We are beginning the college search with my soon-to-be senior son. He has a 4.7 GPA at a highly ranked public high school, is in the top 5% of his class (they don’t rank) and has a 1500 SAT. His extracurricular activities are only average (Key Club, Science club, volunteering, and honor societies) with no leadership roles. He has no hooks. The cost of the school does not matter.
He is extremely shy and is looking for a college with little or no Greek life and where sports do not dominate. He wants to attend a top college where the students are collaborative and not cut-throat.
We are visiting colleges this summer and hopefully he will apply early decision to one of them.
A shy student may do particularly well at a small school. Haverford and Rice (a small university) were the first to come to my mind, but there are many other great liberal arts colleges (LACs) without Greek life, including:
Amherst
Bates
Bowdoin
Carleton
Claremont McKenna
Colby
Connecticut College
Earlham
Grinnell
Hampshire
Hendrix
Kalamazoo
Lewis & Clark
Macalester
Middlebury
Oberlin
Pitzer
Pomona
Reed
Skidmore
St. Olaf
Vassar
Wheaton (MA)
Williams
The midwestern LACs (Earlham, Grinnell, Macalester, Carleton, St. Olaf, etc.) may be the best place to start given his criteria.
If he hasn’t read any college books, he should begin with the Fiske Guide and the Insider’s Guide to the Colleges.
Try to arrange a visit to Rice in Houston: The smallest of the elite research universities (around 3,900 undergrads), Rice does not have frats or sororities; instead, it features a residential college system that encourages solidarity and provides a built-in network of friends from the get-go (even for shy and socially inexperienced kids).
The school is celebrated for its friendly, collaborative environment and for its overall quality of life, often ending up ranked #1 for “Happiest Students” by the Princeton Review.
While Rice does field Division 1 teams for those who want to experience a bit of traditional college rah-rah, the sports scene is fairly peripheral to the ebb and flow of student life . . . though the powderpuff football tournament does generate some excitement. Overall, the atmosphere at Rice is distinctly un-jocky, and in this it differs from some of the well known Northeastern LACs (Williams, etc.).
Finally, the beautiful campus is quite literally “enclosed,” being surrounded by a low wall that separates it from the Texas Medical Center complex on one side and the lovely West University residential neighborhood on the other.
You don’t mention where you live. Having lived all over the country, I agree with warblersrule that the Midwest is a good place to start, especially for a shy student. We’ve got some jerks out here in the Midwest, but the level of general abrasiveness and unfriendliness is pretty low compared to some other parts of the country.
I would recommend top liberal arts colleges. I personally toured Colgate and loved the atmosphere and think with your son’s grades/scores that Colgate should be a match. From your description it also seems like Amherst, Middlebury, and Colby would be solid choices. I have friends at each of those schools and they couldn’t be more pleased with the education they are receiving and love the collaborative atmosphere. Good luck!
Fiske has Colgate at 35% greek so yes that would be fratty and it is academically excellent, so yes true. He may want a larger school where he can get used to the campus, get adjusted if you will. The list here is mainly LACs, is that what you want, those would require class participation early on? Consider something larger like I said, Tufts, Wesleyan, Brandeis, maybe Colgate’s hockey rival, Cornell.
I live in new jersey and my daughter goes to rice. I considered transportation when we enrolled her there. Think of this: There are innumerable direct flights to Houston and they are cheap. A flight from Philadelphia or Newark takes 3.25 hours and i got a round trip ticket one through pioneer for $46. I figured it was just as long and just as expensive to drive to Colgate or Wellesley from where I live in south jersey as to fly to Houston. And going to visit your child in Houston in the winter from new jersey is REALLY nice (think no coat required). And there is so much to do in Houston. I bet you would be visiting just as much in Houston as at Colgate
My daughter did not want greek life or sports as well, and is somewhat shy. She added Woman’s colleges to her list and will be attending one, but the schools on her list she applied to that fit this criteria were, Vassar, Skidmore and Wheaton, MA. They were all Woman’s colleges at one time, which is why they don’t Football or Frats. I beliveve Connecticut College fits that description as well. Most of the NESCAC schools have a sports vibe, close to 40% of students participate on sports teams, but they pretty much prohibit frats house. Hamilton, Colby and Middlebury would be good choices, but If I were to pick one above all Vassar. Since Vassar was an all Woman’s school Boys have a better chance since they seem to want to balance out the population, beautiful school, not in a city and not into sports like most of its competitors. My daughter did not get in but we had no hard feelings, we know it was a reach. BTW he has great stats, you should be proud.
Is he a STEM kid? If so he might like RPI or Case Western. U of Rochester might be another good fit no matter what his major may be.I think he might have an issue with the tippy top liberal arts colleges if he has little in the way of ECs
Swarthmore and Hamilton mentioned above, do have Greek life, though the schools are not defined by them. Another good resource book to look at is, The Hidden Ivies, 3rd edition. I find the narratives to be more comprehensive and truer than Fiske or Insider’s guide, and though it just profiles 63 schools, the OP’s son has the stats for that grouping, and the book does give a very in depth view.
