I do believe that my only limitation, aside from the obvious selectivity of these colleges, is the costs, but I believe this is a surpassable barrier that I’d be able to talk about more certainly if my parents would keep an ongoing conversation with me about it.
Have you considered that your parents might be using political considerations as a way to keep you from going to what in their eyes is too far from home? When my wife was looking at schools, her parents wanted her to attend the local private school instead of the distant flagship or OOS private. They never came out and said that, but came up with all sorts of political, cultural and safety arguments against being at a school some distance away.
In terms of Princeton, while I agree with rayrick, intparent and N’s mom as to not mentioning politics, if your parents want specifics, you could mention that Ted Cruz went there (no one’s idea of a liberal), that Justice Alito attended the school and that it has a robust conservative voice on campus - take a look at Prof. Robbie George and the Anscombe Society https://anscombe.princeton.edu/
@Coffeeaddicted “My dad is a scientist who takes Genesis symbolically”
This is very good news, in my mind. It suggests that he is not too extreme in his views. It also suggests to me that he understands the value of a good science education, and the value of some of the research opportunities that a good college can provide.
Separately, when developing your list, it will be better if you proactively add in some of the colleges that your Mom wants. It never hurts to go visit them. Maybe it will surprise you. Before you go, be sure to have a list of questions that point out any concerns you have and see how they respond.
I assume that you are planning to attend graduate school after undergrad. If so, be sure to investigate the Grad school admission results of each school. Any college can place individual graduates into top Masters and Phd. programs, but the top undergraduate schools will tend to place a very high percentage into top programs. That is especially true if you stay at their school. For example, DD is considering doing an extra year to get a Master’s degree at Penn. The admission rate is about 20%. However, for Penn undergraduates in good standing, the acceptance rate is very high. I am sure this true at most top colleges.
@coffeeaddicted “I’m afraid my parents will be afraid to send me to most of these places, for fear I’ll return after the first semester a socialist”
Not that many students are socialists on these campuses. I think that the term liberal, as it relates to college, is generally focussed on treating all types of people on campus with mutual respect, regardless of race, sex, etc. It is very difficult to run a campus without this. It does not mean you have to agree with their views.
Once you have investigated colleges some more and had a chance to work out some specifics regarding what you like about the schools you are targeting, I would consider initiating a discussion with your Dad about the types of things you are looking for, without mentioning specific schools. This will begin to develop a mutual understanding about traits and give him a chance to comment. Later, when you begin to identify some specific schools of interest, and provide reasons, they will be the same as the reasons previously discussed. Starting with traits and getting to college names later will hopefully avoid the situation where you provide the names and get attacked before you even explain your reasons.
Alma maters of a few well-known conservatives/Republicans:
Cornell: Ann Coulter, S.E. Cupp
Georgetown: Antonin Scalia
Harvard: William Kristol, Bill O’ Reilly (Kennedy School), Charles Murray
JHU: Ben Carson
Princeton: Ted Cruz
UPenn: Donald Trump
Yale: William F. Buckley, George W. Bush, George H W Bush, Dick Cheney
tk, Ben Carson is a Yale alum (and Michigan for Medical School). He completed his residency at JHU, but he is not an alumnus.
@zinhead my parents have no problem with location as long as it’s in the US.
@midatlmom Princeton is actually my first choice!
@Much2learn yeah my dad is a lot less extreme than my mom. He may try the convince her to let me go to a more liberal college because of the quality of education and, as you said, the grad school prospects afterwards.
Unfortunately, I just briefly talked to my dad and he said they won’t be able to provide me with much help at all. If I got into a very good school that I couldn’t cover on my own with small loans and work, they may be able to contribute some just as an investment into my future; however based on what he’s said, I wouldn’t be able to attend a college other than the flagship, HYP, possibly Swarthmore or bowdoin, or anywhere that I would get significant merit aid. Although they tend to be brutally pessimistic and giving the worst possible estimate, it seems these are my only options.
My dad suggested getting very deep into debt in order to have a good UG education (if I didn’t get to one of my top choices) but I’m not going to do this.
It frustrates me that they didn’t tell me this earlier, haven’t helped me in my college search, and haven’t educated themselves on paying for their daughter’s college as much as they could’ve in order to help me (their situations in college were very different).
I think my plan is, that after discussing this with them, I’ll make my list a range of colleges, from super selective colleges with great need based aid, to good state colleges that might offer me a significant scholarship, to UF.
OP, it sounds like you have a solid plan. However, I think you would have a much easier time selling your parents on Yale than Princeton, given that the number of prominent conservative figures to come out of Yale exceeds the number from Princeton (and I’m sure, in your parents’ eyes, Princeton would be soiled by the likes of Michelle Obama, Kagan, Sotomayor, and a very active BDS group). Harvard’s also been traditionally very liberal, more so than Yale. It sounds like if you want to attend an elite university with your parents’ blessing, Yale is your best bet. Dartmouth is usually considered the most conservative Ivy, though, is also very generous in aid, and has one of the largest and best physics and astronomy departments in the country.