<p>I think of myself as a fairly clever student and i would like to know what colleges i should consider applying to. (Disregard cost, location, and all that extra stuff, i am talking plain academics and prestige)</p>
<p>I have a 4.0 unweighed GPA
I will have taken 7 APs by end of high school
Valedictorian (tied with a few others though)
Most rigorous course load.
Around 100 community service hours
Possibly an apprenticeship in science or engineering.
No "real" ecs
189 PSAT score (however i had a bad day and will definitely get over a 2000 on SATs)
ACT scores coming in soon and i probably got a 27 or above.
I am from Oregon.</p>
<p>Thank you to all of you who are about to help.</p>
<p>How are your AP scores? ECs? What kind of schools do you prefer?
Other than that... just by ur GPA & assuming u break 700 on every SAT section and high SAT IIs...</p>
<p>NYU, UCLA, UCD, UCB, Claremont schools, Carnegie Mellon... etc may be a pretty good match.
Columbia may be a reach, MIT, Caltech may be a high reach but possible with high scores... :)
BEST of Luck!</p>
<p>First of all, you are correct in that it's good to get very broad suggestions at the start of a college search, but not too far down the line, "I think of myself as a fairly clever student" and "Disregard cost, location, and all that extra stuff, i am talking plain academics and prestige" will be incompatible statements. Just a tip.</p>
<p>Inaina's list looks very reach-heavy to me, especially because schools like MIT and CalTech will probably want to see a more obvious dedication to relevant fields (you don't say much about your potential apprenticeship, so if that turns out to be an extraordinary experience, then it will add a whole new dimension to your application). Nonetheless, taking random suggestions and checking into them will be a good basis for determining more detailed preferences. </p>
<p>If all you want right now is to search based on academics and prestige (which will mean that any suggestions you get will be little short of totally random), find different ranking lists (a la US News), find the schools that seem to fit with your predicted GPA/SATs, and start from there. Also, hopefully you checked the box on your PSAT that will allow them to share your scores with schools who will, in turn, bombard you with viewbooks. As overwhelming as it can be, this is a great jumping off point for a search.</p>
<p>Finally, define for us what you mean by "academics and prestige." Prestige within the general population? Within the academic community? Within the field of your interests? A school that will give you an incredible education and guarantee you a good job is not necessarily a school that anyone you know has ever heard of. You need to provide slightly more specific parameters or this will just be random name-generating, and you can find that elsewhere.</p>