Some of Smith’s housing is in houses but there are dorms. The dorms having living rooms and dining rooms but they are dorms.
I didn’t like Northampton at all and don’t think it is anything like Madison. I did, however, like Amherst (which makes no sense I know).
If she is willing to consider Catholic schools, I suggest U of San Diego. It is LaSallian and not Jesuit but there is a huge cathedral in the middle so has that Catholic feel. My niece was an international studies (or something like that) major. Most of her friends majored in some type of humanities and several were Phi Beta Kappa. It has Greek life but not houses. I think almost everyone goes abroad for 1/2 of junior year. My niece was in France and her friends were all over Europe and they all spent a lot of time visiting each other.
Have you looked at St Olaf? It’s 3000 undergrad, very pretty campus. Small town but only 45 minutes from the twin cities and there’s a regular bus on the weekends. The town of Northfield is really cute and there’s another college in town, Carleton, with 2000 students that has some cross-privileges with St Olaf like activities and dining.
More selective but also ticking that ‘cute campus with things to do in walking distance’ would be the Claremont colleges. Some of the campuses are cuter than others and some are more selective than others… I think maybe Pitzer is both the easiest to get into and the least cute depending on your architectural preferences.
She balks at all women’s colleges but I think Scripps might be an option since it’s part of the consortium. It ticks some boxes for sure. I don’t think she would go for Smith. I know some kids there and have adult friends who are alumni and they are super impressive but not a match for D. She will just have to prioritize like I’ve said above. After her short initial list of about six schools, she’s not going to get big school rah rah feel with small school luxuries. Anyone know anything about Santa Clara? I know it’s jesuit but I’ve also read that it’s pretty progressive.
@washugrad she just got something in the mail from St Olaf yesterday. I think it’s worth a look. S19 was accepted to Carleton and visited twice and says Northfield is not a match for D21 but I still think it might be helpful to see it. We have family in St Paul and I think that’s a plus for D21.
Smith is part of a consortium, too. But if she wants warmer weather, all these northern/northeastern ideas are iffy.
In addition to Denison, she might also look at DePauw in Indiana. Likely a safety/match but ticks a lot of boxes, save weather in winter.
To narrow the field a bit - what kind of numbers are you projecting for your daughter?
@homerdog You have your work cut out for you. She has a tall order. ? I think your D should check out the stronger honors colleges and programs. My D didn’t prioritize small classes but, besides her business major, her minor and humanities major classes have been very small to downright tiny (i.e., 5-10 students). She has one upper level class next semester as a 1-on-1 with the prof. It wasn’t even going to be offered next semester, but she asked the prof and he added it just for her.
When my kids were exploring potential college majors, a friend suggested going through a list of majors from a large university and crossing off all the ones that were definite “no’s” and focusing on the rest. That may help finding areas to focus on and give your daughter some ideas of majors to explore.
One of my kids attended Southwestern University in Texas. She went in undecided and came out three years later having studied abroad twice, interned with a nonprofit, done an REU at a top 20 school, and landed a dream job in her major. The career center put her in touch with an alum at that employer before she interviewed. Her friend group and other students have interned with Disney, the FBI, the Federal Reserve, and many others. This is just a little LAC (probably too small for your daughter) with fairly average students. They do have a strong focus on career services and I think that’s what you need to look for, as you are doing. My son is also headed to a state university in Texas. It’s true that if you’re looking for a strong alumni network and lots of school spirit, you’ll likely find it in Texas.
I was an undeclared major heading into college. I chose a school that at the time was the size you are looking at, and had a big list of distribution requirements so I had something to do while I figured things out. Not a lot of school spirit back then, great location. It was Revelle College at UCSD.
@ivycover I don’t want to jinx her but my best guess is 33/34 ACT. She has the rigor with mostly honors and AP classes and high grades but junior year is a tough schedule and I’m hoping she can keep those grades up. ECs strong and interesting. I’m hoping she can position herself to be interesting in the ED round to Davidson or Wake. I’m not sure she will be ready to do ED, though, so we need a decent sized list since most of these schools take a large number in ED and RD is a rough road.
@Parentof2014grad that’s a wonderful idea! I’ll definitely have her look through a list of majors and find the ones she can definitely take off. Also, we were looking at some of the majors at the schools currently on her list and communications popped out. I’ve always thought it was kind of a fluffy major but the course work seemed more substantial than I thought it would be. That might be something she would consider and then double major in something that perks her academic side- history, psychology, political science. Etc.
Does she want to join a sorority? Some colleges mentioned here (Depauw, W&L) have very high sorority/fraternity participation.
Yes. She likes the idea of a sorority. Hence Wake is high on the list. But I dare say that, if the school is an LAC with lots of other ways to “belong” then she could do without a sorority.
Logically, an honors college at a big university makes sense but she has crossed big schools off and I’m not looking back on that one.
This is from left field. Does she know anything about Vanderbilt?
Vandy would be a good option.
@ivycover not from left field at all. 
She won’t get into Vanderbilt. We have a history at our high school about Vanderbilt and it goes like this. They take two to three kids in ED and they are always legacies. Then they waitlist everyone else. Usually three or four get off of the waitlist right away in the first round but they are always in the top five percent of the class. S19 was waitlisted in RD. Didn’t take the spot. His best friend was also waitlisted with the same scores and rigor and similar ECs and got in off waitlist and is going. D21 will not be as highly ranked in her class because she isn’t taking honors science and, while she will get to AB Calc by senior year, s19 and his friend both took BC as juniors and honors and AP science all the way through high school. I think she would like it at Vandy but Naviance and all of the details I know about the kids who get in from our school show she won’t get in. (S19 has two friends who had grades and scores about where D21 will end up and they were both denied in ED and both believe it was a waste of their ED. They should have used it somewhere else.)
Communications with and interested in Poly Sci and a medium size university? You almost have to look at American.
@itsgettingreal17 yeah see above. Even kids with perfect 36 and 4.0s got waitlisted in RD (or denied in ED if they weren’t legacies) from our high school. These same kids got into places like Cornell, Georgetown, Chicago, Northwestern. Vanderbilt has a plan as to how it takes kids from our school and I don’t see it working out for D.