Where to go?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello All,
I'm a junior who is becoming increasingly worried about applying to colleges next fall. I'm hoping that based on my stats, someone could give me some ideas of a good school in my area, or at least point me in the right direction.
So:
I live in Roseburg, Oregon, which is a smallish city of about 25,000. I'm hoping to go somewhere a bit more populated. While I don't have a problem with staying relatively close to home, I have no problem with going quite a ways away as well. So far, I've considered Stanford and Columbia, but I really don't know all that much about either school.
I'm in a large public high school now, and am looking for a medium sized school.
In general, I lean more towards liberal colleges...</p>

<p>4.0, ranked first of 398, only two AP classes this year, but 6 next year.
Sat 2210 first try, but I plan to retake in October.
Decent ECs.</p>

<p>My biggest issue is that I'm not set on a major, and the two areas I'm considering are pre-law and mathmatics. (Not very compatible, I know.)</p>

<p>Any ideas in regards to where I should apply to and all that jazz?</p>

2

<p>Looks like you are doing great!
I recommend going to a bookstore and paging through college guides. If you find one you bond with, bring it home & read at your leisure.<br>
CollegeBoard’s College Matchmaker function is helpful.
And if there are any “college fairs” in your area, you can load up on brochures, get a feel for the ‘personality’ of the school, and ask all the questions you may have.
As many people on here suggest, have the cost conversation with your parents right at the beginning.</p>

3

<p>I second the recommendation for CollegeBoard College Matchmaker. Princeton Reivew also has a Counselor-O-Matic (really).</p>

<p>And in the cost conversation, keep in mind

  • the VERY top schools offer more need-based aid,
  • the schools just below that will offer more merit-based aid to a kid with your stats,
  • what your family thinks it can afford isn’t necessarily the same as what the school thinks you can afford; check out the FAFSA 4caster to see approximately what the school thinks you can afford - EFC (Expected Family Contribution),
  • schools are NOT obligated to make up the difference between your official EFC and their Cost of Attendance (and most don’t make up that difference),
  • DON’T take out a ton of loans to go to Prestige U unless you have a very good reason (and I haven’t heard a very good reason yet).</p>

<p>You’re considering Stanford and Columbia, which are appropriate for your stats, but YOU MUST HAVE SAFETY SCHOOLS! Stanford and Columbia and all their peers have way more qualified applicants than they can accept, so you have to consider that you may not win the top-20 lotto and find other great schools as well.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>EDIT: BTW, I think ANYTHING and mathematics are nicely compatible - we need more understanding of math and logic in just about every profession! :)</p>