Please help Woad (University recommendations)

[woad&fangs]

I'm in my junior year at high school(2nd to last). In the spring I'll be taking the ACT and the SAT. I don't know about the SAT but I believe the ACT allows me to send my score to 5 universities for free and then I have to pay for any other colleges I want to have my scores.

Right now I'm just at a complete loss as to where I should even start in my college search. I live in southern Wisconsin and have planned on attending the UW-Madison however my grades have gone down recently and my cumulative GPA is now floating around 3.8. I really doubt that 3.8 is good enough to get into Madison even with a good ACT score. So recently I've started looking around a little bit. Mostly I've been watching College football and then if the team I was watching was doing good or had a cool uniform/mascot I would check out there website. This obviously is not the most effective way to limit down the list of places I would like to spend my first 4 years out of high school.

So I was wondering if there were any colleges that y'all would recommend looking into. My criteria is something like this....(in no special order)

* Cost(the UW would cost 18,000 per year including room and board so I am looking for something below 28,000 per year.)

*I want a college that will challenge me. I may not be able to get into the UW but they are just barely below the Ivy league so I should be fine getting into almost all colleges.

*Not sure about what I'll major in yet. I'll probably narrow it down to a few options and choose the one that the University is best at. I have a diverse set of interests.

*strong arts community especially theatrical arts. Theatre is what keeps me sane a lot of the time and is something I really enjoy doing.

*places I don't want to go-the Dakotas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, Idaho, Ohio, Indiana, LA, Wyoming, Florida, Delaware, DC, Arizona.

Bah, I have to go now. I'll finish updating what I want later tonight or tomorrow morning.

[Ice]

I'm in my junior year at high school(2nd to last). In the spring I'll be taking the ACT and the SAT. I don't know about the SAT but I believe the ACT allows me to send my score to 5 universities for free and then I have to pay for any other colleges I want to have my scores.

Right now I'm just at a complete loss as to where I should even start in my college search. I live in southern Wisconsin and have planned on attending the UW-Madison however my grades have gone down recently and my cumulative GPA is now floating around 3.8. I really doubt that 3.8 is good enough to get into Madison even with a good ACT score. So recently I've started looking around a little bit. Mostly I've been watching College football and then if the team I was watching was doing good or had a cool uniform/mascot I would check out there website. This obviously is not the most effective way to limit down the list of places I would like to spend my first 4 years out of high school.

So I was wondering if there were any colleges that y'all would recommend looking into. My criteria is something like this....(in no special order)

* Cost(the UW would cost 18,000 per year including room and board so I am looking for something below 28,000 per year.)

Bah, I have to go now. I'll finish updating what I want later tonight or tomorrow morning.

UW Madison is your best bet. A 3.8 is pretty good. I'm assuming your school inflated GPAs, so kids have a 4.5 and crazy stuff like that?

In that case, here:

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandre...udoc_brief.php

[woad&fangs]

I updated a little more and will probably update again in the morning when I can think of some more stuff.

Ice, it is 3.8 out of 4.0. The UW-Madison only wants the top 5% of a graduating class and right now the top 5% us roughly 3.9 and above.

[seireikhaan]

Top 5%? That's insane! Isn't that a state school?

[Ice]

I updated a little more and will probably update again in the morning when I can think of some more stuff.

Ice, it is 3.8 out of 4.0. The UW-Madison only wants the top 5% of a graduating class and right now the top 5% us roughly 3.9 and above.

You can easily get into that school with a good SAT/ACT score. I don't care what they say. Trust me.

I'm a public university guy myself, so I'd recommend public schools. All Big 10 Schools are fantastic.

28k a year is a bit hard to match though if you want really good education on par with Madison. You'll likely be paying more.