Hi everyone, I am a high school junior from MA. I am trying to find out what types of colleges “fit” me, and was hoping some of you could help! I don’t really know how to figure that out, so below is a description of my personality, and hopefully it will fit with a college’s personality. I am looking to major in International Relations, my GPA is 3.68 UW and 4.3 W, and currently have a 1980 SAT. Ok thanks!
I love learning about and experiencing new cultures, and I am an adventurous person (up for new things, like jumping off a waterfall!). I want to have fun in college (I’m the kind of person that would want a spontaneous snowball fight or exploring someplace new).
I can be competitive in sports and competitions, and can be ambitious, but I am generally not a very competitive person when it comes to grades and such.
I like to read a lot, and I do like learning new things (although I don’t like math very much). My favorite classes are history or social studies, but I usually do well in my science classss too.
I am a pretty relaxed person mentally, although I do get stressed out with grades, but for the most part I just try to enjoy life.
To my friends I’m the “weird” one, although my friends are all pretty normal, but I’m kind of awkward sometimes and can say random things, although I’m pretty funny.
I’m usually late for a lot of things and disorganized, although when I am passionate about something I can be extremely meticulous and organized.
I can be opinionated on things (mostly human rights or political events), but am also very open and I usually can see both sides of an argument (which makes me sometimes indecisive).
Also I am a huge procrastinator!
I want a school that will challenge me intellectually and expand my world view, but a place that I can have fun at and try new things and make strong friendships.
I love forests and mountains and charming towns, as I grew up in a secluded area in the middle of a forest, but also nights in the city are exciting (my high school and all my friends live in a more urban city).
I think that I would fit in at a liberal arts school, and I think I would like it to be on the small side, but not too small because my high school was about 2500 people.
What kind of colleges (or specific colleges) do you think I would fit in at? It’s hard for me to figure out the “type” of college I’m looking for, so I did the best I could in describing myself!
Dickinson is good for IR. Maybe Denison.
It sounds like you’d fit at a lot of schools, so the best thing to do is research a few and see if there are any defining characteristics of the school that appeal or don’t appeal to you.
It sounds like you’re just the type of person I would be friends with. I think you have done an excellent job describing yourself and I think you are right that a liberal arts college would have most of the things that you have in mind. There are so many of them in the mountains and around nature that I think you won’t have a hard time there. There are many colleges I want to suggest, but I fear that they may be on the selective side so I’ll probably wait for some other suggestions to come rolling in before I post anything further
Will financial aid be a major issue for you? Putting that aside for now, I’d suggest Occidental, New College of FL (if it’s not too small for you), Reed (as a reach), Lewis & Clark, University of Puget Sound, Eugene Lang College at New School (although they’re weak in sciences), Goucher, Connecticut College, BU, and Colorado College (also a bit of a reach).
You sound like you want to live in the country, and visit a city occasionally. If that sounds right, then look first at colleges in the country.
Regarding size, a college with even less than 2000 students may still feel much bigger than your high school. Some colleges can be too small, but it’s hard to tell which they are just by numbers, at least at first. That’s where visits come in.
Do you want an “artsy” college? That’s a specific vibe that some seek. Or would you be fine without that as long as the student body represents a good spectrum of interests and personalities?
Wow, I could have written that exact same description about myself!!
Check out Skidmore, Bard, Occidental, Pitzer, and Whitman.
Thanks for the replies! @merc81 I’m not really looking for a specifically artsy vibe, more just a good variety of interests like you said!
The biggest question is how much can you afford? If you need financial aid, run the school’s net price calculators for every school you’re considering. You may find some schools to be quite generous while others are remarkably less so. Additionally if you need financial aid, essentially assume that all out of state publics are unaffordable.
Here are some suggestions off of the top of my head:
-Appalachian State University (NC public)
-University of North Carolina - Ashville (NC’s public liberal arts college)
-Allegheny College (PA school which requires a major in one area and a minor in another)
-Clark University (MA private with strong offerings in the social science. One of the best geography programs around, which is a field you sound like you’d be interested in)
-Oxford College of Emory (exurb of Atlanta, GA. Huge emphasis on volunteering, great diversity, and woods just outside of the school. I went here. After two years students continue on to the main campus of the larger Emory University. Great social science and humanities)
-Lewis & Clark College (Portland, OR with great access to nature, and an activist student body)
-University of Puget Sound (suburb of Seattle)
-Western Washington University (WA medium sized public)
-University of Denver (Denver, CO. Medium sized school in an urban area with access to the mountains, forests, and rivers. I’m interning in Denver and absolutely love it)
-Hampshire College (MA. Very very liberal school with a unique curriculum)
-Vassar College (NY. Great financial aid)
-Bryn Mawr College (suburb of Philadelphia, PA. All women with excellent financial aid and opportunities to take classes at next door Haverford and semiclose University of Pennslyvania)
-Guilford College (NC. Operates on the Quaker ethos which you may be interested in. Very small school. Academic safety)
-Occidental College (Los Angeles, CA. Smaller liberal arts school in LA with great financial aid and strong programs in your areas of interest. The student body is very outreach oriented. Forests are essentially non existent, and the Sierra Nevadas are rather far away. However LA still has great hiking)
-St. Mary’s College of CA (exurb of SF, CA. Outreach focused, and tucked away in a beautiful area. Academic safety)
-University of Washington (Seattle, WA. Huge public school with access to forests, mountains, and skiing. Outstanding academics)
-Syracuse University (NY. Adjacent to SUNY - Environmental Science and Forestry if that tells you anything about the surrounding landscape. Very party hard school with traditional Greek life. This is a wildcard institution)
-University of Vermont (Burlington, VT. Public school in a great college town with plentiful volunteering and outdoors opportunities)
-Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO. Big reach and employs the block plan. CC is one of the best LACs in the West)
-Gonzaga University (Spokane, WA. I’m less familiar with this school, and know that Eastern WA is very different ecologically and geologically from Western, WA but it could be a possibility)
-University of Montana (Missoula, MT. Not the best academically but nestled in an outstanding college town with amazing outdoors opportunities. In state tuition is relatively easy to establish and the honors college is decent)
-Hendrix College (suburb of Little Rock, AR. Good school, academic safety. The small student body tends to be very different than the stereotype of the state)
-University of Mary Washington (VA public about an hour outside of DC)
-Warren Wilson College (NC. Absolutely tiny school in a rural part of Ashville, NC. Work college. I’m unsure about its social sciences but the English program and environmental studies are supposed to be quite good)
UNC-Asheville might also work for you. Whitman sounds perfect, but getting there is somewhat labor-intensive for an Easterner. It would be akin to someone from the West Coast going to Bates or Middlebury, because it is quite far from any major transportation hub. I cringed when my son (whose stats were comparable to yours) applied there, imagining just how complicated it would be traveling back and forth from NJ. It generally ranks among the “happiest” colleges in the country, with a lot of outdoors and wilderness activity, but very strong Model UN and Debating programs (they even offer a Major in Rhetoric), and a good core curriculum. Walla Walla is supposed to be a very attractive small city, but it is 4-5 hours from both Seattle and Portland. They offered my son a modest merit scholarship, which met our FAFSA EFC. I think they waive the application fee if you apply by a certain deadline, so you might give it a shot. They are part of the Colleges That Change Lives consortium, as are some other colleges people have suggested here. You might want to catch the CTCL roadshow if it is traveling near you. If nothing else, you can “demonstrate interest” in colleges that you won’t have an opportunity to visit.
@woogzmama Just a note, there are flights from Sea-Tac to Walla Walla Airport. While it’s a serious pain, most major cities fly direct to Seattle, WA. I just checked Google Flights and it looks like there’s a route from NYC to Seattle and then to Walla Walla. However it is very expensive.
@whenhen - It remains a labor (and capital) intensive college for Easterners and their families to attend. It is not as expensive (or, at least, it wasn’t a year ago) as many similar LACs, but travel expenses mounted up. It would not be feasible for most kids to travel back to the East Coast for Thanksgiving, for instance, in a way that it would be from a major transportation hub.
Another interesting, possibly salient, point about Whitman admissions: they draw a disproportionate number of students from the West Coast, unsurprisingly, but the second best-represented region is New England. I suspect they dispatch admissions reps to the dense, rich turf of prep schools and affluent suburban high schools there, and attract applicants who see that they will not have as much competition locally as they would at comparable New England LACs. The Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and South were very sparsely represented.
You need to ask your parents how much they’ll pay for college. THAT ANSWER will likely determine where you should apply.
@mom2collegekids My parents told me that they’d pay for a third of my college costs, although they also want me to pick a college based on how good it will be for me/how much it fits me, rather than focus so much on the cost at first. They said that ideally they’d pay 1/3, financial aid would cover 1/3, and I (with scholarships etc) would pay 1/3, although I don’t know how realistic this is…
@katcollege: I actually didn’t think you were looking for a particularly artsy college. Since that’s the case, some more mainstream – but still interesting colleges – should get your consideration.
How would you feel about the academics-cum-ski-lodge St. Lawrence? Plenty of students from Massachusetts choose it. In your case, you could get some merit aid. Montreal would be within reach for occasional trips.
Connecticut College comes sans ski lodge, and with a gender imbalance, but could be another option for you. Apparently IR is popular here.
Regarding finances, I think you counted scholarships twice. Usually they are part of “financial aid.” Although this does further divide into merit/need aid, work-study, loans, etc.
@woogzmama: Do you think things have changed in very recent years at Whitman? As of 2010, they only had fifteen freshmen from all of New England.
I think your parents and you need to run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) on all the colleges mentioned so far on this thread. There is a wide enough range to give you and your parents a sense of what colleges expect you to pay. Just to warn you, the results may not be pretty.
If you can, it’s best to name a specific dollar amount, like your parents can pay up to $25,000 freshman year, anticipating 5% increases every year. Then, I think we can do better in suggesting schools. Saying 1/3 of costs really doesn’t tell us much.
If you can retake the SAT snd get a slightly higher score, you may be able to get larger merit awards. Whenhen gives an excellent list of possible schools. Run the.NPC on those schools and see what your parents say. Schools that are academic safeties that give merit aid may be your best possibilities. Look in the south and midwest for less expensive schools.
Whitman is a small college. I think that the ten in that class might be larger than other areas outside of the West. I was just surprised to see that there was a geographic cluster from New England. Obviously, that number is tiny when compared to the number of New Englanders enrolled at Middlebury or Bates, but when I looked at the numbers, it seemed to exceed mid-Atlantic or other Eastern regions. I might be mis-remembering this, but it was interesting enough at the time for me to take notice.
Actually, Middlebury has more students attending from California than any other state. The second (or maybe third, can’t remember) most popular state is New York So there aren’t as many New Englanders as you might think.
@urbanslaughter,
Nope, California’s third, behind NY and MA.
@SlackerMomMD @mom2collegekids I ran the Expected Family Contribution Calculator from College Board. The EFC seemed to be around $60000 on my own (but my parents swore that couldn’t be right), but then I put in that my sister (who is my twin) will also be in college, and so it dropped down to around 30,000. I think my parents would pay between 20,000 to 30,000, all things considered, for the first year. Also I have a sister who is a year younger and will be attending college a year after we start (so a total of 3 kids in college at once starting my sophomore year). Ok I don’t how much this will help, but that’s what I have so far!