<p>in response to mombot #13 post-
conn college has coed dorms and coed bathrooms, but with several possibilities for all female floors. i lived on an all female floor as a freshmen (didnt request it) and absolutely loved it. a little quieter and cleaner, and we developed incredibly close friendships. plus, it takes a lot of people some getting used to having coed bathrooms, so for your daughter, all female floors are definitely advisable!</p>
<p>Alu, Yep - the profile of the OP's daughter looked quite familiar to me , too. LOL. OP , I'd just search on my name and ride the rails of the roller coaster with the 'smudge. It was a fun one. Have a ball with it.</p>
<p>Grinnell is another with coed bathrooms. I can't understand why. Growing up with two brothers was enough to convince me that a female only bathroom is a good thing!</p>
<p>Scripps and Barnard are women's colleges right next door to, and in the case of Scripps, surrounded by, co-ed institutions. At both colleges, classes can be taken at the neighboring institutions, and there is ongoing academic and social interaction with men, but there are certainly all-female dorms and tremendous esprit de corps.</p>
<p>Oh, not sure about all-female dorms, but Pomona sounds as if it would meet all of your daughter's other criteria and is an extremely stimulating intellecutal environment with real campus life. If all co-ed dorms at Pomona, Scripps students can easily take Pomona classes.</p>
<p>"What she is looking for in a college:
*small to medium (or possibly a great honors college/program if large public U)
*decent residential housing available all 4 years
*seperate housing for males and females (or at least floors segregated by sex)
*fabulous professors who want to get to know their students
*smaller class sizes
*probably not right in a large city - wants a "campus"
*other students who are not cutthroat and overly competitive
*doesn't want a school so ridiculously hard that her grades might keep her out of a graduate/professional program she would like to enter.
*a "college town" would be nice but not absolutely essential.</p>
<p>What she wants to study:
**This is the difficult part. She has studied German four years and wants to continue that in college, but not major in it. She wants to "dabble" in art at the college level, but not be an art major. She wants to be able to play her violin in an orchestra (recreational orchestra??), but not be a music major.
She has a true passion for science, so her major will probably be some type of science, but she does not know what kind. She also really loves math.
People have suggested architecture, medical illustrating, medicine, etc. to her, but she is just not sure of what path she wants to take."</p>
<p>Sounds like a Smithie in every single category.</p>
<p>Guessing - though I didnt see where you said you may be in Kansas, so if geogrpahy is important a couple of additional options. Univ of Tulsa (private, might be worth a look if they give good merit aid). Another is Baylor -more of a safety, but I know a student with NMF etc who has almost a free ride there. Good reputation if not as good as RIce and the like. ALso conservative (and religious ) so good there. View this as a safety and possibly a financial safety as well if merit aid is a big issue </p>
<p>I would second everyone elses comments, definitely shoot for the stars, many good optons</p>
<p>A few other 'high end ' options Stanford, Northwestern, VAnderbilt.....just adding some out of the NE emphasis</p>
<p><a href="(ps:%20thanks%20to%20berurah%20for%20letting%20me%20borrow%20a%20few%20of%20her%20exclamation%20marks)">quote=digmedia</a>
[/quote]
Awwwwwwwwwwww, dig, you can use 'em whenever you want!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm always glad to share with a friend!!!!!</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p>Actually, mini, to me she sounds like the perfect Yalie! ;)</p>
<p>In medium-sized schools you my want to look at Brandeis and Tufts. Both are just outside Boston, which area overall has about 50,000 college students and it's easy to get into Boston from both campuses. Brandeis offers merit aid and with her background she ought to qualify for a fair amount; Tufts typically offers only need-based aid. Both schools are about the same in overall academic quality. Brandeis officially tends to be somewhat liberal in its outlook but has students of all philosophies. </p>
<p>Another good medium-sized school we looked at and were impressed by was the University of Rochester.</p>
<p>"Actually, mini, to me she sounds like the perfect Yalie! "</p>
<p>Not right in a large city? (coming from a town of 25,000?) Where students aren't competitive with each other?</p>
<p>My D's sense and the sense of all of the Yale students that she met is that Yalies are NOT competitive with each other. It was the main reason she chose Yale over Harvard. She described it as an intellectually challenging place where students strive to learn in a mutually supportive environment. And, though New Haven is a medium-sized city, the campus is quite lovely with a small town ambience. As for cur's D who was accepted but chose Rhodes, I think Yale would be a great place for the OP's D.</p>
<p>Well I have to admit I am not sure OPs D is the perfect Princetonian....:(. Just for her own happiness of course.</p>
<p>IF she is modest and conservative, and IF she also likes to be in the social mainstream, she might have an issue with the eating clubs. While the clubs are not elitist and divisive as they are often portrayed, they do foster a kind of party behaviour that isn't always modest. Now, the drinking is actually less than at most frats, even the town of Princeton has begun to understand that. But there's a lot of dressing up in minimal or wild clothing. Princeton is highly social and kind of out there, in the highly social mainstream. </p>
