<p>Alright, so i filled out one of those sheets with all the personal questions and stuff with my guidance counselor, and he spent a few weeks reviewing it and came up with a large list that he thinks will suit me and my interests fairly well. He's a close family friend so i trust his judegement, but he asked me to start narrowing it down. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO! I was wondering if you guys could give me your opinions on the schools he picked out so that i could get a sense of which ones don't seem to match me at all, and which ones i should investigate further.</p>
<p>Here's the list:
Cornell
Princeton
Stanford
Dartmouth
Harvey Mudd
Johns Hopkins
WPI
UC Santa Barbara
UC San Diego
USC
Carnegie Mellon
Lehigh
Lafayetter
Penn State
Tufts
UVA
Middlebury
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
RPI
Trinity
U Michigan
U Washington
Waterloo (Canada)
Queens (Canada)
UBC (Canada)</p>
<p>LeMoNhEaD-
What are your SAT scores? What will your major be? Where do you want to go to school (region of the country)? In which state do you live? What extracurricular activities? Is money a big factor? Do you want a small Liberal Arts College or a larger university?</p>
<p>Well, i wasn't asking so much about admission chances as what people's personal opinions were of those schools...but here are the answers to all you questions, and more...</p>
<p>-I am a junior white male, from New Jersey - i am not american though, i have dual citizenship romanian/canadian
-Go to a super competitive public school, number one public school in NJ
-GPA - 89% unweighted, 91% weighted (my school doesn't do a 4.0 scale)
-By the end of senior year, i'll have completed 7 honors courses and 7 AP courses
-SAT - 670cr 700w 780m
-I'd like to stay either in the northeast for college, or all the way on the west coast (California looks freakin' sweet)
-Money is a factor, i'm definately applying for financial aid wherever i can
-the size of the school doesn't bother me too much (so long as its not huge, lets say no more than 25000 undergrads)
-I am very interested in Physics, and plan to major in that, but not engineering necessarily. I know at many schools engineering has the curriculum pretty much made up, while i need room to explore.
-EC:
Robotics since 10th grade (i'll probably be co-captain of mechanical team next year)
Row Crew every Summer
300+ hours of community service at Church
National Merit Semifinalist (226 on PSATs)
Co-founded Ultimate Frisbee team at school - entering tournaments in spring
men's chorus
play bass in a band called Lemon - we play shows here and there</p>
<p>did a bunch of other crap that i can't remember...sorry</p>
<p>Just as a sidenote, i have a legacy at Princeton, my dad went there...</p>
<p>invest in the fiske guide or princeton review's 363 best colleges and start reading!</p>
<p>yeah, i'm headed to buy one this weekend, but it wouldn't hurt to hear other people's opinions too...</p>
<p>Ill try to give you basics on most of these schools.
Cornell- great engineering and environmental science. campus is known to be rather depressing. in the middle of nowhere. about 15,000 students. stereotype of giving a lot of work
Princeton- great all around. beautiful campus. princeton,ny is a nice suburbian town. about 5,000 students. stereotype of being filled with rich kids.
Stanford- great all around. mexican/hispanic inspired architecture. 5,550 kids
Dartmouth- rural area, beautiful campus, smallest ivy, really cold
Harvey Mudd- good engineering, rather new, dont know much
Johns Hopkins-good pre-med, IR, not in the best part of baltimore
WPI- engineering
UC Santa Barbara- sciences
UC San Diego- sciences
USC- communications, IR, economics, engineering. not in the best part of LA, about 16,000 kids. stereotype of filled with rich kids
Carnegie Mellon- engineering, math, hard sciences, tepper. work really hard
Lehigh- filled with rich kids. rather strong enginnering
Lafayetter
Penn State- HUGE. like 44,000 kids. ridiculous
Tufts- good liberal arts, IR, economics, biology. in a nice suburb of boston. not a lot of a party scene
UVA- top 3 or 4 public schools. lot of old money there. rich kids.
