What are some colleges on the east coast?

Question

I'm a Junior in high school and looking for a college on the east coast. Mainly in PA, NJ, DE or maybe NY. I want to be as close as possible (if not in) Philadelphia.

I do better than average in school (not valedictorian or anything). But, I'm in all Honors and AP classes and work very hard. The only problem is that I have virtually no money. I'm fine with taking out a student loan so hopefully that is not that big of a deal...

I also have no idea what I want to do as a career. I would love to do something like own a business, or be a teacher. Possibly be a lawyer. But definitely not anything medical.

And, while in college, I would love to join a Sorority.

What are some colleges that I could research? What if I can't decide what I want to do? And how do i really get started my college search?

Answer 1

Good colleges that are in or very near Philly include: Drexel, The College of New Jersey, Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Lehigh, Princeton, Rider U, Swarthmore, Temple, U Penn, and Villanova. Since you really would like to go to school in Philly, I'd have you start with those.

I don't know your GPA or your SAT scores, so I can't tell you which of these schools it's likely you'll get into. But you can look each of them up on sites like www.collegeboard.com or the Princeton Review website to learn more about them, and whether or not your stats fit their profiles. All of them are good schools, though.

You'll apply for financial aid via the FAFSA form, which you can look up online. You can also apply for independant scholarships - talk to your guidance counsellor about that. And the schools you send the FAFSA to may give you some grants, which don't need to be repaid, in addition to loans.  

Answer 2

In PA, good schools that aren't super competitive (like UPenn) are Penn State, Villanova, Bryn Mawr (won't find a sorority there, since it's all-women), Haverford (pretty competitive), Swarthmore (almost as competitive as UPenn), Dickinson, Gettysburg, Lehigh, and Muhlenberg. I looked at most of these--Gettysburg is really beautiful...Haverford and Swarthmore are incredible...didn't love Muhlenberg...Dickinson is okay (that's ust my opinion though!)

Not really any good schools in NJ except Princeton (very hard to get in to) and Rutgers.

Nothing good in Delaware, except U Del, which is somewhat decent. The honors program there is pretty good.

NY has an incredible amount of schools...other than the super hard ones (like Cornell and Columbia), you've got Hobart & William Smith (my best friend goes there and loves it); NYU (right in Manhattan--the center of the world basically--but cost of living is high); Ithaca; Syracuse (you might really like Syracuse); Colgate; Hamilton (I think you'd also like those last two); Union; and Vassar (check this one out too.)

Most people have no idea what they want to do when they get to college--you declare your major usually at the END of sophomore year, so you have a while to figure it out. But if you were really into, say, creative writing and artsy things, you wouldn't go to a school like MIT, and if you were really into science and math, you probably wouldn't want to go to a school like Sarah Lawrence or Hampshire.

You should go buy the Fiske Guide or a similar college book from the bookstore. They have great and honest descriptions of colleges.

You can also take this college match test: http://www.princetonreview.com/com.aspx?...

But keep in mind that when it tells you that you might not get into some school, it doesn't mean you won't--it's not THAT accurate--just might give you a good idea of where to look.