<p>Those who are not highly social can be extremely happy, if they don't mind not being in the mainstream. I loved the place and quit the clubs and was a big study nerd and was in heaven - but I never felt left out. I had my friends, my studies, my theater stuff, I was happy in my niche.</p>
<p>Also there is one exception to my rule; there is a large evangelical Christian population at Princeton, so if you are happy in that gang you can be both broadly social and modest.</p>
<p>From all you have said, I think your D would be very happy at one of the Seven Sisters women's colleges..as an alum, I would like to put in another plug for Mount Holyoke--excellent science departments, gorgeous campus, very friendly students--if she does not want "urban life," Barnard would not be a good choice. PM me if you want more info about MHC--I have also done alum interviews for them. You should bear in mind that the women's colleges have visible and active gay communities and your D--if she is conservative--should be prepared to be tolerant--it must also be said that this applies to just about any LAC as well and the Seven Sisters all have a majority of heterosexual students--as does the rest of the world. They also have conservative students, but these are not in the majority.</p>
<p>Check out College Boards "My Road" program. It is a concise listing of 3000+ colleges. You can quickly gather information, compare schools, find "like" schools, etc. Costs about $20.00 a year and is WELL worth it for the great amount of information available. I'm a HS counselor with a graduating Sr. who applied to 7 schools and was accepted to all 7. Awarded almost $300,000.00 in merit scholarships, 1 full ride and 1 80% full ride. I would suggest you have 1-2 reaches, 3-4 matches and 1-2 safeties that student absolutely loves.</p>
<p>She should check out Cornell. They are always looking for interesting kids and your daughter sounds great. They will take into consideration the fact that her school doesn't offer a lot of AP classes. They are looking for kids from different backgrounds. They have a girls only dorm. It's in a college town - shared with Ithaca College which is another college she may be interested in. The campus is gorgeous and even though the University is huge it's broken down into smaller colleges.</p>
<p>"You should bear in mind that the women's colleges have visible and active gay communities and your D--if she is conservative--should be prepared to be tolerant--"</p>
<p>This is true - a recently completed study of women at Smith (with more than 60% of the student body taking part) found slightly more than 11% of the students were lesbians. This is, however, lower than the number and percentage of gay men at Yale (and likely at many other eastern colleges.)</p>
<p>Whew!! The depth of knowledge of colleges across the nation from the people of CC is mind-boggling!! Your kindness to take your time to help us and share information is also overwhelming.</p>
<p>Comments: Co-ed bathrooms - what is up with that? Sometimes it seems like schools ask kids to tolerate things even the general public wouldn't stand for. I think the idea people have presented of housing that has IN ROOM bathrooms is a good one. D's sister lives in a suite style set up that has two bedrooms (2 students in each room) with in room bathroom and small living room. Very nice though close! If D finds a school she LOVES and it has co-ed housing, I am sure she will pick the academics over the living situation.
D is conservative in dress and behavior, but I really consider her moderately liberal in thought. She is very tolerant of the ideas of others and always interested in learning of a new way to think about an issue.
Alot of drinking on a campus IS one thing D would not like but, unfortunately, it seems present on most campuses. Older D has found you can seek out a group who thinks as you to and just not participate in the drinking.<br>
D attends a high school where only @ 60% of the graduates attend college and then less than 25% of those actually graduate. Sad but true. Thus, not a lot of support for the student who is looking beyond the local college or state U.</p>
<p>One question: Several people have mentioned to make sure she is in love with her safeties - which schools would you consider safeties for a student with her interests? Thank you.</p>
<p>Sounds like what's left to do it find someone to feed the cats, take care of the dog and hit the road!!</p>
<p>A million thanks!! MidwestParent</p>
<p>Midwestparent:
I had qualms over the coed bathroom in my S's dorm. But he reported that in his four years, he never once bumped into someone of the opposite sex, even though there were two toilets, two sinks and two shower stalls per 20 students. Part of the reason is that students have different schedules.
When I was in college during a time of single-sex dorms (the hippie hirsute era), there were plenty of girls who sneaked their boyfriends into their rooms. One student reported hearing a man in the bathroom. The story that made the round of campus was the dean's possibly aprocryphal reply: "At least he's taking a shower!"</p>
<p>
[quote]
My D's sense and the sense of all of the Yale students that she met is that Yalies are NOT competitive with each other. It was the main reason she chose Yale over Harvard.
[/quote]
And that's what my daughter says about chosing Harvard over Yale :)</p>
<p>The most coed bathrooms we saw were at Smith :o)</p>