I’m a junior currently looking into colleges. I’d love to get some advice on schools to look into, as well as whether they’d be safeties, matches, or reaches.
Average: 93 or 94, but I’m on track to get a 99 this semester. I’ve had a steady upward curve.
[]Class Rank: I think I’m at like 25%, but I go to a specialized high school in NY.
[]PSAT: Used the college board’s bug to download score report. Got 1500.
[]Demo: White, Jewish, Middle-class female
[]Hooks: I don’t know if being a female in science counts, but that I guess
Interested in physics and politics, want to major in physics. I have a state and chapter position in JSA, started an astronomy club, college Astronomy class, astrophysics classes at AMNH, euro challenge, worked on a political campaign. Only award is a national German bronze medal, and I guess now it’s likely I’ll be a national merit semi-finalist. No research thus far, but I’ve been trying to contact professors for a while. It’s what I want to do so figure why not start now.
In terms of schools, I’d love to try getting out of a big city for a change. I really love Brown and Williams. A suburban or rural campus is important to me. I just don’t want to be integrated into a city. I don’t mind some distribution requirements (I have various interests as it is), but I don’t like core curriculums.
I know it’s early for me to be thinking about it, but I’d like some ideas on where to start for college tours and stuff. Thank you!
For reaches or matches, look into Wesleyan Bowdoin and Hamilton. Of these, you might find that Wesleyan compares favorably to Brown and that Bowdoin and Hamilton compare favorably to Williams. All of these colleges would be strong for physics and public policy.
Matches might begin for very strong students at ~25% acceptance rates. Colleges with lower acceptance rates will generally be reaches, but in some cases could be high matches.
Haverford offers similar attributes to a few of the colleges in reply #4, notably Swarthmore and Carleton. Along these lines, Bryn Mawr could serve as a good match school for you. Though schools such as Lafayette, Lehigh and Union offer engineering, and therefore might be considered “STEM” schools, I would not regard them as stronger in fields such as physics and mathematics when compared to some top liberal arts colleges that do not offer direct engineering programs.