<p>If you really and truely didn’t know who or what you wanted to be and do after high school, what colleges would be best in helping you to define yourself? The only thing I’m pretty sure I want in college is a suburban or urban feel. How do people know if they like/don’t like things like a greek life or class size or campus size if they never experienced them. Help anyone?</p>
<p>Are you sure you even want urban? Alot of urban campuses lose the “college experience.” Rural new england campuses are beautiful and there is so much happening on campus that you’d likely forget that there wasn’t a city. </p>
<p>Personally I think the top schools with brilliant, yet laid back student bodies are the perfect college experience. You can major in practically anything and yet still be competitive for top grad schools and top jobs. The truth is an econ major at an Ivy has access to better jobs than students at most of the undergrad business schools. In my mind, there is no question that the top schools and Ivies are the perfect places to define and find yourself while still having limitless options.</p>
<p>Hi slipper, thanks for responding. I don’t actually know if urban is better I just know that my home town in very rural and I want something bigger. Your point about the “college experience” is well taken and I think probably more important than urban/suburban. Are there colleges (any size) that are especially good for those that want to explore all options before chosing a major?</p>
<p>I would say that the most balanced schools in terms of campus life, options (great grad placement and recruiting), and overall feel (strong community, alumni loyalty) are schools like (In my opinion):</p>
<p>Princeton
Yale
Dartmouth
Brown
Stanford
Amherst
etc.</p>
<p>Great list, the problem would be getting into those schools.
Quick stats ACT = 28 (only taken once, will take again in the fall)
GPA uw 3.8 w 4.08, only one EC Rhythmic Gymnastics: US Jr. National Team 2 years, Senior National team and World Championship team current.
No colleges offer Rhythmic gymnastics so it’s not like they are looking to
fill positions. Still not sure if all of the above or other top schools make you declare some sort of major.</p>
<p>You can be near a big city and still have a campus feel. There are lots of great, spirited, “traditional feel” schools that are right on the outskirts of large cities. If you want change, that’s probably your best bet.</p>
<p>Another thing that would probably be good for you is a strong core - this will force you to explore all sort of options, rather than taking mostly classes from your major. That’s the problem with most large universities - they don’t have strong cores, so you’re mostly just working towards whatever major you pick that day, and changing majors after your sophomore year will usually result in you having to stay an extra year. </p>
<p>Larger LACs would be good, as would most medium-sized private universities.</p>
<p>Try Villanova - a nice, traditional campus feel, but not far from a big city. Or Saint Louis U. It’s right on the outskirts of SL, a fairly large city, but has a residential campus. You might also like Santa Clara, which is just a short drive from San Francisco. Or even Tulane, perhaps. The University of Miami is another possibility, having lots of school spirit, but being just a drive from Miami. </p>
<p>Then there’s always Northwestern and Boston College, as reaches. Near cities, but still have strong campus feels.</p>
<p>Have you tried the SAT? I personally think its much easier.</p>
<p>No, I haven’t had a chance to take the SAT. It has always worked out that I was away at a competition when it was being held at my school. I’m hoping that it works out this year and I can take it in October. I am retaking the ACT in October as well. I don’t know how much time I’ll have to study for either of them but I’m going to try and squeeze it in. Thanks
Worldchanger, I am sort of looking at Northwestern since it seems to have a good core and and lot of options for majors. I’ve read where you can easily change majors and/or schools there too. It may be to much of a reach for me though so I’ll look into the other schools you suggested as well as school that I can concider safeties. Now that I know I’m just looking for a good core right now that will help.</p>
<p>If you can get your ACT or SAT up, I think you are a very good candidate for most schools. Being at the national level of something is a good “hook”. Another Sr Rhythmic team member got into Yale this year, I would guess you know that? (I do artistic, I just heard it through stuff and she actually used to post on the Yale board here so it’s not like I know her or anything). But anyway if you do maybe you should contact her and ask how her search went or if she did anything in particular to sell her hook to the school. </p>
<p>You will of course have to declare a major at some point during your college career, but most schools give you until the end of sophomore year or so. You don’t have to declare it when applying to any of these universities, although if you want to be in, say, engineering, sometimes you have to apply specifically to the engineering school. But applying to what is usually called “arts and sciences”, you just apply and then declare a major later on. </p>
<p>I know it’s hard to take time away from training, and it seems like nothing gets done after practice, but if you have a week off any time this summer, I think you should seriously consider visiting a few schools that are kind of near you with different feels and then seeing what you like. A good way to start searching is geographically. For example if you are on the east coast, you may decide because of logistics, to rule out schools all the way on the west coast. You may limit it further to a few states, or a few certain cities. </p>
<p>A few urban/suburban options to look into:</p>
<p>DC: George Washington, Georgetown, George Mason (suburban but kind of close), University of Md (chance at merit money possibly, almost urban in it’s area and very close to DC).</p>
<p>Baltimore: Johns Hopkins</p>
<p>The OP asks a very intelligent question: how do you decide what you want if you’ve never had the opportunity to experience them? There is no perfect way, but there are a few things you can do. </p>
<p>The first is get one of the “insider” books about colleges. Read it not particularly for the description of a given school, but to get a sense of what kids rave about, what they complain about. Many things may not have occurred to you, but as you read about them you start to build a better picture in your mind of what you might want or dislike. </p>
<p>The second thing is to do some campus visits, preferably when school is in session next fall so you get a sense of what the campus feels like with students and can talk to them. Start with nearby colleges of various types (large, small, urban, rural, etc) and don’t rush it. Try to spend several hours or a day on campus. Take the tour, talk to kids sitting reading the paper around campus or in the cafeteria, see if its possible to attend a class or two. Try to get a sense of what it’s like to be a student there. With this info you can better target the types of schools you’d be interested in. As you build a list, try to visit those schools.</p>
<p>The third thing, that really brings home what a school is like is an overnite visit. Many schools can arrange these with a volunteer host in the dorms. You bring a sleeping bag and spend a nite in the dorm, get a chance to see what kind of kids attend the school and what it feels like to go there. Publics seldom have these programs, but you probably know kids from earlier classes who are at your state’s U and you can arrange a stay with them. Armed with your earlier research you’ll have an idea of the kinds of questions you want to ask, and an overnite visit lets you meet a half-dozen or more current students and really talk to them about what they like/dislike about their school, as well as the immersion experience of being there for more than a quick visit. I’d advise focusing your overnite visits on schools that are quite likely to accept you, since you can’t realistically do all that many of them. Save the Ivy and the like overnites (if those are among the schools you’re considering) for admit weekends.</p>