<p>Thanks everybody, I really appreciate all of your advice. </p>
<p>Mom2collegekids, it will be hard choosing 2-3 of each, but I’ll narrow that down and post again soon! In the future, I see myself as a professor of chemistry. Either that, or an economist working for the Fed. I’m hoping to figure out which one (chem or econ) I like best while in college. However, I’m declaring chemistry as my major. </p>
<p>Momrath, neither Michigan nor Minnesota are my home states, Illinois is. I wouldn’t mind attending UIUC, and am definitely applying there. I wish I had the resources to visit some of the LACs I’ve listed. I want to eliminate some of them based upon the social atmosphere (overly competitive) and the quality of the science/economic programs. </p>
<p>For economics, you probably want a school with decent math and statistics offerings, including junior level courses in real analysis, linear algebra with proofs, probability, and statistics.</p>
<p>Note that Minnesota public schools are relatively low cost for out-of-state (about $30,000 per year for the Twin Cities flagship and about $23,000 per year for the Morris public LAC). But that may still be too expensive for your family income level.</p>
<p>In that case Illinois is your safety. Get your application to Michigan in now and perhaps that will be an alternative too. </p>
<p>You still have to clarify whether need based aid will work for you. That would apply to most of the schools on your list, no matter what their level of selectivity. If need based aid doesn’t work for you, you can forget about many of the schools on your list.</p>
<p>For LACs I wouldn’t worry too much about cut throat competitive atmosphere even at the most selective. If they admit you they will help you succeed. For strong academics and energetic, social kids in a similar feeling to Bowdoin and Colgate, I would add Williams, Hamilton, Amherst. They would all be interested in a high achieving Hispanic and have good sciences and economics. </p>
<p>I like Pomona and Stanford, but if you’re looking to eliminate I would cut them because you won’t get any diversity credit. Or maybe drop Yale and keep Stanford.</p>
<p>I would drop Lehigh and Bucknell because you can use Illinois as your safety.</p>
<p>With the recent (2-years ago) shift to the CommonApp Michigan has seen a dramatic increase in applications year over year (+25% in year 1). This resulted in a lot of people who normally might have considered Michigan a ‘pretty safe’ app to be wait-listed and even rejected. I think you’d get into Michigan but I think it’s risky to think of it as a safety. Furthermore, OOS non-loan financial aid at Michigan is getting scarce, so I certainly wouldn’t consider it a ‘financial safety’.</p>
<p>Michigan also considers “level of applicant’s interest” (unusual for a public school), so it should not be considered a safety for admissions.</p>
<p>Stanford and Pomona do list “ethnicity” as “considered”, although (as with any college that considers it), it is not necessarily obvious to outsiders how it is considered.</p>
Sorry to hear that. It was one of the best kept secrets in admissions, but no more. . .</p>
<p>
That was exactly my point. California schools get a lot of high achieving Hispanic applicants so the OP’s background isn’t as much as a plus as it may be at schools that want to recruit Hispanics for their diversity balance.</p>
<p>Michigan has been getting pretty selective-- barely any kids from my school get accepted. </p>
<p>I don’t know if I made this clear, but Yale has always been one of my dreams schools. Crossing it off is not an option! After doing some thinking, I’ve decided to cross off Northwestern, Pomona, Bowdoin, and Dartmouth. The latter because I haven’t taken SAT II tests. The former has an undesirable location (too close to home!). Pomona and Bowdoin are smaller than my high school, I’m not sure if such small schools offer a “real” college experience.</p>
<p>Pomona has the 5 other colleges in walking distance so it feels like a lot bigger place. I had a Turf 5C dinner tonight and there were literally like 5000 students gathered there. Events, 7 dining halls, the largest liberal arts library collection, 2500 classes: all benefits of being in an (excellent, arguably the best) consortium.</p>
<p>You would be discrediting yourself if you didn’t apply to Pomona; it fits your description almost word for word as Nostalgic pointed out.</p>
<p>You make a great point. Pomona also offers an all-expenses paid visit to “diverse/high-achieving seniors”. Hopefully I’ll get accepted so I can see the campus for myself! </p>
<p>I haven’t taken SAT subject tests, so I think I’ll cross Dartmouth off my list for that sole reason. There really is not enough time to study for 2 subject tests at this point. I might also get rid of Michigan, Virginia, and Colgate. One last thing-- if you had to choose between Bucknell and Lehigh, which one would you choose and why?</p>
<p>We visited both with my son. Bucknell is more like a LAC (though it has engineering), compared to Lehigh which has lots of pre-professional students, though that is oversimplifying it.
Bucknell is more preppy than Lehigh. Lehigh has a pretty campus, while Bucknell’s is beautiful. Lehigh is in a small kinda run-down city while Bucknell has a cute little college town, albeit in the middle of nowhere. You can find plenty of partying at either school. Academics are excellent at either. You need to decide which one is for you…</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Cross off any schools that don’t meet basic quality standards, for example (if you’re comfortable with rankings) anything that does not fall inside the USNWR/other top N for your reach, match, or safety set. You might set N to 30 or so for your reaches, 75 or so for your matches, 100 or 150 for your safeties. If you think rankings are complete bunk, fine, but in that case try to come up with your own “fit” filters such as size or location, and apply them objectively to your list. </p></li>
<li><p>Then cross off any out-of-state public university, unless (a) it has specific programs of interest and (b) you have good reason to believe you’ll be able to afford it (it offers guaranteed merit for your stats, or is one of the very few public schools that is need-blind & full-need)</p></li>
<li><p>Also cross off expensive private schools that are not need-blind, full-need (or close to it, i.e. on average, > 90% of need is met and your stats are in their top 25%)</p></li>
<li><p>Finally, cross off ay school that is more selective than your #1 choice.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks for the help, everybody! I think I’ve finally narrowed down the list to the top 12, here it is:</p>
<p>Bucknell
Penn
Stanford
University of Wisconsin
Yale
Brown
Pomona
Washington University
Rice
Miami University (financial safety)
University of Illinois
Bowdoin</p>
<p>and then a few schools with free apps just because: Tulane, U-Minnesota, Washington and Lee.</p>
<p>Good luck with your choices! It is a great list of schools. </p>
<p>Do try to visit as many as you can. My daughter had mostly LACs on her list, she wanted the intimate atmosphere and attention from her professors. She had a “dream” school but when she visited she was very underwhelmed with the college. Perhaps she had spent so much time building it up that when she actually visited the school it did not live up to her expectations. Her second choice however was perfect in her eyes and has lived up to all her expectations.</p>