where to apply?

[sam h]

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Do you really think I can get into these schools?

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I don't really know about Yale. But I think you have a very good shot at the liberal arts colleges, who tend to look past GPA a bit more and more actively seek out people who are not just studying machines.

[dcasper70]

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You might think about Yale too. It is bigger than you want but the residential college system there gives it a smaller feel.

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I work 2 blocks from Yale and wander through campus to see the 'sights' during lunch. You sound like you would absolutely love this choice as long as you don't mind the cross country commute...

New Haven is such a fun small city.

[JaBlue]

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You might think about Yale too. It is bigger than you want but the residential college system there gives it a smaller feel.

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I work 2 blocks from Yale and wander through campus to see the 'sights' during lunch. You sound like you would absolutely love this choice as long as you don't mind the cross country commute...

New Haven is such a fun small city.

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I'm sure I'd love Yale, or pretty much any Ivy for that matter, but I don't think I'd get in. I have a lot of friends with perfect attendance and great recs and better SAT scores than me that got turned down from all the ivies. I will probably apply to these places because, well, 50$ is nothing, but I do want some realistic choices and definitely need to consider what my safety options will be. I hear they don't like the incompletes.

[Chobohoya]

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You might think about Yale too. It is bigger than you want but the residential college system there gives it a smaller feel.

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I work 2 blocks from Yale and wander through campus to see the 'sights' during lunch. You sound like you would absolutely love this choice as long as you don't mind the cross country commute...

New Haven is such a fun small city.

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I'm sure I'd love Yale, or pretty much any Ivy for that matter, but I don't think I'd get in. I have a lot of friends with perfect attendance and great recs and better SAT scores than me that got turned down from all the ivies. I will probably apply to these places because, well, 50$ is nothing, but I do want some realistic choices and definitely need to consider what my safety options will be. I hear they don't like the incompletes.

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You need to list all of your scores in everything in order for us to have a solid idea of where you might get in.

Admission to the very best schools is always going to be difficult. That doesn't mean you won't get in, because for every one of your friends who didn't get in, you're going to hear about someone who you have no idea how they got there. Gotta have all the numbers though.

[RunDownHouse]

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If you wanted to go to the east coast, both Wesleyan and Vasser sound like decent fits for many of your criteria.

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Good God, stay away from Wesleyan. For one, it hardly meets his size criteria. For another, its a horrible, awful place. I met a bunch of Wesleyan students in Germany, and they hated it without exception. Some of the complaints:

- the incredibly liberal, whiny atmosphere. Apparently the movie PCU was based on Wesleyan, and its not that far off. Ugh.

- the gay community. They said that in student surveys, somewhere upwards of 50% of males had had a homosexual encounter by sophomore year. Part of the reason for that seemed to be the large number of hairy, flannel-wearing lesbians there, which resulted in a tiny pool of datable women. None of the Wesleyan kids felt comfortable in that kind of atmosphere.

- the lack of a good social scene. Most likely stems from the first reason.

As far as good recommendations go, you may want to rethink your size requirements. How did you come up with those numbers, anyways? If you're looking for a strong english department, you're not looking for classes with 1000 kids in them. 30 - or less - is ideal for that type of study.

[JaBlue]

Maybe I should rethink the size requirement. Here was my logic: I want 500+ because too small is, well, too small - hot chicks are important and I don't necessarily want to know everyone. As for the upper bound, I just don't want to get lost. I kind of want to have a sense of community and a sense that I might actually matter at the place I go to. If I were to go to, say, UCBerkeley, I really doubt I would feel either of those things.

By class size I mean the amount of people in my graduating class, not the amount of people in each class of mine. I don't want to take huge weeder classes with 200 students in a lecture hall where you never talk to the prof.

Thank you for the warning against Wesleyan. I don't want to have any gay encounters and I don't want to go to class with all butch lesbos.

[RunDownHouse]

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By class size I mean the amount of people in my graduating class, not the amount of people in each class of mine.

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Duh. I'm an idiot.

Budgetary considerations will help people give you much better recommendations as well.

EDIT: Idiocy abounds this morning

[sam h]

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Good God, stay away from Wesleyan. For one, it hardly meets his size criteria. For another, its a horrible, awful place. I met a bunch of Wesleyan students in Germany, and they hated it without exception. Some of the complaints:

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It fits his size criteria perfectly.

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- the incredibly liberal, whiny atmosphere. Apparently the movie PCU was based on Wesleyan, and its not that far off. Ugh.

- the gay community. They said that in student surveys, somewhere upwards of 50% of males had had a homosexual encounter by sophomore year. Part of the reason for that seemed to be the large number of hairy, flannel-wearing lesbians there, which resulted in a tiny pool of datable women. None of the Wesleyan kids felt comfortable in that kind of atmosphere.

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I know several people who had good experiences there. The gay encounter figure is ridiculous. There is going to be a visible gay community at any of these schools like Oberlin, Vasser, Wesleyan, or Swarthmore. The percentage of people who are gay is larger than elsewhere but still pretty small.

It depends what you want. If you want a big school, a frat-like atmosphere and lots of frat-like girls, then go to a state school. If you want a smaller environment where you can find a larger percentage of people who are a bit more outside the norm, and you like girls who fit the indie-rock mold a bit better, then these schools are good choices.

JaBlue sounds more like the latter type of person to me, so I recommended those schools.

[NLSoldier]

university of san diego.

[bholdr]

College is not really about WHERE you go, but WHAT you do while you're there. unless you're thinking ivy leauge (appearently not), and if you have the oppurtunity (meaning: money) to go to a decent state school, it doesn't really matter, in my experience at least... fk it. go to a school in an area where you can get a servicable education, that also has intresting people and activities. go to a school far, far away from what you're used to... get laid. drink. try some drugs. meet people. have fun.

If you're really:

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top 100 in the US for my age in chess and I had a summer job where I got to learn about finance. I am also an avid mountain biker and road biker. I ended up quitting my summer job after school year started because it was shitty pay and I wasn't learning anything in return for my grunt work, which was what I expected. And I'm the best jazz guitar player in the county. I was never involved in school so I was never in any clubs or president or anything but I am well liked.

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you'll do well wherever you happen to end up.

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Lastly, I'm not sure what I want to study

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that's what college is for. as long as the school has 5k+ students, you'll likely find something there that turns you on, or at least keeps you busy. the great majority of college grads do not work in the feild that they studied.

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I don't want to be surrounded by morons.

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tough. you will be. ANYwhere. such is life.

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think I might get in and that I don't want to be surrounded by morons. I

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you, sir, are ready for college, then.

GL, and WTF are you doing playing poker at 17? hah!