<p>I have absolutely no idea where I want to go, and I don't even know where to start looking. I've been using the princeton review's top 20 lists (happiest students, best quality of life) but I feel like looking at those alone is a terrible idea. My SAT last year was 2060, I took it this last saturday and I feel like I bested 2200 but I won't be sure until I get my scores. I'm confident I can write a strong enough essay for most schools (I've been thinking Rice or Yale, maybe? they both are in the happiest students ratings) but I just don't know what my first choice is/should be. I'm deterred from Rice because of the polution issues of the city, and Yale is, well, Yale but I'm just not terribly excited about it. </p>
<p>What do I need to do to find some other good schools?</p>
<p>You can’t really rely on stuff that shows ratings on student’s happiness at school since it all differs for everyone. If I were you I would make a list of schools that have a good program for what you may want to major in or would go to a big school since they have alot of majors they offer. I would then visit a few schools and see which school you like the most. For me, Cornell was my dream school since 7th grade but when I visited the campus I wasn’t really fond of it anymore. Then I visited Purdue and just became in love with the school right after I saw the campus while driving by to the parking garage and walking around campus. You have to first experience the school firsthand even though it won’t be for a few days. Try to shadow a current student there and possibly sleep over at a student’s dorm. I believe a few schools have a program when perspective students can sleep in the dorm with a current student while shadowing them for a day.</p>
<p>I plan on studying ComSci or something else computer related, though I would like to go to a big enough school that there are liberal arts programs available (music, psych, soc etc). </p>
<p>@Jimgotkp: How do you pick out what schools have a good program?</p>
<p>@Erin’s Dad: I’m from Washington state and have been told by my own mother I should go out of state (love you too, mom!). I’d rather like financial aid, and if going to somewhere like the ivies I would definitely need it though I plan on deferring a year for AmeriCorps during which I could apply for plenty of scholarships if I needed to. I have a 3.889 and am at the top of my class of, like, 10 people. I do Relay for Life at the committee level, play the violin, and will be working to help a local, independent film about suicide raise capital (they plan to start shooting next year some time.)</p>
<p>2060 SAT/3.9 GPA
Comp. Sci with reputable LA available
Good social atmosphere</p>
<p>I’d suggest taking a careful look at many of the schools listed below. They should work well in general, and cover a variety of sizes and locales.</p>
<p>Penn State (best match, shoot for Schreyer Honors)
Stevens Inst. of Tech.
U Pitt (again, Honors)
Rensselar Polytechnic
U of Rochester
UCLA
Claremont Colleges (Pitzer would probably be best)
Arizona State
Georgia Tech
Vanderbilt
U Miami
U Michigan
Purdue
Wash U in St. Louis</p>
<p>For best programs I look at rankings, job placements, average salary.I don’t look at happiness ratings though… You gotta go visit the schools yourself even though it costs money. It’s more of an investment to be honest.</p>
<p>@OHKID, OneMom: Thanks, I’ll do some research into those and see how they all look to me</p>
<p>@Jimgotkp: Cheers! After I look into the ones on OHKID’s and OneMom’s lists I’ll sit down with a map and see how easy it would be to visit a few different ones all in one school-skipping spree :D</p>
<p>What about St. Mary’s College in Maryland? I got an info packet from them today that boldly proclaimed: Princeton Review Top 10 Happiest Students (they’re number 9), and the program looks interesting. Any opinions on them?</p>