<p>Good day, I'd appreciate some outside opinions. My son is a senior and a very solid student interested in the sciences, predominantly physics and chemistry. He prefers smaller environments, and has been attracted to LACs for that reason. He has applied to a mix of LACs including Johns Hopkins, F&M, Williams, plus some technical institutes (MIT, RPI, Stevens) and a couple of universities including Cornell and Northeastern for good measure.</p>
<p>Our concern is whether he will find enough of his "tribe" at the smaller LACs. He is nerdy (I don't consider "nerdy" an insult) and socially awkward, a trait shared by many science and engineering types. I have very negative views of the male-female ratio at the technical schools (having lived through it) but ultimately he needs to find a group of people to "click" with. We don't want him to be in an environment where everyone else is so "cool" that the nerdy kids can't find their match.</p>
<p>After we find where he's accepted we'll visit his top options again to check for good fit, but I'd welcome thoughts about how nerdy science kids fit in at LACs.</p>
<p>A side effect of the LACs insistence on leadership positions in HS is an admissions bias toward extroverts. Williams had that reputation but I haven’t talked to any current students. One of my son’s good friends is a sophomore at JHU and, with its engineering school and focus on sciences, is very different and will have many kids like your son.</p>
<p>I’m with you on the RPI experience, having lived through it at the same time as you. MIT though, at roughly 50:50 M:F ratio, could be better.</p>
<p>If he has the stats, he should put in an app to Harvey Mudd. He will find his tribe there! Oh, and they are close to 50:50 on the gender ratio, too.</p>
<p>Very interesting point on LACs and leadership. My son is not an “out in front” type of leader… he is a supportive, behind the scenes kind of person. His ECs reflect that trait, and we don’t know if his application will get enough attention to tip the scales toward admission for his reach schools. He might be seen as a good student, but ordinary. </p>
<p>He has visited Johns Hopkins, and got a very good “vibe” there. It is a top choice… if he is admitted. He attended MIT Splash as a junior, and when he got home excitedly reported that he had “found his people.” He was so happy to find people that shared his interests! As a result he’s applying to MIT, but of course it is a high reach. </p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestion on contacting the club officers. Every college brags about how many clubs they have, but it is difficult to know if they are active and vibrant or exist in name only.</p>
<p>…if you or your son is not provincially biased in only applying to northeast schools…I would agree with intparent to apply to Harvey Mudd which is highly tech/stem focused in a LAC kind of community…and since he is applying to schools like MIT, Hopkins…and if he has the grades/achievements…he should consider Caltech and Stanford as well…lots of tech introverts at all three schools…</p>
<p>Depends on the LAC. For example, Oberlin and Reed appear to have a decent number of physics majors and physics departments that cater to them, while Marietta appears to have fewer than one hand’s worth of physics majors per year, and unreliable offering of advanced physics courses.</p>
<p>What you may want to do is check the offering and enrollment of advanced physics courses, both to check the academic suitability of the school, and to check for the presence of similarly-inclined students.</p>
<p>Chemistry is a more common major than physics, and has an approximately equal gender ratio. It also attracts more pre-meds.</p>
<p>All good points, and much appreciated insight. He (and to be fair, mom and dad, too) are biased towards northeast / mid-Atlantic schools, for convenience and cost considerations. We have not seriously considered anything that would require a plane trip to get there. I just took a look at Harvey Mudd, and it looks like an incredible place!</p>
<p>One big takeaway for us is we should have started looking at colleges sooner. We waited until the summer following his junior year, the same year he decided to get his first summer job which seriously constrained our ability to visit.</p>
<p>As ucb points out, really depends on the LAC. Don’t know that I see F & M on your list (all east coast ?).</p>
<p>In addition to Harvey Mudd, Carleton and Northwestern should be on his list. Carleton graduates more chem and physics majors (in absolute numbers) than even much larger and reputationally sciency Hopkins. Most of the kids at Hopkins majoring in the fields are shooting for med school which can up the stress ante. At Carleton, most are shooting for careers in the non-professional sciences (lots of budding PhDs). Socially, it should also be a great fit for your son.</p>
