<p>My son went to boarding school in New Jersey and was one of the few Republicans around. He is an economic conservative but not a social conservative. I think you should call Lehigh tomorrow and ask if the students who were involved in the racist incident were from New Jersey.<br>
Your daughter is a URM which will help her considerably. I think you need to let it play out.</p>
<p>Racial incidents can happen anywhere because colleges are full of individuals.
I'd suggest asking questions, and investigating enough to see if you're satisfied with how the administration and the other students responded to the incidents. I think that would give a better picture of the school as a whole than the actions of a few idiots.</p>
<p>Also - looking at your list--
Some of these schools are on the small side, and might track student interest when it comes to admissions. Don't know about these, but have heard at some schools this can make a difference at admissions time. Also, obviously, she'd have a better idea of what they're like.</p>
<p>Try to visit Wesleyan. It is very welcoming to African-Americans, has many politically very active (definitely lefty) students, but is also comfortable for students who are not interested in activism.</p>
<p>Plainsman, </p>
<p>I don't know your daughter's profile. And I have no clue what "modest SATs" are as one person's definition of that differs from the next. Your D has URM status which helps the odds. Nonetheless, in my view, Brown is not a "borderline reach" for ANYONE. If your child had a 4.0 uw GPA and was valedictorian and had a 1600/2400, the school would still be called a reach school. It would not be a "reach" in terms of the stats but because schools that have a very low admit rate, as Brown does, have "reach odds" in terms of the chance of admission where those who are qualified in terms of stats/profile are turned away in droves. My own kid had very good stats and very strong achievements in a range of areas and when she applied to Brown and other schools with a similar very low admit rate, we called these schools "reach", not because her stats made them a reach (was not the case) but because the odds for ANYONE to be admitted are quite low. That will be true for everyone including your D. If her SATs are not in range, that makes it even MORE of a reach in terms of odds of admission. That doesn't mean she won't get in but that your understanding of the odds is not accurate. Brown is not a borderline reach for anyone, in my view. My kid did end up getting in and graduated from Brown but if she were not admitted, we would not have been surprised given the very low admit rate, and not because she wasn't qualified (she was). </p>
<p>I do not know if Penn State and Ursinus are safeties for your D as I know nothing of her profile. However, you say she won't apply to safeties and that is foolish. My D had safeties. In fact, Lehigh was one of her safeties (that is not a safety for everyone but it clearly was for her....and in fact, she got a likely letter in Jan. that year and received a large scholarship from Lehigh). Even top students (my D was val, for example) need safeties. Many schools on your D's list are a reach for anyone given their very low admit rates. I don't know if they are reaches for your D's stats or not but just the admit rate alone makes them so.</p>
<p>soozie- Your PM box is full.</p>
<p>Agree- Brown is a reach. Period. Ursinus would probably be a match. It is surrounded by white people who stole the Obama signs from my sister's front yard (in the neighborhood) so be careful. :) As I right, I am right in the neighborhood visiting. Penn State would certainly be diverse, but you get the frat/sorority thing you don't like. Plenty of kids there don't pledge, of course. How does your daughter feel about football?</p>
<p>Stats of a girl in S2's HS Class of 2008---100+GPA, 10AP's, Intel-Semi Finalist, did summer research at Brown in HS, varsity sports, community service, and leadership roles. She didn't get into Brown (it was her goal for 4 years to go there). Although heartbroken, she was smart enough to realize not to take it personally--that sometimes, often times, it's luck. Her stats were incredible but there are thousands of kids with similar stats. She is now very happy at Colby. </p>
<p>What makes Lehigh the way it is? ---It's the "homogenous student population." Any school known for it's "homogeneous student population" is one that I would cross off my list. If you limit yourself to colleges with "rankings and prestige", you're missing out on some hidden gems.</p>
<p>Top</a> 10 Most Homogeneous Student Populations - MSN Encarta</p>
<p>Check out this link. Make sure you also notice the similar colleges that the students also applied to. Lehigh, Dickinson, Amherst are on the list. You can read through the article.</p>
<p>There are some fine universities that are not as long odds as a great many schools on your D's list. You say you are afraid that the most selective school she'll get into is Lehigh. I don't know her stats but if that is an accurate guess, it makes sense to have some schools more in that range and not such a top heavy list, to insure some options in the spring. Did she ever look into Boston University, American University, George Washington University, Lafayette, Sarah Lawrence, Kenyon, Bucknell, Brandeis, Conn College, Skidmore, Union, Smith, Hamilton, Vassar, Colgate, Colby, Bates, Bard, Franklin and Marshall, University of Maryland, Carnegie Mellon, or University of Rochester. All of these are very selective schools that attract students who are in the top 10% of their HS class like your D. </p>
<p>PS...MOWC...I can't keep up with the PM box....I prefer email and so feel free to email me.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Why does Lehigh keep making headlines about race problems? I don't see other highly selective institutions making these headlines. What is it about Lehigh?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes - this is because the Morning Call doesn't have much to write about. Allentown/Bethlehem is a working class community - or used to be. Does Bethlehem Steel ring a bell? The song "Allentown" by Billy Joel. Yes - that was a long time ago but Lehigh is seen as the school for rich smart kids. Educational prima donnas.
