Best fit college for my son

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, looking for some college suggestions and estimations of what chances my son has to get into his preferred schools.

He is starting his senior year in high school, and is looking for college with an intellectual vibe where the students love to learn for the sake of learning. He hopes to major in biology and become a molecular biology professor and researcher (NO interest in premed). Is currently doing biochemistry/molecular biology research in a lab at the local big 10 university. Going there for college is not his first choice, but he will be applying to their honors college and residential science program as a safety.

He would love to go to a small, intellectually focused LAC where the other students are similarly smart, studious and collaborative and love to talk about what they are learning and about ideas in general. Right now he would love to attend Swarthmore, U Chicago, or Brown and will probably also apply to Reed and Macalaster. Not sure where he really has a chance to get in. He prefers to be in the northern part of the country.

His stats: 3.96 gpa uw. Public hs top 10 in state that doesn’t rank. He is light on languages because he couldn’t fit them into his schedule and still do a 2 year science research symposium and band. He has taken Spanish and social studies classes in the summer to make up for an otherwise pretty heavy math and science schedule.

AP classes/exams: World history - 5, Environmental science - 5, psychology - 4; biology cellular - 5; AP calc - 5; AP computer programming - 4. Senior year will be taking APs in English, BC Calc, Chemistry, as well as honors physics (they don’t offer AP physics so will take AP exam), college Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, and Symphonic Wind Ensemble (honors band).

ACT x 2 34, super score 35. SAT 1550: 780 math, 770 reading. SAT subject tests: 800 math, 780 biology.

He plays trumpet, started in the honors band and honors philharmonic orchestra as a sophomore, and is trumpet section leader in marching band and section leader in orchestra. He is lead trumpet in Jazz band. He has been to All State twice, and participated in band camps and local honors bands over the years. He hopes to play in the orchestra in college. Might even consider a music minor if available.

He has participated in Quiz Bowl since freshman year and is now the captain. The team placed second in the state last year, first in regional competition, and competed at nationals. They graduated a bunch of seniors so he is working on building up younger students for future teams, and has been working with current varsity players to develop their specialty areas. He doesn’t pretend he’s the greatest player in the world, but sees himself as a coach, recruiter, and collaborator.

He volunteered teaching science after school to grade school kids; volunteers at the local hands on science center, and is in the National Honor Society where he does more generic types of volunteering.

He is white, no hooks, our income about $75,000 a year, both his parents have advanced degrees. Should have good recommendations, is honest, humble, kind, and an enthusiastic reader and scholar.

So thoughts about where he might have a chance to get in and what schools have the intellectual and collaborative vibe he seeks. Thanks!

2

If he likes Swarthmore, has he looked at Haverford? Somewhat similar vibe, academic cooperation with Swarthmore, U Penn and Bryn Mawr. Cross-enrollment easiest at Bryn Mawr which is only about a mile away.

3

I was also going to suggest Haverford as well. Have you run net price calculators at the schools he is looking at?

He sounds a lot like my D2, and his list has a lot of overlap with the places she applied (including Swat, UChicago, and Mac). Have you looked at Carleton?

4

URochester? Bonus – it has the Eastman School of Music.

5

Brown also has an outstanding music program.

Given the often unexplained results from the very competitive college admissions process, you may want to also consider:
Amherst, see https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments
Bowdoin, see http://www.bowdoin.edu/academics/curriculum/index.shtml
Carleton College, see https://www.carleton.edu/
Oberlin, see https://www.oberlin.edu/arts-and-sciences/areas-of-study
Reed, see https://www.reed.edu/

These are all small, high quality, intellectual communities. I believe all of these colleges also meet FA need. Programs are close to tutorial.

6

Throwing Vassar into the mix…

7

Vassar sounds good to me, as well.

How much chance do you think he has of getting into Swarthmore? He has his heart set on it, but only 9% of applicants get in. Can anyone predict who has a better than average chance of acceptance at super selective schools?

8

Also, do you think it helps to apply to several colleges that seem similar? He believes that if he doesn’t get into Swat he won’t get into any other selective school either. Any experience with this? Is there benefit in applying to a number of reach schools? If so, how many?

9

As long as he has at least one, preferably two, solid safeties (that means he really would be happy to attend), then I think several reaches are fine. How many will depend on whether he has time to devote to each app. Each school may be looking for something a little different, so I’d have him apply to those reaches that truly interest him and that are affordable.

