This poster has many choices beside Barnard. I actually still like their first list…well balanced.
I do think adding Wesleyan worth exploring.
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This was my experience during my time at Wes as well. Also, the existence of first
LGBTQ fraternity I had ever head of, and this was in the late 1980s.
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I’m also curious as to why Middlebury isn’t on the list? It has a good psych program, and excellent creative writing program, and isn’t Eni more expensive than any of the other NE LACs.
In keeping with the rest of the list: 64% non-Hispanic White
If diversity is important for you, it would be worthwhile taking a deeper dive into the diversity of the colleges in which you are interested, since the numbers alone don’t tell you everything.
PS. The number I have given is the percent from domestic students who provided their racial/ethnic info.
@MWolf i think Middlebury is a great college. But the ones on this kid’s list were a whole lot closer to something than Middlebury is. I’m wondering if, perhaps that is why it was not included. It really is way out there location wise!
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If you want another safety with diversity, look into Agnes Scott (in GA).
I know you asked for New England but… why not Scripps?
All students take 3 interdisciplinary courses described thus:
“The theme of the Core Program as a whole is “Histories of the Present”. With this inquiry Core faculty and students explore the ways in which our contemporary self-understandings emerge from and express commitments and categories that are often taken as given—as so “natural” and “obvious” that they prevent us from thinking clearly about their complexities and ambiguities, and hinder us from seeing our world in other ways.”
The PPA major (combining a social science major at Scripps and Policy Analysis through Pomona) would likely be of interest and Psychology is one of their top majors, with possibility to do research through the Keck Institute.
(Seconding all recommendations, Brandeis, Smith, Mount Holyoke, etc.)
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I thought about Agnes Scott as well. But the OP said they wanted to stay in the NE. That said, Agnes Scott has a 4+1 program with Mercer to get the undergrad an a Masters in Teaching from Mercer.
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Rereading the OP’s likes/dislike, they didn’t like super-outdoorsy like Bowdoin, so I guess that Middlebury os not a good choice.
Oh, that is great information to have, thank you!
Middlebury isn’t officially out of the running, but it has a pretty outdoorsy reputation and I’ve also heard the student body tends to skew fairly rich. I’d actually be a legacy there; I’m sure it’s changed quite a bit since my dad was there, but I know he felt like it was pretty homogenous, and we’re also quite different in terms of our preferences (he was in a frat at Midd, recruited for sports, loves skiing while I don’t, etc) which put me on the fence about it. I’m not sure how accurate what I’ve heard is, and I’d especially love to take some language classes there if I went, though, so I haven’t crossed it off for sure.
Agnes Scott was a little too small for me (I believe it’s something like 1100 students?). My high school has something like 1300, so I took off pretty much everything 1400 or below, which is why Haverford and Bryn Mawr got cut as well.
Hm, I’ll have to look into Scripps. California would be far for me–I think the only school on the west coast I’ve genuinely considered was Stanford due to its strong psychology and education programs.
Of the Claremonts, I generally would recommend Pitzer for psychology.
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Within the consortium, I would recommend looking for social/cultural and financial fit, and comparing overall curriculum structure and gen-ed requirements. Psychology is strong throughout the consortium (excepting Mudd which doesn’t have a psych major), and students can cross-register freely. My Scripps kid took classes on literally every campus (including psych at Pomona, and neuroscience with a Pitzer psych prof); and her three undergrad thesis advisors were profs from three different campuses. Plenty of strength in psych at Scripps, Pitzer, Pomona, CMC - take your pick. They differ in other ways, though. The maximum merit award at Scripps is half-tuition; max at Pitzer is 5K/year.
Perhaps a bigger issue vis-a-vis Scripps is whether their admissions policy re: gender is a fit. It’s a little different from Barnard’s (which seemed not to fit OP’s situation): “Scripps will consider all applicants who indicate their legal sex as female submitted through the Common Application, in addition to applicants who self-identity as women. Therefore, an applicant assigned male at birth who self-identifies as a woman is eligible to be considered for admission. Applicants who indicate their legal sex as male submitted through the Common Application and who self-identify as men are not eligible to be considered for admission. Scripps does not require government-issued documentation to verify sex or gender identity.” So, if OP is legally female, they can apply even if they identify as gender-nonconforming. FWIW, quite a few students transition while at Scripps. One of the student speakers at my daughter’s grad ceremony was a male graduate who was obviously very well-loved and supported by his peers.
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I’m legally female, yes. I think I’ll have to consider whether the Claremonts are right for me in terms of location, since I hadn’t really been planning to apply on the west coast except for potentially Stanford (which has an education minor and a pretty neat educational honors program for undergrads with an emphasis on research). I think the 5-6 hour plane ride home would be a turn-off, though, which would also apply to the Claremonts. From a quick skim of websites, I don’t believe any of the Claremonts have an education major/program? I know I don’t have to major in education, and the Claremont grad school education programs look cool, but I guess I wonder about what the lack of major/minor would mean for my ability to take ed-related classes in undergrad.
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It’s true, it’s a long schlep from the east coast, especially since Claremont isn’t especially close to LAX, and the close airport (Ontario) doesn’t have many long-haul nonstops.
There are quite a few teaching-experience opportunities for those who are interested. My daughter’s “Core 3” class at Scripps was a foreign language teaching seminar where they were placed in classrooms in local elementary and middle schools. I know there are other classroom-based programs focusing on other subjects. But that’s not the same as studying educational theory more broadly. I do know Scripps grads who have gone on to education careers, but you’re correct that there isn’t really the option to make that an academic focus in undergrad… although you could certainly find support for making that part of your undergrad thesis.
I don’t know whether the fit is there for you, to justify the distance. It’s certainly possible you could score one of the bigger merit awards at Scripps, which would sweeten the deal; but whether that possibility, and the strengths of the school and the consortium, are enough to entice you to apply to a school that far from home, without an undergrad education program, only you can assess. But the possibility was raised so I wanted to offer whatever relevant info I could.
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Have you looked at the education major at Vanderbilt? The location might not be what you want but I thought I would mention it.
It looks like Hamilton grads can teach in private schools (they offer a minor) which might be nice to do initially before heading to grad school (if you decide).
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In a statistic that has begun to appear in college profiles, five percent of Wesleyan first-years identify as nonbinary. This is not to suggest that this describes you, but the figure does seem to indicate a high level of diversity there in personal identification.
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I haven’t in depth but I’ve heard good things about it. Definitely a school I’m considering.
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Wesleyan’s on the list!
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The Middlebury of the 1980s is quite different from the Middlebury of today.
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