I am a Junior with a 3.4 GPA and I have taken two honors classes as well as 3 AP classes and am taking almost entirely AP classes senior year, I am also an Eagle Scout, in Band, and have been in a selective NASA class for the last few months. What are my chances of getting into a good college and what are some that I will likly get into?
St. Lawrence? Puget Sound?
Colorado State, Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Mississippi, Cincinnati, Louisville, Arizona State, Houston, Transylvania, Bowling Green, Florida International, Scranton, Michigan Tech, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wyoming, Maine, Indiana State, New Mexico, Nevada, St. Anselm, Niagara, UMass-Boston, Wittenberg, Duquesne, Creighton, Ohio U., Marshall, Valparaiso, Springfield.
I would start off by taking the following steps:
–Talk to your parents about any limitations on your college search (ex. financial, geographic, anything else).
–Do you have standardized test scores? If not study for the exam and take it early next year. If you have SAT/ ACT scores please include on the thread.
–Talk to your guidance counselor to develop a list. If your HS has Naviance that is a valuable tool.
–Get your hands on some good college guide books (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review) which can often be found in the guidance dept. or a library and start reading about schools in your academic range.
–Try to visit a some different types of schools.
–Consider what you want in a college. Anything you care about is fair game. A few ideas of questions to ask yourself are: What size school do you like? Do you want Greek Life? Do you care about big time sports? What type of location (not just geographic, but also rural/urban/suburban) do you prefer? What do you want to study?
–My parents would prefer for me to go instate (Virginia) ,but they would allow me to go anywhere in the US
– I have taken my sat once and got a score of 1230, I plan on retaking it in August or September and taking two SAT subjects tests
– My counselor is clueless when I asked her about this stuff, if my school does I am unaware of it
–I will look into those
–I have visited VMI,George Mason, UVA, and Virginia Tech and I liked all of them
–Size and Greek Life aren’t too important of deciders for me and I would want sports ,but it isn’t a done deal if their program isn’t the biggest, I’d prefer Urban or Suburban
– I’m still deciding between Physics and linguistics which I know are pretty different
Would your parents being willing to pay more than in-state public tuition? That will be a huge factor in looking elsewhere.
Tech seems like a possibility. Everyone loves it there.
If they will pay OOS, it seems like a state flagship like the University of South Carolina, University of Tennessee might be an option. They have the recognition of being a state flagship but can be more accessible in terms of admission than a UVA, even for an in-state VA student. Sports would obviously be huge. University of Missouri is another idea. It has been going through a crisis, and enrollment has plunged. It is supposedly cutting programs that don’t contribute as much to the bottom line, so I don’t know what might happen to less marketable majors like linguistics. It might be a great contrarian play though. NC State and UNC Wilmington and University of Delaware would be other possibilities
In the northeast, Vermont is a nice school in a spectacular college town. It is a particularly expensive public school for OOS students though. I’m not as familiar with New Hampshire or Maine, but they are supposed to be nice too. Clark University in Worcester, MA is another New England one that comes to mind. I’m not sure about the linguistics program there (I mean if they have one). Holy Cross, also in Worcester, would provide you with outstanding academics, as good as anywhere. You might need to up your test scores and have a strong fall there though. It is private and expensive and aid may or may not work.
City schools like Cincinnati and Houston, mentioned above, are interesting ideas.
Maybe you can study physics AND linguistics! It’s an interesting combo. Good luck!