Good schools for someone who doesn't know what they want to do?

College Search & Lists
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<p>I’ve always had trouble trying to think about what exactly I want to major/minor in, and with college admissions around the corner I’m starting to think my best bet is to find a school with a multitude of strong programs. I’m a strong student in most subject areas, and especially excel at math/chem/bio…however, most of my ECs (Debate club, writing for a literary magazine, Jazz Band) aren’t as STEM-related. I really have no idea what I want to do, though in the past I’ve thought about engineering or Political science. Any ideas/suggestions?</p>

<p>My scores, btw:
SAT-2350 (CR:760, M:800, W:790)
ACT-36 (M:35, S:35, E:36, R:36)
GPA-98.8 unweighted
SAT IIs- Chem:750, US:710, Bio:760, Math 2:760</p>

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<p>How about Princeton? Based only on your scores you seem to be a candidate with a reasonably good chance. Princeton doesn’t make you apply to a specific school or college, and is very good in STEM.</p>

3

<p>Them are some kind of scores, OP! Nice work. One would hope that the most elite colleges would want the well-rounded person, but often they prefer the monomaniac who is driven to and focused on what special thing. Is there any of that in your ECs? Without any sign of focus or passion or expertise, the most elite colleges might not be interested in your application. Still, you should apply to a couple that might be more likely to emphasize your scores and GPAs over your ECs: perhaps Penn, MIT, Stanford, Duke, Chicago, others will have more suggestions.</p>

<p>College in my mind, if not in the minds of ivy AOs, is about exploration of possibilities, and so maybe these most elite schools are not necessarily best for you, who seems to like exploration. So I’d suggest you look at some match schools that offer a wide variety of courses and disciplines (as large state schools like Michigan and Berkeley and UCLA do) so that you can be introduced to a variety of fields (Engineering, English, Journalism, History of Science, Science Writing, etc.). On the other hand, you might also check out matches where there are few or no gen ed requirements so that you can, say, double major, or major with two minors, and not have to spend a lot of time on intro courses. Brown (I know it’s an ivy) and URoc come to mind, as do Wesleyan, Trinity, New College of Florida. Others can add to this list or you can search CC for them.</p>

<p>What about money? Have you parents who are comfortable shelling out 240K for four years of u/g? Have you run each school’s net price calculator so you tell your parents what each school expects them to pay? How is just as important as where.</p>

4

<p>Most colleges don’t require you to declare a major when applying. I’d say that you can shoot for the stars, as long as you have at least one solid academic and financial safety (your state’s flagship public university is probably good for that, especially if it has an Honors College). I’d say that you could consider Georgia Tech, Purdue, and Tulane near-safeties, and Washington U-St. Louis and Vanderbilt are matches for your test scores (they have low overall acceptance rates, but very good ones for high-stat applicants).</p>

5

<p>First of all, thank you all for the responses. I’ve looked into your suggestions and found a few possibilities that I’ll have to research more. In response to jkeil911, it’s not that I’m not a “focused” or “passionate” person, it’s just that often I don’t know which of my “passions” is my first priority. I should clarify my original question to some degree. I may have sounded as though I am not truly interested in exploring any subject, but in truth I just don’t know which of my many interests to pursue. In regard to my ECs, I am very “focused.” I have been the Vice President of my debate club for two years, and I love to speak on a myriad of topics. Similarly, I have been a writer for my school’s literary magazine for four years now, and have a definite interest in creative writing. I like the idea of a double major (or two minors), and it is an option I will certainly explore. </p>

<p>As far as money goes, my financial situation is not ideal, and I am hoping that I can get in somewhere with substantial financial aid/scholarship. I think in a perfect world my parents would be able to pay 120k for four years of school, though obviously that number may rise/fall depending on the quality of the school.</p>

<p>Again, thank you all for your advice, it really is appreciated. Clearly I have a good amount of research (and self-reflection) to do.</p>

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<p>So perhaps you could say, OP, that your passion is in communication? In that case, the elite schools will want to know what writing or debate or speaking awards you have won–do you see what I mean? The ivies will want focus AND excellence. (Btw, I apologize for the absence of excellence in the writing of the last post.) However, there’s probably not a school anywhere that you can rule out with those scores, decent ECs, and great essays (see sentence #2). </p>

