Drew is a beautiful school in a lovely, extremely safe town. Great for kids who enjoy theater. Its probably not talked about much here because it is quite small with an undergraduate enrollment around 1,500. I graduated from there 30 years ago! Definitely check it out.
@sally50 thanks! Do you have any knowledge of how they are for pre-med?
Muhlenberg seems like it should be a great fit. Strong in the sciences. Great at placing students in med school. Strong theater programs and lots of opportunities for students to get involved. Best of luck to you!
Not northeast but very nerdy, good for STEM including pre-med, and great merit aid: UT Dallas.
@gallentjill Unfortunately, I don’t. Other than a friend of mine who attended with me is now a successful physician! Perhaps they can provide you with acceptance rate from pre-med students into med school? Good luck!
RPI - great nerd vibe, but more males than females (admissions advantage!)
Hamilton - strong in the sciences
Muhlenberg - has a strong premed program
U Pitt - has a really strong premed program with lots of opportunities for research. Has great funding by NIH
Brandeis - great premed program
And of course Johns Hopkins
Re Fordham, I’ve read on CC that they don’t have a strong science or premed program. That’s second-hand information so do some digging around here for first hand.
I know you said northeast, but someone mentioned Rice. When my H visited with my D, he said that out of all the schools he’s visited, this is his clear favorite because they seem to really integrate the kids and everyone seems so happy, and they have a great premed program. My D liked everything about it except that it was in Houston and so many of the kids came from Texas - she felt they don’t have enough geographic diversity yet.
If you are interested in pre-med, RPI has a 7 year BS/MD program. I’m not sure how the scholaships work, but they may go through the whole degree. You would at least save a year of med school tuition.
For SUNYs for her, I like New Paltz, Geneseo and Purchase, although you’d need to check re: Purchase and the ability to do theater without being a major.
IMO, Fordham is too “sporty” for her. If she does like Fordham, she may want to apply to their Lincoln Center campus, as it’s a better fit for her.
I like Bard for her. Others have suggested Smith - I very much like Smith for her. Highly focused students, the colleges in the area have very little in terms of Greek life, and she’d have access to UMass for her tech classes and interests.
@RoaringMice Thanks! I hadn’t thought about Purchase because I thought about it more as a conservatory for the arts. Do they also have a strong science program? Good pre-med?
^^ I second Grinnell and the others (D2’s list exactly). Another thought - St. John’s College in Annapolis or Santa Fe. D2 did a summer program at the Santa Fe campus and she loved the range of kids she met there. Summer program grads get an inside track into admissions and first dibs on a full-tuition scholarship. SJC is a tiny community and the Great Books curriculum isn’t for everyone, but for the right student, it’s a gem.
Deep Springs is also open to women, at last.
Her people are definitely at Grinnell. I would look there and St. Olaf for the combination of great fit and merit (she should try to get the ACT up another point or two to ensure merit at Grinnell though).
Drew is a great choice for those who are looking to participate, but not necessarily major in theater.
Note that they do have a couple of combined degree programs; where you daughter would spend 3 years at Drew, then four years at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Prospective first years apply directly to a special combined degree for a BA/MD:
http://www.drew.edu/academics/undergraduate-studies/majors-and-minors/combined-degree-programs/#medicine
If she’s not certain she wants the accelerated program, she can still be pre-med at Drew and take the same classes, then apply to med school when she’s ready.
Thanks everyone! Will definitely check out these places. Grinnell really does read like a good fit. As far as getting ACT up, she took it in October of this year and got the 33. I’m hoping that the extra year of school will help nudge it up a point, but there is a lot of randomness there. I’m not going to make her crazy about it. If it comes, it comes. We’re really proud of the 33.
Several years ago, I visited Grinnell’s campus. Beautiful, relaxing & accepting. Generous financial aid. Grinnell is a wealthy school.
I don’t think Purchase has much room for cross-registration. We toured it and the schools seem very separate (D would have studied visual arts but would have liked to do some music or theatre – the programs didn’t seem to have room for that flexibility). I could be wrong – D didn’t like Purchase as soon as we going out of the car, so we could have missed some details knowing it wasn’t going to be on her list.
@gallentjill would you consider Canada schools? I know a nerdy boy who was into science, theatre, and D&D who found his dream school was Queens College in Ontario.
Oberlin gave my nerdy, D&D playing son a nice merit scholarship. Has excellent theatre and science programs.
@gallenjill I happen to have a D & D-playing, theater-loving son who is a junior at Grinnell. He couldn’t be happier, socially or academically. It’s a wonderful school, beautiful campus, amazing resources and people. We are also from the east coast. If your daughter gets serious about the school, feel free to PM me. We just looked at Drew with DD. She ended up not applying for her own reasons but my husband and I loved it.
My D got 34K merit from Fordham non need based.
@Veryapparent Thats amazing! Would you mind sharing her stats?