Lehigh is the premier university in the Lehigh Valley - anything that happens there will be written about in the Morning Call. This did not make the news in the neighboring county to the south. If this incident had happened at a local college, it would have been front page news here.</p>
<p>Plainsman - stop sweating. Let your daughter visit and see for herself. She has lots of other colleges on her list - they are not perfect either.
Frankly, I would be more "concerned" as a parent if she went to University Park than Lehigh.</p>
<p>BTW - at each college visit, I eagerly sought out the college newspaper. I loved reading about whatever the "controversy of the week" was - and didn't usually like the school if there wasn't any. Too suspicious the administration was censoring the news.</p>
<p>MOWC - ;)</p>
<p>I actually DO know the difference between "write" and "right". So much for multi-tasking.</p>
<p>My link was not from the Morning Call, it was from the Inquirer Hate</a> crimes up on campuses, group says | Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/15/2008 We get both newspapers. I've got to agree with Plainsman though, we never seem to hear as much bad stuff about Moravian or Muhlenberg or DeSales - all within 20 minutes of each other here in the Lehigh Valley. </p>
<p>Plainsman, how about Lafayette or Drew University - Dual-Degree</a> Programs in Engineering and Applied Science ? Drew has a 3-2 engineering program with Columbia.</p>
<p>Plainsman-
as a parent, I understand your desire to keep your daughter safe both physically and emotionally. As a white parent I am not faced with the prospect of people disliking or judging my child based on the color of her skin. You have apparently raised a very strong, confident young woman. She is aware of the atmosphere there, and still feels strongly about attending. My daughter would run the other way! I would venture to say that your daughter will be successful (and happy) anywhere. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>Hayze: Thank you for the positive words. I hope things turn out that way. This is my baby girl. It's hard for me to even imagine some fools hurting her with racism. I'd probably storm the campus, fists balled up, ready to fight! </p>
<p>Kathiep: Drew is in New Jersey. I hate New Jersey. And my D doesn't want engineering or science. She wants to save the world some other way. Lafayette, to me, is too much like Lehigh (without the headlines).</p>
<p>Late note: I just visited Muhlenberg's web site. They draw significantly more students from New Jersey than Pennsylvania! How can that be? More than a third of their student body is from New Jersey! Where can my kid go to college where there is hardly anyone from my hated birth state of New Jersey?</p>
<p>Somehow Bucknell's name erroniously got into this conversation. Bucknell is not particularly similar to Lehigh - other than both having about the same academic standards. To begin with, Bucknell is 48.5% male while Lehigh (according to the current USNews rankings) is 58.5% male. (Lehigh's entering class in 2007 was 61.4% male.) Also, Lehigh has much more of a business focus and has a large graduate school, while Bucknell's focus is much more liberal arts. (Both have very good engineering schools.) </p>
<p>I know a number of minority students at Bucknell and none have experienced any of the sort of incidents being discussed in this thread. While not being ultra-liberal, the Bucknell student body is fairly liberal and about two-thirds of the campus was Obama supporters. </p>
<p>Bucknell also has a very active affiliation with the Posse Foundation - bringing in groups of minority students from a number of urban areas. The school is clearly not itself in an urban area, so if that is very important to an applicant then Bucknell will not be a good fit. Lewisburg is a nice, small college town - which a number of people find appealing.</p>
<p>NJ has a very high population density. You are going to find a lot of NJ folks in any of the NE schools and they will be looking in the same neck of the woods as you are as they are close geographically. Most kids like to stay close for college. </p>
<p>I thought you did not like Lehigh because of those headlines. </p>
<p>I think Soozievt has put together a good list of schools that are more diverse than Lehigh.
Hope you are speaking tongue in cheek about NJerseyites.</p>
<p>We looked at Lafayette, Lehigh and Muhlenberg. My D vetoed Muhlenberg right off the bat after dining in the cafeteria. She did not like how the students self-segregated themselves. She also was turned off by the amount of greek sweatshirts she saw. She would not even take the tour. I think she did not give it a chance.
Lehigh seemed perfect on paper but she did not feel it was right for her.
Strangely for no apparent reason to me liked Lafayette.
Muhlenberg has a large number of jewish students which might make it a more liberal political climate then the other schools.</p>
<p>Bowdoin</a> Honored with NAACP Excellence in Diversity Leadership Awa, Campus News (Bowdoin)</p>
<p>I know that Bowdoin College is further away than what you'd like but it's a fantastic school. You may want to consider looking at colleges outside of NY, CT, and Penn. if you want a different type of student population.</p>
<p>Plainsman....I don't get it. On the one hand you want your D to go to college fairly nearby. With that restriction, there will most definitely be a significant proportion of students from NJ since at a lot of colleges, they draw students from the region. </p>
<p>The other thing I don't get....it is one thing to not like NJ as a place to live. It is another to knock all students from NJ and not want your kid to go to school with them. I grew up in NJ...I think I can responsibly make these comments. I don't live in NJ and do not care to. That said, my kids went to college where lots of kids were from NJ (my kids went/go to Brown and NYU). My kids grew up in VT. There is no difference between their NJ friends at college than their friends from other states. I frankly find this criteria of yours regarding students from NJ ridiculous. But if you feel that strongly about that....your D needs to look at schools further afield.</p>
<p>I, too, am puzzled with the NJ reference, particularly from someone who is concerned about prejudice.</p>