Hi everyone! Im a rising senior and I’m having a very hard time figuring out what I want in a school/where to apply. I know I don’t want to go to a really small school; the NESCAC ones just don’t interest me. I also want to make sure I’m going somewhere where the people are actually interesting and motivated to do well (no basic people please lol). That’s not to say I don’t want a party school though, I want to be able to have a good time. Work hard play hard kind of environment would suit me well. I think I want to go pre-Med, so it would also have to be able to offer me a solid program and have relatively good stats on med school admissions. I recently visited UVM, and it’s a safety for me but I really loved the vibe on campus, so anything similar to that, but with more rigorous academics would be great. I did fairly well in school:
2130 SAT (680 math, 720 writing, 730 reading)
4.53 GPA on a weighted 5 scale
2 APs so far (scored a 5 on US History and a 5 on Language and comp)
I’ll have another 4 APs by the end of this year which I will hopefully do well on (stats, Chem, psych, lit)
I’m also a part of the student TV news, and I ran a marathon last year (my junior year) through a club at my school. I’m part of the ski team as well, and I also volunteer and have a job so I’m pretty well balanced on my out of school activities id say.
I’ve looked at northeastern, NYU, McGill, UVM, and Wesleyan. I don’t really know my chances of getting into any of those, and the only school I know I don’t like out of those is Wesleyan. I’m also interested in looking at Colorado college (despite the fact I’m looking at mostly larger schools). But other than that, I have no idea what I want. What “prestigious” schools could I get into? I’m a legacy at brown- should I bother applying? And what other schools should I look at?
Thanks!
Lehigh, Lafayette, Colgate and Bucknell are the stereotypical work hard, play hard schools that come to mind. Boston College and Holy Cross too. BC certainly has the size you want.
UVM is a great place for pre-med, BTW.
Brown would be a reach, even for a legacy, but you should give it a shot. McGill has minimum cutoffs and your stats are above those cutoffs, except for Life Sciences, where you are on the edge. NYU and Northeastern would be matches.
What atmosphere are you looking for? Wesleyan is quite different from NYU, Northeastern and McGill.
Have you considered continuing to ski while in college? You might want to apply to places that have a ski team – that way, even if you don’t join the team, you can be assured that there is a ski culture there to some extent and places to go skiing. Here is a list:
Consider adding schools where you will be in the top 25% of the applicant pool.
It’s not about what is the best school you can get in.
It’s the school you will do best in.
It’s more likely you will do best in a school you are at the top of the applicant pool than one you are towards the bottom of the applicant pool.
Originally I really wanted an urban campus. That’s why McGill, NYU, and northeastern are on there. At this point though, I really just don’t know whether that would be the best fit for me. I didn’t like Wesleyan, not exactly sure why. It just didn’t seem right. I want a medium-large school, not too much competition and a bit of a relaxed atmosphere while still providing rigorous academics. I guess I want to be somewhere where people really want to succeed and are passionate about learning, but not in an overwhelmingly competitive way. I wanna be able to have fun, and I think that’s what drew me to UVM. I love skiing and it offers that, plus Burlington is cool and people love to be outside and take advantage of everything they have available to them. I live in the Boston area though, so BC, northeastern and BU are all really familiar to me. I want to be a little further away from home than that. Wouldn’t mind being on the other side of the country to be honest
I don’t want to ski competitively in college. If I could find somewhere that has ski outings and clubs I would love it though. UC Boulder and Colorado College are both on my list as safeties, partially for that reason
NYU is probably a good two hours from decent skiing.
I know I want to be in the school that’s the best fit for me. My concern is that choosing a safety like UVM wont be a good fit, because I won’t be challenged. That’s why I want to find more reach schools to apply to. I’m not going to go to a school just because of its reputation, that’s not at all how I see things, but I would like to see if I can find some more rigorous schools just so I have the option.
I don’t think that anyone pursuing a pre-med curriculum will be “unchallenged” anywhere. If you feel your classroom workload isn’t intense enough, you can always train as an EMS worker (very popular EC for pre-med and nursing students) or volunteer at a local hospital.
Consider the University of Pittsburgh. It will be a strong match for your stats, will be a good school for your interests and is very urban.
Just an FYI that, with a sub-20% acceptance rate and a median SAT less than 100 points below yours, Colorado College is certainly not a safety. CU-Boulder is as long as you can pay OOS.
Agree that many of the Patriot League schools (Holy Cross, Colgate, Bucknell, Lafayette, Lehigh) plus Boston College sound like they could be a good match for you.
You interested in a specific blend of attributes – all of which may be difficult to find in one school – but from a size, competitiveness, premed standpoint, you might want to look at the University of Rochester.
University of Denver.
FYI – Colorado College is not a safety for you. It is a match or a high match.
CU OOS is a match with your stats.
Boston College
Bucknell
Colgate
Emory
Lafayette
Lehigh
Tufts
Wake Forest
William and Mary, too
Yeah I thought CC would be a target/reach too. Not sure why but my college counselor told me it would be a safety… Think I need a new counselor lol
You should check, but I’m pretty sure McGill requires SAT subject tests as well as the SAT