I’m a rising senior and I’ve been doing a bunch of college research, and I was wondering if there are any schools I am overlooking. Cost isn’t really a concern. I plan on going in undecided, and I would like a school with good programs in both humanities and STEM areas. I want a school with a campus, and most importantly, a school where people are excited to go there and excited to learn. I don’t want a culture such as preppiness or partying/drugs/Greek life to completely swallow this excitement, although I don’t mind if those things exist. I also want to be in a band/orchestra in college, and music is my main extracurricular now. As far as grades/numbers go, my unweighted GPA is around a 94 and I’m taking the most advanced classes at my school. I got a 35 on the ACT, although I bombed the writing, and I haven’t won any major awards or anything like that. I could provide more information if that’s valuable, but thanks in advance!
Oh…sorry. I’m not going to name my entire list because I’m paranoid about my privacy, but my matches include Brandeis, URochester, and possibly Smith, and my reaches include Brown, Washu, and Carleton. As you can see, I haven’t really committed to a size, but let’s just say 2,000-10,000 for the purposes of this forum.
Thanks, @merc81! My size limit is very flexible. Basically, I don’t want a huge state school feel and I’d be willing to go below 2000 as long as the school isn’t suffocatingly small. It’s more about atmosphere than exact number, but I wanted to give a guideline for simplicity.
You might want to consider your options along the lines of similarities and differences. For example, Wesleyan has much in common with Brown in terms of campus culture and academic offerings. So Wes might be a school to consider on this basis. Under the same concept, Hamilton, Smith and Brown each offer an open curriculum. Hamilton, an example of a college with an entirely undergraduate focus – and in this sense different from some of your current choices – is strong across humanities and sciences, supports a popular orchestra, and could suit many of your stated priorities and interests.
Tufts (just outside of Boston) may be worth a look…
It has a thriving music scene with great facilities, interdisciplinary majors that span STEM (including Engineering) and the Humanities. and an Experimental College to support curricular innovation as well as bridge the gap between academia and the working world.
At about 5000 undergrads it is the largest NESCAC school, putting it right between Wesleyan and Brown in terms of size.
@Mastadon, I’ve looked into Tufts (my dad went there), and it looks really good on paper, but I didn’t like my tour. It felt preppier than I was expecting, and I walked away intimidated. Overall, I didn’t get good vibes, but I’m not sure if I should take it off my list or not, since objectively it has a lot of the things I want.
@newjerseygirl98, Rochester is on my list. I visited and really liked it. I’m worried that Bucknell is too Greek (I will not be rushing in college, and i don’t want that to make it harder for me to have a social life), and Oberlin is too liberal (I am very liberal politically, but Oberlin seems like too much). As you can see, the problem that I seem to be having is that I’m so picky about schools, so I need to work on narrowing my list while also not expecting perfection from every single school!
If you’re in the midwest, visit Macalester while seeing Carleton. Lawrence is another good school for people who want to continue in music while pursuing an academic major, but is quite a bit further from Carleton to visit.
I tend to organize school lists in terms of shared qualities, and then build safeties to reaches from those essential characteristics. So, you might have Knox, Earlham, Kalamazoo, Beloit, Lawrence, Kenyon, Oberlin, Grinnell, Wesleyan, Brown – schools with small and non-traditional greek life or none at all, eclectic, quirky student bodies, less rigid distribution requirements (though I confess, I cannot recall specifics for a few of those – though K, Grinnell, and Brown have a more open curriculum). Earlham is just around 1100, so may be too small a student body for you.
Yeah, Earlham’s too small. And I have 3 safeties that I really like (a small liberal arts college and 2 public universities) so I’m mostly working on editing my reach list, which I understand is the opposite of how this process usually goes. There’s a lot that I like about Wesleyan on paper but I’m worried about the student body being too into drugs and not enthusiastic about learning (I understand that drugs are on every college campus, and a dry campus would be weird to me- I just don’t want that to be the single dominating campus culture). Can anyone speak to that or is this a question for the Wesleyan forum?
The reporter who broke the story for the NYTimes probably captured the experience of the vast - vast - majority of students at Wesleyan when she described how difficult it is to find hard drugs at Wesleyan unless you are already a part of that world or desperate to get into it, neither of which would apply to you. Mind you, this is someone who is paid to do investigative reporting; the average student would be even more clueless:
“There’s a lot that I like about Wesleyan on paper but I’m worried about the student body being too into drugs and not enthusiastic about learning (I understand that drugs are on every college campus, and a dry campus would be weird to me- I just don’t want that to be the single dominating campus culture). Can anyone speak to that or is this a question for the Wesleyan forum?”
Yes to Wesleyan forum but I will put in my 2 cents as a Wesleyan parent whose son just graduated in May. He loved it! He had great academic and social experiences. Had the same work-study position all 4 years that he enjoyed (and was flexible). First year was somewhat challenging 'til he found his group but second year it really helped that he lived in a theme house and so found likeminded friends. They (male and female) were very much into learning, and during senior year many of them wrote theses. They would work in a classroom together towards the end and then take a food break together. Nerdy although none of these students are nerds in the classic sense (in other words have a range of interests, such as writing, politics, cooking, theater, movies). I probably don’t know the whole story on his use of either drugs or alcohol but am fairly sure that he did a little pot (there is some pot “holiday” that is celebrated in the spring on Foss Hill) and a controlled amount of the second. But neither he or his friends were partiers although he did have a roommate his junior year who enjoyed fine wine. But they went to plays and movies and concerts on campus, played video games, threw dinner parties in their houses, watched Game of Thrones together…So I think you will find your appropriate friend group at Wes or any other school. Do know that at Wes fraternities have been in a lot of trouble recently and so are being closed or made to go coed, only about 30 years behind Amherst, which still seems a lot preppier to me (I’m an alum) than Wes, which seems more artsy. But then again my son didn’t play team sports or join a frat. Good luck!
Haverford – no greek life, a learning for learning sake kind of place. Not sure current student body size, may be 1200 ish, but with Bryn Mawr 1 mile away, and opportunity to take classes, eat etc., it expands the feel of the school significantly.
Wow, thanks everyone for the suggestions, and thanks @MomofM for the info about Wesleyan, although I’ll definitely be posting in their forum. I’m SO close to having my college list finalized- I just need to adjust my reaches- and I can’t wait to have my list done!
Do you want small or large schools?