<p>^ Well, except for size, though VP’s D is willing to look at Mac.</p>
<p>–Oxy’s is also not “Harvard size” and a somewhat more than 4x as selective. There are a few other competitive city-situated LAC’s with that might be of interest beside Oxy and Mac: U of Puget Sound, Trinity University, Reed, Lewis & Clark, and the Claremont’s (which, when taken as a whole, also match the “Harvard size” criterion).</p>
<p>–On “Reach” vs. “Match” for high stats applicants (i.e., 2250/34+) I would distinguish by acceptance rate rather than score ranges (which tend to look alike for very competitive schools). I have an intuitive sense that a good boundary is 20%, but of course that is up for debate. I think the OP shares my intuiton in seeking matches.</p>
<p>– BTW, Duke is actually 23% selective vs. H at 7.5%, and so more than 3x such and other-than-geographically fits the OP’s constraints. Other southern schools that fit:
Emory
Vanderbilt
Tulane</p>
<p>all of which fit the urban/suburban criterion, too.</p>
<p>Thanks to all who made suggestions. I got my D to read the entire thread and her remarks were something like:</p>
<p>1) I am amazed that so many people would take a specific interest in me and my problems!</p>
<p>2) I better look at Tufts!!!</p>
<p>3) I keep going back and forth about UChicago!</p>
<p>We are also going to look into (or again at) some of the other colleges recommended on the thread, especially Carnegie Mellon, WUSTL, Rice, Duke and Emory.</p>
<p>vicariousparent: Make sure you visit Northwestern also. It seems to fit all your criteria and it’s a campus to fall in love with. My dad didn’t want me to go there (too far from home) but we visited after I got accepted. After he saw it, he couldn’t say no. Just booked trip for 25 year reunion. And the school has even more to offer now. Good luck. Neither of my kids will overlook the weather… but it’s a trade-off. I’d go there again in a minute.</p>
<p>If she is looking for a true “ideas” school, as opposed to pre-professional school, I strongly recommend she look seriously at U of Chicago. It is not as if the acceptance rate is too much better, but Swarthmore is another well regarded “ideas” school.</p>
<p>My d who had similar stats and interests to yours did not want any part of HYP etc. She applied to U Chicago, Barnard, MacAlister, Lewis & Clark, U Washington and McGill in Montreal. She was accepted to all and ended up choosing McGill. She will be starting her junior year in a week and has been extremely happy with her choice. She is a history major/foreign language minor, but also involved in vocal and instrumental music, theater and dance. She is having a great time with a good balance of work and play.</p>
<p>Duke, Tufts, Holy Cross(very good alumni network).</p>
<p>D has spent a lot of time looking up Tufts today and while she likes what she sees she has not yet figured out what makes it unique or special. Perhaps if we can manage a visit she will get a better idea.</p>
<p>Funny how this stage of the process is like the later stage but with the roles reversed. Right now, the kids look at the huge number of colleges out there and choose the ones that stand out from the crowd, and then after applications are submitted the colleges do the same- choose the applicants that stand out from among other well-qualified candidates.</p>
<p>The reason my D has been hesitant about Univ of Chicago is that she has heard from a lot of people (including one of her teachers who is an alumna) that it is intellectually extremely intense, uber-competitive and a “nerd mecca”. Is this true? Are the kids there really very different than the ones you would find in, say, Yale? Do all conversations have to be profound, or is there room to be silly and shallow? Will she be looked down upon because she watches America’s Next Top Model?</p>
<p>UC Merced
UC Merced
UC Merced</p>
<p>Well, Tufts is not the things that your D heard as descriptions of UChicago, for starters. It is not a competitive atmosphere. It is more friendly and more collaborative. It is not nerdy. Your D likes Cambridge and the setting of Tufts comes close. It is not an isolated campus, just like Harvard or Yale are not. While the campus is pretty, all the blocks surrounding it have things that you can walk to with convenience…both the perimeter of the school and then several blocks away is Davis Square and then it is a couple stops from Harvard Square. It is not huge but not tiny and when you walk around campus, you surely will run into people you know. Most classes are not large. There are distribution requirements that are fairly broadly defined. The curriculum emphasizes a world view. A huge number of students study abroad. Like at Harvard, most students are very involved in extracurriculars. The Ex College is unique with so many offerings (not sure if your D read about that…here is a link to it: <a href=“Tufts University”>Tufts University). The student body is very diverse, as well as has many international students. The academics are challenging. The proximity to Boston, while still having a campus that is not smack in the center of a city is a very attractive aspect for most people. Students seem happy and to like it there. The campus is centered on the undergraduate experience. There is a sense of community on campus. Many are involved also in community service. When you sit on the library roof, the view of the Boston skyline is great. Lots of personal contact with faculty. One of the strongest programs around for International Relations. The sense of a global perspective was stressed at Tufts long before it became more popular everywhere.</p>
