Time to start the process with my second daughter! My first college search was for a BFA MT college and boy was that a year off my life! Now I feel I am about to lose another one with my second daughter. She is currently feeling she wants to enter college as undecided at this point. She knows she does not want a small school and is really interested in a larger school that has its own campus within a city limit so she can get the college feel, but does not want to feel like she is in the city 24/7. Please help this mother out on good universities/colleges she should look at that would offer her guidance and programs her freshman/soph years to guide her to choose a direction for a career. Thank you!
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LACs are great for undecided students, though they are on the smaller side. She might like schools in the Claremont College Consortium due to their proximity to LA and schools outside Philadelphia like Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, and Haverford. For bigger schools maybe Fordham or Georgetown though they are closer their cities.
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Have you considered your public universities? If our kids had wanted a large campus that is where we would have started.
What other criteria? Urban/suburban/rural? Geographic preference? Weather? Distance from home? Access to an airport?
Financial constraints, if any?
And her stats. For example, I might think UVA or UNC CH are perfect but if she is OOS for those schools, acceptance could be challenging.
So…tell us a little more.
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UNC CH is a great suggestion, though I agree stats could be an issue.
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Any large flagship university would be great. But we don’t know anything about the OPs kid…at least not enough to give an informed suggestion.
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I had to edit this response out as being unhelpful, sorry!
The OP is interested not in a small school. Wants a larger school. I see now within a city area but with its own campus.
Here are a few very blind suggestions…because I don’t know the students stats:
Northeastern in Boston
Northwestern outside of Chicago
Boston College also outside of Boston
Brown University in Providence
Temple University in Philly
Brandeis
University of Wisconsin
University of Minnesota
University of New Hampshire (not sure if Durham would be a large enough city)
University of Maryland
University of Delaware
Rutgers
Miami University in Oxford Ohio
University of Miami
UMASS Amherst
I love the Colleges that Change Lives list and would suggest this student look at those…but they are not large.
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Without any consideration for statistics, I might add the following to your list: American University; Case Western Reserve University; Emory; Tulane; Washington University in St. Louis.
Also, Miami of Ohio, while having a beautiful campus, is in or next to a small town, which it dominates socially.
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She does not want rural that is where we live (Vermont) and wants something different. Central US to Eastern seems to be the area she is focusing on at the moment. Airport would be nice so we can get to her easily, but not necessary. Her unweighted GPA is 3.85, top three of her class and is in her National Honor Society. SAT’s are not back yet (tomorrow we get them). She has taken AP and honors courses Freshman to current and will continue her Senior year. We have a daughter already in college so that will help financially so right now we are keeping options open.
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You do know that for the 2023-2024 academic year, the FAFSA will no longer split the EFC in half because you have two kids in college? No way to know what colleges will do.
So…a little more help…does she want a big city like Boston or DC or Philly or is a smaller city ok.
I think American and Tulane are great additions. I will also add University of Rochester to the list.
Is that her unweighted GPA?
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Smaller city is fine. Yes unweighted GPA. Awful news about the EFC :o(
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What range of majors are possible?
- Humanities?
- Social sciences?
- Social science based pre-professional majors (business, social work, public health, etc.)?
- Sciences?
- Engineering?
- Nursing or other health professions?
- Architecture?
For an undecided student, an ideal college will have:
- Good programs in all of the possible majors.
- Lack of high barriers to entry to any of the possible majors. High barriers to entry would be things like changing to that major requiring a competitive admission process with a 3.75 college GPA minimum.
But also remember that some majors, particularly sciences, engineering, and pre-professional majors, have longer sequences of prerequisite courses, so that a student considering them needs to start on the prerequisites early to avoid being “behind” on them for as long as they want to keep open the option for those majors.
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sounds like Northeastern may be a great fit. It’s a medium-sized school (17K undergrads) in Boston but has a beautiful campus. Also a GREAT program for undeclared students called the Explore program. I was in the Explore program my freshman year (although you can be undecided up to 2 years). You have your own Explore program advisor and they will teach an intro to college class to you and around 20 other Explore students. They do lots of activities to help figure out what you’re interested in, what your strengths/weaknesses are, how your interests can translate into a major/job, etc. They also brought in career service advisors, and our career services at NU are ranked like #2 in the nation. Also, there are tons of events for Explore students, such as Meet the Majors fair where professors gather in our ballroom and you go around like round-robin speaking to professors in majors you’re interested in. You can learn about what the classes are like, how the courseload is, etc. Also while in the Explore program, you can take classes in any of the undergraduate colleges so it’s perfect for figuring out what you want to do. Lastly, there is a freshman living-learning community for Explore students if you want to live with other undeclared students your freshman year.
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Pitt, NC State, UNC-CH or South Carolina. Maybe Penn State. Big campus and nice town but a little remote.
NC State doesn’t get much attention but it’s a nice campus in Raleigh. Lots of flights into Raleigh. And good ice cream.
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Some of the above suggestions will hinge on that SAT score…and the state of residence. For example, UNC-CH is a challenging acceptance for OOS students…and it’s a pretty competitive place anyway.
I would still suggest this family start their search with their own public universities in their home state. If they live in a state with a reciprocal tuition agreement with other states, look there too.
Schools like ASU, U of New Mexico might be worth a consideration as well even though they aren’t on the east coast.
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You have a lot of good suggestions. I’ll second the University of Rochester (the airport is 15 minutes away and they are terrific at having a lot of options to explore), but run the NPC first to see if they are likely to come in affordable. For some they do and for others they don’t. I haven’t quite figured out what the difference is.
My son is a freshman in the Explore Program at Northeastern. While it is a big school, the student-advisor ratio is low for these undecided students. My son has enjoyed the program and advisors. Most students declare a major by the end of freshman year, but others need more time. Next year his suitemates will be friends from Vermont, Wisconsin and New Jersey. He has found the NU students nice and friendly.
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