<p>I'm trying to narrow down my college search list but I'm not sure where to go from my current list. I'm looking to someday go into med school, but I don't know what I want to specialize in. </p>
<p>I'm a pretty good student, although I'm not sure I have all that it takes to get into the ivies and other schools similar in terms of competitive admission. And if that is the case, what are some not-as-hard-to-get-into schools which are still good. Any advice would be great, especially if you feel some of these schools should not be on my list. Thanks!</p>
<p>Amherst
Brown
Colgate
Cornell
Dartmouth
Franklin & Marshall
Georgetown
Johns Hopkins
Lehigh
Loyola University Maryland
Northeastern
Richmond
St. Lawrence
Tufts
UPenn
UVA
Vanderbilt
Wake Forest
Wesleyan Univ.</p>
<p>What kind of school are you looking for? Urban, suburban, rural? How many students? Cost limitations? Type of student body (ex: the average Georgetown student is much more politically active than the average St. Lawrence student)? Anything else you want in a school? </p>
<p>Colgate and Northeastern are extremely different schools, so without knowing your preferences, it’s impossible to say.</p>
<p>What would be your safety schools that you will for sure get in and for sure be able to afford?</p>
<p>Eliminate any schools you like less than your safety schools.</p>
<p>Eliminate any schools that you cannot afford (check the net price calculators for need-based aid, and check the scholarship pages for merit scholarships).</p>
<p>Parents who have been through this (like me) will tell you that first you need to talk with your family about financial considerations. Many families go into this process thinking generally that they will qualify for some financial aid or merit-aid, without really working through the numbers. Some parents are reluctant to share detailed finances with their student as well, so you can suggest that they go online to a few schools you are interested in to complete the net price calculator which all schools now have online. That will generate details about predicted financial aid. That can be quite a surprise for some families. </p>
<p>Once you know what your parents can contribute – maybe it is the full $50k per year or maybe it is $10k – plus an estimate of your likely aid, you can identify whether you need to close a gap between what your parents say they can contribute and what your university will expect you to contribute. If there is a gap, that tells you that you need to look at schools with generous merit-based aid, often schools where you are at the top of their applicant pool. </p>
<p>As general rule of thumb, most public universities (UVA) do not give much financial based aid to out of state students. For many students, their in-state public flagship will be their financial and academic safety – the school they can afford to go to and are likely to get into. If you are out of state at UVA, both aid and admission are much tougher to come by. Different calculation if you are instate. </p>
<p>Once you have a better handle on the dollars, then you can sort out your priorities. Your list right now has some huge differences, for instance, Wake Forest vs. Wesleyan and Brown, or Dartmouth vs. Northeastern – very different cultures and curriculum.</p>
<p>Looks like you want to be on the east coast, so think about urban vs. rural, big/small, whether you feel strongly about how structured the curriculum is – do you care about having to meet distribution requirements or not. These are the type of factors to consider when you start to develop your list. </p>
<p>Location: No huge preference. If it came down to a decision between two schools, I’d probably lean a little more towards the suburban/rural side, but urban isn’t completely out of the picture.</p>
<p>Students: Not more than 15,000. Looking for a small-medium student body size.</p>
<p>Cost: Saving a few bucks would be nice.</p>
<p>Type of Student body: Not sure what I want, I think I would feel comfortable in many different types.</p>
<p>Other: Athletically, I could run middle distance track (1600m, 800m) for most decent schools except the powerhouse D1 schools but I’m not going to school to focus on athletics, academics come first. My running could probably give me a better chance at getting into some of the schools on my list, but as I said, academics come first.</p>
<p>Categorize as matches, reaches, and safeties based on your academic stats and financial abilities. Then see if you have too many of one category, need more safeties, etc.</p>
<p>mb, As Midwestmom says, you need to get a clearer picture of your financial situation. Does “would be nice” mean that your family can afford to pay full tuition ($250,000+)? Or will you need some supplementary aid to attend? The answer to these questions will make all the difference to how you approach the list.</p>
<p>Have you done any visiting? I think once you start doing that the personalities of the colleges will come into focus and you’ll be able to concentrate and eliminate. One way to start is to pick your perceived favorite and then to look for others in the same general ambience and character. </p>
<p>As others have noted, you’re all over the place in personality and although there’s a certain degree of overlap of student type, it’s hard to understand the thought process. </p>
<p>My son looked at several of the schools on your list. He ended up at Williams and is now at Cornell for graduate school.</p>