What are some good, private colleges?

I am not quite sure what you are asking for...you want to know private colleges in NC? Or just the East Coast? I would also suggest that you first figure out what you want to go to college for. Don't go to a college for the college, go for the academics. What you study is the number one priority. Where you study is the second priority. Try going to a college finder site, they can be really helpful. http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/adv_typeofschool.jsp http://www.anycollege.com/college-search.cfm As far as what grades to get, you need to aim for AT LEAST 3.0, if planning on a private college. Although, depending on what you want to do, you may need at least a 4.0. The higher the grades, the cheaper the college (grants/scholarships). Your SAT is also very important. Although SAT seems to hold more credibility and demand on the East Coast than the ACT. Here in the midwest people seem to focus on the ACT. The SAT is more about your actual learning ability, while the ACT is about your actual knowledge. But no matter where you are going to school, take both of these. It never hurts to have the ACT done, even if the college you apply for doesn't demand it. Anyways, college choice is a really hard one. So use care and sensibility. Good luck!

The best private colleges in NC are: Duke Davidson Wake Forest UNC Chapel Hill is public but it's small and feels private. The East Coast has an incredibly high concentration of prestigious private schools--the absolute best are Princeton, Williams, Harvard, Wellesley, Amherst, Yale, MIT, Swarthmore, Columbia, Haverford...and the list goes on. To be able to even consider a school like Harvard realistically, you would need almost perfect grades, an SAT score above 2100, over 5 AP classes, great extracurriculars and 4 years of english, 4 of math, 4 of science, 4 of the same foreign language. For many of the others, such as Wake Forest, a 3.6+ GPA is okay, as is a 2000+ SAT, but for any good school you should have at least 3 AP classes (the more the better), 4 years of english, math science and the same foreign language, and good extracurriculars.