sorting out a long college list

College Search & Lists
23

First, for UCAS you only need one piece of writing - your Personal Statement, which is sent to the (up to) 5 unis you will be applying to, so don’t worry too much about that with regards to having too much writing for UCAS to make EA deadlines.

Just wondering why you are applying for history of art at Oxford, and just history at Durham? It will be difficult for you to write a personal statement that is convincing for both history and history of art. Did you not like the history course at Oxford? But tbh, history of art would be an easier admit as you will have AP art history, whereas with history you would be fighting an uphill battle vs UK applicants with an A-level in history.

Are you planning on retaking AP world history for a 5? Have you taken APUSH? WHat other APs have you taken/are you taking?

How set are you on the UK? If you want other UK unis that are maybe easier admits whilst still a bit similar to Oxford, Durham, and St. A, maybe have a look at Lancaster, Loughborough (pronounced luff-bruh), Exeter, Bath, and maybe Kent. Nottingham, Newcastle, and Surrey could be worth a look as well.

Definitely keep Williams if you like art history.

It seems to me that you want rural/small town? If this is the case take off George Washington (doesn’t even have a proper campus), St. Johns (as long as you mean university and not college), Syracuse, City college (SUNY New Paltz and Geneseo seem like fine safeties), and the American University of Paris (not familar with it but guessing by the name).

Bentley and Babson are business focused so agree with taking them off.

Madison is massive; not what you want.

What really helped me with cutting my list down is separating each school into reach, match, and safety and then focusing on cutting each group to a certain number which makes a huge list seem less daunting and easier to tackle. 3 safeties should be more than ample, unless you are shooting for merit scholarships in which case more will be needed. However many reaches and matches will be up to you.

Have you thought about what character of LAC you want? Large Greek life vs minimal, a very ‘intellectual/bookish’ atmosphere by work hard play hard. Again, rural/small town vs urban. The culture of the school will be very important for LACs.

Good luck!!

PS, I’m English so if you have any questions about UK unis or living in the UK, I may be able to help. :slight_smile:

24

Pine Manor was bought by Boston College and its website redirects you to BC.

25

Have you asked your parents how much they’re willing to pay? You should have a solid number so nobody is unpleasantly surprised next April.

26

I was about to post almost the exact thing as @austinmshauri . You want to be sure they have a modern understanding of the costs of college and that their casual assurance will stand up to the rigorous winds of the EFC. And you want them to check on this now, while you’re still open-minded and not completely in love with any particular school. Because the only thing as bad as the empty-handed kid with no safeties on May 1 is the one forced to set aside The Only School Where I Can Be Happy because the family can’t afford it. (The third horseman of this apocalypse doesn’t appear for a year or two: families unwilling to say No face their pain later, and it is much darker.)

27

I would reorder your list like this:

Amherst College - Reach
Bowdoin College - Reach
Colby College - Reach
Colgate University - Reach
Davidson - Reach
Hamilton College - Reach
Middlebury College - Reach
Williams College - Reach
Dartmouth College - Reach
Brown - Reach

Of the above, Brown has the reputation of having a more politically liberal, laid-back (for an Ivy) vibe. Most of the above tend to be sporty/preppy.

I would not base your assumptions about admission on your school’s Naviance results unless there is a critical mass of students that have applied in recent years. Just because your stats match somebody else’s on the scatterplot, that does not mean you are a shoo-in. Rule of thumb - anything with a less than 20% admissions rate should be considered a reach, especially if the school is small.

Bucknell University - Possible
Connecticut College - Possible
Trinity College - possible
St. Johns University - possible
Kenyon College - possible
Smith College - possible (this is at least as left leaning as Bryn Mawr)

I don’t know a lot about these except Kenyon which is a pretty typical small liberal arts college, politically left leaning, located in a very small town, great for writing.

UW Madison - match (great for History)
Villanova - match
Mt. Holyoke - match

Your matches are vastly different from one another. It should be relatively easy to pick which one you like the best. BTW, Mt Holyoke is less stridently political than either Smith or BMC.

Union College - likely
Hobart & William Smith Colleges - Likely
Syracuse University - likely
Wake Forest - likely
Lake Forest College - likely

Wheaton College - Safety
Hollins University - Safety
City College New York - Safety
SUNY Geneseo - safety
SUNY New Paltz - safety
Rollins - safety
College of Charleston - safety
Sweet Briar College - safety
Washington College - safety

To get this under control, I am echoing other posters in advising you to pick one or two colleges from your likelies/safeties that you genuinely like and that your parents would be willing to pay for. If it were me, I’d pick a SUNY (Geneseo has a nice LAC feel and is not ugly) and one other where you would likely get decent merit so your parents would be OK with paying the bill.

Try to narrow down your possibles and reaches to 3-4 each. Given the amount of time involved in preparing your UK applications, your list of US schools probably should not exceed 10.

Finally, fit becomes much more critical at LACs due to the small size of the student body. Figure out what kind of vibe you are looking for in a student body and that should help to narrow down. Also drill down into course descriptions and faculty profiles for art/art history and see what appeals.

