@Boona716 -
I like that you are willing to go into a place where your ideas might not be matched. While you mention how you can add diversity of thought to a community, be prepared also to have your thoughts challenged back. In other words, if you are imagining the information flow going from you outward, you are missing where most the flow will happen – from your community to you. I say that just to point out that it’s not like you are sitting down for coffee with one friend who disagrees with you and you will engage is some intellectual banter with equal footing. And I don’t mean this as a negative thing, but you do strike me as being pretty convinced of your own thoughts. Again, not a bad thing necessarily – but it’s worth pointing out and suggesting you consider this as you are imagining your future at Exeter or wherever.
A few thoughts in no particular order:
If there is any part of you that is thinking that you will be improving your chances of an Ivy by going to a top BS, I would suggest that you remove this from the equation. Especially if you feel like you are already in an “ivy feeder” school. (Your potential move to Texas aside.). Your 100k isn’t paying for a better shot at college, at all. So if that is what you are hoping to get, save your money, in my opinion. (And as someone mentioned above, be careful about assuming that a matriculation list isn’t dazzling because of legacies, recruits, etc… Just because a schools sends 20% of their kids to an ivy does NOT translate into an unhooked candidate having a 20% shot at getting into one.)
I don’t know if you just used the wrong words, but to be clear, you did NOT cast a wide net. You have a handful of schools that are very similar in their acceptance rates. If you decide you really want to to go BS, then you might consider truly casting a wide net.
Make sure you don’t just see electives in a catalog and get excited about taking every last one of them. I really doubt there is any school curriculum that will allow you to take 6 political electives. So you may not need more than 1 or 2 good ones. 6 may not be “better.”
Just a logistical question: how have you taken the SSAT 3 times already since they just opened up last month? I’ve been wondering how the SSAT at home vs. prometric testing was working and if there was a new test each month, or do they just have a bunch of SSATs lined up in the queue? Anyway, this is just a point of curiosity. Can you really take one test every week, essentially?
hope this helps!