Putting on my faculty adviser hat here (although I quit my college job iin order to homeschool). I'm not in sciences, but I think it's still applicable.
Go for affordability over prestige, especially for undergrad. Yes, there's a benefit to going to a big-name school, but there's even more of a benefit to graduating from college with little or no debt, particularly if you're going into something involving service to humans or animals-both of which are traditionally low paying unless you're either a doctor or a vet (and in both cases, you'll have HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars of debt by the time you graduate in almost all cases). As I tell my music ed students, a music teacher makes about 30-50K/yr, whether you're from a school that cost 30K to get the degree, or one that cost 150K. The good old boy network, often touted as a reason to go to an expensive school generally doesn't pick up on lower paying jobs-you're more likely to get a job at a local zoo because you volunteered there in high school and know the people than because you graduated from a big name university.
The price of college is going up, but there are still bargains out there which are very affordable. Most states now have some form of scholarship program to help with state schools/universities, so if you're interested in a specific state, it's worth it to consider moving for a year, working, establishing residency, and THEN applying to college, particularly if you have good SAT/ACT scores. Some state schools traditionally give out of state waivers quite easily-usually the less well known institutions. And it's entirely possible that a less well known school may be the best bet for your desired major within the state, particularly in niche fields. Usually the smaller schools are more likely to have you working with faculty and to have more opportunities for hands-on research and projects than a school with a large graduate program, too.
If you're interested in sciences, and anything related to animals is likely to fall in this field (I'm not a scientist, but I'm a daughter of a university chemistry professor), check journals in your field and see who is submitting articles. Ideally, the school you want to go to is the one where undergraduate students are actually listed on research projects and given credit, at least as an assistant. If the only people listed from a given institution have at least a masters degree, you're not going to get to touch anything beyond cleaning glassware or animal cages until you reach that level. And, as a result, you won't have the kinds of credits that make it easier to get into anything BUT graduate school-which may or may not be your desired path. Graduating with publication credits under your belt, even if it's from a second tier school, ultimately is worth more than graduating from a school dripping with Ivy where you were simply one of a mass of undistinguished students.
Look at how the school does credit hours/tuition. The best deals are going to be schools that have a cafeteria plan, not an a-la-carte one. For a Cafeteria plan, you pay one tuition rate for full-time enrollment, whether you take 12 credits or 18, although some classes will have fees on top of tuition. On such a plan, you can effectively get an extra minor without having to pay for it if you're willing to do the class work, which is very helpful, especially your first two years when you're largely taking general education courses, because it lets you take a few classes here and there and figure out what you like. At most schools, those last 6 hours can be audited if you're worried about workload, but if you can get the credits, especially in those first two years without letting your grades slide, do, because there's a very, very high chance that you'll decide to change your declared major and that those extra credits may just be the difference between graduating in 4 years or 5-which is usually about 10K, minimum.
Look at AP, CLEP and Dual Enrollment judiciously. In general, consider anything in your major to be for experience only, and don't expect your institution to give you college credit for it. This includes math for ANY area of study that goes beyond college algebra and maybe Calculus 1, because math is additive and the sequence isn't always the same. However, things in elective or exploratory or general ed areas? Go for it. You may or may not get credit-but every credit they give you either reduces your tuition bill, or, more likely, gives you more time to take extra classes for the SAME tuition bill. While AP and CLEP are often spun as ways to reduce tuition, in practice most college schedules are set up such that all the required classes you'll need won't be offered in the right sequence in under 4 years. But, if you've gotten, say, 12 credit hours out of the way, that's 4 extra classes you can take at the college level, in things that interest you more than repeating what is essentially the same English class you did in high school, without having to pay more to do it. I do not suggest taking a full year of AP classes your senior year unless you've truly exhausted the offerings at the high school level. In most cases, you'll be better off taking a more balanced high school schedule and allowing time for volunteer work (since you're interested in animals, something like a shelter, being a zoo docent, or rescue would be good-even if you can't find one reptile-specific) than taking an extra AP history class if you're not all that interested in history and will have to spend hours studying just to keep up, and life experience is more likely to lead to picking a major that's not an expensive mistake for you.
Take both the SAT and the ACT. Usually students do better on one than on the other, and it's simply the difference in test formatting as much as anything else. Some colleges prefer one, some the other (in general, the middle of the USA wants the ACT, the coasts want the SAT). Spend some time preparing for the test-not cramming, but understanding the tricks and wording. I love vocabulary Cartoons for the vocabulary section (on either test), and spending some time with Latin and Greek word roots will serve you well, not only on the college tests, but in any science-related field. Make sure your algebra skills are strong, and if it's been several years since you took algebra, refresh them a bit-the Algebra Survival Guide and Painless Algebra are both good books for this, because a majority of the math questions can be solved with just Algebra (The ACT actually requires a little more math than the SAT-but also is more straightforward. The SAT likes playing games). Read up a bit on the writing section-you don't have to actually know a THING about what you're writing about, only be able to put it in the correct format, and if your handwriting has deteriorated to a chicken scratch, try to get it a little more legible before the test. Entries written in cursive consistently score better than those that are printed, but it needs to be legible cursive.
Finally, major in what you love and want to do. Yes, some majors are pretty much unemployable-but the fact is that ANY college degree opens doors, and there are few other opportunities to truly immerse yourself and do what you love. I've seen many, many more students who chose a "practical" path drop out than those who were there for the love of what they were learning-and ultimately, you're better off with a completed BA, even if it's in an impractical field (and remember, in my former life, I was advising people who were majoring in music performance-which is pretty darned impractical!) than in 1/2 of a degree in something practical.
Good luck
---DOnna
