Your list looks great in #183. You know what you are looking for and what your daughter is looking for and are obviously on the right track. Good luck with it.
Hope she figures out the best ACT study method for her. Right off the bat, we had a bad experience with a self-proclaimed ‘best’ one-on-one tutoring company with the first kid. I made all three kids study out of cheap ACT books on their own after that experience.
Enjoy the journey and especially the campus visit trips with your daughter.
Just an observation…you said it’s hard for your D to imagine going to some of the schools that “no one” in your area has heard of. By now, you probably realize that the people who need to know DO know about all of these schools. In addition, your D’s geographic diversity will give her a small edge over other similarly qualified applicants.
Ask her to be open minded as her list evolves. Interestingly, both of my kids ended up applying to very few of the colleges they originally thought they were interested in. In fact, of the seven or so colleges my son initially thought he was interested in, he only applied to one or two on that list. My D also changed her mind a lot. She ended up at the last college she visited, a college that she had literally never even heard of just a year before when we were on vacation in the area. I know you’ve already been through this, of course.
If your D decides to take the ACT again, or even the SAT, look at these tips which will help her get points back: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/2164494-common-sense-tips-to-help-raise-your-sat-act-score.html#latest
Curious as to why Bucknell University is not on your list of schools. Very similiar to Colgate University, WFU, & others on your list. Easier admission than Colgate.
P.S. Based on the list of targeted schools in post #183 above, it appears that merit scholarships are no longer a concern. Is this correct ?
@homerdog Reading through this thread you start to get a feel for the type of schools she might be looking for. I agree Wake and Davidson should be on the list but probably not Furman. I didn’t get the sense that Davidson was conservative at all. Loved Wake when we visited but S20 didn’t. He wants big city. Went to school in SC and lived there for a few years. Furman is a very nice school with a lovely campus but it’s not for everyone. Same with some of the others in the thread like Villanova.
I see you didn’t like Georgia Tech but did you visit Emory? Pretty campus with some green. I think they have an excellent writing program. Might be a reach but ED might help. Miami and Tulane would be nice choices too.
I wouldn’t get to caught up with the the Catholic schools being too conservative (we’re Catholic and S20 applied to several). Some are pretty liberal and many students are not Catholic. Most usually have a one or two theology class requirement. U San Diego is a beautiful campus.
I really like Dickinson. We live in PA and have a friend in Carlisle. It’s a neat little college town. Not sure if it’s big enough for your daughter but Philly and Washington DC aren’t that far.
@Lindagaf yes she would like to get away from where most kids go from her school but she also wants to go somewhere where we have at least a little personal connection from home. For example, a good friend of ours in our town sent her son to Colgate. One of D’s best friends since kindergarten has a sister at Wake. An old friend of mine’s D just got into Richmond ED. Very few kids from here go to these schools but we tend to know the ones who did. Going to a place like Bucknell would just seem too different for her since no one applies from our school. So there’s that.
Also, for some of the schools mentioned like Lehigh and Tulane, kids do apply from our school. Between 5-10 each year and get overwhelmingly waitlisted. Each only had three accepted in the last three years so getting invested in those schools doesn’t make sense. I know one of the Tulane kids was a tennis recruit. Not sure about the others. Just really bad odds and not compelling enough when we feel like the list is likely long enough.
I understand that people who know the schools suggested know they are good schools. No one here (or hardly anyone) knows Bowdoin and that didn’t matter to our family or to S. We know it’s well respected. For those here who don’t know, I just smile and explain it’s in Maine.
@Publisher she would get merit at Denison and St Olaf and Elon and maybe Santa Clara. We only expect merit from safeties.
@homerdog if you do decide to visit Santa Clara, you might want to check out Occidental in LA as well. Oxy was the first school we visited and was my son’s first choice for quite a while (until he discovered the Ohio cornfields LOL). It’s a beautiful, compact campus located in the suburbs of Los Angeles, but with easy access to the city by rail - lots of opportunities for internships and so on. The school is best-known as the place where Barack Obama spent a couple of years before transferring to Columbia, but I was more impressed by an article in the Wall Street Journal last month about how Occidental blew off Rick Singer when he tried to persuade the school to accept a particularly well-heeled applicant.
@homerdog If you visit St. Olaf, would you consider taking a look at Macalester? When my S19 visited two years ago, they were building a dance studio that looked beautiful and the tour guide was telling us that she was able to participate in dance/performing arts opportunities in and around St. Paul/Minneapolis. They were very generous with merit. I spoke at length to the career counseling center and they seemed great–they have lots of avenues for allowing students to explore interests and strengths and translating that into potential majors. Also, for your husband’s concerns, there are a lot of big companies in that area, so internships are plentiful.
@threedoglimit first, your name cracks me up? You have three dogs and won’t buy another maybe? I would have as many dogs as H would let us have but apparently that number is one. Ha.
I’m sure we could visit Mac if we see St Olaf. S19 visited Mac and Carleton with my H and just wasn’t feeling it at Mac. I’ll have to ask him why. I don’t remember. He did love Carleton and was accepted but ultimately chose Bowdoin. He didn’t visit St Olaf. But your suggestion makes sense if only that it would be very easy to visit Mac since we would be visiting my niece on that trip too and she lives in St Paul.
