I’m a big fan of the women’s colleges. My D21 is at Bryn Mawr and loving it, thriving there. FWIW they have a medical condition that requires them to be near good hospitals and doctors. And we are from the SF bay area. My minimum req was to have direct flights to/from SFO to wherever my kids ended up. No planes, trains and automobiles. BMC fit the bill. My D21 also does theater and works in the theater with the Shakespeare troupe. And seems to fit a lot of your D’s reqs. Happy to chat via pm if you’re interested in hearing more deets. Oh and my D got a large merit award from BMC, Smith, Mount Holyoke and Sarah Lawrence (not an HWC) and some of her friends also got merit at Scripps.
I’d also recommend the other HWCs including Smith and MH. They both offer merit. The other HWCs, Wellesley and Barnard do not offer merit but do offer finaid, but they are also more “competitive” feeling. Each of the HWCs has its own personality, so it’s good to visit and/or deep dive on the websites/social media.
I also loved Oxy but couldn’t sell to my kid who wanted to go East as well. But I think it’s a fabulous LAC with super smart, chill and nice kids.
I agree with this, but will note, that most colleges have access to local insurance that isn’t too expensive. As someone who has a child attending college in PA, we’re in CA, we had our D sign up for the local insurance and kept her on our CA policy. It has worked out well, as she has multiple doctors in the area and been to the ER too many times to count (food allergies). Philly is just a 25 minute train ride away, she goes to get PT there, and gets allergy shots a few minutes from school. She’s gotten to know the campus safety staff very, very well.
This is interesting - and I don’t want to pry (I have so many questions) but one thing OP asked was the comment below. If your daughter has had multiple trips to the ER, etc. I’m assuming you were initially also concerned about her moving cross country - what guidance do you have on the question below. While I’m not an impacted parent, following along, I am interested parent - and I imagine you were anticipating many of the issues your daughter has had but still developed a comfort, or at least willingness, to let your daughter spread her wings.
In addition to college suggestions, I guess I’m looking for advice on how to convince a teen to genuinely consider local options and that parents might have a broader view of the situation.
Sure! No idea what OP’s kid’s issues are, might be totally different than my kid, but here’s my personal experience.
My kid has had severe food allergies since birth as well as an auto-immune disorder. As she was growing up, we always tried to empower her to advocate for herself and included her in all of the meetings with the teachers at school, staff at summer camps, and with her doctors. We wanted to make sure that she could go wherever and do whatever she wanted, all the while still being safe. We didn’t want her to miss out just because of her disabilities. Prior to college, she went on all school trips across the country as well as out of the country. It took a lot of prep/work, but they went and made it back in one piece, even though there were some medical issues as well.
Fast forward to college search, and we wanted her to go wherever she felt comfortable. The only reqs I had were direct flight, within an hour of an airport and near a big city with good hospitals/healthcare (as well as the states where abortion was not restricted, guns laws weren’t absent and lbgtq rights were supported).
They wanted to go East, despite all their medical issues, I think because they felt empowered having been so involved in their care all these years. They do call me when they are on the way to the ER (they’d been at various ERs over the years, probably 20 in total) due to anaphylaxis, so they knew the drill. I think they also were comforted in knowing that the school was aware of their issues before they arrived on campus. They met with the disability office as well as the food service people. They also have anxiety/ADHD so had to for those issues as well.
I’m super proud that they’ve handled all these situations without me there. At some point they were going to have to “adult” and we thought college was the best time to see how it worked/play out. We always wanted to allow our kids to “spread their wings” and didn’t want to limit that based upon their disabilities.
Now, all that said, I do not pretend that it’s been easy to let them go so far away. But, I wouldn’t change a thing. I want them to live the life they want to live with our full fledged support and love.
Oh and fast forward to S24 and his college search. He too has medical issues (I know, we should never have procreated), that will require him to have monthly infusions and be under a local doctor’s care, so he needs to be near a major hospital as well. Same reqs for him: direct flight from SF, within an hour of the airport, close to major city/hospital, and we’ll sign up for the local state insurance.
Just an FYI. When my kid started college across the country, there were direct/non-stop flights from our closest airport to the one near her school. Those were discontinued. So…just be aware that flights that are happening now might not continue for all four years of college.
Smith has some great merit scholarships that have to do with research, if your kid is interested in that. Given her stats, I’d say she has a chance at these.
They had double insurance. Our family insurance through my husband and then the school insurance. They use both, but the family insurance (Blue Cross) does not work well in PA, in PA they use the school insurance which is United Healthcare.
I know little about Reed - but in reading everyone’s comments over the years and reading the Niche student reviews…they seem to be a lot worse than other schools.
I don’t know about worse. I know several young people who were very happy there - one even transferred from a T20 university and was much happier at Reed. And it’s not just happiness in the absence of outcomes, given the large numbers of future PhD’s the school produces. But their retention rates are lower than other schools of similar reputation, because it’s very much a “fit” school and not everyone who ends up there finds the fit they were hoping for. So, choosing it sight-unseen is a risk I would recommend against. If a student investigates it carefully, and visits, and feels confident that it resonates, then it can be great. It’s when we hear things like “I like liberal arts colleges, and I like Portland, so Reed is high on my list!” that a caveat is warranted. Reed is definitely not interchangeable with other LAC’s or a place to choose based on location or vague impressions that it’s “good” for a particular major.
Just talking about the niche student reviews - don’t know about the school itself. I was intrigued after reading so many different sorts of comments on here.
The lots of drugs didn’t phase me. I think that’s everywhere unfortunately -and not just pot.
I don’t know if you can even put “your finger on it”, but do you recall what had left you with that feeling? (Unless you were talking about competitive in terms acceptance rates, not student experience.)
My daughter’s experiences there were cooperative, caring - a bit of “sisterhood” feeling; quite different what she had been worried about before finally deciding to accept.
UCSD and UCI may not be a good fit for someone with ADHD and anxiety.
Both operate on a lightning fast 10 week quarter system. In lower division premed reqs at UCSD, a student will be sitting in classes with 2-300 students, many who are premed and who are competing for the maybe 20% of the A grades that get handed out at end of quarter.
If UCSD and UCI stay on list and D ultimately attends, maybe some consideration might be given to starting premed reqs until year 2 giving D a chance to acclimate.
Also consider that UCSD only guarantees on campus housing first two years, meaning she’ll have to move off campus into some nearby pricey areas or further away from campus and may need a car. Good luck to you and D.
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