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<p>Chicago isn’t intellectually intense in the sense you described. And it is not competitive at all. It may not have grade inflation like some other schools, but I don’t think this is a bad thing. The students are very cooperative, and in fact, especially in math and science, students often form groups and tackle the problems together.</p>
<p>It may be intimidating to some at first, since intellectual topics tend to come up during dinner (the things we learn here can actually be very interesting, and we can’t help discussing them), but some people (esp. math and physics majors) don’t shut up about academics. For instance, I was just sitting in a lounge the other day, and some kid sitting next to me (who I recognize as a math major) looks at me, smiles, and asks what the probability of choosing a topologically connected graph out of the collection of all graphs in the plane with n vertices would be. I asked him where he heard that, and he said that he just thought it up a second ago. It’s kind of an innocent intellectual curiosity, which can be a bit annoying at times, but it’s not at all pretentious.</p>
<p>However, the vast majority of people here are normal and have normal interests, like America’s Top Model. There is much ultimate frisbee, video games, televised football, and <em>gasp</em> dance parties. Students sometimes get carried away and overemphasize that Chicago is the place where fun comes to die. The students are proud to be at such a demanding university, but it’s not often the best thing to tell prospies and their parents who may take it too seriously. We have plenty of fun here.</p>
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<p>I have to laugh. I was looking at the course offerings this fall at Tufts’ ExCollege and there is one on Reality Television. I guess your D could discuss “America’s Next Top Model” even IN class at Tufts. </p>
<p>[Tufts</a> University: The Experimental College](<a href=“http://www.excollege.tufts.edu/coursesUpcoming.asp]Tufts”>http://www.excollege.tufts.edu/coursesUpcoming.asp)</p>
<p>American is in a very nice area of Wash, DC and getting better every year. Holy Cross is just 45 minutes west of Boston in a mid-size city that has MBTA train service to Boston.</p>
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<p>For the record, the Metro does not go to Georgetown. Nevertheless, it’s a school that the OP’s daughter might want to seriously consider.</p>
<p>Yes, Georgetown is probably her #3 choice right now (after Harvard and Yale)!</p>
<p>It is nice to see that many here have recommended another college already on her list- Northwestern.</p>
<p>Soozievt, thanks for that link to the Experimental college- it looks very interesting. I also just realized that the Tufts+NEC dual degree program might be of interest to her too.</p>
<p>I originally had suggested Northwestern too I believe before you posted the schools she was interested in and that included Northwestern. </p>
<p>The dual degree option with New England Conservatory and Tufts is a really attractive option for a student who wants great music training and a very selective university with liberal arts too. You may wish to look into the dual major of this sort at Carnegie Mellon too. I had a student who applied there wanting to major in both Music Composition and Creative Writing and there is a special dual program between music and humanities there that she had to apply into and it also involved auditions.</p>
<p>Just another vote for Northwestern here–you & D should definitely visit it. Excellent program in nanosciences (and other natural sciences, more broadly). Considerable faculty and advisor attention to students. Many special opportunities for students with your D’s academic talents. Chicago is a great city & very convenient.</p>
<p>Yeah, when I read the OP’s criteria, Northwestern was the first school I thought of (although it’s selectivity is probably like 15% of applicants admitted.)</p>
<p>It’s campus is in a smaller city/town (Evanston) that is like Cambridge, and also like Cambridge, its only a subway ride away from a great city.
Chemistry is a top 10 program, and the rest of the natural sciences/math/engineering are in the top 10-20 range. (In fact, the chemistry faculty are top 3 quality, but they are slanted toward inorganic/physical chem rather than organic chem–their lack of sheer numbers in organic chem hurt their rating, but that’s probably more than you wanted to know!)
Humanities is in the same range. A few programs like economics, journalism, and theater are even better.</p>
<p>NU is particularly attractive to her because of strength in journalism and music. I won’t tell her what you said about all the strengths in engineering, nanosciences and organic chemistry- don’t want to turn her off :)</p>
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<p>NU’s acceptance rate is 22.6%.</p>
<p>The OP wanted schools that had acceptance rates 3 times as much as Harvard’s and Harvard’s is 7% and so Northwestern fits this criteria.</p>