what second-tier colleges should i consider?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>i'm aware this question is extremely broad, but i'm lost and i'm not too sure where to begin. I plan to apply to top schools like UChicago, Northwestern, Duke, Princeton, Dartmouth, Stanford, Wellesley, Pomona, Tufts, etc. with a focus in the biological sciences. Many counselors have told me I have a shot at these schools; however, as most people know they're difficult to get in to. I don't want to apply to just these top tier schools and possibly be rejected by them all. So, just to be safe I'm looking for second-tier schools that are similar to the top schools. </p>

<p>... But I don't know where to start.
Does anyone know second-tier schools that are similar to the top-tier schools I listed above?
Just giving some name will help, but if you could tell me what majors that school is strong in, it'd be awesome.</p>

<p>thanks :)</p>

2

<p>i hope i get a few responses soon c:</p>

3

<p>What are your stats, test scores, EC’s, etc. Any area of the country or are you limiting yourself geographically? What sized school? Urba, suburban, small town? Financial aid required? Prefer public or private? Please provide some info so that your situation can be better assessed.</p>

4

<p>Depending on your state of residency, your in-state public universities may be good safety choices.</p>

<p>If you plan to major in biology, you may want to pay careful attention to avoiding debt. Job and career prospects at the bachelor’s level are not too good; if you intend to go to medical school, be aware that even if you do get in, it is expensive, so you do not want to be dragging a lot of undergraduate debt around.</p>

5

<p>Have you tried looking into U.S. News?</p>

<p>Also, assuming that you fail to get into any of those schools (not that you will), would your next choice be a top-ranked public school, or a lower-ranked private school? In terms of public schools, the schools you should be applying to would be your state’s flagship school (like Berkeley, if you live in California, for example), and other public schools that you might be interested in (California: UCLA, UCSD, etc.). In terms of private schools, I would say roughly the schools ranked roughly between #17 ~ 35 would be second-tier? Don’t apply to all of them; pick a few that you like. If you like living in the city, perhaps NYU or USC would be good fallback options?</p>

6

<p>Possibilities:</p>

<p>Reed College
Kalamazoo College
Earlham College
Lawrence University</p>

<p>These schools share 3 characteristics:

  1. They are all liberal arts colleges with small average class sizes.
  2. They all have placed in the top 20 in recent years for per capita PhD production in the life sciences or biological sciences.
    (sources: <a href=“http://legacy.earlham.edu/ir/bac_org_06.htm[/url]”>http://legacy.earlham.edu/ir/bac_org_06.htm&lt;/a&gt; ;
    <a href=“http://legacy.earlham.edu/ir/bac_org_06.htm[/url]”>http://legacy.earlham.edu/ir/bac_org_06.htm&lt;/a&gt;)
  3. With the possible exception of Reed (which I would not label “second tier”), they are not among the 75 most selective schools.
    (source: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/687793-selectivity-ranking-national-us-lacs-combined-usnews-method.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/687793-selectivity-ranking-national-us-lacs-combined-usnews-method.html&lt;/a&gt;)</p>

<p>Other possibilities:
Connecticut College (strong botany program)
St. Mary’s College of Md (beautiful campus, nice location for marine bio field work)
University of Washington, University of Wisconsin (tied for USNWR #15 for graduate biological sciences)
your state flagship</p>

<p>More selective possibilities (“match” territory for some Ivy applicants):
Colorado College (Rocky Mountain setting and one-course-at-a-time “Block Plan” create interesting field work opportunities)
Grinnell College (among the top 10 for bio/life science PhD production)
Oberlin College (another small “PhD factory” for bio/life science)</p>

7

<p>I agree with tk’s recs.</p>

<p>I’d also add Rice and Vanderbilt to your list of possiblities.</p>

8

<p>^ Rice and Vanderbilt are two more good choices, but realize they are about as selective as Tufts, and maybe more so than Wellesley.</p>

<p>Speaking of Wellesley, how about other women’s colleges? Smith is less selective, seems to be a good science school, and gives access to all the course offerings of the 5-college consortium.</p>

9

<p>The schools on your list are all very different in type and location so its hard to suggest easier to get into alternatives since you are all over the map. The one thing that they have in common is prestige and they are expensive and offer little merit but good FA. Is there any other criteria you can elaborate on?</p>

10

<p>Don’t post at 11:17 pm and bump 7 minutes later. People actually sleep at times. Not cool!</p>

11

<p>^ Pizzagirl, wait until you hit 10K posts.
They send you a WiFi ankle-bracelet to alert you when hot topics hit the forum.</p>

12

<p>Grinnell College</p>

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<p>Ridiculous to call Grinnell second tier.</p>

14

<p>@zagirl: Absolutely correct Grinnell is not second tier, but OP should add it to the list.</p>

15

<p>“second tier” it actually doesn’t sound politically correct, LOL…
How about “less selective” or “less competitive” ?</p>

16

<p>Not sure how strong their bio programs are, but look at: University of Puget Sound, University of Washington, Brandeis, Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, Boston University, University of Rochester (great biology/pre-med), UC Davis (great bio/ag school)</p>