<p>^Lol, excellent. And I’m sure there are some SEC schools where that could be done, too.</p>
<p>Although, joking aside, I think OP only wants a school that isn’t Swarthmore or Reed :p</p>
<p>There are kids who go to Williams and can pull off the effortless perfection thing without missing a beat. The faculty and administration are very supportive. My kid both loved her time there, and felt incredibly stressed. Great people and surroundings, never enough time. Those extracurricular activities can be a real time suck and actually another source of pressure. Mental health services have expanded but are overwhelmed at times. Only you know your kid NSG420, but some students struggle at Williams because it can be hard to find the balance you are looking for. I don’t think it’s all that different from Swarthmore for example. </p>
<p>The only decent college or university on Long Island is Stony Brook - and there is nothing “laid back” about it.
I am a Hofstra grad and I regret never going away to college.</p>
<p>Why on earth does everyone seem to forget Clark when thinking of an academically respectable college that will not through you into the academic meat grinder? I happen to think that not being in Boston - but being close - is about the best plus I can think of. Best of both worlds. I’d also second Muhlenberg. </p>
<p>Seina and College of New Rochelle are mediocre and not at all what the OP is looking for. Safety schools for Fordham, at best. </p>
<p>We looked at Bates, but we live in the Midwest, and Maine is a bit of a trek. Not so bad from LI, though. </p>
<p>Remember that her major choice might be far more important in terms of her homework load. However, also remember that the easier majors often lead to lower pay or difficulty finding a job - did she consider that?</p>
<p>FWIW, my son applied EA to WPI, and they don’t give Fs from what I understand. They just give “NR” and the student needs to retake the class to get a grade for it. Would something like that work better for her?</p>
<p>Yes. Or Ds. It’s Pass No record. There is no record of any class in which the student receives a grade bellow C.</p>
<p>OP, your D sounds like my younger D. </p>
<p>She shunned all reaches and found a supportive private university just below the elite level that seemed to filter out most of the “gunning for the ivy” types. This seems to have put her close to the top of the class, and really boosted her confidence as she pretty much ran the table and sailed through freshman year. She calmly improved her study skills and is doing quite well in an engineering program. By judiciously using AP credits, she doesn’t have to overload. </p>
<p>You can get reasonably small with a private. I think in public schools, you still get a lot of really competitive students who go there because of the cost. I just think private schools can be more supportive. </p>
<p>I think that if you focus on private schools and avoid competitive schools that attract the top of the class, you will find what you are looking for. </p>
<p>I agree that private schools tend to be more supportive. There is no doubt about that. </p>
<p>How about Hartwick, Drew, Elmira, Wells, Keuka, Wagner, Union, Hobart William Smith, Wheaton (MA)"</p>
<p>I’d also look seriously at The Colleges that Change Lives.</p>
<p>My daughter is also a straight-A student who doesn’t want to be at a super competitive school. She’s applying to a bunch of small liberal arts schools out here on the West Coast (and also Bryn Mawr), but her top choice is Scripps because it balances a small, supportive environment with a reasonably rigorous academic environment and the ability to take classes at the other Claremont schools, some of which are notoriously rigorous. So the rigor is there if she wants it but she (hopefully) won’t feel pressured to pile a lot of work on herself.</p>
<p>She’s also applying to Reed because she loves its quirkiness, but I feel kind of ambivalent about it based on Reed’s reputation for heavy workloads. Hopefully she’ll get in to Scripps ED and she won’t even have to worry about it!</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone, for your helpful suggestions and support. I appreciate that most of you get what I am trying to look for. It is not that my daughter doesn’t want to work, she just doesn’t want to grind it out for the sake of grinding it out–she actually likes time to process and think about things without just being goal-directed to churn out papers, etc. She needs a place where she can find other students who are like-minded and professors that understand her mentality/emotionality and are supportive.<br>
I will look into some of the schools you have mentioned, Luxlake.
ClassicRockerDad, would you mind telling me what school your daughter ended up going to? she does sound a lot like my daughter.</p>
<p>My DD needs the same kind of environment, but for different reasons (ADHD). She is applying exclusively to LACs, the majority of which are CTCL schools. Her stats put her in the top 25% of most of her schools, so we are hoping she will be able to shine anywhere she goes.</p>