What colleges should I apply to? [Interested in Math/Science]

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I'm currently a junior in high school and I was wondering what colleges I should consider applying to. There's so many of them out there, and I'm not asking for a complete match at this point (I'll have summer to decide). What I'm asking is for a long list of maybe 100 schools that I should consider. From those 100 can narrow down the selection to 10 that I will actually apply.</p>

<p>My interests are:</p>

<p>-Math/Science major.
-Medium to small sized school (10,000 students or less, but if a school that is large does its best to accomodate students by dividing them, etc. please include them).
-A school with LOTS of money so they can afford to meet my special needs.
-Strong education.
-Located in the northeast, but I won't be so strict about this.</p>

<p>Just so you know, I live in New York and take the most rigorous curriculum in my school and have a cumulative GPA of 97 (I don't know how that converts to a 4.0). I'm male and live in an average-income family.</p>

<p>A small list of mine so far. All but Caltech are northeastern, I think.</p>

<p>Caltech (my dad went there so he can provide me with lots of insight, etc.).
-Williams (top, small school ... good).
-RIT (close to home, and appeals to me since it has strong art programs as well as math/science).
-Harvard (they have lots of $$$ and are in the northeast).
-MIT (I heard they are good ... but I honestly don't know much about this school so more research is needed).
-Haverford (I did some research on that school and it does appeal to me).
-RPI (it's close ... and it's a tech school).
-Swarthmore (my dad recommended this becuase it's small and a good school).</p>

<p>So...any suggestions? Thanks in advance. :) I'll have lots of work to do over the summer.....</p>

<p>Oh, and no religious or conservative schools, please. :)</p>

<p>Most of these schools aren’t in the Northeast but I think you have the GPA to get into the top math/science schools in the country which are:</p>

<p>Caltech
MIT
Princeton
Stanford
UC-Berkeley
UCLA
University Of Michigan
University Of Texas</p>

<p>4/7 are in Mass so most are in the northeast. If you consider NY and PA northeast (which I do) then all but Caltech are. </p>

<p>OP, what do you mean by “A school with LOTS of money so they can afford to meet my special needs”? What are your special needs? </p>

<p>Beyond that, how are your standardized tests? I assume you took the PSAT? Your grades are great.</p>

<p>Dan, Go to HVCC. It is the harvard of all community colleges, and I know their cutoff GPA is a 98%, but they <em>might</em> take you with that 97 if your SAT balances it out. </p>

<p>On a more serious note, ivies have a large endowment, and can help you with any type of special need. Also, you should try looking at some of the liberal arts schools that have relatively small classes and a better student-teacher ratio. HYPMS is going to be a reach for anyone, but some of the top liberal arts schools such as Swarthmore and Amherst might also be reaches since competition is at its zenith. I would imagine, however, that LAC’s have a better art program though.</p>

<p>Ha ha Nuclear Pakistan. ;)</p>

<p>Thanks for your comments, pierre, erin’s dad, and dare I say pakistan. :)</p>

<p>I don’t really want to discuss my special needs at the moment, as well as my standardized tests.</p>

<p>SO … a revised list. Oh, and I’m assuming I should probably decide if I like liberal arts schools … And I consider Penn/NY to be the northeast.</p>

<p>-Caltech
-Williams
-RIT
-Harvard
-MIT
-Haverford
-RPI
-Swarthmore
-Princeton
-Stanford
-UC-Berkeley
-UCLA
-University Of Michigan
-University Of Texas </p>

<p>I probably won’t include Amherst, because their dean of admissions said that they are a very verbal school. :(</p>

<p>My dad told me some bad things about UCLA, but I don’t think he has the right info.</p>

<p>I think you have a pretty good list. I’d add Chicago and Northwestern to your list too. It fits most of your criteria except for the region, but hey, Chicago’s much more like the NE than Pasadena will ever be. =)</p>

<p>I’ll add Chicago and Northwestern. My dad said a lot of bad things about Chicago as well … lol he criticizes too much.</p>

<p>Not exactly sure why you are applying to RIT, the only person I know that’s going to RIT is one of the worst students at my school, apparently it’s really easy to get in, you do get a lot of $$ though but you can get $$ at other schools too</p>

<p>pierre, you’re offering personal subjective responses, and it is biased. That is not meant for this type of public forum where high school students are given advice. “the only person I know that’s going to RIT is one of the worst students at my school” that is for one a terrible thing to say, and one student does not exemplify an institution as a whole. While I respect your opinion, and respect your concern, watch what you say because it can offend some people on this forum. </p>