10

Given his academic plans, the OP’s son may also be interested in looking at colleges where a sizeable percentage of graduates go on to get a PhD. For example, see table 4 at https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf13323/.
Several of the schools mentioned above rank pretty high by this criterion.

Edit: slightly more recent information:
http://earlham.edu/media/3304975/2017%20Baccalaureate%20Origins%20report.pdf

11

I would consider St. Olaf as a safety.

I think your son is competitive for all the schools on his list but the acceptance rates are what they are. Hooked applicants or national award winners have a better than average chance. The rest of us, it is what the stats show…

For my daughter, she had one high reach and on low reach on her list and the rest were all match and safety schools. She applied to 8 schools total but had almost 20 essays to write because of the college specific essays plus honors college applications. She chose to take a lot of time with each application and I don’t think she would have been able to do that if she applied to more schools.

12

He should apply to schools to at which he has reason to believe he is well matched. This will naturally include a few at which the acceptance rates are not microscopic, as well as some at which selection criteria may vary. For example, the acceptance rate at Vassar is significantly greater for male applicants.

Swarthmore, Haverford, Reed and Carleton would seem to make obvious choices for him. His prospects of admission to one or more of them would be at least good.

I agree that Vassar makes sense for an intellectual student.

NESCACs, such Williams and Hamilton, should be considered for their overall balance, which includes substantial intellectualism, as well as research opportunities.

Ultra-selectives such as UChicago and Harvard would seem to fit him academically.

Other excellent universities such as Brandeis and URochester could offer him additional admission prospects and attributes of their own.

13

My D is on PhD bio track and we did this research around LACs last year. The ones that consistently came up were Carleton, Swarthmore, Williams, Reed and Grinnell. The vibe and location at these colleges are pretty different so he should overlay what kind of environment he’s looking for.

Of this list, my D. applied to Carleton and Grinnell and was accepted at both; however, she ended up choosing Davidson, also known for being very rigorous, instead. It has more pre-med than PhD track science students, but she likes idea of being one of a smaller number on the research track – she likes swimming in a less crowded lane I guess. They have brand new amazing science building, and it ticked a lot of non-academic boxes in terms of location and culture.

My larger point is that any good LAC can lead to graduate school and my understanding is profs generally love to work these students – so that means plenty of choices!

Good luck!

14

Your son sounds a lot like my son, who is thriving at Tulane

15

Swat is really tough for unhooked students. ED will boost his chances by a lot at any of the reach schools. But do the NPC first to make sure you can afford.

If he does RD and can devote the time, I suggest he pick 2 safeties, 2 or 3 matches and 4 or 5 reaches. It’s a numbers game so you have to play the odds with the reaches. Only applying to 1 or 2 reaches diminishes his chances of getting into a highly selective college considerably.

Finally, don’t forget demonstrated interest and interviews (when offered). They are a big factor at many/most LACs.

16

University of Chicago likes languages. https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/preparing-college

If they overlook it, it’s an amazing school especially for his research. Have him reach out to the chair of the department he is interested in or set up a meeting if you go visit.

17

Grinnell worth a strong look – excellent sciences and substantial endowment means the school funds a lot of student resources and from what we’ve heard, has strong financial aid. Both my kids visited multiple times, and we got the sense that Grinnell values the interesting, genuinely engaged and accomplished, “good” kid. It is a community of smart, decent people.

18

For a safety that’s pretty great, look at Syracuse. They have special music scholarships. They also have professional offerings in music that might interest him, such as engineering and management.

19

He sounds a lot like my kid’s friends. (Bates, Bowdin, Midd, Hamilton,U Rochester)

With an income of $75K, you will get a ton of money at the full needs-met schools. Cast a wide net with some nice safeties and it should work out well.

20

This. Really, truly surprisingly different, and at this level the feel will end up mattering more than any of the other criteria: virtually every school listed above will be sufficient (if he does his bit, obvs) to get great grad school choices.

pro-tip: have him look for summer research opportunities over fall or Thanksgiving break. The applications can open as early as that (even though most are in Jan/Feb). Most of these LACs will have funded summer research opportunities, but they are competitive, and as a 1st year, he will be low on the totem pole. The experience from 1st year will set him up to apply for REU’s 2nd year.