#is my list balanced?

16 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

haughty jasper
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  • Location/Region: City would be ideal, but suburban/college town is ok if there’s like, something to do on weekends. (I’ve been to Palo Alto and Hanover and both are cute.) Absolutely no red states, I’m trans.

NYC is my favorite city on Earth. I live in Los Angeles but have gone up to New York almost every summer to visit my family, I absolutely love public transportation and if I can go to a college in NYC (or even somewhere semi close, like Swarthmore or Princeton), I would sacrifice other factors.

  • Major: Politics/PPE/government and journalism.

I also am interested in public transportation/urbanism and theatre/film, but not enough to major in.

  • GPA/Test Scores: 4.0 UW 4.8 W, 5 on APUSH, 5 on Seminar, 5 on Lang, 3 on Bio. 1400 (750 RW/650 M) SAT but I’m retaking for a fourth time in October.

  • Curriculum: I like seminar style classes generally, but I’d like a mix. Having a core curriculum would be nice to be orientated in freshman year.

  • Size: Class sizes should be smaller, I don’t like 200 person lectures. >40 is ideal for a standard class.

  • Costs: I need a lot of aid. my EFC for Ivy + is generally 8000–13000. My mom has a mortgage which sets me back for some schools NPCs.

  • Schools You're Currently Looking At:
    Columbia is my top choice and I plan to ED.
    Stanford, Princeton, Northeastern, Pomona College, Swarthmore College, NYU, Claremont McKenna College, WashU St. Louis, Pitzer College, Reed College, Scripps College, Oxy College, University of San Francisco, Fordham University, Hofstra University, Lewis and Clark College, UCLA, UCB, UCSB.

I got direct admission via Niche from The New School and University of Puget Sound.

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cont.

  • Additional: I love the culture of Claremont McKenna and Columbia. I love challenging ideas and expanding my worldview. I’m really interested in politics. I also am non-binary, so I need schools that can accommodate with housing by either having a “I don’t care what gender my roommate is” option, having gender neutral housing, or sticking me in a single I guess. Also, having LGBTQ resources on campus would be cool.

I really value diversity. I’m from Los Angeles, 70% of my high school is Latino. It would be a culture shock to go to a highly majority white college.
Also being in LA means I have access to a million different cuisines. I know I can’t expect that everywhere, but having culinary diversity in whatever location is a definite plus.

As far as weather goes, I am not a fan of the extreme heat we have in LA. NYC is my favorite place on Earth. It gets swampy in the summer but I genuinely love snowy winters. Being in the midwest where it snows 9/12 months might be a little intense. Also I know places like Seattle get very little sunlight, that would probably be a demoting factor.

Architecture: I hate the new modern architecture. Schools with history are awesome. I also like AC if it’s hot. Claremont McKenna has no AC in 1/3 of their dorms. I have a thing called POTS, so I can literally pass out from being in the heat for too long.

I mentioned earlier, but having a significant LGBTQ community would be very cool. Generally having an intellectual culture is the number one priority though. I can’t stand being around people who don’t care about learning.

manic oasis
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Like they’re not as bad there but they’re definitely not that far off either

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If you’re in the “need a lot of aid” bucket I’d also consider housing situations at each school. If they don’t guarantee you housing all 4 years then you gotta consider how easy it is to secure on campus housing and if not how the off campus housing market looks esp pricing wise considering a lot of your schools are in high cost of living areas

haughty jasper
hollow crystal
# haughty jasper - **Location/Region:** City would be ideal, but suburban/college town is ok if t...

I would consider taking a look at SUNY Stony Brook, in Suffolk County, NY (I should disclose that I am not a student there, I am only from the same town and therefore know a little bit, supplemented with my own research). Its not as strong as some of the colleges you're already looking at but it is ranked 58th nationwide by USnews. I'm not familiar with their strength in your major(s) so you would have to look at that yourself. ~70% of their students are on need based financial aid. I believe it has LGBTQ services on campus. If you ever feel the need to go to NYC, you can hop on the LIRR (commuter rail) that leaves every hour (half-hour? I can't remember) from the local train station, and your whole commute will take around an hour into either Grand Central or Penn Station (ticket is like $10-$20). Being only ~50 miles west of NYC, you will experience the exact same weather for the most part. Has a 50% acceptance rate, so take your stance on that. Diversity wise, Asians make up most of the student body, followed by Caucasians and then African Americans. Student to teacher ratio is like 20:1. Being originally from the surrounding area, I'm not too sure on the culinary diversity as that was never something I really thought about, so you'll have to do your own research. Unfortunately it is subject to modern architecture, with its hospital looking like it's straight out of star wars. According to some dude on reddit, the Roth, West Apt, Chavez, Tubman, Lauty, and Yang dorm buildings have air conditioning, the rest do not. When compared to other colleges/universities, its party/sports culture is rather weak, although it being a D1 uni. Being part of SUNY, you will find it extremely easy to transfer to other SUNY schools, even though I see little reason why you would want to.

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Apologies for the huge chunk of text without proper paragraphing.

haughty jasper
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I really, really appreciate the recommendation. It fits my list very well.

hollow crystal
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Ah, that's a shame. Best of luck on your future endeavors!

haughty jasper
rain wharf
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@haughty jasper do you qualify for questbridge?

haughty jasper
rain wharf
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ah ok, no worries.

I wouldn't do WashU if you like NYC, I would look at schools in Boston, Philly, DC, and also Yale because those all have trains that route to NYC

haughty jasper
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Guys I added more colleges I suck