My daughter and I are trying to pick a few areas to go visit junior year and are struggling a bit how to research it. We live in California, she will likely have 1150 SAT and 3.6 GPA ( that’s ballparking, she scored that on pre SAT and that is her current GPA after sophomore year). She will have 3-4 AP classes under her belt and LOTS of volunteering but no sports.
She doesn’t go to parties and feels a bit uncomfortable if others are doing drugs. I know ALL school have groups of students who do and some who don’t just trying to figure out if it is very pervasive. At this point she is leaning towards psychology or human development.
Originally she was considering Oregon State or University of Oregon and those are definite possibilities but they are driving distance of us so we can visit them another time, trying to figure out where to fly to. I looked at you tube for some idea of what it is like and it seems like there is a LOT of pot smoking.
She has seen CP SLO and while she LOVES it, it would be a major long shot.
She wants cooler weather with changes of seasons. We have family in Illinois so wanted to consider the surrounding areas as options. I love the idea of a private school since we are going to pay out of state fees if we go and wondering if anyone has any recommendations of how to go about it? We obviously avoiding schools on the top party school list and preferring not to go to any religious schools at this point.
I can research numbers, percentages, majors, etc. but want to have a more personal feel for it.
Has anyone ever considered Purdue, Butler University, Ball State? Bloomington?
So she is a sophomore now? And you have no budget issues? Do you have a number? The thing to remember is that this person she presents to you is fluid. No soph is going to tell her mum she wants to go and party at uni LOL. For a fact, she will grow and change, but some kids are terrific at saying stuff their parents like to hear. I would not focus on any conservative schools based on such a conversation, just make sure she has solid options you can afford and that will give her a decent education. Obviously starting with the CSUs, but for sure focus on test prep. Her soph PSAT score is highly unlikely to be her best ACT or SAT.
I found a reference to the Princeton Review’s top 20 ranked “stone cold sober schools” 2018. Here are the ones from their list that are neither religiously affiliated nor Military Academies:
City University of New York - Baruch College
City University of New York - Hunter College
Mills College (Oakland, CA - small women's college)
College of the Atlantic (Bad Harbor, ME - @350 total students, private LAC)
Simmons College (Boston, MA - small women's college and co-ed grad school)
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (NY, NY)
I haven’t considered the schools you listed, but suggest you check into substance-free housing options at any school she’s interested in.
Agree with the idea of Purude. Completely disagree with UVM, Bennington, College of Atlantic, and especially Bard. Pot is legal in MA so might want to avoid that state. My own children wouldn’t look at CO due to pot. UNH might be a good fit. For a smaller college might want to check out Sienna College. If you are Catholic and are considering a smaller college might like St. Anselms in NH. Possibly Holy Cross.
IMHO, larger schools have all types so you can find your tribe an many majors. But if she is set on her major, smaller might be for her so no need to worry about switching.
You might want to look at the University of Utah. Should be a decent match and costs are comparable to many California schools (much less than Oregon) because you can get in-state tuition after the first year. It’s a very good school for kids who like the outdoors, especially skiing (30 minutes away).
Although drinking is not uncommon (as at almost any college), my impression is that drugs are less widespread compared to colleges in other western states (not least because the attitude of the police is quite strict - just last weekend we saw a college age kid in handcuffs on the side of the road who had just driven back from Colorado, with the highway patrol going through his backpack). You don’t smell pot on campus like you do at UCLA.
Some of the schools that score low on pot smoking have a lot of heavy drinking (because pot isn’t legal yet in that state) so just watch out that you aren’t trading one for the other.
Is she totally against religious schools … a lot of them are open to anyone and not dogmatic about their religion. A lot of the Catholic colleges, for instance, draw all sorts of students and might have one breadth requirement of a religion class but not ask any more than that, and often those kids are a bit less into partying than at some other schools. Eg, University of Portland, Creighton, LMU, …
Thank you all for the feedback and lists of schools to consider and some that are known for pot. We are 100% sure we are going to avoid a religious school as we aren’t religious and she is attending an all girls Catholic High School as we felt it was the best fit for her academically, but honestly socially it is kinda a square peg feel. She is super outgoing so has a good group of friends, but it was harder to make connections and she knows she doesn’t quite fit. I would have said that she is open minded and politically more centric but her behavior is more conservative. She really appreciates good manners, avoid parties and like to hang out with fun, outdoorsy friends. She likes to paddleboard, cycle, etc. She is serious about her studies and hangs out with the family quite a bit. (mostly because her school is 25 minutes away so her friend group is spread out plus I’ve had some health issues so she helps out) Once she gets her license I bet it might change…
People who are conservative in personal behavior are all over the place politically, as are people who are not conservative in personal behavior. So you may want to take care to distinguish between personal behavior and politics.