I’m a white male from a upper class area in CT. I’m normal smart for my school but there are some REALLY smart kids above me. Will graduate in upper 10%(my school does not rank). I am heavily involved in sports(3 seasons Varsity since sophomore year), I volunteer coaching kids 2x per week, have 4.15 weighted, took 1 AP this year(Stat) and really think I rocked the exam and hope to get a 5, I’ve taken all honors in every other subject since freshman year. Taking AP micro/macro, AP calc AB, AP Comp Sci, and AP Phys II next year along with Hon Lit and Hon Chinese. My recs will be great(I think!) and my essay will not be amazing but pretty good(I think!) I work really hard for my success. Oh, and got a 33 on ACT(1 sitting). Give me some realistic advice please???
How much will/can your parents spend? What are you looking for in a school?
My parents can afford anything and I am not looking for LAC but more along the lines of Econ or math possibly engineering.
Do you have any preferences regarding size, location, etc? Does your school have Naviance? Are you a junior? Will you be taking AP classes your senior year?
You don’t have to be nervous- you are a very good, solid student. As long as you apply to enough matches and safeties, you will be fine.
Honestly your resume is better than mine was when I was a senior in high school, and I got accepted to 6 of the 8 colleges I applied to, 2 of them being University of CA schools and 3 being Cal States. I think you’ve got a great shot at being accepted to some schools, but I don’t know how great your financial aid packages will be. I know I didn’t qualify for aid from FAFSA and no schools gave me aid, which encouraged my choice to go to a community college (also I didn’t get into my top school). At this point it’s not about getting in; will you be happy there? Can you see yourself spending every day on your particular campus? Are there fun clubs and non-academic programs for you? Do you like the weather there? Is it too far from home or not far enough? At the end of the day, you’re a good enough student to get into a lot of schools. But deciding where you’ll fit best is the hardest part. Best of luck!
“Give me some realistic advice please?”
First, don’t be nervous. You are doing very well and are likely to have multiple very good choices for universities to attend.
The next thing is to do is to try to get a better sense regarding what you want in a university. Visiting some campuses can be helpful. People usually start with campuses near where they live just because you don’t have to drive as far to take a look. From Connecticut obvious places to start might be UCONN and possibly UMass Amherst. Brown is a reach but might be possible and is not too far away. One good thing about Connecticut is that there are a lot of universities that are not all that far away (such as in Boston).
Think about where you want to go to university. Would you rather stay in New England, or are you open to going further away? If further away, where? There are some advantages to being not too far from home. A few students go elsewhere in the US or abroad.
You should run the NPC on some schools and show the results to your parents. “My parents can afford anything” is a theme that sometimes holds up and sometimes fades when parents see what university actually costs (which can be ugly). Also, many students would rather same some of the available funds for graduate school, a semester abroad, or to just to let their parents have a bit more left for retirement.
When considering schools, look at the programs that they have in subject areas that you are interested in. The large ones however frequently have a very wide range of majors available.
Feel free to ask questions on CC. Take the advice you get back with a grain of salt (in most cases it will be worth at least twice what you pay for it).
I would relax. You have great credentials, and you’ll get into a great college. What vibes do you want from a school? More artsy, preppy, jockey, or etc?
Do you want a big U or smaller tech institute?
Thanks for the responses. Some really good advice from all of you. Brown is def not for me. I don’t think I will apply to any Ivy. Big university is not really for me nor a small one. I guess the bottom line is that I’m not really sure what I want and need to spend some time visiting colleges that have my interests. I’m probably looking for a college town type atmosphere. No city or rural places.
So not a big uni or a small college. So a mid-sized uni. College town, not city or rural. Not Ivies.
I hope you realize that you’re cutting off a lot of options with those criteria.
All that comes to mind that fit your constraints are UVa and UNC and maybe some other smaller publics.
I am having a hard time coming up with schools that meet this criteria. I think UVA and UNC may be too big (?). I was thinking Emory- it’s in a suburban part of Atlanta.
So I was thinking Emory too. Carnegie Mellon, Jhu, Vandy, UVA, and maybe Tufts? Ugh! All are really hard to get into. Need some safety schools… UNC is out. They take nobody from my school according to Naviance. Literally 0 in the past 3 years.
Wake Forest? There is a small town a few minutes away.
Miami? William and Mary?
U of Rochester ( not urban)
???
CMU, Vandy, and JHU are all in cities. JHU is in a pretty urban/gritty part, in fact.
Look at Syracuse and SUNY’s for safeties. And there’s this, for what it’s worth: http://www.nebhe.org/info/pdf/tuitionbreak/2017-18/brochure/2017-18_Tuition_Break_Brochure_Connecticut-Residents.pdf
Maybe take a look at Case? It’s not right in downtown, but has a lot nearby.
SUNY Binghamton is a good safety. How about Lehigh?
Yeah but aren’t all just outside the city area? As opposed to UPENN or NYU which is plop down in the middle? JHU is just north of downtown, right? And Vandy is on the outskirts, right? CMU I’m not really sure.
Vandy is not in downtown Nashville… it’s more on the outskirts. There is also Duke and Rice. These are all reaches.
William and Mary is a good suggestion. It is LAC, right? But has a good business school. Wake is also LAC.
Wake has about 4,500 undergrads. I think W & M has about 8000 students?