u/Imaginary_Beyond_196

Hi, I just want to learn a little bit more about Cole because I couldn’t find much stuff about it online. I want to study economics and environmental science to hopefully get my PhD from a top university.

I was just wondering how good the professors are and how difficult it is to maintain a high GPA is it like the same level as bates or would you say it is more rigorous than Bates or less rigorous ?
I was also wondering what the social life is like I heard it is very athlete dominated but I don’t really understand what that means.

I was also wondering how it is for a person of color to go to the school cause I’ve heard the school could seem very preppy and very white

I was also wondering how the mentorship at Colby is like is there a lot of mentorship and how easy is it to get research opportunities and are they paid well? I heard Colby has a very large endowment compared to most other level or its colleges and that allows them to spend their money very generously

I was also wondering how GPA sensitive Colby is because I want to early decision to the school if I like it and I have a pretty low GP a around a 3.3 but I’ve max rigger and a 35 ACT do yall think I have a chance

And any other cool information that you can add would be great

Hi, I’m really interested in Colorado College, but I couldn’t find much information online about the school and I was wondering if someone could like explain it for me
I know the school runs on a block system. Where you take one class at a time but I’ve heard a lot of people talking about like how you travel a lot for the schedule. Can you explain how that works and if like the students have to to pay for the travel themselves or is that paid for by the college and like what type of classes usually have travel?

I also was wondering how the social life is at cc
Is it a big drinking school or is it a quiet in quirky environment? I prefer a school with like like parties and stuff like that like a normally traditional college. is there something like that at cc

I am also a student that is wanting to study economics and environmental science, and hopefully trying to get into a top PhD program after college is there good resources and mentorship at Colorado that will help me along this process?

I was also wondering how rigorous and hard of the classes are. I know it’s definitely gonna be hard because of the fact that you’re taking one class at a time and stuffing the material into such a short span but are the classes themselves super super difficult?

I’m also a big foodie and I love to eat how good is the campus dining hall and is there any cool traditions
Anything helps thank you 😊

Stats: 3.3 UW GPA, 11 APs, 34-35 ACT. Strong ECs, essays, and LORs. Basically: test score and rigor are solid, GPA is my weak point.
I have a really good extracurricular, but I don’t wanna get into too much details
My essay is quite unique and I think it could work in my favor.
Yes I know my GPS is really low. I’m just trying to shoot my shot to see whatever school I could get into. I don’t really care that much if I get rejected.

Intended major: Environmental Science + Economics (want to go into environmental economics academically)

End goal: Hoping to eventually get into a top PhD program (dream would be Oxford or Cambridge down the line).

What I actually want in a school (in rough priority order):

Strong PhD/grad school placement + real research resources (funded research, paid travel/conferences, actual faculty mentorship — not just brochure claims) like I want a school where I could get like research opportunities quite easily and also be paid pretty well for them to.
A real social life — I like to party, drink sometimes, have fun. Not looking for a dead campus.
A GPA environment I can actually survive in — not a school known for brutal grade deflation. I want to maintain a relatively high GPA.
Bonus: good food, good traditions, good campus/architecture, decent gym, some access to nature

The 20 I'm choosing between for ED:
Bates, Colorado College, Colby, Grinnell, St. Olaf - my top choice but I also have Kenyon Vassar, Hamilton, Davidson, Oberlin, Carleton, Haverford, William & Mary, Colgate, Trinity, Skidmore, Connecticut College, Occidental, St. Lawrence, Macalester

Why I'm asking: Given my GPA specifically, I know most of these are reaches for me at Regular Decision, and ED is really my only realistic shot at several of them since ED acceptance rates run so much higher than RD at most of these schools. I'm trying to figure out which ONE is worth committing my single binding ED shot to — best combo of "actually attainable for someone with my stats" and "won't sacrifice my long-term academic goals or my sanity trying to keep my GPA up." Would love to hear from current students or alumni at any of these, especially on the PhD-prep-and-social-life combo specifically. Thanks!

I took the SAT and I did pretty bad. I got an 1180 but I think I could do a lot better on the ACT and I’m gonna spend this entire summer studying for the ACT and I want to get hopefully around 35 do you think this is possible and what resources should I use to help me study and like if you have any tips, can you please help me? Pls ty

I’m currently a junior and I’ve taken 9 AP-level classes so far.
Last year I took 3 AP exams and got:
AP Human Geo: 3

AP Seminar: 3

AP Comparative Gov: 2

Honestly, last year I really didn’t care much about school and wasn’t putting in effort. This year I’ve completely changed my attitude and started taking school seriously.
At my school, a lot of AP classes are also offered through a dual enrollment program where you can earn actual college credit that transfers to many of the same places AP credit does. The classes are AP classes but you can choose whether to do the AP exam, the dual enrollment credit, or both.
Because of cost reasons (my mom lost her job recently), I decided to do the ECE/dual enrollment credit instead of paying for a bunch of AP exams. Taking both would’ve been really expensive.
The only AP exam I took this year was AP Lang because it doesn’t have the same dual enrollment option at my school. I took the exam today and honestly I feel like I did badly — probably a 3 at best.
Would it look bad to colleges if I don’t submit any AP scores at all even though I’ve taken a lot of AP/de classes? Will they assume I failed everything? Or is dual enrollment considered enough to show rigor?
I’m mainly worried because I feel like my transcript/course rigor looks much stronger than my AP scores would.

Demographics

State: New York

Gender: Male

Ethnicity: Indian

Income Bracket: upper middle class

Type of School: Public

Intended Major: Business / Entrepreneurship/econ

GPA & Testing

UW GPA: ~3.4 (upward trend: 3.25 freshman → 3.3 sophomore → 3.6+ junior)

SAT: 1560

APs: 9 total ( 3 sophomore, 6 junior)

Context: Was in special education classes from elementary through middle school, pulled out up to 7x per day. Significant academic growth trajectory.

Extracurriculars

Founder & CEO — digital marketing business , $70K revenue

Create an app that allowed farmers to track compost.

Nonprofit Founder — teaches local small businesses web development and digital marketing

DECA VP — qualified and competed at ICDC, 2nd place in state

Colambia Research — co-authored/contributed to research paper on fast fashion

Sustainability Audit Internship — 1 of 20 competitively selected, $300 scholarship

Blue Ocean Entrepreneurship Competition — Top 500 nationally

Boy Scouts — nearly Eagle Scout, involved since 2nd grade

Track & Field — 3 years varsity

Essays

Common App: Writing about growing up in special education and my academic journey

Supplements: Strong "Why Northwestern" focused on entrepreneurship programs and sustainability

LORs

Two letters, both very strong (10/10 from teachers + counselor aware of full context)

Schools

ED: Northwestern

Additional Context Struggled academically my entire childhood due to learning differences and SPED placement. Taught myself to grind — studied a full year for the SAT to get 1560. Built two organizations from scratch. Looking for honest assessment — is Northwestern ED realistic or should I redirect my ED elsewhere?

And if you have any top schools that you think I have a chance to can you please tell me