<p>RIT is a good school if you are going for mathematics and has a better department for it than other top 50 schools.</p>

<p>NuclearPakistan1, I’m sorry if you are offended by my comments. I just feel CC is the place where everyone can share their opinions on certain schools and it just happens to be my opinion that the students at RIT are not of the same caliber as the OP (since he has near a 4.0 GPA)</p>

<p>

Those meet virtually none of the OP’s criteria. They’re a great deal larger than 10,000 students, they’re not in the NE, and they’re certainly not very generous with money.</p>

<p>A few that come to mind…
[ul][<em>]Allegheny College
[</em>]Bowdoin College (loan-free)
[<em>]Brandeis University
[</em>]Bucknell University
[<em>]Carnegie Mellon University
[</em>]Franklin & Marshall College
[<em>]Haverford College (loan-free)
[</em>]Tufts University
[*]University of Rochester[/ul]</p>

<p>If you have genuine need, Caltech might support you. But they really don’t have a reputation for generosity.</p>

<p>I doubt I would apply to Caltech … they’re just so math/science oriented…and also my dad told me that when he went to Caltech the students there were very immature.</p>

<p>My revised list. And just to make it clear, it’s not that much of a problem if a college is expensive.</p>

<p>-Caltech
-Williams
-RIT
-Harvard
-MIT
-Haverford
-RPI
-Swarthmore
-Princeton
-Stanford
-Tufts (forgot about this before)
-Allegheny College
-Bowdoin College (loan-free)
-Brandeis University
-Bucknell University
-Carnegie Mellon University
-Franklin & Marshall College
-University of Rochester</p>

<p>PS thanks nuclearpakistan.</p>

<p>I should probably start writing these choices down in a notebook, etc. Thanks everyone for your comments.</p>

<p>NYU Poly?</p>

<p>In New York…</p>

<p>chicago78, you’ve posted 10000 (sarcasm) times on CC the following:</p>

<p>“NYU Poly”</p>

<p>Rice fits your criteria, except it is in Houston, TX.</p>

<p>Florida State</p>

<p>Just out of curiosity, what bad things did you hear about UCLA from your father? I can’t think of anything that anyone might not like about besides its large student population and of course the consequences of a large student population.</p>

<p>Now to address your question: I think you should look at Lehigh, Duke, U Chicago, and Notre Dame. Those are all great schools that meet most of your criteria, except the location. I really think you should reconsider UCLA and Berkeley though. Both have superb Math and Science departments.</p>

<p>Michigan State University has great Math and Science programs. And it could pay your tuition.</p>

<p>[Michigan</a> State University](<a href=“http://www.msu.edu%5DMichigan”>http://www.msu.edu)
[MSU</a> Mathematics Homepage](<a href=“http://www.mth.msu.edu/]MSU”>http://www.mth.msu.edu/)
[College</a> of Natural Science - Michigan State University](<a href=“http://naturalscience.msu.edu/]College”>http://naturalscience.msu.edu/)</p>

<p>@ hotasice - Rice would be nice, but as you pointed out it’s all the way down in Texas. I don’t want to go that far and I imagine the weather would be very hot, which I can’t stand.</p>

<p>@ ron paul - Florida State has the same problem as Rice, it’s just too hot down there and it’s far. :(</p>

<p>@ collegeundergrad - He did mention that UCLA was too large for me, and also said that UCLA wasn’t a good school academically. He must have been comparing it to HYPSMC. Oh, and Lehigh is just fine with me (the location is OK) and I’ve actually visited that place before. Is Notre Dame a religious school?</p>

<p>@ boed74 - I’ll consider Michigan State University. How is the neighborhood there?</p>

<p>Thanks everyone for your comments. :)</p>

<p>-UCLA
-UC Berkley
-Caltech
-Williams
-RIT
-Harvard
-MIT
-Haverford
-RPI
-Swarthmore
-Princeton
-Stanford
-Tufts (forgot about this before)
-Allegheny College
-Bowdoin College (loan-free)
-Brandeis University
-Bucknell University
-Carnegie Mellon University
-Franklin & Marshall College
-University of Rochester
-Rice
-Michigan State
-Florida State</p>

<p>Now I’m wondering which of these schools have fraternities and don’t … I haven’t decided yet but it seems like I’m edging towards no fraternities. And I hope none of these schools have a strong drug/alcohol culture.</p>