Exactly. Greek life at IU or Michigan is not the Greek life at SMU. And I beg to differ about Wake’s Greek life above - it is monied and a big part of the social life. We personally know Midwestern kids there who say as much and gave us an earful. Maybe different than a TX sorority, but not the same as the Big Ten version.
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Since Barnard is a top choice for OP’s daughter, I would think that Scripps would be her best-fit Claremont College. As with Barnard, she could not do a formal business major, but there are a lot of business-adjacent options. Unlike Occidental, Scripps would most likely not feel “too small” because of the interdependence of the five colleges and the 7K undergraduate population of the combined campuses. Her stats and activities are pretty similar to those of my daughter who ended up at Scripps with merit, although we’ve also seen higher-stats applicants get rejected - results can be very unpredictable.
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Although Villanova might be a good fit, getting into the business school puts that into the less likely category.
You might want to consider Rutgers, which seems to hit all your marks. Large School, Great business school, great school spirit, located in a city with easy access to NYC, college avenue campus is beautiful. Lots of performing arts options
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Haven’t read all 63 yet.
Is Cornell because she’s interested in Hotel or because it’s an easy route in ??
If she loves ND, there’s always Saint Marys (as you know- if you’re an ND alum). Might be too much of a small LAC though.
My daughter only had eyes for ND until she actually visited SMC and started noticing some of the special qualities of a small women’s college.
She’ll be attending SMC this fall 
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^^ My mom, aunts, and some other relatives went to SMC! Amazing school and very underrated, they give good merit aid as well! I received 34k a year from them in form of a merit scholarship, which brought my cost down to around 27k a year ish. And transferring to ND is always a possibility too as ND prioritizes Holy Cross and Saint Mary’s students!
Very small though, but still lots of opportunities and I feel like it’s a bit different because Holy Cross and ND are right there.
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I haven’t read through all these responses, but IU Bloomington is a good safety it seems based on your daughter’s stats. She’d be a direct admit to the Kelley School of Business, which is honestly an underrated program (US News has them at #8) and they have solid outcomes.
Huge party school though…I’m considering them right now (so just a disclaimer) but that is something I’ve been told about from students I know at IU. Lots of party animals, and as a result for top students at Kelley there isn’t a ton of competition/people who are as driven in academics like you would see at more selective schools. That’s not to say it’s a bad school––just a different type of student body.
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Yes exactly!
It was my D’s close to home safety at first.
But the merit and the good feels she got over the course of the process completely won her over.
So it might be a good safety - especially if you are visiting ND, definitely cross the stree to take a tour.
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For the reaches I’d replaces Northeastern, Wake Forest, and Tufts with Emory, Vanderbilt, WashU. Honestly I would consider Emory for an ED because it seems like it matches all of her criteria and is excellent for business. It’s an elite reach school that she may have a shot at if she does ED1. Emory ED2 and Regular are pretty difficult.
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Not the Engineers anymore, now known as the Mountain Hawks. “Lehigh’s first official mascot, the “Mountain Hawk,” debuted in 1995. Prior to that, Lehigh athletic teams were known as the “Engineers.” While many believe the Engineers referred to Lehigh’s strong engineering program, it in fact reflected the university’s early ties to the railroad industry”.
Lehigh’s rival Lafayette is a nice liberal arts school with a pretty campus but not in a major city (Philly is about 60-90 minutes away) and might be too small.
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She would have to give up football at Emory. 
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Yes. I think Emory is an outlier for this list. It’s not a rah rah school in any way.
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This is such good advice I wanted to highlight it. Reputations and campus culture change over time and statistics don’t tell the full story.
When reading through your D’s wishes, some “non-reach” schools that came to mind (although not perfectly in line with all priorities): URich, W&M, MiamiOH, SMU, Coll of Charleston, Rollins
Since you mentioned limited experience with Greek life, here are some things to consider if your D narrows her list to schools with sororities (just a starting point, not all-inclusive).
- Check out the (edit) school-specific sorority social media pages
- Do they have fall rush (just when students arrive at a new school) or winter rush (at the start of second semester after the students have made friends and settled in to campus life)?
- How inclusive is it? How many register for rush and how many end up in a sorority of fraternity? (In other words, how many kids are typically excluded.)
- Ask about the rush process. @homerdog brought up one extreme (which admittedly is similar to what I experienced at an SEC and my D would never have considered it). But many schools are much more laid back. No moms are flying in to “help”, the potential new members are provided a tee shirt for some parties so everyone has the same wardrobe, etc. (my D’s school is like this)
That is a start and hopefully helps a bit.
By the way, my D is at W&L which doesn’t fit your D’s criteria for size and location. But for anyone reading who may be considering schools with a large % of Greek participation (like some of the schools suggested here), I hope they will not automatically rule them out without some research. It is possible it is due to Greek life being more inclusive.
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Your D has excellent stats stats and her list is very good. However, based upon this years extremely high number of applications I would probably move Wake Forest to a reach, otherwise I think you have them handicapped about right. I would also suggest that since she would like a school with great spirit she should consider another USC. That would be the University of South Carolina. It would have all of what your D is looking for and more, especially since she is undecided, and she should have a good chance with her stats. 3 kids from our local high school in the northeast are going there and one is the son of a friend of ours who will be a finance/business major. One final observation is that as long as you will be in the Boston area you should check out Bentley and Babson as both are excellent for business and well regarded by employers. Good Luck!
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Great suggestions! And we’ll check out University of South Carolina, Bentley, and Babson.
Thanks - I’m really in the dark about Greek life, so this is all very helpful!
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She’s interested in the hotel school itself. She watched some of their online info sessions which got her intrigued. They described it as being a very business-y curriculum, but with an emphasis on service, which appealed to her.
If you’re familiar with Virginia don’t forget about JMU. They have a good football team and the school is moving up into the Sun Belt Conference. There is Greek life, but it isn’t dominant. There are also opportunities for her to participate in theater, improv and acapella groups.
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Lots of solid hotel schools from UNLV. VA TECH. UCF. U of SC. Don’t love the major but if that’s her path your list may be different.
Here’s one list. I’d prefer a business degree. Maybe a minor if desired.
Good luck in whatever she decides.
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Although Bentley and Babson are great schools and worth investigating, make sure your D is 100% sure about wanting to study business before adding these to the list.
Also, with regard to athletics and school spirit, Babson is a DIII school and Bentley is DII (with the exception of their D1 men’s ice hockey program that does very well.) Neither school offers the kind of “rah rah” environment that the other schools on your list do.
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