What schools would you suggest?

College Search & Lists
1

So I’m going into my junior year next year (class of 2017) and have already made a small college list but the schools I’m looking at are either in state or elite are there any schools that are good around my area that aren’t too far away?

The colleges I’m looking at are: University of Chicago, Northwestern, Case Western, Notre Dame, University of Washington at St. Louis, plus some local ones like University of Nebraska Lincoln (would want to be in the honors program to go there), Creighton, Wesleyan

School Type: public
Location: Nebraska (one of the best public schools in Nebraska)
I’m taking the hardest classes I can

9th- GPA 3.9 UW & W
–Classes
Honors Geometry
Honors English 9
Spanish 2
HALE freshmen seminar (goes by many names in other places but it stands for High Ability Learners Education, for gifted students in grades 3-9 before we can really challenge ourselves in high school)
Other basic classes

10th- GPA 4.0 UW 4.17
–Classes
Honors Algebra 2
Honors English 10
AP World History (Haven’t got results back but I think it’s going to be a 5, 4 at the least)
Spanish 3
Other basic classes

11th- going into (Schedule set)
–Classes
Honors Pre Clac
AP English
AP US history
AP Bio
Chem
Spanish 4

12th- Predicted Schedule
–Classes
AP Clac BC
AP English
AP Spanish (not sure if I want to take it)
AP Psychology
Physics

Do you think this is a good course load? Any suggestions?

ACT (took middle of sophomore year, no studying, and stayed out until 1 the night before)
Composite: 26
English: 27
Math: 27
Reading: 26
Science: 24
I think I can get this up to a low to mid 30’s. Any study tips?

SAT
took in June so no results but I felt much better with the SAT than I did the ACT, I think I did really well in math.
Any study tips? How did you or should I go about the SAT II tests?

Extra:
Freshmen basketball and baseball
Track sophomore and presumably all following years
One Act Play sophomore and presumably all following years
Debate (participant freshmen year then captain sophomore and presumably all following years)
SADD (participant freshmen year then Student board sophomore and presumably all following years)
Student Council junior year presumably also senior year (officer on one of the boards)
Gay- Straight Alliance founder/ president junior and senior year (set everything up already won’t officially start til then)
HOBY freshmen seminar
Presumably NHS because the board of teachers like me

Work experience:
Babysitting
Internship with mutual of omaha animal caretakers (pretty much working at a small zoo without all the constraints)
Farm Work

Other:
Lots of volunteer experience with random things
Going to Bolivia on a mission trip summer going into senior year (assuming this could be a good essay topic for me)

Because I still have time I just want to know what schools I am missing that aren’t huge and are good schools intellectually.
I don’t want to go to any Ivy’s or coast schools because I think they are simply too far away from my family and

2

I presume you mean, *Nebraska Wesleyan?

3

For WashU, UofChicago, Northwestern and Notre Dame you are not in the ball park. So, in as much as I encouragte you to improve your ACT score, an improvement of 8-9 points, which you are suggesting–is rather profound and large. As a point of reference, and this is from ACT people-see: http://www.actstudent.org/faq/more.html, but the average increase is 1-2 points.

4

Until you get your ACT scores up, there is no point narrowing down your list.

To give you some perspective:

U Chicago: middle 50% ACT: 32-35, middle 50% SAT: 1450-1550 (not including writing)
Northwestern: middle 50% ACT: 31-34, middle 50% SAT: 1410-1540 (not including writing)
Washington U: middle 50% ACT: 32-34, middle 50% SAT: 1420-1560 (not including writing)
Notre Dame: middle 50% ACT: 32-34, middle 50% SAT: 1380-1510 (not including writing)
Vanderbilt: middle 50% ACT: 32-34, middle 50% SAT: 1450-1560 (not including writing)
Rice: middle 50% ACT: 32-35, middle 50% SAT: 1450-1560 (not including writing)
U Michigan: middle 50% ACT: 30-33, middle 50% SAT: 1360-1500 (not including writing)
Case Western Reserve: middle 50% ACT: 29-33, middle 50% SAT: 1300-1450 (not including writing)

As you can see, you’re definitely going to need to get your ACT score way up… definitely over 30, and preferably 32 to have a decent shot. On the SATs, you need to get at least around 720 on each part.

Other schools to consider: U Illinois, U Wisconsin, U Minnesota, U Iowa, Purdue, Ohio State
However, these are all public and admissions may be harder… and they will most likely be stingy with financial aid.

For smaller colleges:
Most selective: Carleton (Minn), Grinnell (Iowa)
Highly selective: Oberlin (Ohio), Macalaster (Minn), Colorado College, Kenyon (Ohio)
Selective: Centre College (Kentucky), Sewanee (TN), Denison (Ohio), DePauw (Indiana), Rhodes (TN), St. Olaf (Minn), Lawrence (Wisconsin), Beloit (Wisconsin), Wabash (Indiana)

5

On studying for the ACT, I do think that the math section is the hardest to prepare for in the sense that it is the one section where all you need to know is math, not the test. Science tests your ability to hunt information from graphs & charts, something you get better at with practice. Reading, I recommend skimming/speed reading through a selection first and then jumping into the questions. This will give you some notion of where to find the information pertaining to the questions you are answering. English, you have to understand the usage of commas in dependent and independent clauses. Note that if two answers could both be correct because they are the same structure, then they’re both wrong (some philosophy for ya).

I recommend taking the December issue of the ACT and having them send you your test w/ the answer key. Also, don’t get discouraged by the average point increase. I went from a 29 freshman year to a 32 sophomore year to a 34 junior year. You gain some test-taking wisdom as you progress through high school.

All your schools you listed are in the Midwest, so I’ll throw some in for you. I don’t see any indication as to a preferred major, so I’ll assume anything is fair game right now. Also, you say you don’t want to miss out on smaller schools, so that would probably include most liberal arts colleges. Here are some Michigan schools that are good but you’d have great chances of getting into:

Kalamazoo College, Hillsdale College (extremely conservative, just a heads up), Hope College

6

I agree with Detroitleper. Never thought I’d ever put those words together in a sentence. I know plenty of kids that went up a lot of points after rigorous preparation. It seems like you are one to put in the time to achieve your goals! Good luck!

7

Yes I mean Nebraska Wesleyan. And lets just say hypothetically I got my ACT or SAT equivalent to a 33 would i have a shot in your opinion. Does anybody have something they can say about me at a school like TCU, or university of Denver, or Tulsa or something similar

8

Thank you I will definitely look into those!

9

Thanks everyone for the feedback and encouragement! Not sure on a major but most likely a STEM program Mathematics, physics, biology

10

I can only speak to TCU. If your ACT is over 30 and your grades stay over 4.00 (weighted), you would have a good shot at scholarship $$. If you are interested in medical school, their acceptance rate last year was 80%, which is twice the national average. There is a very high attrition rate the first year for thise “medicine dreams”. This is for graduates that made it through the full four years and actually applied to medical school, versus those who started their freshman year “planning” on medicine. Also, since many TCU students are Texas residents, that helps the medical school acceptance since TX medical schools have a definite preference for TX residents. Still, their medical school prep is impressive if that’s a direction you are planning.