<p>Wondering if you could help me find some colleges for a family friend. </p>
<p>She is a rising senior at a top, but not tip top, public high school in Ohio. She is exceptionally bright but has a 3.2 GPA and a 28 on the ACT (I believe she will get this up to a 30+ in her next try in August or September... whatever the first date is). Her parents were very controlling which caused her a lot of stress (that, coupled with battling juvenile diabetes, multiple moves across the country and school changes, and the death of a close friend her sophomore year) and she turned to writing rather than school work. Because of this, she has won numerous local, county, and state awards in writing but it has cost her in terms of her GPA. She finally started getting it together junior year and finished with a 3.5-ish GPA for the year. </p>
<p>She wants to be a writer and major in either English, creative writing, or literature- something along those lines. Money is not a concern. While her parents are controlling, they are also very well off and believe education is extremely important. They are willing to pay whatever it costs to send her wherever she wants to go. If they choose not to support her, her mother's siblings are both without children, also well off, and have agreed to pay for her. </p>
<p>I want to help her but unfortunately I don't have a lot of experience with schools that are a good fit for those in the low 3.x GPA range. They are not allowed to have access to internet in their house for more than a few hours/week so I'm trying to get her a list of schools that she can look up schools quickly rather than spending most of that time browsing.</p>
<p>Other important notes:
-Parents will NOT pay for a religious school unless it is very liberal and doesn't have a religious class requirement.<br>
-She has no preference on size, location, etc however, I've known her all her life and I think she would do best in a small LAC with a supportive environment. Not saying she needs to be babysat but because she has been very sheltered her whole life, I think a smaller environment where she's not going to get lost as easily would be better.
-She is a very accomplished violin player and would like to continue doing that in college if possible but isn't interested in getting a degree in music.
-Taking a gap year or commuting to a CC really isn't an option for her. Her home environment borders on toxic and she needs to get out of there. </p>
<p>Like I said, she's a very bright girl who I think will THRIVE once she's outside of her house. I just want to see her do well and any recommendations would be greatly appreciated :)</p>
<p>Would she consider Smith? They are test optional (but 59% of those admitted had an ACT between 24-29). I didn’t see anything in your post that said she only wanted coed, and she’d get a great education.</p>
<p>If she only wants coed schools, how about: Dickinson, Gettysburg, Franklin & Marshall (all small LACs, all in PA)?</p>
<p>Miami of Ohio sounds like a great fit. Maybe Bard, but I don’t know how hard it is to get into. Maybe Iowa? Lots of great LAC’s in Ohio that would fit the bill.</p>
<p>[COPLAC</a> | Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges](<a href=“http://www.coplac.org/students/admissions.php]COPLAC”>http://www.coplac.org/students/admissions.php) has a list of public LACs that do not appear to be super-selective (and many are not super-expensive either). But she may have to check the course offerings to make sure that there are sufficient English literature, rhetoric, and composition courses for her interests.</p>
<p>You also could look through the group of institutions that form the “colleges that change lives” list: [Colleges</a> That Change Lives | Changing Lives. One Student at a Time.](<a href=“http://www.ctcl.org/]Colleges”>http://www.ctcl.org/) One of my nieces studied at Guilford which is Quaker, but not overly religious.</p>
<p>She also could check through the list of women’s colleges at [The</a> Women’s College Coalition](<a href=“http://womenscolleges.org/]The”>http://womenscolleges.org/) Hollins has a well recognized writing program that might appeal to her.</p>
<p>Lawrence University has a music conservatory. I don’t know what they offer for non majors, but if she’s a good violinist, it may appeal to her to be with other accomplished musicians.</p>
<p>The main problem with some of the usual college search sites is that searching for “small colleges with English literature, rhetoric, and/or composition majors” still returns hundreds of colleges, even though the quality of the English departments (in terms of how extensive the course offerings are) varies widely (which means that one would have to check each college individually). Of course, with small colleges, other fit factors can become more important, and those need more individual evaluation as well.</p>
