<p>I'm planning on visiting a few colleges over spring break, but I haven't quite decided where I want to go. Even though I'm a junior with several meetings with the counselor behind me I still haven't settled down on a list of colleges I'm interested in. Everyone here seems to love this sort of stuff, so I was hoping maybe you might have some suggestions?</p>
<p>I'm planning on touring mostly in the NE area, but also maybe down into North Carolina. As for size, I don't really care, as long as it's not super teeny or enormous. Location...not rural and preferably with a good town nearby. I'd like a fairly liberal student body.</p>
<p>Since these might help, my academic stats:
GPA: 4.05 W, no class ranking
SATs: haven't taken them, but PSAT score was 2100.</p>
<p>I intend on focusing in the humanities, English and history, etc. rather than the maths and science.</p>
<p>Wake Forest, Duke if you're going down into NC; Richmond in VA; Johns Hopkins in MD; many many LACs and universities once your pass the mason-dixon line into PA; what else are you interested in?</p>
<p>If you are interested in Boston, there are a variety of college choices. Tufts and Brandeis could be good matches, and maybe BC or BU could be used a safety. You could also take a look at Harvard as a reach.</p>
<p>Hmm, I'm a competitive horseback rider so I would like a place that has equestrian facilities nearby, if at all possible. It's not something I plan on doing professionally or very seriously, though, so that's not a top priority. Academically, as I've said I'm interested in history - mainly British and Western European - and literature, again mostly British. So I'd like somewhere that has good English and History departments. I also like politics, so a good political science program would be nice. I don't care about Greek life or sports particularly, nor do I care about hyped up school spirit. I can take it or leave it.</p>
<p>sharpielove, I have similar GPA/SAT as you and visited colleges over spring break last year (I'm a senior now). I stayed in the NE region and began in Boston, visiting Harvard (just for novelty, I wasn't planning to apply), BU, and then drove out to Medford to visit Tufts.
Then, my dad and I drove up I-95 to see Dartmouth. You said you didn't want a rural location, but the Dartmouth campus is incredible and the town is, well, quant (basically a few blocks, although there are larger towns nearby).
We drove back south to western MA to see Amherst (the campus was too Puritanical for me).
To end it, we drove to see Wesleyan (CT) and Brown in Providence.
I ended up applying to 4 of these colleges, but just the experience of visiting a diversity of campuses helped me out when making my final college list. So just visit a variety of schools that you're interested it, you may find out that you don't really care for a school based on its atmosphere.</p>
<p>quagmire, that was really helpful! Maybe I will go and visit Dartmouth, just to see.</p>
<p>Yes, I do ride huntseat, so maybe I'll look into Cornell :)</p>
<p>Would it be a waste of time to go visit Harvard, Princeton, etc. since I have basically no chance of getting in? I don't want to sacrifice more reasonable schools just for novelty.</p>
<p>My only recommendation is, even though you are on spring break, make sure that the colleges you visit are not on break. You'll get so much more value out of the experience if classes are in session and students, professors and university staff are available.</p>
<p>You certainly don't have to limit your itinerary to reach, match and safety schools. It's your spring break, time and money. Check out any school that you want to, for any reason or no reason. If it has been your dream to visit Harvard or Princeton, go for it!</p>
<p>restating UVA and W&M. Everywhere you can. I seriously regret not visiting more schools :)
"Virginia is horse country"- now thats one I haven't heard before. wow. cool. lol</p>
<p>You may want to check out Washington & Lee as well - in the middle of ''horse country'' - and you can bring your horse too - if you have one - lol............ Beautiful area - Virginia Horse Center is right around the corner.......</p>
<p>I think I will definitely check out Duke and maybe UNC-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest in North Carolina. I also want to check out W&M, and maybe UVA, but I think it would be a big reach. Wesleyan and Brown will probably be on my list. Washington and Lee is too conservative for me, I think.</p>
<p>If there are any schools you're particularly interested in, and the school isn't at spring break at the time you go (which would be bad! Try to go while it's in session if possible at all!), consider doing an overnight instead of staying in the hotel with your parents. You'd be surprised how much it can help you find out about a school! My one regret from applying to colleges was not doing more overnights.</p>
<p>I would suggest looking at the following schools:</p>
<p>Tufts--great location, equestrian club
Dartmouth
Colgate (possibly too rural, but meets your criteria otherwise)
Cornell
Skidmore
Columbia--it has an equestrian club and of course it's an amazing school
Bates
Amherst
University of Rochester</p>