What colleges should I be looking at?

<p>I'm beginning my search for colleges and I want some suggestions at what schools I should be looking into. So far I'm thinking BC, BU, Tufts, UConn, Villanova, Holy Cross, Northeastern, Ithaca, U of Albany, Rutgers, and Temple but I really don't know if these are right for me grades</p>

<p>I'm ranked about 15-20th in a class of 120. I have a 3.7 unwieghted GPA so far and weighted it will probably be around 4.0. When all is said and done I will have taken 4 AP courses and 4 honors courses. I took high school math and science in 8th grade. I've taken both Spanish and French. I'm taking science, history, and english courses for my electives instead of art classes. One thing is my sceience classes might be lacking because I never took chemistry and have no AP's in that subject.(I am taken anatomy instead of a lab science this year and I have a 95 in it. My teacher keeps telling us it is a college class even though there's no AP so I don't know if that helps anything) I've played softball for 4 years and volleyball for 2. I live and work on a farm so I have an unique background to bring to a school. I'm very active in my church and have altar served since I was 8. I contribute to my community by picking vegetables that then get donated to charities. I've also worked on my high school yearbook for 3 years. I want to major in journalism or Political Science. For the political science thing, I have had straight 100's in history since 9th grade including my AP classes. I don't know if that helps for anything but I thought I'd throw it out there.</p>

<p>Also, I'm attending a private high school that is selective with admissions. It's a competive school and ranked high in my state for it's academics.</p>

<p>Money isn't really a worry because my parents do have some saved and we qualify for a lot of aid.</p>

<p>Thank you very much for any help :)</p>

<p>Are you currently a junior? Once you have SATs, we can be more helpful. What do you plan to study or hope to do with your degree?</p>

<p>Also, what criteria did you use to select the schools you have chosen already?</p>

<p>I’m a junior and I haven’t taken the SAT’s yet. I’m taking the SATs in January but Im going to be looking at schools before I get my scores so I want a general idea of what schools I still should be looking at now. I mentioned above what majors im into. </p>

<p>The schools I’ve chosen are because they are in the northeast where I live, have an average GPA of about mine, and have strong sports programs for the most part which is something I want.</p>

<p>If you qualify for a lot of aid, you want to focus on schools that meet 100% of need. Most on your list don’t. Public colleges rarely give much to OOS students and schools like BU, northeastern and Ithaca are known for crappy aid unfortunately.</p>

<p>Forget the money thing, that’s for me and my parents to worry about and if we don’t get aid I’ll take out loans. What schools fit my grades? That’s what I really wanna know</p>

<p>You stand a reasonable shot at Villanova, Holy Cross, BC, and Tufts. The rest are relative safety schools or very solid matches.</p>

<p>I also forgot to mention before tht I’m a national honor society member (my school does it that you just get inducted in 11th grade) and I have won a few awards for my accomplishments in history and I won something for the scores I got on the NEDT’s.</p>

<p>@required_details</p>

<p>thanks for the opinion :)</p>

<p>It’s so hard to tell without scores. Tufts could be the big reach on that list because it takes 1420 - 1440 (CR + math) to feel at all comfortable. But if you end up in that range there are other schools you could add. You might want to look at Colgate and some small schools like Lafayette and Dickinson.</p>

<p>Something else is I also want an idea of want I want to aim to get on the SAT’s. Right now I want to try to get around a 2000-2100 and a 30 on the ACT’s. but I don’t know if thats right for those schools.</p>

<p>Check the Common Data Set for each school. That will give you the information you need about how competitive you are academically relative to the pool of accepted students.</p>

<p>Aim for higher than a 30 on the ACT’s for those schools. I would shoot for a 32 for BC and Villanova and maybe even higher for Tufts.</p>

<p>I googled the common data set and I really wasn’t able to find anything.</p>

<p>I’m still not sure if these are schools I should be looking at though. Are these to competative for my grades or not? What schools should i really be starting to look at?</p>

<p>I want to be a theoretical physicist.</p>

<p>What i need to do?</p>

<p>Some of the schools on your list are good ones to be looking at with your grades. Can’t speak as to whether they are good in physics or not.</p>

<p>I wasn’t asking about physics that was someone else on this post.</p>

<p>But thank you for the in put.</p>

<p>are you looking for small or big?
how far are you willing to travel?</p>

<p>Don’t care about size…preferable a competative school though because my mom believes I should be going competative and she son’t pay unless I go competative. </p>

<p>I’m willing to go to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Conneticutt, New York, eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Baltimore area Maryland, and Washington DC</p>

<p>I’m also interested in journalism/political science and I’m applying to northeastern as a transfer. I hear the journalism program is great! </p>

<p>I know you say that the important thing is the competitive nature of the school and I think most of the ones you’ve picked out fit that description but what else are you looking for in a school. You say you live on a farm so how do you feel about the city? Does religion fact in? Describe what would be you dream school! because the atmosphere of the schools you’ve mentioned are all very different.</p>

<p>BTW I think its great that you are looking at schools seriously your junior year, this way you’ll have a better idea of what you want when it comes time to apply next year. I rushed things and didn’t think everything through and now I’m transferring…</p>