I decided to go on ahead and think about a college list for your D. Even though we don’t know whether your family will qualify for financial aid, all of these schools either offer merit aid and/or will be within budget without it.
Although there are a few far-flung schools on the list, the majority are in fairly close proximity to Pennsylvania. Of course, Pennsylvania is quite a large state and has some topography that can make travel across it difficult, so some schools may be farther time-wise than a map would indicate. Additionally, another factor to consider is your proximity to an airport and whether it’s a hub (Philly) or the frequency of flights to/from the airport. Schools that are a direct, nonstop flight away could also be a consideration if the cost of last-minute flights would not be an impediment should an emergency arise. But the proximity to home (whether via car or flight) and the accessibility of related health care services is definitely a factor that would weigh heavily in my consideration.
There are so many schools in my Extremely Likely bucket for your daughter because it is obvious that she is academically strong and a good student that many colleges would be excited to have. Unfortunately, the vast majority of schools on your list are amongst the most popular in the country for students with extremely strong academic backgrounds. In comparison with the pool of applicants she would likely be in, your daughter’s avoidance of the AP classes that were outside her area(s) of interest will be a real stumbling block, in addition to the impacts to her GPA that may have been related to some of her absences.
Generally, all the schools listed below had a pretty good number of English, history, and/or (usually and) music-related majors. That can often lead to having greater numbers of electives, faculty, etc.
You may not have heard of some of the schools I’m going to suggest. One of the sites that I look to look at is this one where it indicates how many alums end up going on to earn a PhD: Baccalaureate origins of doctoral recipients. You can narrow it down by year range (also by type of school, area of study, etc.). Although there is no need to go on for a doctorate in any field, I often find that schools with a higher number of these students (particularly when it’s a higher ratio of the school) might have more of the academic rigor and/or environment that I would like for my own kid. When I do a ratio, I often will compare the number of doctorates received to the number of current undergrads, as it’s not surprising that a school with 40k undergrads will have more doctorates than a school with 2k undergrads, but if that 40k school has 1000 doctoral recipients (1/40th) and the 2k school has 200 (1/10th), the ratio for the smaller school is much higher. For an example of what I mean, this post might be helpful: Match me. High hopes/high stats NJ high school senior interested in Neuroscience or BioPhysics - #62 by AustenNut.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
- Baldwin Wallace (OH): About 2700 undergrads
- Butler (IN): About 4400 undergrads
- College of Charleston (SC): About 10k undergrads
- Drake (IA): About 2800 undergrads
- Duquesne (PA ): About 5100 undergrads
- Elon (NC): About 6300 undergrads
- Indiana U. of Pennsylvania: About 7k undergrads
- Ithaca (NY): About 4600 undergrads
- Loyola New Orleans (LA): About 3300 undergrads
- Millersville (PA ): About 5800 undergrads
- Monmouth (NJ): About 3800 undergrads
- Pacific Lutheran (WA): About 2300 undergrads
- Slippery Rock (PA ): About 6800 undergrads
- Stetson (FL): About 2600 undergrads
- SUNY Fredonia: About 3200 undergrads
- SUNY Oswego: About 6k undergrads
- SUNY Potsdam: About 2100 undergrads…also has cross-registration with Clarkson
- SUNY Purchase: About 3100 undergrads
- Susquehanna (PA ): About 2200 undergrads
- U. of Dayton (OH): About 8400 undergrads
- U. of Denver (CO): About 6200 undergrads
- U. of Redlands (CA): About 2300 undergrads
Likely (60-79%)
- Furman (SC): About 2300 undergrads
- Gettysburg (PA ): About 2200 undergrads
- Rollins (FL): About 2600 undergrads
- SUNY New Paltz: About 6100 undergrads
- The College of New Jersey: About 7k undergrads
- U. of North Carolina – Asheville: About 2900 undergrads
- U. of Tulsa (OK): About 2600 undergrads
Toss-Up (40-59%)
- Clark (MA): About 2400 undergrads
- Mount Holyoke (MA): About 2200 undergrads at this women’s college. Member of the 5 colleges consortium with Smith, U. Mass, Hampshire, and Amherst.
- Santa Clara (CA): About 6100 undergrads
Lower Probability (20-39%)
- Brandeis (MA): About 3700 undergrads
- Case Western (OH): About 6k undergrads
- College of the Holy Cross (MA): About 3100 undergrads
- Trinity (TX): About 2500 undergrads
Low Probability (less than 20%)
- Most of the schools on your current list
Outside of the Pennsylvania and SUNY publics, the other schools are generally all located in areas with fairly decent population centers. The SUNY publics will match your price for Penn State (except Binghamton, which I did not include). I will let your family determine which of the various schools are too isolated or which are sufficiently close to larger population centers to be of interest.
I would also consider the potential impacts on your daughter if she does not receive an offer of admission from various schools. You may also want to speak to her mental health professionals about this. It can be very psychologically damaging to have lots of rejections (or waitlists, which are usually de facto rejections). If my kid had this profile, I would minimize the number of likely rejections.
Obviously I don’t anticipate your family being interested in all of the schools on the list. I just want to make sure your family knows that there are many options out there for your D to be able to find a good fit that will meet your budget.