I can’t tell whether you didn’t read that I also have public colleges on my list or you just default to condescending.
Regarding your assertion that it’s the student’s responsibility whether he or she graduates on time, perhaps you should ask the many students who are held up by “systemic challenges” (http://www.forbes.com/sites/specialfeatures/2013/07/25/the-rise-and-fail-of-the-five-year-college-degree/). My parents both attended public colleges. Mom got all of her classes when she needed them and graduated in 3 years. Dad didn’t. It took him 5.
Thank you! I welcome the help and the lack of judgment. I’m in something of an unusual situation. I’m a triplet with one younger sibling (20 months younger) in a family with a low six-figure income. All four of us likely will go to college, but my parents cannot afford to pay the way for all of us. I aspire to be a physician and plan to major in a science. I am a pre-IB student also taking some AP courses and haven’t yet taken my SATs.
Why am I planning already? I also am an athlete and would like to play my sport in college. The recruiting cycle for my sport is such that my club coach has encouraged me to begin thinking about potential fits already. If it is an option to play DI/DII (a big if), I’m reluctant to go down that path because if I have to quit playing to keep my grades up, I would lose any athletic scholarship money. DIII would probably give me more flexibility, but since DIII schools do not offer athletic scholarships, I would need merit help since four years of undergrad, plus four years of med school, plus at least three years of residency is going to put me in a deep, deep hole. In a nutshell, though, right now I’m keeping lots of options in play but am a little overwhelmed at how many options there are.
Here are the general criteria of schools on my initial list:
[ul][]75th percentile SAT scores equal to or higher than 1200
[]6-year graduation rate > 70% (although preference given to those with a 4-year graduation rate > 60%)
[]offers AP/IB credit
[]has at least 1,000 students
[]coed
[]in the Midwest, Northeast or Mid-Atlantic, with exceptions made for a handful of schools in Colorado and a few around the Southeast (mostly the Carolinas and up)
[]no Ivies or other schools with very high application rates
[]no military
[li]no colleges in giant cities (such as Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, D.C., NYC, Philadelphia) — although I’m OK with Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Nashville[/ul][/li]
I seem to be drawn most to smaller private colleges in the Midwest but don’t want to rule out others that may be solid possibilities.