Hi all! I’ve been reading up various threads for the past month or so and decided it was time to ask for help!
Our oldest daughter is a junior at a large Texas public school. Her school is very preppy and she has had a hard time fitting in with that group and thus has not particularly enjoyed high school. She does not enjoy friday night football, cotillion, homecoming events, etc… She is shy, and the group of friends she does have are the theater and artsy kids - although she is not a theater person herself.
She has always said she wants to attend our flagship university(UT), but I am wondering whether a smaller school might suit her better. She has not taken the ACT or SAT yet (has signed up for January and March tests), but based on her October PSAT scores, her GC is certain she will be a national hispanic scholar (who knows with this new test though!). She has taken 8 AP classes her sophomore and junior year - and her sophomore year APs scored 3s and 4s. She is in the top 11% of her high school class of over 600 students.
She is not sure what she wants to study. History and writing are her strengths; math and science, her weaknesses. She also loves psychology (both in the AP class and a summer class she took). She thinks business might be an option, but that’s because she thinks it will lead her to a “good job” when she graduates.
She will not qualify for financial aid and we can afford $30 - $35k max out of pocket, so we would need to find schools with merit aid.
Because she also struggles with anxiety, I am wondering if a nurturing environment might be a better fit for her than a large university. Her requirements are that the school not be preppy and not have a dominating Greek life. She also prefers a college that is not conservative or religious.
I would prefer that she stay closer to home. She doesn’t mind the thought of going far, but she is not sure how she would handle cold weather. I would love her to find a place that is intellectually stimulating where she can blossom and gain confidence in herself.
Any thoughts out there on schools to put on our radar. We would love to visit a few schools this spring.
Have you checked out Sarah Lawrence? The reason I ask, is that one of the sweetest gals - but really fun and quirky (in a good way, super creative) - from my older son’s theater troupe went to SLC. She loves it as far as I know. She was a high stats student too, and probably could have gone many places.
Just a thought! Hope you find what you’re looking for.
ETA: Obviously warmer weather is not on the radar for SLC.
You should go visit Trinity and Southwestern. I have heard that both schools have a nurturing environment and hopefully your daughter would receive enough merit aid to make them affordable. You could visit UT Austin, too.
We have not considered any schools besides our own state schools; I will look at Sarah Lawrence. When I plug numbers into the calculators, we have not qualified for aid and our GC has told us that we won’t qualify. Thank you for the suggestion. We are excited to start looking!
My shy, quirky daughter recently visited Barrett, the honors colllege at Arizona State. It was supposed to be her safety, but much to my surprise, she LOVED it and it’s now #1 on her list. Put aside any pre-conceived notions about ASU and read about Barrett here on the ASU forum. It’s a very nurturing, unpretentious environment with fantastic facilities (affectionately called The Nerd Cage). Your daughter would automatically receive a full tuition scholarship should she indeed qualify as a National Hispanic Scholar.
You will almost never see me mention or talk about a smaller, private LAC here on CC - I tend to focus on larger public, and STEM, schools that are a good value. But for some reason something moved me to mention SLC to you!
Best of luck in your search. It’s an exciting and sometimes frustrating time. Bittersweet and wonderful too.
Thank you for the info on ASU, we will definitely research that! And a full tuition scholarship is very attractive! Trinity and Southwestern would keep her close to home We may start with those two since they are in our backyard. She was concerned that Southwestern might be too preppy, but we should at least visit. Thank you all again!
Look at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. I have a friend who got her undergraduate degree from there, and “quirky” is the exact word she used to describe the place. I don’t know anything about the Greek presence on campus, however.
Perhaps a look at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas might be worthwhile; they do not have Greek organizations, and I understand that there are a decent number of Texans who attend there.
Your description of your daughter, your desire for her to go to school in or near TX, and your desire for merit aid sound a lot like another parent I’ve been chatting with. Their top schools are the liberal arts schools Hendrix and Trinity U, and I think they’d both be worth a look. Austin College is another possibility.
My son is an artsy type, and Trinity is one of his top choices right now. He got a great merit offer from them that will put the total cost of attendance right in your range. They also have a very strong business school. We don’t know tons about the campus culture (he’ll be visiting again in the spring), but I can tell you that Greek life is pretty muted and they have a sizable number of majors in the arts. It’s also supposedly a pretty liberal campus, despite its Texas location.
Well, that was fast! Others already suggested Trinity and Hendrix just while I was typing! One caution about Sarah Lawrence: many LACs in the Northeast offer no merit aid whatsoever. Not sure if that applies to them or not, but it’s worth checking. Also, full price at Sarah Lawrence is among the very highest of any school in the land, about $65K/yr. So you could get $20K/yr of aid and still be $10k above your target. Sorry to be a buzz kill
Yes, Hendrix and Trinity are two that we will research further! ; thank you for the cost info on Sarah Lawrence. I wan’t to make sure that we can afford the places we visit. I would hate for her to fall in love with a school we can’t afford. We visited Austin College this summer when we took my youngest daughter to a summer program there. Our oldest was not happy that there were no coffee shops/restaurants within walking distance from campus.
–Belmont Abbey College NC; LAC with friendly students
–Wesleyan College GA; lots of student life traditions here but no sororities at this womens’ college
–Mississippi University for Women; been co-ed since 1982. Only 2 “traditional” greek organizations on campus and they are local in nature. So I suspect greek life is different from the average national chapter at a large southern school
–Wofford College SC (10 greek organizations and only 4 sororities)
–U of Alabama-Birmingham. Much smaller than UA-Tuscaloosa. Minimal greek life. Students generally speaking are not overboard about football. Very good theatre department, by the way.
–U of Tulsa. Very underrated college. Yes, there are several greek organizations but I get the impression that bright and creative students at UT are not dominated by the greeks. Yes, football is popular but this private college is not in the same class as it football rivals U of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State U. Strong Performing Arts departments at Tulsa.
I actually would start off by visiting a large, mid-sized, and small school close by. Let your D get a sense of the different options available. I automatically assumed my quiet son would love a small LAC but when we actually looked he felt it was too small for his liking and he really loved the mid-sized universities. And as things turn out my outgoing D fell in love with the LAC environment and is attending one now and loving it. All I’m saying is you never know what the right fit will be until you start looking. UT may end up being a great fit – who knows?
And one comment on LACs – in our search with our D we found that they each really had a “personality” (ex. some were artsy, preppy, etc.) so we felt that fit was particularly important.
If you don’t mind a Catholic school, the University of Dallas might be a solid choice. They were rated a best value by Kiplingers, and seem rather generous with both merit and financial aid. They have a number of summer programs for college credit both on campus and abroad (I know of 2 in Italy), that will give you a nice discount if you end up applying and enrolling.
If that isn’t warm enough climate-wise, University of San Diego - another Catholic school - is also pretty generous, I believe.
U of Dallas and U of San Diego are both Catholic schools and reputedly they are both somewhat preppy. That said, both are underrated in the liberal arts/social sciences. Be mindful that there is a religion class requirement or two at U of San Diego. U of D is small like an LAC. U of SD is a mid-size university. Both places have had reputations as “rich kids schools.” Don’t know how accurate that is today.