<p>You already know what you want to do, OP. You want to explore possibilities and pursue arete, and as I said you’ll want to pick a college where you’re encouraged to do that. As long as you stay out of programs in engineering, music, and any other that requires single-minded commitment to that program you should be fine. Spend a couple years taking courses in speech, rhetoric, creative writing, logic, bio/math/chem, and some fields you haven’t mentioned like geology or anthropology or art history. </p>

<p>Here’s a first and second semester schedule:</p>

<p>Freshman English I
Humanities I
Bio I and lab
Chem I and lab
Intro to Sociology</p>

<p>Freshman English II
Foreign Language 4 (Speech and Communication)
Bio II and lab
Chem II and lab
Intro to Rhetoric</p>

<p>I’m assuming you’ve been able to skip Calc I and II by taking BC Calc. If you can get out of FE, all the better. Substitute a Logic course for FE I and a Creative Writing course for FE II. Perhaps the Foreign Language course is unnecessary, so take an Intro to Sociology or Anthropology course.</p>

<p>By the time you’re ready to preregister for the third semester, you’ll have some idea of the efficacy of pursuing Math/Bio/Chem, your FE reqs will pretty much be done, and your GenEd math reqs will be done. So the second year courses can begin to focus while continuing to explore. It will all come together as your knowledge of each of these fields expands.</p>

<p>Your education doesn’t have to end with 4 years of college. It could just be the beginning. What you don’t take in college you can take after you graduate. You can take graduate courses in a field different from your major. You will have a rewarding life if you continually re-invest in education.</p>

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<p>IMO going in undecided is not a problem for any school. Just look for a college with a list of majors that seems to be wide enough to accommodate all of your potential interests. FYI I’ve heard more than one admission officer say that of the people who apply with a major, half of them end up switching during their time in college. So you are not the only one in this boat. Don’t let it be a limiting factor in your college search. The only thing is that if you want engineering (or think that you do) then it may be easier to apply to an engineering program – it can be hard to start an engineering program late since many of the courses are sequential but it you can always drop out of engineering for another major.</p>

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<p>Thanks again guys! I’m not totally opposed to going in undeclared, and who knows, maybe I’ll figure out a major by the end of senior year. jkeil911, thank you for the incredibly detailed response.I can’t say I was thinking that far ahead, but your suggestions are duly noted. I think you are definitely right in saying I shouldn’t commit to a single-minded program. Though I have considered engineering in the past, I was mainly interested in the chemical/biomedical fields, and those could always be explored in graduate school with the appropriate chemistry/biology degree (if I end up going that route).</p>

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<p>I don’t see a problem here, and pretty much any college is a reasonable possibility for you. You should get ahold of a Fiske Guide asap if you haven’t yet and start to develop some preferences.
.
My kid sounded a lot like you. Was very strong all around… EC were Lit Mag co editor, varsity sports, but did have a science EC where she did some advanced work. So she went undeclared at all her colleges. She started out doing more math and sciences and stumbled into the major very organically. She did complain once that no one encouraged her for a tech school and I had no idea she was interested. </p>

<p>The thing is for engineering you almost always have to be accepted to the engineering school and start freshman year. You can change out of engineering but not alway in. At Brown, you only need be accepted to the university as they do not admit by major at all, but you do have to start taking the curriculum freshman year. You don’t need to declare an engineering major or specialization until end of sophomore year, however, so it is seamless to decide when you want as long as you are keeping up with the engineering classes. I’m not sure of other schools that offer this.
<a href=“Admissions | Engineering | Brown University”>http://www.brown.edu/academics/engineering/undergraduate-study/admissions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Brown does not have a core, but engineering has a core. You can take an elective each semester, say polysci for the first year and still keep up. You’d have engineering, chem, applied math, maybe CS your first year. See the sample program guide on page 9. If you decided against Engr, then any classes to date would just fulfull part of your credits toward graduation as there is no core otherwise. You would just need the requirements for your new major.
<a href=“Engineering | Brown University”>Engineering | Brown University;

<p>This is only a suggestion possible path based on what you mentioned in your post. After the first year you’d be open to engr, poly sci, chem, applied math and math-cs major ad something entirely different is still available. Still you could continue the engr program sophomore year with one elective each semester and decide then.</p>