trying to cut down my list, which schools WOULD you eliminate?

Consolation
Sun, 10 Aug 2008 15:20:00 +0000

Pomona and Yale would be precisely the WRONG schools to eliminate for money reasons, because both have very generous FA. If you can, get your parents to run a couple of the good online FA calculators, such as the one on the Amherst website. Don’t assume that more expensive, need-blind schools are going to be more expensive to attend. Those are the schools that have the money to give. Many of the others don’t.

I also disagree with those who say that you should apply to just one type of college. Most people are not set on a single environment that will suit them: there can be things that are appealing about different settings. In addition, your thoughts about what will suit you may well change by the time you are faced with making a final choice. Most importantly, you should keep your options open until you see where you get in and how much money they give you.

I would suggest that you apply to around 10 schools, UNLESS you have a rock solid academic AND financial safety that you would really LOVE to go to.

That said, your original list seems top-heavy to me.

Here are some thoughts:

Pomona vs Claremont McKenna: P is harder to get into, CM is much more pre-professional. They are in the same consortium, so you can take classes at both. I’d say you should consider CM, but check out whether they have connections/internships in journalism, and how well they prepare people for professional school in the other fields you are interested in. They are going to be big on fit. (Assuming you are interested in going to California.)

Yale/Harvard/Columbia: unless you can convince them that there is something really special going on with you, very unlikely. Pick one if you want.

Brown is slightly easier to get into, rumored to be good for URM candidates, and they seem to like social action ECs.

Have you considered Syracuse? I would look into it. Your stats are very good for them, and they are strong in communications/journalism.

Another LAC to consider is Swarthmore. Last year they actually sent out a mailing to URMs after the regular application deadline asking them to apply and extending the deadline just for them. It’s a very tough school, though. Make sure you’d be up for the challenge. I would also take a look at Bowdoin, and I would look at the good women’s colleges, especially Mount Holyoke and Smith (both of which are in the 5-College exchange with Amherst, U-Mass, and Hampshire).

If you can manage to send your ACT instead of your SATs, I think it would be to your advantage. Unless, of course, you can get your math score up significantly (your other scores are fine, although definitely in the lower part of the range for the Ivies on your list). I don’t know much about IB stats, so I don’t know if your math program/scores there will help counter your current math score.

I dont know much about southern schools, but it seems that you have some potential choices there, such as Vanderbilt, Rhodes, and Wake Forest.