I’m looking for suggestions of schools to add to my list, as I will be applying this coming fall.
I’m mostly interested in LACs and smaller schools, but I am open to any suggestions!
Stats:
4.0 Unweighted GPA as of now (end of junior year)
3 AP classes (US History; got a 3, Language and Comp, World History) Those are the only ones my school has offered.
5 Honors classes and all of my senior year will be taken on a college campus as PSEO
Took the ACT twice and got a 30 both times (34 E, 31 R, 29 S, 27 M, 8 on writing). will try one more time to try to get it up to a 31 or 32.
ECs/summer activities/jobs- 4 years of cross country, 4 years of skiing, 3 years of track, 3 years of band, 2 years working part time at a restaurant, volunteered for two summers at a camp and children’s museum, was featured in a national magazine in 2012, will be in NHS next year
I’m from the midwest, white female, go to a large public high school.
In a college, I would prefer a small school, location does not matter to me, I want the students to be laid back, hard working, intellectual, down to earth, non-competitive, diverse, and I don’t want much Greek life.
Thinking about majoring in a language, sociology, or something similar…
I’ve toured Pomona, Carleton, and Grinnell and I liked them all, but I know those are reaches. Looking for some matches and safeties. I’m also thinking of Whitman and St. Lawrence University.
Dickinson as a match. (My kid attended, was really happy without having anything to do with Greek life)
I like your choices thus far!
Also consider Haverford, Colorado College, Bates, Lawrence University, Macalaster, and maybe a women’s college or two that are connected to a consortium of other colleges like Bryn Mawr and Mount Holyoke.
Beloit, Earlham, Lawrence, Wooster, Knox, Denison, Ohio Wesleyan, Kalamazoo, Macalester, Cornell…lots of great options in the Midwest. Macalester in particular is a terrific place for those interested in international studies.
If you’re interested in studying one of the [url=<a href=“http://carla.umn.edu/lctl/db/index.php%5DLess”>http://carla.umn.edu/lctl/db/index.php]Less Commonly Taught Languages/url, you should investigate the course offerings at each LAC carefully. Even the best liberal arts colleges offer fewer than a dozen languages, and many offer advanced instruction in only a handful of languages.
If you’re open to larger schools, and if you live in any of these states, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Indiana have terrific language offerings, and those classes will be very small. They’re very good for sociology as well. You could also take a look at your options through the Midwest Student Exchange Program.
http://msep.mhec.org/
If you like Carleton and would like to keep skiing, Colby and Bowdoin could be worth a look. Connecticut College might appeal to you as well. None of these have Greek life. They aren’t necessarily easier to get into, though.
Most of the others that came to mind were mentioned above.
I strongly agree with @warblersrule about the languages. If you have one in mind, definitely check out the course offerings.
Kenyon, Bates, Connecticut College, Wheaton (MA).
The two colleges that sprang to my mind from our college search as matches with a big emphasis on languages were Macalester and Dickinson.
I’ll also put in a plug for Beloit, which has a world class Anthropology department - they offer intensive language classes for all levels in Chinese, Japanese, and Russian over the summer.
I definitely recomend checking out “Colleges that Change Lives” to help you find safeties - Beloit, Lawrence, and Kalamazoo are all in the book for sure, as are many of the schools in Ohio. There are more schools even further West, but my son didn’t want to go that far from home.
Good luck, and have fun with your search!
If you want strong foreign languages, check out Middlebury. Yes, it would probably be a reach or a low reach – unless you applied ED – but it is known for great foreign language programs, it has little to no greek life, and it is home to a fair mix of student types (personalities).
As for other reaches and matches, this thread is full of excellent options.
When I started reading your post I questioned if it wasn’t my own daughter! You are very similar. I think you have made some excellent choices thus far and I’d like to agree with adding some of the All Women’s colleges. My D (she is also a Junior) visited Bryn Mawr twice and really loved the campus and the vibe, having access to Swathmore, Haverford and UPenn makes it even more appealling. My only issue with some of the LACs is cost since we don’t qualify for need based and there seems to be so little merit offered lately. Depending on your personal financial situation, just check out costs etc.
Not sure what “so little merit offered lately” means. I don’t see the overall merit landscape as very different than it was 10 years ago. Higher ranked schools rarely offer merit, and when they do it is wildly competitive. Check the Common Data Set for each school to get an idea of what % of students get merit & the average amount. Read their websites, too. Generally merit is more likely for a kid with stats near the top of the applicant pool.
Denison, Wooster, Knox, Kalamazoo, Earlham, Lawrence, Beloit, St Lawrence, Centre in KY are matches, with probably Knox, Earlham, Beloit closer to safeties. All but Kalamazoo and Earlham have greek life, but it is not dominant.
St. Olaf? They offer merit scholarships and have a great (Nordic) ski team. No frats and campus is officially dry (more like discreetly damp). Although affiliated with the Lutheran church, the religious aspect is not heavy-handed.
Yes, for the languages they cover.
Middlebury also has its own ski area.
It is quite selective, though.
@intparent What was good about Dickinson? What were the students like?
Thanks for the suggestions, everybody!
@warblersrule Thanks, I haven’t heard of the Midwest Exchange program before, I’ll have to take a look at it.
@AmyBeth68 I will take a look at some women’s colleges, but I can’t fully wrap my head around going to an all-female school. Do you have any insights? Would I notice the lack of men around?
@ucbalumnus I will qualify for some need-based aid, and my parents can afford to pay for the rest, so cost is not a huge concern in my college search. We know it will be expensive but we’ll make it work.
@mamaedefamilia I toured St. Olaf, but it didn’t strike me a school I absolutely want to go to. I know the academics are good, but the students seem too similar to the people at my high school. Just not the vibe I want.
@runnergirl31 As it relates to all women’s colleges, I think my daughter felt that both Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr were sort of the best of both worlds. In other words, they are all female, rigorous/serious academics and part of a college consortium that would allow her to attend classes at other co-ed colleges. In both cases, her major would require her to attend classes at other schools in the consortium and she also plays an instrument so would potentially be in a joint college ensemble. These campuses are absolutely beautiful and the long rich history of traditions seemed to make them really desirable to her. She is the same age as you, very similar stats, very athletic etc so it might be something that you find interesting, but definitely research it because it surely isn’t for everyone. With all that said she has decided that she’d prefer to go to an urban school so her top choices have shifted over the year. We both agree that Bryn Mawr is probably the prettiest campus we visited (and we visited 16 and counting haha).
@intparent I guess I mean a lot of schools have shifted to need based/need blind aid via the net price calculator, especially the better schools. That wasn’t always the case but definitely in the past ten years I’d guess. I’ve been down this road before as she is my youngest and I am just very clear on the fact that Bryn Mawr at $65K would most likely cost us far more than we can afford and I don’t want to see my daughter go into severe debt knowing that she will very likely be going to graduate school. We are not going to receive much if any need based aid so being realistic about merit scholarships is the place that we are in right now. Sorry if I mis-spoke I just believe it’s important to be realistic. And even if you are at the top of the stats pool nothing is guaranteed so keeping an open mind is valuable and having both safety schools academically and merit-wise is a good idea (for us anyway).
Did you look at Scripps when you toured Pomona? I think your stats are more in line for it than Pomona and if you liked Pomona, you can take some classes there. While it is all female, the close proximity of the other Claremont schools helps balance the ratio. Also, Scripps does have merit scholarships.