<p>Choose 2 out of Amherst, Middlebury, Haverford, and Bates</p>
<p>Choose 1 out of Bowdion, Claremont McKenna, and MacAlester</p>
<p>Choose 1 out of Northwestern and UChicago</p>
<p>Brown -Keep
Colgate -Strike
Cornell -Keep
Emory -Keep
Michigan State (Honors College) -Keep
Pomona -Keep
Rice -Strike
Stanford -Keep
University of Michigan- Keep</p>
<p>Matt- can you elaborate? Drop doesn't mean much, drop because of ... might.</p>
<p>mememe - that is a fair point, easy apps makes it nice and simple.</p>
<p>time is a huge issue i had a list over 15 schools last year...i only applied to seven,cost and time constraints were an issue- when you apply to a school the application isn't the only issue, transcript request,recommendations,test scores etc have to be sent....this while stil having other commitments,work,school, ec's isn't easy/</p>
<p>I'll add reasons for DSC. I should have thought of that</p>
<p>Choose 2 out of Amherst, Middlebury, Haverford, and Bates. All in the same region with similar admissions standards. Your 2 favorite should leave you with a good chance to get into one of them if you had a chance to get into the other 2.</p>
<p>Choose 2 out of Bowdion, Claremont McKenna, and MacAlester. These are pretty similar credential and structure and size wize. Different regions but that should be a factor into picking these. None of these are safties so if you get into one, you'll probably get into one of the others.</p>
<p>Choose 1 out of Northwestern and UChicago. Extremely similar except that Chicago doesn't have a football team and is more urban. </p>
<p>Brown -Keep, great school, beautiful, great astmosphere
Colgate -Strike, You already have a great saftey in MSU, and this isn't really a great school, not worth the money.
Cornell -Strike (I changed this), not worth the money, especially since UM has a better B-School anyways
Emory -Keep, ATL is poppin', great atmosphere, pretty campus, B-School ranked 4th this year.
Michigan State (Honors College) -Keep, saftey
Pomona -Keep
Rice -Strike, I hate Texas... (also, most of the other schools are better and have higher acceptance rates.)
Stanford -Keep, you love it right?
University of Michigan- Keep. This should be one of your Fits</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Wrong, wrong, wrong. Extremely different schools, but for the fact that they are located in the same metro area. NWU is very pre-professional, located in suburban Evanston, and has a strong Greek and athletic presence. UC is in urban Hyde Park neighborhood, and with its structured core curriculum is extremely lib ed focused (no business or engr even offered at UG level). Oh yeah, and Chicago most definitely has a football team, albeit at the D3 level. Read up on your history - UC was one of the founding members of the Big Ten (replaced by Mich State), and Chicago's Jay Berwanger was the first winner of the Heisman trophy.</p>
<p>I'd strongly recommend trying to visit as many of the schools you're considering as possible... that was the way I cut my list down (it went from a hefty 18 to a manageable 7 in a matter of months). Also, if you can't visit the schools, try reading some of the reviews of those who HAVE visited them on CC... <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/</a>. I would also recommend trying to write out what exactly appeals to you about each of the colleges you have on your list... doing so might help you put your thoughts in order. Lastly, I can give you my brief impressions on three of the schools on your list that I have visited: Amherst, Haverford, and Brown.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Amherst College.
POSSIBLE APPEAL: intellectual students, lots of school spirit because of the smaller size, Ivy-league caliber education, small discussion-based classes, no graduate program, beautiful campus and surrounding area, part of a 5 college consortium which offers students the opportunity to take a wider array of classes and a fuller social atmosphere.
POTENTIAL DRAWBACKS: rural location, no business major (philosphy of LAS is that you go to graduate school to major in business), the weather, small in size.</p></li>
<li><p>Haverford College
POSSIBLE APPEAL: strong academics, highly student-oriented, strong sense of community and comraderie, laidback and friendly student body, attractive campus, academic consortium with Swarthmore & Bryn Mawr & Penn, convinient to Philadelphia, large sports involvement and interest (DIII so not as competitive), student honor stressed through Honor Code.
POTENTIAL DRAWBACKS: the Honor Code (depending on your take of it... be sure to look into the Haverford Honor Code before applying), very small student body, Quaker tradition stressed, no business major (LAS philosophy once again).</p></li>
<li><p>Brown University
POSSIBLE APPEAL: Ivy League reputation, strong academics, no course requirements, diverse population, very liberal, attractive campus, very social scene, urban environment of Providence (not overly urban).
POTENTIAL DRAWBACKS: very liberal (depending on how open you are this is could be good or bad), active fraternity scene (depends on what you're looking for once again), large graduate program.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>*If the Haverford Honor Code doesn't appeal to you (or you really like both Haverford and Amherst), try Swarthmore.
*If the liberalness of Brown appeals to you, also try Swarthmore and (in addition) Vassar.</p>
<p>OK, I'm dropping Amherst, Bates, Macalester, and Haverford.</p>
<p>However I want to do more research on Dartmouth, and maybe a couple others.</p>
<p>And Matt- thanks for elaborating, however I hate UM(both parents went to MSU, I was born to hate them), and their belief that they are Ivy caliber, when they aren't, and a few other things really bug me about them. However, I do like Ann Arbor. Also Cornell, I have visited and liked it a lot, beautiful, a mix of modern and ancient, and intellectual. Rice is frequently compared to Stanford, which blew me away, so that intrigues me.</p>
<p>I have visited Syracuse, Cornell, Pitt, PSU, Maryland, OSU, MSU, UM, Stanford, Cal, UCLA, and USC so far. And that is definitely the best system to evaluate schools, but it is expensive. Obviously you can see who I like from that list(Stanford, Cornell, MSU, UM).</p>
<p>So here is my list as of now:
Bowdoin
Brown
Claremont McKenna
Colgate
Cornell
Emory
MSU
Middlebury
Northwestern
Pomona
Rice
Stanford
UChicago
UM</p>
<p>And I am going to look at Dartmouth along with a couple others.</p>
<p>Reasoning for drops:
Amherst - if I am getting into that level, I would rather go to other schools on my list.
