<p>I won't bore you with an ultra-long list of stats and EC's...</p>
<p>Rank: 2/375
GPA: 5.018/5.3 (W... I don't know UW because guidance counselors at my school don't give that out)
ACT: 34
SAT IIs: 800 Chem, 770 US, 740 Math IIc
EC's: DJ on radio station, VP of NHS, cross country section leader in Marching Band, pep band, Workshop Coordinator in Town Council, 1st clarinet all 4 years of HS, French Club, volunteer at Council on Aging, French tutor, co-authored a grant ($1000, long-term project), ski every weekend (although, not competitively, because I view skiing as a more cathartic and personal activity... ha, ha), aaaand... other boring stuff.
Awards: Harvard Book Award, many, many stupid school awards, Grand Prize in science fair (not allowed to move forward because only experimental projects were accepted at the state level), Gold Key (RAL) in Scholastic Writing Awards, qualified for USNCO national round, National Recognition in French National Test, National Merit Commended (at least)</p>
<p>Interested in Biochem... but, I also want the opportunity to take other classes as well (my major strength is in writing, actually...)</p>
<p>College List Now:
Brown
Cornell
(maybe) Columbia
Williams
MIT
UConn
Juniata
Fordham
Hamilton</p>
<p>If writing is your forte, then Chicago is probably a match. They take the essays very seriously at Chicago. Also check out Michigan as another match.</p>
<p>If you like UChicago then apply, I think you would have a very good chance. You certainly have a great class rank and good test scores. It is a great school, go for it.</p>
<p>OP: I agree with you -- schools like Tufts and UChicago are in the lower match categories... maybe even Wesleyan, too. These people who call them safeties or matches don't know anything about admissions these days. This doesn't mean, of cousre, that you shoudln't apply to them -- if they float your boat, apply! Just re-think some sure-bet schools.</p>
<p>"'I won't bore you with an ultra-long list of stats and EC's...' then you do anyway. =p"</p>
<p>Ha... you haven't seen "long" until you've seen my "Chances" thread... mwahahaha. I really restrained myself this time. I have a tendency to create excessively long posts! =D</p>
<p>I'm looking at schools in the Northeast (I have a three-year-old sister, and I want to be able to visit her often). I'd also prefer a college near/in a city or larger town. I live in the middle of nowhere now... it's not fun. I'd also like to be near a town/city with a good music scene. As for size... I'm open-minded, but would like to avoid the extremes.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help, everyone!!! I've actually been considering adding Tufts and Vassar to my list. I'll definitely go visit them now.</p>
<p>For UConn, definitely apply to the honors program. I think you would certainly qualify, and they have some great writing and research opportunities for their students. The valedictorian and salutatorian of my town's public high school both are going to their honors program for biochem. UConn in general is a safety, especially if you're in-state, but the honors program would be a match.</p>
<p>Only thing is, if you're looking for a city, you are not going to find it in northeastern Connecticut. You'll be only 20 minutes from the 2nd largest commercial shopping area in New England (Manchester) and about 30 each from Providence and Hartford, but Storrs itself definitely isn't big. I rather like it, though, and the student body is large enough to compensate for the lack of local excitement. They also do a ton of programming that's a lot of fun. (I'm not a student there, but I go out there frequently due to everything they offer.)</p>
<p>Why Juniata? I would remove them from the list, but that's just me.</p>
<p>You should hedge your bets in the reach category. If you like Williams, Hamilton, Brown, and Cornell it seems natural that you would like Dartmouth and Amherst. Columbia is nothing like these schools, it looks like a misfit.</p>
<p>"I'd also prefer a college near/in a city or larger town. I live in the middle of nowhere now... it's not fun. I'd also like to be near a town/city with a good music scene. As for size... I'm open-minded, but would like to avoid the extremes."</p>
<p>LesOs, I would forget about Williams and maybe even Cornell if I were you. Maybe you can replace them with Penn, Duke, Haverford, Swarthmore or Amherst.</p>
<p>Sorry, didn;t see that post. Williams might not be your best bet in that case, its pretty rural. Amherst actually feels much less rural. Vassar is a great addition, Wesleyan might be a good fit as well. As more reaches, Penn, Georgetown, HYP, and Haverford/Swarthmore seem to fit what you are looking for.</p>
<p>I know that not all of these colleges fit all of my descriptions. Hamilton is there because a friend of mine is attending it. She's going to be an English major, but also told me that Hamilton has an excellent science dept. (both of the areas that I'm interested in... obviously I wouldn't major in English but I want to take some classes as well/get involved with writing ECs) She told me that she thought that I'd love Hamilton, and that it would be a very good match for me.</p>
<p>Juniata is there because my guidance counselor told me that it was a good safety for me... he said that it has a good science department with research opportunities. Ehhh, that's the only reason.</p>
<p>Williams was there because it's a very good LAC that's near my home now... but I think that you guys are right. Amherst would probably be a better match for me. It's on par with Williams academically, but the location is far better.</p>
<p>Once again, thanks for all the help! My college list looks much healthier now =)</p>
<p>If you like colleges in/near a large city, pay special attention to the physical campus and how the campus interacts with the city itself. I say this because Tufts and UChicago are the only two schools I've seen that have had the balance I like (quiet campus situated a little bit away but not too far from the big city, only in UChicago's case, it's only the academic buildings that are on the quiet quads and it's the dorms and such that are on real streets).</p>
<p>I mention this physical campus thing because I spent some time recently at Vassar's campus, and I really disliked it, which I did not expect. I felt suffocated from the world, even though there are shops right across the street from campus. I also disliked that there were random parking lots everywhere, which I felt really disrupted the sense of campus. Amherst, for its part, I liked much more-- even though Amherst is much smaller than Poughkeepsie, I liked the balance between campus and town.</p>
<p>mythmom, i agree. Columbia's campus is kind of like walking through the wardrobe into narnia....you're walking down the streets of NYC, not far from the center of harlem, and you walk through a gateway and suddenly you're at columbia's campus, full of pretty buildings and grass and trees....seriously, just like in chronicles of narnia</p>