Cornell is not a safety for anyone.
I have to say that while my daughter was in the top quartile in GPA and test scores at her school (thus the “safety” label), her classes have been very challenging. Her classmates come from schools like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science; others have represented their countries in international science olympiad competitions. And most are students a lot like her—extremely bright, hardworking, and passionate about what they’re studying and what they want to do with their lives.
I really think people who worry about the lack of challenge and/or “worthy” academic peers at schools that fall short of the top 20 “elites” do need to look more closely at the “matches” and “safeties” on their lists and visit the full range of schools without letting rankings or prestige/selectivity overly color their impressions. I realize that’s harder to do in some parts of the country than others. (Being from the midwest, I think we had fewer preconceived notions than we might have if we were from the northeast, for example.)
@TomSrOfBoston - I realize that Cornell is no-one’s safety. I meant it tongue in cheek but should have added some kind of emoji to make that obvious. I’ve been on CC long enough though to have heard many a kid (and a few parents) say that it was their safety, until people here set them straight… 
USC moved way up, and Harvey Mudd went down. D didn’t like the small size and the buildings. Caltech stayed the same.
@stlarenas We visited both Richmond and Wake last summer. We liked both a lot and DD will likely apply to both. They are probably more alike than different. What struck me about both compared to other similarly sized schools is that the campuses seemed a bit isolated and places to walk to from campus seemed limited (this is a bit of a drawback for DD). The differences that we noticed (in our humble opinions): 1) Wake feels more Southern, UR more NoVa/Mid-Atlantic in student body and atmosphere; 2) I just felt that Wake felt more intellectual and academic, although both schools are very ambitious in climbing the rankings and 3) Wake feels like more of a university socially and UR more of an LAC despite the student populations not being that different. I think that is because Wake sees its main competitors as Duke, UVA and UNC. Again, this is just my opinion.
@londondad Thanks for the post above. Very helpful. I am becoming more and more certain that my D will end up applying to Richmond, Layfayette, Rhodes, and Wake (assuming she can make it through all their writing supplements 
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This place has been an amazing resource for learning about those schools we can’t visit.
@stlarenas my D recently graduated from Lafayette – if you have any questions about the school and could not visit, feel free to PM me.
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A member suggested that I cross post my journal about visiting colleges with my daughter “Boo” in this thread. Here’s an excerpt:
“We followed up our morning at Hampshire with visits to Mt. Holyoke and Smith – which were pretty much indistinguishable in my eyes except that you can apparently get credit for dog walking at Holyoke (which is particularly impressive because that’s something they don’t even offer at Brown). Boo liked Holyoke better. It might have been the dog walking. We finished our day with a drive to Cambridge and a walk around the periphery of MIT – which is likely as close as Boo is ever going to get to attending MIT given that I am the person called for “tech help” at our house, and my version of “tech help” is disconnecting the machine from its power source and then plugging it back in.”
See the rest here – http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1917063-your-moms-guide-to-hippie-colleges.html#latest
@hyppymom LOVE your reviews-hysterical and fantastic, all at once!
Agreed. Really enjoyable read. Can’t wait for the sequel!
@porcupine98 - There’s plenty more where that came from…@hyppymom’s reviews stretch from upstate NY to Pittsburgh and through Ohio…We’re all waiting with bated breath for the west coast reviews. Check out her thread!
The West Coast report is up if you look at her blog.
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Son
Moved Down: UChicago-Grim students who didn’t seem at all happy. Brandeis - Run down buildings; “neglected pet” comment above is apropos.
Moved up: Tufts, Tulane, Wabash, Amherst. S liked the vibe and physical campus at each, though there’s a lot of variety within this group. And Brown, of course.
BUMP
Really? This is 80 pages long. Surely every college in the country must have a mention by now. Don’t be greedy:-)
All of the feedback really helps those looking for colleges. It provides multiple perspectives!
For those in the process of looking, this thread is still a good read. The only thing I notice is there is much less on west (say from Colorado west and up/down), but it seems that is pretty much all of CC. This forum is more an east coast thing, way more people/school info from that region don’t you think? I will confess I have no idea where Mt. Holyoke, Lafayette, Amherst, Brandeis and a zillion schools other school mentioned on here are, and I finally just looked up what SUNY meant. If I get out there I will post something. West coast represent.
West Coast here.
CU Boulder moved onto DS’s list after a 6-week summer program there that he really enjoyed. The rest of his list is UCs plus reachy STEM schools. So, Boulder is a bit of an outlier. He loved the campus, the mountains, and the on campus food. He found that the physics department has great professors. He may be picturing it with the kids who were at his summer program, who likely won’t attend there. But, it sure seems like a great college.
Crossed off Oberlin: liberal echo chamber with trigger warnings/micro-aggressions warnings everywhere. Wanted a more balanced education.