Match me: Incoming senior looking for new college ideas [NJ resident, 3.9 GPA, top 3%, 1490 SAT; history, political science, music]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Female US citizen from New Jersey
I go to a large public high school
Legacy at Cornell and UPenn
Not focused on budget concerns at the moment, just looking for schools that are interesting to add to my list!
Possible Intended majors: History, Political Science, International relations and a music minor
UW GPA: 3.9
Weighted: 4.4
SAT: 1490, but will be taking it again to hopefully bring that score up
Class rank: 14/600
APs: AP Seminar (5), AP Research (4), APUSH (5), AP World (5), AP Psych (5), AP Human Geo (5)
AP Capstone and AP Scholar awards
Extracurriculars: VP of my school’s Spanish Honors society, Secretary of my school’s Music honors society, social media officer of my schools Young Democrats club, secretary of my county’s Youth Democratic Party, violin player in my school’s Pit orchestra and in an advanced youth orchestra in my community, volunteering at a local cat shelter, and a part time job.

My dream school is Dartmouth, and I plan on applying ED there, but I am looking for other schools that are similar that may be a good fit. I want a smaller school, and have been looking at a lot of northeastern LACs. I need to find some schools that are a bit more probable for me to get into as a lot of the ones I’m interested in are very selective.

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What aspects of Dartmouth are appealing to you? Are there any other schools that you like, and what’s interesting about them? Any schools that you actively dislike?

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Where are you STEM APs? You are very one sided I’d say.

Why is Dartmouth your dream school? The rural location? It’s hard to know what you want besides - smaller.

But William & Mary come to mind…as does Miami of Ohio - which campus wise feels like W&M but may be too big.

But tell us more about what you want - you might be missing a lot of great college ideas.

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About Dartmouth, my main things are the size, location, and sense of community, the history and government departments, the D-plan schedule, the opportunities for undergrad research and fellowships even in the humanities, and the foreign language programs with “drill” classes. Other schools I have liked are Williams, Amherst, Colgate, Hamilton, and Lafayette, mainly because of their size and locations combined with strong academics. I think dislikes are mainly just schools with a city campus (like NYU for example), and really large schools.

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I know I’m definitely one sided, I really just am not super interested in STEM unfortunately. I will be taking AP Stats and AP Econ next year.

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@tsbna44 took the words right out of my mouth on the above two schools. William & Mary also has a relationship with St. Andrews University in Scotland that could allow you to spend two years at St. Andrews in a joint degree program, which could be a very interesting experience: Application and Admission | St Andrews Joint Degree Programme | Arts & Sciences | William & Mary.

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Unless your parents have assured you that there are no cost constraints, talk to them and find out the limit first, so that you do not have to throw away an otherwise carefully curated list once the cost constraints are known.

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Gettysburg would be my first suggestion for you. It has about 2200 undergrads and in addition to traditional offerings in political science, it also offers a public policy major that takes advantage of its Eisenhower Institute and its journal on public policy. Additionally, it’s strong in history, particularly American history around the Civil War. It also has a well-reputed music program.

Siena is another possibility. It is in a suburb of Albany, so it’s not a super urban campus, but you can get to the NY State Capitol in less than 15 minutes. It’s another school that has good American history offerings. And if you hear about the NY Times/Siena political polls, this is that Siena. History | Siena College , Political Science and International Relations | Siena College, Revolutionary Era Studies | Siena College.

ETA: Added some links for Siena

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OK- Miami of Ohio might be too big for you.

The St. Andrews program could be a wonderful idea.

Let me throw a few things at you - and I know this might be a tad off track - but hear me out - especially given the majors:

  1. Many schools have sense of community although that will be seen differently by different people.

  2. Everyone has history and government departments - and most are very good

  3. Every school has opportunities for research - even in the humanities

OK - now let me go one more level off - you can seek schools to have a list, but in the end, finding a school has to do with budget - that’s A, B, and C of importance unless you have no restrictions.

So this year Dartmouth is over $88K direct to the school. If your family says yep, no problem - then it’s great and pretty much any school in America is ok.

But, assuming you don’t have need, if your family says - we’re not paying $400K for a Poli Sci or History degree, but rather only $200K - then your list has to look different.

So you can say not focused on budget concerns at the moment - but the sooner the better - so you don’t waste time.

OK - some other thoughts - your SAT score is great. But what is the balance (English to Math - because if math is much weaker - and you’re not taking a STEM schedule - you see the consistency there). Dartmouth showed a combined median of 1520 - 750 English (but the 25/75 is 710 to 770) and 770 for math with a 730-790 25/75. But not everyone will hit that decile. They don’t show a total - nor does the CDS - so it’s hard to know if 1490 works - but it’s in that 98/99 percentile range - so if you don’t do better - don’t fret. It’s strong!!

I do think your lack of sciences/math will hurt you at Dartmouth - but you never know. What is your highest level of math - not stats? If you could take an AP science next year, I would. That’s me.

So back to others:

W&M will not have the weather of Dartmouth - which to me is good as Dartmouth is coooooolllldddd. You noted you liked the location - is it due to weather? You might look at Carleton (reach) or St. Olaf (likely) in Minnesota - both a bit smaller and won’t have the grad school heft (size) of Dartmouth. Sounds like they might be a bit too far as your list is NE.

Miami Ohio likely too big. Your legacies - Cornell likely too big and Penn likely too urban.