<p>Northwestern is all over the map socially with kids who’d fit right in at Carleton as well as a place as HS class presidenty as Claremont McKenna. He’d have no trouble finding his niche among the two thousand or so engineers and science kids. Chemistry, in particular, is top notch. The school tends to be more laid back than NE counterparts, a bit of that midwestern effect.</p>
<p>F & M is indeed on his list. He had a good visit and the interactions with their admissions staff have been overwhelmingly positive. He had an interview with an admissions counselor visiting our area, and was impressed that he took note of my son’s interest in the outdoors (Eagle Scout) and forwarded contact information for their outing club! They’re doing a really good job keeping in touch, too.</p>
<p>At this point we aren’t likely to add any schools to the list. Geography (Northeast) is a factor in his choice of schools, taking many options off the table. He’s applying to 12 schools total (after having visited more than 20). We hope that he’ll be accepted at the majority, giving him lots of choices to find the right fit. This post was sparked by a conversation between me and my wife about whether a “tech introvert” (my thanks to gadad for that more polite description) can thrive in a smaller LAC. My son likes the smaller classes and opportunities for meaningful interaction with faculty, but we also want him to be able to find friends!</p>
<p>I’m surprised no one has mentioned Wesleyan, alma mater of Joss Whedon. As a flagship school for geeks, there are bound to be nerds with lots of overlap between the two (and, their ferile distant cousins, the hipsters.) According to its last published common data set, Wesleyan graduates nearly 50 Chemistry and/or Physics majors a year. Another way of looking at it is Wesleyan has a potential cohort group of nerds that numbers~200:
<a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/ir/data-sets/cds2011-12.pdf[/url]”>www.wesleyan.edu/ir/data-sets/cds2011-12.pdf</a></p>
<p>You might save on travel costs, but the northeast and mid-Atlantic may not necessarily have the cheapest colleges after applying financial aid and scholarships to get the net price.</p>
<p>I think that your S will be fine at the LACs you chose. I visited a bunch of LACs with my D and they each had different personalities/vibes – some were very geared towards the arts, a couple we saw were super preppy and those probably wouldn’t work that well for your S. I didn’t visit Williams but Hopkins (which is a mid size university not a LAC) and F&M are very science oriented. In particular the house system at F&M might work well for your S. My D (a science student who specifically wanted to attend a LAC) also had a wonderful experience visiting and interviewing at F&M although she did not go there in the end. FYI, other top choices of hers were Lafayette and Union.</p>
<p>Happy1, thanks for the clarification about JHU. I did not personally go on that trip with my son. I’ve been conditioned to only think about their school of arts and sciences, and not the rest of the university.</p>
<p>My son also visited and liked Lafayette, although it did not make his final cut when it came time to apply. He’s applying to Union! He liked it, and the application was free, making it a no-brainer. The Minerva housing system at Union is interesting, and Union has some engineering students thrown in for good measure. I’m sure he would find like-minded students there. </p>
<p>Thank you all for your thoughts and advice!</p>
<p>RPI- I didn’t see Case Western mentioned…maybe too big?-although in actuality feels smaller…Not geographically desirable? But definitely tech introverts everywhere! Also free app, no supplement, great merit aid, deadline of 1/15 and a wonderful school that’s only getting better.</p>
<p>Case Western had been on our “consider” list. It appears to be a great match academically, and probably socially, too. It is simply a little too far away for our liking.</p>
<p>Tufts and U.Rochester are both small universities with engineering, so they have a good balance between tech-introverts and others, good male-female ratios, and more personal feel than larger universities.
On the tech side, he might have liked WPI.</p>
<p>Too bad Case is too far…the nerdy tech kids are the “cool” kids there! I second University of Rochester…great school, all types of kids including many tech introverts. Anyway, have you by chance read Susan Cain’s book Quiet- the Power of Introverts?</p>