Anyone go to these colleges? HS Senior here.

Grinnell (favorite!)
St. Olaf (2nd favorite!)
Carleton
Macalaster
Gustavus Adolphus
Hamline
U of M- Twin Cities


I have a 29 ACT and a 3.0 GPA (GPA is crap, but ACT is good)- do you think I stand a chance at my favorites? This is so stressful.

but if you can get your hands on a copy of the Fiske Guide to Colleges (big thick book), it tells you the average GPA and ACT of the incoming freshman class, which is a decent indicator. You might also be able to get some of the same info if you register at http://www.collegeboard.com/ .

I think her ACT was 34, and her g.p.a. was close to, but a little under, a 4.0. I don't think the U would be tough to get into.

Have you thought about going up to the University of Manitoba? It is a much better school then the ones you are considering. Of course, money factors in. But, it is close to where you live, and in a very liberal city. Just give it a thought.
edit to add: the age of majority in Manitoba is 18. That means you can drink legally. Just sayin'

Very active College Democrats club, featuring some well-known alumni. Margaret Anderson Kelliher, the current minority leader in the state leg (and a friend of mine, too), was once president of the club.

I had the same scores and GPA you did many years ago, and I got in. I doubt you'd have any problem getting in and/or doing well there. :)

PM me if you want more info

ON EDIT: I was a PoliSci major, and the dept is VERY good IMHO.

History/Political Science, then on to grad school for journalism.

How long ago did you attend?

I was at Gustavus in the late 80s/early 90s, before the tornado when there was still a lot of the old trees on campus. The tornado in St Peter a few years back really hit the town hard-- in some ways it's very hard to recognize it now. :(

The history dept is very good-- lots of good profs there who really make you think. Interestingly enough, I also wanted to do J-School after college, but like a lot of stuff in life, that didn't work out as planned. I now work in IT for a government agency, though, so I guess the PoliSci degree did help somewhat.

Best of luck to you! :hi:

I was a poli sci major and took a First Amendment class in the J-School. I think Professor Gillmor has retired from the J-school by now.

and she loved it there.

don't know much else except that she got a good job afterwards.

Grinnell and Macalaster. They both LOVED their respective colleges. I do know that they're horrifyingly expensive and admissions are quite competitive. I don't know *how* competitive though, sorry. H

Oh, also, my cousin is currently attending U of M. She also loves it and I'm sure would recommend it to everyone. ;)

I would recommend taking a few days and visiting each of these schools (if you haven't already). They're all relatively close to each other, so visiting them in a short span of time would help with the comparison.

Good luck!

that was a made up place on Golden Girls!! :rofl:

Makes sense then.

Great school. Very liberal.

Although, as a 16 year old freshman, it was too intense.

I loved it though!

Don't know if you knew that or not

Ya know, I'm sure it's fine, but all I can think of is:

I wasn't exactly around when that show was on.

which does not actually exist-- St. Olaf is in Northfield, MN. :)

St. Olaf is also the patron saint of Norway, and was the one who Christianized the heathen Nordic hordes.

But i saw a sigline that said "GOPers at Grinnell are like Mountains in Iowa, they don't exist."

WITH the added benefit of being really expensive. :-)

The other three I don't know anything about.

I should think you would be able to get into one of the top dour, especially if you have a lot of other activities in and out of school, especially ones that you have shown leadership in. Anything that shows you are a can-do take-charge get-it-done, and a be-involved-in-the-world person, will make up for grades that might be as high as they could have been.

Good luck! You absolutely cannot go wrong to go to either Grinnel or St. Olaf.

Competitive small liberal arts colleges don't admit students based off of grades and test scores alone. You have to have something else going for you to show that you have something to contribute to their community.
I briefly visited Grinnell. The town it is in is very rural. The college does seem like it is the main show in town.

School newspaper writer
jazz band
marching band
concert band
attended world affairs seminar over the summer
regularly attend YMCA outdoors leadership camp
Local democratic party volunteer, parades, phone stuff, etc
Forensics.

that's it. sometimes I don't think I do much because some kids are in EVERYTHING.

unless you divide up jazz band, pep band, marching, and concert band, and some band contests. I also had tennis and national honor society. What about boys/girls state? Or is that coming up? Probably I was part of the German club too, but we never did anything.

Some really good students applied so I decided to go to the World Affairs Seminar instead, which was at the same time.

Oh, and I'm doing a Youth in Government thing through the YMCA this winter.

I went to the University of North Dakota instead.

You stand a chance at any one of those schools.

I had two friends at Law School in Portland Oregon that went to St. Olaf for undergrad. They loved it.

Weren't Chris and Johnny from there?

Okay, not quite. 3.0 isn't a bad GPA. It may depend also on what courses you took (foreign language, college prep, etc.) 29 is a pretty good ACT, so I do not see why you would not get admitted to most schools, especially is some of your subject scores are better.

Grinnell college was the home of George Davis Herron as Hopkins writes in "The Social Gospel" "The most dramatic chronicle in American social-gospel history was the passage of George D. Herron across the stage provided in the last decade of the 19th century by the wide-spread social unrest ..."

U of M is in the big city, although I never really experienced that since I lived in a dorm my entire time. If you are from Iowa, expect to hear alot of Iowa jokes and to find alot of Minnesota arrogance. At least I found that as a Dakotan, and Dakota was not even their favorite target - Iowa was.

Freshman year I got an F in Basic Spanish but then I took three years with no problem. Freshman year was rough for me. Also, I got Bs and Cs in gym of all things because I didn't do makeup work for missing a few days. I have always been terrible at math, so I got Cs freshman year but now I hover on low B range.

However, AP Lit/Comp, AP American History, Civics, Economics, basically any class that wasn't math or science is B+/A.

So a horrible first year, regular low grades in dumb classes (gym), but good grades in classes I enjoy. That's how I got a 3.0 GPA.

I think my strong point is my test scores, my ACT is 29 with a 12/12 on the writing portion.

my ACT did not have a written portion, but my science score was 34 and my English score 25. I was a math/physics major, so I do not know how much math history majors need to take, although your college econ will be more mathematical.

I am very thankful that I did not have to take PE in high school. I am surprised that you took math in HS. We were not required to after 9th grade, and that was also not part of high school. It was junior high.

honestly, I think you are wise to not pin high hopes on Carlton and Mac, they're a crapshoot for almost anyone. including people with a much higher GPA than you. (I came out of high school with a 2.7, so I hear you)

The number 2 and 3 people in my high school class went to Mac and Carlton respectively. To put that in perspective, 4 and 5 went to Stanford. (at 37th, I had to settle for Colby) oh, and it was out of 42.

Gustavus Adolphus tomm. She's in Minnesota right now.
She works at the Yale Divinity school as a recruiter.
I heard it's a great school. After I talk to her tomm., I'll let you know what she thinks of it.

:hi:

(kidding!)

and have friends who went to Carleton and St. Olaf.

The private colleges are all much smaller, with the good things (student/prof ratio) and bad things (ionospheric tuition) that implies. All are well-respected, Carleton being one of the finest colleges in the nation. My best friend's wife and a law school chum went there and loved it. It's also about as selective as Harvard or Yale. I've heard lots of great things about Macalaster.

U of MN Twin Cities is what you make of it. I threw myself into it, got into an honors program, and went out of my way to take interesting courses. It's still a mammoth state school, but the resources are there for a great educational experience. Too many just sleepwalk through four years without ever digging around to unearth the great stuff that the school has. Just be prepared to knock on doors and ask questions.