Critique this college visit list? Astronomy and diverse environment search!

College Search & Selection
41

My D was an astro & physics double at Wesleyan. Fabulous Astro Dep’t. Committed and accomplished faculty, well funded, awesome historical observatory in the middle of campus. You should also consider the heft of the physics department at a given school because astro is really an application of physics. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions, or you could post in this thread.

From my post in another thread:

TKG

The Best Small Liberal Arts Schools for Physics — TKG

Physics is one of the oldest academic disciplines and the field underlies all of the natural sciences. Because of that, you’ll often come across majors, or tracks and paths, such as astrophysics, biophysics, chemical physics, geophysics, and more…

That same physics department also aligns closely with an excellent astronomy department that punches way above its weight, with very productive research faculty.

courant.com

NASA selects two Venus missions, co-developed by Wesleyan University…

A Wesleyan University professor is playing a key role in two newly-announced NASA missions to Venus.

nytimes.com – 8 Feb 21

Life on Venus? The Picture Gets Cloudier

Despite doubts from many scientists, a team of researchers who said they had detected an unusual gas in the planet’s atmosphere were still confident of their findings.

nytimes.com – 7 Aug 05

A Secret of the Stars Revealed (Published 2005)

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY hardly seems the ideal place to be an astronomer. Compared with the large research institutions, the university’s astronomy department operates on a modest budget. Its main telescope, smaller than those used by some amateurs, is…

They also recently beat a team at Harvard to the finish line in the discovery of 3 earth-sized planets orbiting a nearby star:

News @ Wesleyan

Niraula MA ’18, Redfield Lead Team in Discovery of 3 Super-Earths

A team of scientists from Wesleyan, led by Associate Professor of Astronomy Seth Redfield and graduate student Prajwal Niraula MA '18, has co-authored a p

Bill Herbst at Wes is a noted stellar astronomy scholar and expert in his field. Martha Gilmore is a nationally respected authority in planetary geology. They have other fantastic and productive faculty in that department too.

4 Likes
42

University of Arizona appears to be in a blue area in a purple state that currently has a red state government. UT Austin and Rice are somewhat similar, but the state is a more reddish shade of purple. Duke is in a blue area of a purple state that currently has a split state government. WUStL is in a blue area of a red state with a red state government.

Are you looking for schools where all three (local area, state, and state government) are non-red (purple or blue)?

2 Likes
43

She likes the WUSTL vibe? they have just this year gone need-blind, and ime it takes a time for a campus culture to change significantly.

Re: UMd-CP is a strong state university- in a bunch of fields it’s even excellent. But it is not lovely. I would argue that it’s not even much of a community- it’s a bunch of really separate entities who happen to be in the same general region. Within a department or group there is good stuff- some departments/faculties more than others- but given that you expect her to have a wide range of choices I struggle to think why UMd-CP would be on the list.

2 Likes
44

Thanks - sent all of these to her! Yes Wesleyan is high on the list, visiting in a few weeks.

2 Likes
45

You are dead right- I read the OP’s post as implying that she thought it was almost a safety, and was nudging it away from that towards maybe match, but really I agree with you.

7 Likes
46

No WUSTL is there for good astronomy- agree between being in Missouri and the vibe, likely not for her… not high on visit list. UMd is on for same reason - a state school with reasonable admissions likelihood (I thought) and very good astronomy department. Location near DC is a big plus. Hadn’t realized the campus was disjointed and there wasn’t much sense of community.

1 Like
47

UC Santa Cruz is a fascinating suggestion but she would be part of only 5% of the student body from out of state - weird vibe?

1 Like
48

Another word of caution re Wesleyan and the unpredictability of holistic admissions. I’ve posted this before: My unhooked D, artsy, humanities student with a 4.0 GPA and strong SATS applied RD to Wes for the class of 2024. She was denied and was accepted to Vassar, Williams, Middlebury, and Haverford (among others). Based on Naviance, her counselor was surprised, and we thought she would at least get WL’d. Then we realized that she was one of many kids from her school and our area who seemed almost identical on paper IYKWIM. Her BFF with a similar profile and record was accepted at Wes but denied at Vassar. It’s good to keep in mind that schools like Vassar and Wes get many more female-identifying applicants than males and do take a large percentage of their classes in the ED round, plus Wes is need aware.

6 Likes
49

True, UCSC has a small OOS student population, but that can be said for the majority of the UC’s with exceptions of the top UC’s: UCLA and UCB which attract OOS students willing to pay the hefty UC costs to attend.

Weird Vibe? I do not like to stereotype any school’s vibe and there is a diverse student population at all the UC schools. UCSC falls into the laid back, earthy, chill type of school but I would not consider that “weird”.

2 Likes
50

Yikes apologize- didn’t mean the school (which I actually don’t know anything about) had a weird vibe. Was trying to say it may be weird to be part of only a tiny percentage of the kids who are out of state. But agree, most state schools aren’t that far off.

51

No. California is so sprawling and different students would be coming from wide and varied backgrounds. Very accepting for the most part. Very unique campus in the woods in a beach community. Granola-ish.

3 Likes
52

Agree. @relaxmon we’re also concerned about our D feeling out of place at other state public schools with smaller OOS populations (one hesitation we have with UMass, for example). But California is so huge and the UC’s pull from all over so I don’t think it should be too much a concern for your D about being OOS (except the cost). The CSU’s would feel more local, except Cal Poly SLO (not sure but my sense is Cal Poly Pomona would feel more So Cal too).

We really like UCSC too. The kids we know who have gone were very strong academically, but more laid back personalities and were/are happy there. I wouldn’t mind visiting D in a beach town either. :slight_smile:

Am enjoying reading and learning from your thread since our Ds have so much overlap. Good luck! :slight_smile:

3 Likes
53

I guess I mistook your “weird” vibe comment. Although the OOS numbers are low, California schools are very diverse as I pointed out and I do not think an OOS student would feel out of place. It really depends upon their definition of fit.

2 Likes
54

Not sure why you won’t give stats. It’s your right but there a lot of parents/kids who overshoot their odds and their next post is oh crap I applied for 10 schools and went 0 for 10.

If you shared we can be much more helpful.

55

She’d be quite safe and comfortable at Wes. Take my word for it. :slight_smile:

3 Likes
56

Your counselor at your private school will be the best source. She will need to decide whether to ED Amherst or use her legacy hook at HY. Be aware that the school is going to spread out the early admissions among the class so everyone gets something. Many of the schools listed are not realistic for anyone in the RD round.

5 Likes
57

Not the OP, but my D has lots of overlap with her list and I’m curious – do you know which schools are so much harder as an RD applicant?

58

By survey results, these schools appear to be especially LGBTQ friendly:

3 Likes
59

The “SoCal experience” CSU is SDSU. Maybe Long Beach, but it is more commuter. Pomona is not that place. Good school but the Inland Empire is not picturesque.

3 Likes
60

My D also doesn’t want a women’s college, but I’ve convinced her to consider Scripps. The consortium colleges are all like one giant campus with disjointed architecture. The consortium students regularly take classes in the other colleges, eat in other dining halls, have clubs that combine all students, etc. I’ve convinced my D it’s more akin to a women’s dorm with extra women’s programs more than a typical women’s college, so she’ll at least take a look. :wink: Also supposed to be very LGBTQ+ friendly.

Better admissions stats than Pomona and Harvey Mudd, with whom they share Astronomy program: Astronomy | Scripps College in Claremont California

3 Likes