If you are going to be in the neighborhood, Mac is worth a look, but it really doesn’t sound like what she’s looking for.
@tkoparent not sure about Oxy. A good friend of mine lives in SD and her daughter applied and was accepted but it was very low on their list of options once all acceptances came in. I spoke to her recently about it and she thought it was just ok and our D would have other options.
@chmcnm our son was accepted to Dickinson with merit. If D doesn’t like Denison or St Olaf as safeties then we should consider it. Denison and St Olaf are just easier for us to get to and we know kids there so we can get the real scoop on those schools. I have heard very good things about Dickinson. 
U San Diego is a thought. One very sweet girl from our school went there to play soccer last year. LMU is also a place my SoCal friend has mentioned to me. She thinks D would like it there and would get in.
I need to have a discussion with D and my H about CA schools. My brother lives in LA so he’d be nearby if D was in a SoCal school. I just don’t know if she wants to consider going that far. I haven’t talked to her much about this evolving list here since she’s been busy with studying for finals.
@gardenstategal I agree about Mac. I’m starting to think, though, that seeing a lot of schools will help her verbalize more what she likes and doesn’t.
I do believe that Dickinson is the most generous with merit aid.
@homerdog I like your list.
Sounds like you a have a great kid!
Although you seem to have plenty high matches and reaches.
I just want to dispel your concerns about BC and excessive drinking. I’m sure it happens. Party school it’s not., honestly I can assure you over partying or wild social life, especially for a freshman and sophomore.
Socially it’s pretty liberal with the young Dems as a very large student group. But certainly not activist. Service trips for spring break for many. No Greek life and freshman and sophomore dorms pretty much segregated from upperclassmen.
You can’t even get into the senior outdoor parties without a license on football game days. Police are literally stationed at the entrances.
Can you drink.? They’re college kids and there’s always a way.
But very little sun to thurs from my experience. Too much work for the most part. 40 percent of freshman live in a completely insulated campus area and it’s not party central from an alcohol standpoint.
I know a couple of girls last year who got into parties. But that settled down Especially after the first month and a few wake up call grades come in. Im sure it’s the same everywhere for the most part.
It’s college. So you know. But in the scheme of things it’s middle of the pack that way. My experience is with a few large top tier flagship schools and some super selective lacs. Surprisingly some of the smaller schools further from the city have a bit of a drinking culture. The big schools had it all. Big parties and sober dorms.
Just an FYI for others reading the thread. And don’t go by me, ask some current students
@homerdog , I agree. Our first trip with DS deliberately had a mix with the goal of having him articulate to his CC at school what appealed and what didn’t. She was very good at taking that and building out his list.
It does sound like your D is looking for a certain vibe, and in some ways, that can be trickier to articulate. I think kids know when they see their tribe but may not be so comfortable articulating why those are “their peeps”. Especially to adults! (A friend and I still laugh about her telling her mom that she couldn’t go to a particular school in the late 70s because there were “too many ponchos”. This represented pot smoking hippie types to her but her mom couldn’t get it.)
I’d also say if she doesn’t like the separation of town and campus of Colby (with a dorm in Waterville but requiring a shuttle ride), several more rural LACs will come off the list too. I think a focus on ones that have D1 sports may be a smart strategy, especially if they have a dance team. But I also get the need to window shop more broadly.
@privatebanker We know three kids VERY well who are at BC. I guess I should have put it in the “still thinking about” category. Two female students who danced with D for ten years are there and one of S19’s best friends is there too. They are having good experiences. One of them was deciding between Wake and BC in the end and chose BC.
I don’t exactly know why but I just have a nagging feeling that it’s not worth $75k per year. I just can’t shake that feeling. Not sure why I feel better about full pay at Wake or Richmond. I’m even more on board for full pay at Colgate or Davidson. Adding BC just gives her another high match.
Maybe it’s the Jesuit angle and how it’s not a perfect fit for D. I know one of the girls we know there has an oral final with a priest for one of her classes. I think that would freak D out.
But, D should probably visit and see whatever she sees and decide for herself.
BC wasn’t the right fit for my offspring but it’s “worth” full tuition just as much as any other college mentioned here.
@gardenstategal Right. That’s why Davidson is on the list. Small but with a town right there and D1 sports and dance and warm weather to boot! Colgate same but without the good weather. Wake is a little bigger but with that school spirit she wants. Richmond fits too. Maybe a little less school spirit but there’s an incredible dance group there that she could join and doesn’t have to be a dance major for that.
But, I still have a nagging feeling about some place like Bates or St. Olaf. A school like these would be different, of course, but possibly in a very good way. Maybe she doesn’t need to have college be so similar to high school with the big sports and social groups. Maybe college would be a good time to try something different in a place that is still very community centered with strong academics and, dare I say, more diversity when it comes to the types of kids there. I want to at least show her these types of schools and see what she thinks. Does she need to see herself reflected in most of the students? Maybe not.
Her friends at BC would say they liked that the student body seemed familiar. I think a lot of schools on D’s list would be like this for her. I want to make sure she’s not open to other options that could be (maybe?) a more rewarding experience in the end. She would need to get on campuses to decide.
@doschicos I just meant BC might not be worth full price for D because it might not be the right fit for her. If we are going to pay full price, we need to find the very best fit.
This would freak me out too, even now…let alone when I was college age!?