<p>UCB, that’s why she’s having trouble sifting through everything. Given her limited amount of time on the internet, she only gets to narrow down a few colleges every time and it’s just SO time consuming to go through the lists on CB and other sites. </p>
<p>I’m taking down all of these suggestions to give to her.</p>
<p>Even though it may be more of a longshot now, have her give Oberlin a shot. If they are still like they were when I or some much younger alums I am going to have dinner with tonight were applying for college during the mid-'90s to early '00s, Oberlin adcoms are willing to look beyond low GPAs/SATs if there’s a great essay and/or compelling life story/addendum. </p>
<p>Same with Kenyon, Antioch, College of Wooster, etc. </p>
<p>It will certainly fulfill the parents’ ideal of an extremely liberal school…though it has mellowed out on that score compared to when I attended.</p>
<p>She should ask her parents for a separate allotment of internet time, to specifically be devoted to college search. She can buy Fisk Guide and CTCL guide to read about schools and the offerings and cultures so she can get an idea of school characteristics that she likes and maybe pick schools.</p>
<p>Does she have any thoughts about location. I made my younger son look at Bard because there are things about it that I like, but as I expected he feaked out about the middle of nowhere location. (Looking at it first had the advantage of making Poughkeepsie (i.e. Vassar) which we saw the same day look great!) He ended up gravitating to suburban and not too urban campuses. He didn’t like the no campus look of BU, GW or NYU either.</p>
<p>In any event she does sound like a CTCL sort of person. I’m also going to throw out there St. Johns College (Santa Fe or Annapolis) - my nephew loved it, a friend of mine’s son (who is doing a creative writing program this summer at Yale) loves it and my niece just signed up for it too.</p>
<p>Ok I just talked to her and it looks like some things have changed a bit since we last talked. She has visited some colleges and refined her criteria: </p>
<p>-She <em>is</em> now interested in pursuing a minor in music/music performance (sorry, I know nothing about music degrees so I’m not sure what the title would be).
-She LOVED Sarah Lawrence College but wasn’t a fan of Kenyon. She couldn’t explain why though other than it just wasn’t a good fit for her- useful, I know
-Prefers co-ed but wouldn’t single out women’s colleges.
-Would not like to go to the south. She’s OK with the coasts, prefers a 4-weather college, and wants to stay in relatively liberal areas if she can.
-Definitely has a preference for smaller LACs but is definitely not closed to large campuses. </p>
<p>@BrownParent- Oh how I wish it was that easy. Both of her parents are technophobes and her mom is down-right almost paranoid of the internet. It was a struggle to get her mom to allow her to have an email address. I’m really hoping this experience will be eye-opening so that their 2nd child won’t have to fight for the internet as much as this one does when it comes time for her college search. Her parents are very well-educated (dad has a masters and mom has her MD)… I’ve never for the life of me figured out why they’re so against technology but that’s neither here nor there.</p>
<p>@math- I was looking at St. Johns College. I can’t quite wrap my mind around how that type of curriculum works. Do they “do” math and science in the traditional sense (with labs and whatnot) if it’s a books-based curriculum? The only thing that scared me a bit with something like St. Johns is the seeming lack of flexibility in the curriculum (though, admittedly, I was a bit lost by their website). </p>
<p>Does anyone have experience with Cornell College? I looked at it when I was applying but kind of forgot about it.</p>
<p>Look at Sarah Lawrence College --writing intensive curriculum, liberal, very expensive and small. High profile alum, from Vera Wang, to Barbara Walters to Rahm Emanuel.</p>
<p>Reed College. But no merit.
Her parents would love Portland.
They have holistic admissions & for a student who " gets Reed", they overlook GPA. Somewhat.</p>
<p>Sarah Lawrence College has extensive offerings in literature, music, writing, history, and art, but is relatively thin in other areas – see [Undergraduate</a> Catalogue](<a href=“Disciplines and Programs of Study | Sarah Lawrence College”>Disciplines and Programs of Study | Sarah Lawrence College) . If she is sure to stay within her current interests, and not need a lot of options in other areas, then it may be a good academic fit for her. But it is expensive.</p>