Middlebury- small LAC in a rural town. strong in international studies and languages
Vanderbilt-
Northwestern- in an affluent suburb of chicago, strong in hard sciences, journalism, economics, poli sci, nice campus right on the water
RPI- engineering
Trinity
U Michigan- party school, good academics, huge classes
U Washington</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the feedback, my list is already one school shorter. 44000 kids scares the ever loving crap out of me.
As for michigan, are all the classes really big, or just the intro ones? Cuz a few big intro classes wouldn't bother me, but if all the classes are huge, that would be a bit disconcerting.</p>
<p>Also, does anyone know about the social scene of any of these schools? Life out of the class is just as important as life in the class to me.</p>
<p>If you can get into Mudd you should check it out. They are likely to give you financial aid. On the other hand, being a white male puts you against odds at HMC. It is probably one of the hardest schools for a white male to get into in the nation... you're dual citizenship should help out though.</p>
<p>Mudd size = 720 students of only undergrad. 5000 students at all the Claremont Colleges.</p>
<p>Physics seems to be a pretty popular major here. Roughly 20%. Still, however, engineering is 65%.</p>
<p>yeah i checked em out and liked them a lot, the only problem was this:</p>
<p>Q: Will my chances of gaining admission be affected if I apply as an international student seeking financial aid?
A: Yes. Since we will only admit international students who can provide their own financial resources or whom we decide to fund, chances of gaining admission improve if the international applicant does not apply for aid.</p>
<p>i saw that on their website, and that kinda burst my bubble...I'll probably still try though.</p>
<p>................bump...............</p>
<p>a lot of colleges arent need blind for international applicants</p>
<p>To be more specific, only HYP, Williams, Middlebury, and MIT are need-blind for internationals. </p>
<p>Middlebury has excellent science programs, but its physics department isn't quite as strong as the other sciences. It's a great school, the students are friendly (very similar to Bowdoin), and grad school placement rates are superb. </p>
<p>Princeton would be an obvious school to apply to. It's close to home, and you're a legacy. Your stats are a bit low, but Harvard admits ~40% of their legacy applicants (I assume P has a similar rate). You'd have to apply ED to get the advantage, though.</p>
<p>Stanford is an awesome school with a strong physics department, but it will be tough to get into, especially as an international requiring financial aid. It might be a good idea to consider Stanford for grad school.</p>
<p>There seems to be quite a variety of schools on your list. Stanford and Vanderbilt are about as different as night and day, and Dartmouth and Johns Hopkins aren't that similar. I suggest reading about the schools, perusing their websites, requesting brochures, visiting, etc. Finding a good fit is more important than a top-notch physics program. Most good schools have strong science departments, but it's hard to find a school that fits your personality. </p>
<p>There's ways to narrow down your list. Do you want a small school or a large school? An urban campus or in rural nowhere? A big social scene or a studious atmosphere? Housing for all four years, or do you mind living off campus? Study abroad? Dining options/quality? Availability of sports and clubs that interest you? There's tons of other factors you can use to narrow down your list. I suggest making a list of what you want and then scratching schools off that don't meet most of your criteria.</p>
<p>also, Princeton is in NJ, not NY as stated somewhere above</p>
<p>well, as a matter of fact i've been doing just that, and i've scratched out vanderbilt, penn state, u washington, u michigan and usc. But i still have plenty left on that list.
Just a note, that was a list of "suggestions" my guidance counselor had, he encouraged me to cross off and add as i saw fit.</p>
<p>the updated list is:
Cornell
Princeton
Stanford
Dartmouth
Harvey Mudd
Johns Hopkins
WPI
UC Santa Barbara
UC San Diego
Carnegie Mellon
Lehigh
Lafayette
Tufts
Middlebury
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
RPI
Trinity
Waterloo (Canada)
Queens (Canada)
UBC (Canada)</p>
<p>anyone know about the social life/out of class opportunities at any of the above schools?</p>
<p>heh, vanderbilt is not supposed to be on that list up there. I mentioned taking it off, but i guess i never did...
anyway, does anybody know what out of class life is like at those schools?</p>