where to apply?

[JaBlue]

Hi. I have no idea where I want to go to school. I'm 17 and about to start (yes i'm behind) the app process.

I have good grades in the toughest classes - about half As and half Bs. I was way ahead in math and took calc as a junior and physics C and AP chem and all that stuff but there are a few problems. I got bored in a lot of classes and ended up missing [I wouldn't say that I've been missing it!] about 1/3 of school. I still got the grades, just didn't show. In addition to that, I took only 4 classes at school last year instead of 6 because I took calc and some finance class through berkeley online. I got incompletes in both classes because they stopped being interesting. This year I only have 3 classes at school, but I have two self study philosophy pass/fail classes that I made up myself so that I could do something interesting.

Anyway, with all this wierd [censored] about me I figure htey'll either love me or hate me and I have no idea where I'm going to get in.

I write better than just about all my peers, for what it's worth (not on here though).

Other things: I am 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.

I also did pretty well on Standardized tests with 2140 (equiv ~1400/1600) on the SAT and 31 on the ACT and some reasonable SATII and AP scores

In terms of where I'd like to go to school, I don't want to go to a huge school with 3000 in a class, although if I have to I guess I will, and I don't want to go to a tiny school with 300 in a class. Ideal class size is prob. 500-1500 with some wiggle room. In terms of location I'd probably like to be on a coast and at least within driving distance to a city. I visitted dartmouth which is in the middle of nowhere but I liked the campus a lot. Having casinos within driving distance is a bonus.

Lastly, I'm not sure what I want to study so I'd like the school to be well rounded. I think I might like to be a writer so a strong english department is good. I also love music, so a music school is good too - it must have jazz, though - I ain't playing Beethoven or Bach. And philosophy is very interesting to me too. I am good in the sciences and math although I really doubt I want to study them much. Business is kind of interesting but I discovered over the summer I need more than money in a job to be happy in life (why the [censored] am I playing ******?!?)

Anyway, if you got through this, I'd like suggestions on where to consider applying and if you know the school well, support for why I should apply there would be great too. Keep in mind where you think I might get in and that I don't want to be surrounded by morons. I definitely want to have fun as I'm all ready in the habit of going out, getting drunk or high, etc. quite a bit.

Thanks a ton.

editted to add that I live near san francisco right now so the UCs are definitely big parts of my choice although they are probably too big for my liking