what college for me?

Question

I need help deciding what colleges I should apply to.

I'm currently a fifteen year old ready to go into my senior year of high school. I have 4.0 gpa, taken a few community college classes, done about 100 hrs comm. service at local library, started a savedarfur club on campus, and that's about it. I've never done any AP classes (don't know if my school has them), got 1990 SAT score, and want to be a bio major. I'm shy, don't write essays very well (or interview well), but am a good student. I know I'm ranked in top 5 of my class.

Should I bother with Ivy Leagues or any really top university? Should I attend college in my home state (California) or somewhere else?

Any suggestions or advice appreciated!

Answer 1

You are obviously a good student, and you will get a great education wherever you decide to attend college. Don't discount California public universities. They are just as good or better than some of the Ivy league schools and other colleges.
Check out Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo; it is consistently rated as one of the top schools in the western US.
UC Davis, Berkley, and the newest, UC Merced. All fantastic schools. Besides, if you stay in California, you won't have to pay out of state tuition or travel costs.
I promise you won't be missing out on anything not to go to Harvard or Princeton, except maybe student loans!

Answer 2

The first thing that stands out to me is that you are fifteen, which means that you will be a couple of years younger than the average when you start college in a year. You say you are shy, so I have to wonder how well you would handle being 3,000 miles away from anyone you know at an Ivy League school; only you know how independent you are.

Your record is decent, but your SAT could be a bit higher, and I'm not sensing any particular passion for anything which might make up for a narrow range of activities. I think you could get into a very good school, although perhaps not a very top school. How well do you handle intense pressure? If you go for a top school, you will definitely face it. You should be able to handle good schools quite well.

If I were you, and it is precisely because you say there are things you don't do very well, I would seriously think about a really good liberal arts school. They usually try to develop the whole person, which might give you the added confidence you need. Also, they tend to be smaller, and at 16, it might be a little less overwhelming than being on a campus with 40,000 people, none of whom you know! If you want to stay in California, consider the Claremont colleges. There are some really good liberal arts schools on the East Coast too (places like Swarthmore come to mind), but again, they are very far from home, and there are schools in the middle of the country, although I'm less familiar with them.

Answer 3

um...Ivy Leagues sound good but you need to write good essays, you know be an ALL around good student meaning that you can do anything academically, but try it anyways. Defintely try some top universities cause you sound really perfect for it. California which is my home state have really good schools such as UCLA, USC, UC Irvine and etc, but you should defintely try out of state schools because they have other schools that are better then California. Don't limit yourself, and do research on the schools that you are interested so you will have an idea what school matches up with your career plans.

Answer 4

In state colleges are usually sheaper.
Just because you go to a big college like rice or harvard doesn't mean you got a better edjucation, It all depends on what classes are offered where and for how much. Only you can tell which class you will get the most from.
PS: I live in Texas so I have no Idea exacly which college you should attend over in California.