<p>I am a junior in high school and I was wondering if you could give me some advice in what colleges would be the best fit for me based on my circumstances. I'm not going to list my stats specifically, but I am pretty much considering the colleges in the top 25 (both LACs and National Colleges), as well as a few safeties beyond that. </p>
<p>Basically, what I am looking for in a college includes:
-An intellectual environment where students love learning and are interested in their classes.
-A place where the people are more interested in discussing something political or scientific, for example, over what outfit they are wearing to that dance on Saturday night.
-A politically liberal environment (though nothing extremely radical).
-Lots of involvement and opportunities in extracurriculars (music ensembles, community service, clubs...).
-Diversity (race, religion, socioeconomic, orientation) and tolerance.
-Classes where professors care, class sizes are mostly small, and the students are engaged in what they do.
-Challenging academics, though with some fun mixed in.
-Overall, where students are friendly, have occasional fun, like studying, and are extremely smart.</p>
<p>Other random tidbits of information:
-Ideally, I don't think I want to go to a college with over 10,000 undergrads.
-Want to stay away from colleges in the South, mostly.</p>
<p>It looks like you are seeking the classic LAC environment. Which is fine, there are scads of them out there. However, until you know just exactly how much your family is ready, willing, and able to pay for your education, and until you know roughly how much the colleges/universities are going to expect your family to pay (start by running the EFC calculators at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and run the Net Price Calculators at a couple college/university websites) your whole list of things you want may be moot. Getting into college is one thing. Paying for it is another. In the end what you can pay will determine where you are able to go.</p>
<p>I agree with Swarthmore, maybe add Middlebury, Amherst, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Bates, Bowdin, Colby, Oberlin, Kenyon for LACs and somewhat less selective (but still an excellent school) is Skidmore. And look at Brown on the national university side.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies! I definitely love the looks of Swarthmore and Brown the most. Does anyone know about Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, and Northwestern as far as my criteria? I think I want to apply to an equal amount of LACs and National colleges just to be sure that I have options to choose from, plus my safeties of course. Also, I looked into Pomona and it also seemed like a good fit…does anyone know anything about it?</p>
<p>Penn, Dartmouth, and maybe Northwestern don’t strike me as particularly intellectual. Obviously, the students at any of those schools are going to be ridiculously smart, but from my visits to Penn and Dartmouth, the students didn’t seem like the type to start an intellectual conversation outside of class. I could be completely off, though, so don’t take my word for it.
I think you would like Yale.</p>
<p>@Erin’s Dad
My college counselor told me that the top-tiered schools are matches based on my stats. I am aware that I am not necessarily guaranteed admission, though.</p>
<p>Holy Cross and Davidson. Holy Cross has good diversity(don’t have to be religious),very good academics, nice campus, and strong school pride. HC is very well represented in political world-3 Supreme Court Justices have Holy Cross affiliations including 1 alum. HC has 1 US Senatoe, 4-5 Congressmen, Obama’s chief speechwriter and Chris Mattews amon others. Holy Cross is also need-blind for admissions and has a remendous alumni network.</p>
<p>I will look into Holy Cross and Davidson. They both sound really good, and I heard that Davidson’s campus is beautiful.</p>
<p>@BobWallace: I realize that you shouldn’t pick a college solely for its rank, but there is a trend that smarter students go to schools that are highly-ranked compared to lesser-ranked schools. There are a few exceptions to this, though.</p>
<p>Given that the higher-ranked colleges and universities only have so many spaces, and that of those very few offer really good aid for all admitted students, the plain and simple fact is that there are lots and lots of really smart students attending lower-ranked institutions.</p>
<p>If your profile makes the very best institutions matches for you, go ahead and apply. But do make dead certain that you have at least one full-on safety that you will be happy to attend if you aren’t admitted anywhere else that your family can afford.</p>
<p>Your criteria pretty much fits all of the top 25 universities and LAC’s… At all of these schools kids will be smart, intellectual, liberal, involved extracurricularly, etc. and there will be small classes. Just try to find schools you like! I vote for Yale (high extracurricular involvement) and UChicago (highly intellectual)!
Also, I can comment on Pomona since my sister attends and I have visited. It is similar in feel to Swarthmore because of its selectivity and small student Body, but it has a sorta laid back atmosphere stereotypical of the west, is pretty quiet as far as schools go, students are serious about academics but not overly intellectual, the school is not overly diverse (high CA population) but has a internationally feel, and the campus is lovely and small.</p>
<p>PAGRok, thank you so much for your advice. I’m pretty sure that Yale will be my #1 choice and that Brown, Swarthmore, Pomona, and University of Chicago will also be some of my top choices.</p>
<p>The conventional wisdom on College Confidential is that the “top-tiered schools” are reaches (not matches) for nearly all applicants. Of course, that depends on how you define “top-tiered”. The top 10, and even the top 25 or so, all reject many very strong applicants. </p>
<p>If you’re competitive for the top 10 LACs, then your “match” colleges might include Macalester, Holy Cross, Whitman, Kenyon, or some of the women’s colleges (Bryn Mawr, Smith, Mt. Holyoke). If you’re competitive for the top 10-15 research universities, then “match” universities might include NYU, the University of Rochester, Wake Forest, or some of the more selective state universities (such as Michigan or UVa.) </p>
<p>Is cost an issue? (Do you need aid, and if so, have you figured out whether you are likely to qualify for need-based aid?)</p>
<p>@tk21769
Match schools for me would be ranked 20-30 or so. High matches are pretty much anything below that (with the exception of the schools that accept like 15% of applicants or so).</p>
<p>I’d make that more like 20-25% and some schools are very self-selective and may still be reaches even with higher admission rates (ie Reed, Harvey Mudd)</p>
<p>The USNWR top 25 or so schools get many high-stats applicants. Therefore, decisions often turn on hard-to-predict, subjective factors (essays, ECs, recommendations, or “class-crafting” objectives). So even if your stats match the averages, you still may have less than a 50-50 chance of being accepted. </p>
<p>The following examples show scores and class rank of students rejected/waitlisted in the last several years at various top 30 schools, according to the CC Stats Profile tables and Results threads:</p>
<p>760/730/790 top 5% (Amherst)
770/570/670 top 5% (Bryn Mawr)
710/740/730 top 10% (Carleton)
760/730/790 top 5% (Carleton)
770/670/750 rank n/a (Carnegie Mellon, waitlisted)
800/700/750 top 5% (Cornell, waitlisted)
750/800/800 top 5% (Duke)
680/800/800 top 5% (Emory, waitlisted)
740/800/700 top 10% (Middlebury, waitlisted)
780/680/800 top 5% (Middlebury, waitlisted)
800/800/770 top 15% at competitive private school (Middlebury)
790/780/740 top 5% (Princeton)
800/790/790 top 5% (Princeton)
780/740/800 top 5% (Princeton)
780/670/800 top 10% (Rice)
660/700/780 top 5% (Tufts)
730/800/790 rank n/a (Tufts)
740/800/800 top 10% (Vanderbilt)
740/750/770 top 5% (Washington U. St. Louis)
800/790/690 top 5% (Wesleyan)</p>