D20 changing her college list at this late date

Denison. It’s in central Ohio but pulls a lot of students from the east coast. Beautiful little town. Safe. Offers the foreign language that you want. They have a great president right now that has increased the prestige of the school. They are just really moving upward. But I do think that your child would fair very well with aid, both academic and financial need based. Good luck with your search!

@doschicos She has applied for the NSLI program in China, but unfortunately was not accepted. It was disappointing but worth a shot.

@MomInSB That is very good to know about Hamilton. She visited them early in the process and really loved the school, but we thought it did not offer Korean. We will look into that.

@Momofmanytoo Denison just recently popped up on our radar, but based on what I see on the website, it doesn’t seem to offer Korean. She is also very much interested in Chinese and Japanese, and if she had her way she would study all three! She is not picky about other aspects of a school (i.e. she is flexible on size, location, etc.), but she really would like to study Korean.

Thank you to everyone for all the great advice!

Since it was truncated in an earlier quotation (#12), note that Hamilton states its Korean courses “follow established curricula and are not self-paced.”

Vanderbilt. Both of my daughters love Vandy. Vanderbilt is always ranked at the very, very top in the U.S. for financial aid. In addition to the majors within Vanderbilt’s Asian Studies Department offering in Chinese, Japanese and Korean as majors, Vanderbilt had so much demand for Korean, they now offer a minor in Korean too. Not sure what the Southeast Asian offerings are. My eldest was offered to study abroad in Tokyo and has studied Mandarin for years.

I too am intrigued by the top LACs, particularly the 5Cs. However, my family has a heavy lean towards the elite, private universities within the big conferences and by May 2020 will have graduates from the #1 academic institution in each of the big four conferences i.e. Stanford in the Pac 12, Vanderbilt in the SEC, Northwestern in the Big Ten, and Duke in the ACC.

We gravitate towards those four universities, because you get the big-time school spirit for life, within more of an LAC/medium-sized college environment and small class size, yet it is so easy to get world-class undergrad research opportunities and course offerings without the myriad numbers of undergrads competing for too few spots at giant state universities. If your daughter wants to live abroad or at least on another coast, the names travel well in the private sector, government sector and with graduate school admissions staffs globally. Then, add in the ridiculous alumni interest and financial support to the point these private universities end up very high on the “Best Value” lists. Well, just a thought.

I can’t speak to LACs as neither of my kids showed any interest in these. I can however, put in a plug for Binghamton, where my D19 is currently a freshman. She is absolutely loving the classes, the campus, the students and all the activities. So if your D liked it based on her tour (my D was the same way), I’d keep on the list should ED not work out.

@zipstermom Yes, Binghamton is definitely on the list. She is applying Early Action. There was so much to like there.

A quick update… D20 was accepted to Barnard ED! She couldn’t be happier. And the financial aid package is extremely generous. We are so grateful. Thank you to everyone for the advice, it was super helpful.

congrats!!

Best of luck to your daughter at Barnard!

Thank you! She is so excited.