated you wanted but trust me… You can make any school feel small by joining a few clubs and making friends that way.

The problem you might have is the schools your applying to might think you want to go elsewhere due to your scores. If you do decide on a certain school let the regional counselor know you really want to go there.

But it’s good you are applying to a variety of schools.

15

How do you spend your non-academic time now? and, do you expect to keep spending it that way in college, or are you thinking that you will want to be doing other things in college? if other things, what kinds of other would you guess?

re: financial aid, be really, really careful here. Your parents may not want you to “worry about it”, but every spring brings posters who have gotten into great schools that their parents realize (too late) are unaffordable, and it ends in tears.

Pick out one or two of the ‘high end’ schools that your parents like the look of. Ask them to run the NPC on the college website to see what it would cost for you to attend. Remember that you can only borrow ~$5K / year in your own name- everything else they have to pay - or co-sign loans for.

You are completely right that graduating debt-free is worth a ton- and you have the possibility of doing that. Don’t give it up lightly.

16

You have described Vanderbilt perfectly in terms of location, size, enclosed campus,commitment to studying. A science major from there is a very strong catalyst for whatever you want to do in the future. It is rated #1 in financial aid and student happiness so it attracts students for whom that would be very important. Also they are one of the few higher ranked schools that give merit aid to further entice great students to attend. I would recommend visiting there and seeing if you like it.

17

They aren’t in the south, but two schools you should definitely consider are the University of Rochester and Pittsburgh. Either might give you significant merit as well as the environment you are looking for with classes and fellow students.

18

Check out U of Oklahoma. Good merit aid, spectacular campus, a bit more genteel than some comparable publics, quite close to Oklahoma City, lively college town restaurants & bars adjacent to campus.

19

@rosered55 That makes sense; I am female but I don’t think that I would be interested in a women’s college. Most of them are too small for me and I’m not really looking for a liberal arts college (although they do tend to have beautiful campuses!). Just out curiosity, what schools would you recommend?

@collegemom3717 I would obviously love to graduate debt-free, but I’m the cheapskate in my family and I think that my parents don’t want me to “sell myself short” or whatever just because of the financial aspect. I could probably make it work (with loans) at a private school, but I don’t see the point in paying more if I don’t have a strong preference for any school.
My parents are usually pretty realistic and have done the NPC for a few colleges, but I think they believe there is magically going to be more money just because of my test scores/gpa. I don’t think they understand that colleges won’t think I’m as special as they do :slight_smile:

20

@gandalf78 Don’t worry, “I haven’t decided” is usually my standard answer! Usually it just encourages people to give me advice, though :slight_smile: Actually, most of my friends are going in-state or looking at different fields than me, so it’s moreso strangers and friends of my parents that suggest Harvard or other highly-ranked schools. Deep down, I think that my parents really want me to go to a prestigious school too, but they wouldn’t pressure me to go somewhere I didn’t like.

@Knowsstuff, I agree and I definitely haven’t ruled out private/prestigious schools. I guess part of my problem IS the stereotypes about different schools – I’m not from the East Coast so it’s hard to break the mindset that all “those people” are pretentious, even if I know it’s not true. Also, I do want to get a good education, which is undeniably what those schools offer.

I don’t want to be one of “those” people on CC, but honestly, I’m also worried that I wouldn’t be able to get into or handle an Ivy-or-similar school. It’s not that I think I’m not smart, but I also know that I can’t compete with people who have, like, played violin at Juliard since kindergarten (literally in another thread) or cured cancer or something. I just have regular ECs and a regular to subpar essay, and like @DadTwoGirls said, I know that you need great ECs to get into those kinds of schools. Even thinking about applying to Harvard or something feels ridiculous – people talk about it all the time but it never felt like something I would do. Not really looking for a response to this part but just need to vent a little, idk.