I’m thinking - as a safer bet than Dartmouth and W&M - Dickinson - strong in IR/IS, strong in languages. That would be a great 1, 2, 3 combo - Dartmouth (reach), W&M (slight reach), Dickinson (target). You noted a few other LACs which are reaches except maybe Lafayette which could be a target. Did you look at Middlebury - for languages. You could add a Mount Holyoke - as a fourth. I was thinking Bryn Mawr - but might be too urban even though it’s suburban.

But you still need that safety. Connecticut College comes to mind as a likely for you. You might need to do a TCNJ, as an example - or go a bit bigger - Miami as I said or if you want closer East, and don’t laugh and again it’s a safety - URI is very strong in languages - and while I think my list above gets you acceptances, you still want that fail safe.

This, again, only works if your parents agree to spend big (or you qualify for need). So to summarize, I think a good list looks like:

  1. Dartmouth - reach
  2. William & Mary - reach but not as much
  3. Dickinson - target
  4. Mount Holyoke (or Bryn Mawr) - target
  5. Connecticut - likely
  6. Miami Ohio or URI - both safeties - and yes, both too big but URI isn’t huge and is strong in languages

And then you mentioned a lot - Hamilton, Amherst, Colgate, Lafayette - and I might look at Middlebury for your love of languages.

If you’re open a bit of a distance away, I noted Carleton (reach) and St. Olaf (target) (in the same Minnesota town).

Hope that helps.

Good luck

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Claremont colleges might be of interest and give a couple of schools where you can get all those humanities. How about Haverford or Bryn Mawr? Catholic in DC?

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Same immediate thought. Small, rural… and history, poli sci, public policy, and music are its greatest strengths. They offer a BM in the conservatory, but also a BA and a minor which includes performance. However, the minor does require an audition. Major & Minor - Sunderman Conservatory of Music - Gettysburg College

Dickinson isn’t as much of a music powerhouse but may be strong enough musically, and is very good for your academic interests.

Would you be willing to go as far south as Virginia? If so, both U of Richmond and William & Mary could be appealing for what you want. Richmond has performing arts scholarships that are open to music minors as well as majors. Both have good music opportunities in addition to strength in history, poli sci, and IR.

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Another school came to mind as a possibility. Dickinson has about 2100 undergrads and it has a very global perspective within the community. There are 12 different foreign languages taught here and International Studies is one of its more popular majors. You can explore its history and political science majors/departments as well. And as an example of its commitment to engaging in these types of topics, here is the fall calendar for the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

ETA: A couple other people thought of it too while I was writing!

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Do you want law school after college? Many law schools right now are 60K or more for tuition only. In five years will obviously be more.

Undergraduate at many of the schools on your list and then 3 years of law school could easily be in excess of 600K after tax dollars.

Respectfully, as @ucbalumnus mentioned above you should have the financial discussion with your parents before you formulate your list.

If the money is there for places like Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst Hamilton etc then fine go for it. But there is are plenty of stories on CC of kids who get into the “dream” school and then realize family can’t afford a 90K per year COA.

This is especially true if Law school is the ultimate objection.

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From this group, Amherst and Hamilton offer notably flexible curricula, for which you may be especially well suited.

Consider Kenyon, which offers an Integrated Program in Humane Studies that you might like.

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If you like the D-Plan, have you thought about schools like Colorado College or Cornell College (IA)? Colorado College would be another low probability admit, but Cornell College would be an extremely likely admit for you. At both schools, students take classes one at a time. That also means that students can also schedule research trips or internships on either side of their summer breaks to be for a more extended period. You can read more about Cornell College’s block schedule.

If you’re willing to go past the northeast, the Midwest has some great options for you. Plus, Iowa is still an early caucus state, and presidential candidates spend a lot of time there. Minnesota and Wisconsin are both considered states at-play in national elections as well, so they get far more attention than states that are solidly one color.

Additionally, a number of these schools are part of the Colleges that Change Lives association which are smaller colleges focused on undergrads and recognized for their attention to teaching. And since midwestern colleges are often not as popular as their coastal counterparts, these schools tend to be significantly more generous with merit aid than they would be if they were located in more popular locations, which is an additional benefit if there are cost constraints or the desire to save money for grad school (or other life expenses).

  • St. Olaf (MN): About 3k undergrads. It has the foreign languages, the music, etc, that you’ve mentioned. There have also been so many reports of people who’ve visited the campus and found the community there to be really amazing. St. Olaf College – Colleges That Change Lives

  • Lawrence (WI): About 1400 undergrads. This is another school that has a plethora of foreign language and music opportunities here. Here’s its CTCL profile: Lawrence University – Colleges That Change Lives

  • Luther (IA): About 1600 undergrads. Strong music offerings and some less common foreign languages (like Scandinavian ones), but not as varied a set of foreign language offerings as at some of the other schools.

  • Beloit (WI): About 1k undergrads. I don’t know about the strength of its music offerings, but foreign languages are one of the things this school is known for. Here’s its CTCL profile: Beloit College – Colleges That Change Lives

  • Gustavus Adolphus (MN): About 2100 undergrads. This one has some more popular foreign language majors (more students in fewer majors) and a popular music program, too.

Cornell College is also a CTCL member: Cornell College – Colleges That Change Lives

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I’ll just add another vote each for William & Mary and Gettysburg.

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Thank you so so much for all this info, I really appreciate it!

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If you would like to read a few brief comments on some of the colleges you have mentioned, this post may be of interest: NESCAC Spoken Here: - #5 by merc81.

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