Bates - Didn't really seem to fit.
Haverford - Too small for me, and doesn't have something like the Claremont Consortium to make it feel bigger.
Macalester - out of place. My only reason for looking at them was their location.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'd strongly recommend trying to visit as many of the schools you're considering as possible... that was the way I cut my list down (it went from a hefty 18 to a manageable 7 in a matter of months). Also, if you can't visit the schools, try reading some of the reviews of those who HAVE visited them on CC... <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/%5B/url%5D.%5B/quote%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/.
[/quote]
</a></p>
<p>I agree with that, and have been visiting as many as I can.</p>
<p>
[quote]
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I like Amherst, but for as selective as it is, there are other options that I would prefer.</p>
<p>
[quote]
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The small student body is a negative. The honor code is a positive, but not in the 'I need that' way. </p>
<p>
[quote]
<p>*If the Haverford Honor Code doesn't appeal to you (or you really like both Haverford and Amherst), try Swarthmore.
*If the liberalness of Brown appeals to you, also try Swarthmore and (in addition) Vassar.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Brown's liberalness is over the top, but I am fairly liberal, so that wouldn't be too big a problem. Also, I would like to experience some diversity compared to my current 97% white school. What worldly perspective do you gain if you've only seen a specific flavor of it?</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
but I would really like to have the opprotunity to spend some time studying at Cambridge or Oxford.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>DSC, Last thing you need is another reach but you sure sound like Williams material to me. Sporty, outdoorsy, business-y, intellectual AND you can do your junior year at their Oxford program plus snowboard all winter long. </p>
<p>My opinion if you want to end up in the 12-ish range is drop Brown and Middlebury. Keep Amherst. Add Dartmouth and Williams. Look at Hamilton when you visit Colgate. Apply early to Umich, then you'll have two aces in your pocket. Since your safety is solid I wouldn't worry so much about having a top heavy list.</p>
<p>Most likely after you've had a chance to visit you'll be able to drop a few more. Can't say why it happens, but it does -- schools that look so good on paper bite the dust and ones that were not clearly defined in your mind jump to the top of the list.</p>
<p>You didn't mention your financial situation (or maybe I missed it). Always an important consideration when formulating a college list. </p>
<p>Good luck and let us know how you do.</p>
<p>momrath - thanks for your input. I may just try to visit as many of the out east schools as I can this summer(unfortunately I don't have as much time during the school year).</p>
<p>And my financial situation is pretty much I can go anywhere, but if I have an extremely high undergrad cost, I may have to contribute a fair bit for grad school(or get whatever business I end up working for to help cover that).</p>
<p>So it isn't a 'concern', but if there is a tie, the cheaper school is getting preference.</p>
<p>And I will certainly tell everyone about my experiences(and if I don't like 'your school', it isn't because it isn't great, it is just because I don't think it is for me - just to get that out of the way now).</p>
<p>Who would you compare Amherst, Williams, and Pomona's admissions too? (among better known U's, i.e. Ivies or the like)</p>
<p>Curious.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Who would you compare Amherst, Williams, and Pomona's admissions too? (among better known U's, i.e. Ivies or the like)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>In selectivity Amherst, Williams and Pomona are similar to Brown, Cornell, Penn. The LACs are more holistic than statistics driven, however, and fit and demonstrated interest as evidenced by essays, recommendations, hooks and visits figure highly in decisions. </p>
<p>In student profile, personality, character whatever you want to call it, I would find overlaps with Princeton, Dartmouth, Penn, Cornell, Stanford, Northwestern, Rice. Of course there are overlaps with Harvard and Yale as well, but since H&Y appeal to a wider range of personality types the comparison is less specific.</p>
<p>In quality of education and post-graduate opportunities they compare favorably to HYPSM. In name recognition, fuggettaboutit. :).</p>
<p>I think more dependence on essays could help me, plus interviews, however my EC's aren't especially strong(they are solid, but no 'John Smith').</p>
<p>Frankly I think that the liberal arts idea appeals to me a lot.</p>
<p>Hopefully I'll be able to make it out to them, and if I like them, get in.</p>
<p>And name recognition doesn't bother me that much, the education and placement are more important to me. My grad school will be the one with a lot of 'cache', or they both will.</p>
<p>I'd agree with momrath's list of schools similar to Amherst, Williams, and Pomona. Furthermore I would add to that (and some of these are a bit less selective) Middlebury, Swarthmore, Oberlin, and Vassar. Vassar, Oberlin, & Swarthmore are more liberal, Brown-like sort of LAS while Middlebury is similiar to an Amherst-Williams type of LAS. At least, that's my take on it all.</p>
<p>Frankly I'm not a fan of Oberlin just because Ohio sucks. And Swarthmore seems like you have to say it with a stuck up accent like Harvard and Yale.</p>
<p>(Yes I do realize that those are some pretty weak reasons, but hey it's my list)</p>
<p>Also, Swat has been phrased to me as being studyaholic only, which I'm not a fan of. I want to work hard, but not so much of a 'don't sleep' style learning.</p>
<p>I don't think Oberlin and Swarthmore are good fits, particularly for someone who doesn't want a phD.</p>
<p>I am certainly not looking towards a PhD, just an MBA. So that will play a role in my decision.</p>