<p>Hey everyone, I'm going to be a senior this year, and I was you guys could give me some suggestions for other colleges to apply to. I'm looking for some colleges in medium to large cities that have a campus feel to them. I'd also like a school with some school spirit or big sports teams. My list of schools to apply to so far are Harvard, Georgetown, Northeastern, Carnegie Mellon (not much in the ways of school spirit), American University, and SUNY Albany as a back up. I'm not looking for any other top schools because I don't think I have too much of a shot at getting in though. Here's some information if it helps:</p>
<p>SAT: 1530/1600 2200/2400
98% Average (ish? I'm not positive on that one)
5's on 3 AP exams and one 4
Over 150 hours of community service for my church</p>
<p>Have you visited smaller schools not in cities just to see if they might be of interest? Liberal arts colleges are known for a lot of school pride and bonding among the students which might feel like the kind of school spirit you are thinking of. Some are very sports-oriented. Amherst has the consortium and several towns nearby. Bowdoin is close to Portland.</p>
<p>To Hitch: Yeah I’ve looked at some rural colleges too like Cornell and Union College, but I didn’t like them very much. Plus, I’d like to have some opportunities at internships in big cities.</p>
<p>To mom2collegekids: My most likely major is math or business, and right now, finances aren’t a factor. Once I get into places, I’ll compare financial packages, but if I really want to go someplace, my parents have told me they’ll find a way</p>
<p>if you want schools in big cities and a good campus, add Columbia, Penn, USC and UChicago. If school spirit is more important, scratch Columbia and UChicago but keep USC and Penn. I think Northwestern has school spirit also but whether it is appropriately urban for you, I don’t know.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t consider either Duke or UNC particularly urban. The area has 1+ million people, granted, but neither town feels very big.</p>
<p>I second most of the other suggestions (especially USC and Miami) and would add ASU (Tempe/Phoenix), Boston College (Boston), and U Washington (Seattle) to the list of matches. I’m not sure about UDub, but ASU is fairly generous with merit aid to OOS students. Minnesota fits your urban requirement, but I’m not sure how popular athletics are.</p>
<p>Might look at Holy Cross very good school 1 hour from Boston. HC has nice campus with strong alumni network with top school spirit. Holy Cross plays Division 1 sports in highly selective Patriot League and its sports teams play Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth on an annual basis.</p>
<p>You sound like a perfect fit for USC. For a little easier to get into, try Santa Clara - great school spirit and sports teams, also good in business. For a little harder, try Stanford. All three schools have great opportunities for business internships.</p>
<p>Wow thanks everyone, I’ll definitely look into these. I’ve heard USC is in a pretty bad part of the city though, I’m not sure how safe it would be. I’ve visited UNC, but I wasn’t that impressed, but that might just be because the information session was mostly about the admissions process instead of the actual school. I guess I’ll just have to do more research</p>
<p>Rice doesn’t have the kind of school spirit OP is looking for, I don’t think. Football games are not particularly well-attended. Baseball is better attending since they have been doing well. If I were out-of-state, I’d pick Stanford over Berkeley in a heartbeat.</p>