Good luck!

28

100% agree. Every year here we see kids who get into a school they want to attend and their parents are shocked by the price. This is a conversation you need to have now. And it needs to be specific. Your parents need to understand the costs of these schools and they need to state whether or not they are willing to pay those costs. Being vague or making assumptions is not helpful.

I would go to them with a list of schools that you are interested in that includes each school’s tuition and room and board. Do they seem shocked? If they think it’s doable provided you get some aid, sit down with then and run the net price calculators on the school’s website to see what the cost for your family with likely be.

Make sure you have some safeties that you would be willing to go to and your parents are willing to pay for.

31

Consider the College of William & Mary in Virginia for History major.

Wm. & Mary also has a joint degree program with St. Andrews in Scotland. Students do first year at one school, second year at the other, and then student & counselor decide where to attend in the third & fourth years. Must spend two years at each school. (First year is done at the school through which student applied to be in the joint degree program. You get one degree stamped by both St. Andrews and by the College of William & Mary.)

Since you like sailing & would enjoy a merit scholarship, the College of Charleston Honors College (700 honors college students on a campus of 9,000 undergraduates = the best of both worlds) may be an interesting option. Arts Management major. One of the best sailing teams in the USA.

Part of the campus of Davidson College in North Carolina is on a beautiful large lake. Strong academics. (Somewhat similar to Bowdoin College.)

If you really want Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury, or Williams College, then you should consider an ED application. Williams College has a strong Art History program (Williams College Museum of Art).

Are you an under-represented minority (URM) ? First generation college student ?

Definitely apply to SUNY-Geneseo & New Paltz as safeties.

You might like Wake Forest University–certainly preppy. University of Virginia also.

32

It might be worth noting that Lake Norman was created to support hydroelectrical power, and now additionally serves as a cooling source for a nuclear power station. As a natural feature, the water in this region previously flowed through a river.

33

I disagree. There are 223 places available for History at Oxford, and just 13 for History of Art.

Imo, you really don’t need a service: the UK application system is much more straightforward than the US system, and there is more than enough info available free online. There are only 2 variables: your Letter of Reference (from your school) and your Personal Statement (why you and the course you are applying to are a great fit). On both the UCAS and Oxford websites you can find lots of info on how to write both (give the info on the LoR to your GC or the teacher who will be writing the LoR). There are some great CC posters with plenty of experience at the UK unis who will be happy to answer questions.

Be aware that Oxford will see all of your scores, and your (very relevant) low History AP scores are unlikely to be offset by high subject test score: In the UK APs are viewed as more rigorous (particularly for an essay-based subject), as Subject tests are all multiple choice- a format the English don’t particularly rate. Also remember that whoever writes your LoR will have to “predict” the scores for any standardized testing that you are taking as a Senior, and the UK unis can choose any combination of achieved and predicted scores they want to be the basis of any offer they make. An “unconditional” offer is just that- you’re in. A “conditional” offer means you need to provide official score reports to show that you have met the offer (whether with test results you already have, or once you have taken the exam).

34

You are doing the fun part of college picking instead of getting some hard realities in line. I don’t know why your GC would say not to take money into consideration. You say that you will likely be expected to pay full sticker price which can loom in the $80k range for some of these schools and a number of them give zero scholarships that are not need based. It’s important to talk to your parents and get a very good idea what they are willing and able to pay. It’s is absolutely not true that Amherst or Brown or any school will cough up the money if you are accepted any more than a sudden money tree with 10s of thousands of dollars will sprout up in your yard. I’ve seen many many very disappointed students here in NY who worked very hard on their applications, got into Union, Syracuse, Dickinson,etc and got the news from their parents that they were not able and/or willing to pay what it cost to go to those schools. It happens quite often. It is important to have a serious talk with your parents on how they are thinking about college costs.

A lot of times, parents in your situation want to kick that can down the road. Let the kid work hard at all the applications, secretly hoping that some big fat scholarship falls into their laps, or that the kid grabs the brass ring of HPY et al which the parents are willing to mortgage the house, break into the retirement money, take out loans to make it possible to go there. So, they say, “just apply wherever you want”, and then when the results are in and the chips are down, the real financial situation emerges.

I recommend you get a sure fire admit, the absolute safety that you know will take you and that you know you can afford , and that you can like. That last part might be your greatest challenge ; it often is for those with selective college aspirations. That’s the crux of college search. Then get several of likely schools that have merit possibilities for you that you like. Then come the reaches, and the lottery tickets. Be aware that the applications for scholarships and for some highly selective schools take up a lot of time and effort for very slim chances. The chances of getting merit money from those high reach schools that may have such scholarships is close to zilch if you are not a top candidate for them. So your parents need to be on board for paying full price for such schools if you don’t want to be one of many kids Uve known left holding the bag when they can’t come up with the money for some schools that accepted them.

35

One of my nieces loved Wheaton. She was involved in lefty politics and sports. The campus has a traditional feel but there didn’t seem to be much to do in the area outside the campus. Based on my niece’s social media, there seemed to be a robust on campus social life.