<p>D is a junior. White, midwest, suburban public school. FA not needed.
GPA 3.65 UW / 4.2 W, takes AP's / Honors in all areas except one. ACT 30.
EC's include a part-time job, volunteer work at a notable museum (some really interesting stuff). Undecided, but potentially interested in economics, math, and chemistry.</p>
<p>Definitely wants / prefers a smaller school, and single-sex schools are fine.
Really wants an atmosphere that she perceives as "homey" -- not overly competitive, students help one another, not cut-throat.<br>
Really has very little preference for part of the country or urban/suburban/rural.</p>
<p>I'd given her a recommended list of schools to investigate, and this is what she came up with:
Colorado College (intrigued by the one-course-at-a-time)
Bryn Mawr
Lewis & Clerk
Lawrence U (we visited as a family and were quite impressed)
Sweet Briar (I worry this is too remote)
Case Western (I don't know where this one came out of, but something about it she liked)</p>
<p>How would you characterize this list? We plan to go visiting but these cover all parts of the country, so I'd like to "tag on" some other schools in each area wherever possible.</p>
<p>She sees CC and BM as reach, L&C and LU as match, SB and CW as safety. Is that generally accurate or is she off base? Where should she "fill in"?</p>
<p>What else might you suggest? What might she be missing?<br>
Does anyone have any insight that I don't as to what might have attracted her about these schools, what the common thread is?<br>
Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>I would characterize Case Western as more of a match than a safety. I know several wonderful students who are very, very happy there, academically and socially.</p>
<p>One of these things is not like the others, and it’s Case Western. It’s meaningfully bigger, and more urban, than any of the others, although not absolutely big by any means.</p>
<p>How should I counsel her to expand it with suggestions that make sense? I am treading a fine line here between letting her own it completely and leveraging mom’s years on this earth I have my own thoughts as what might make sense, but want to hear all of you first.</p>
<p>While visiting Bryn Mawr, look at neighboring Haverford. Not too far from there, she would probably enjoy and get a lot of merit money from Muhlenberg. Goucher and Washington would be good safeties for her. Perhaps Oberlin, Bard, Carnegie Mellon, Skidmore?</p>
<p>I hear you on Haverford and Goucher, which are on my list for her. Does Carnegie Mellon fit the small / non-competitive? I think of it as competitive in nature, but maybe I’m mixing it up with JHU.</p>
<p>Haverford would be a lot more of a reach than anything on the list, except maybe Colorado College. Probably the wrong direction to be going. Carnegie Mellon is several steps up in selectivity, size, competitiveness from most of the other schools, too. (Nothing wrong with that, but it’s kind of a random reach, and not very homey as far as I know.)</p>
<p>Sweet Briar – maybe I’m wrong, but my impression is that it doesn’t quite fit with the others on the list, either, as being very southern-finishing-school-preppy-horsey.</p>
<p>Some other ideas in the reasonable match category: Colby, maybe Bates, Beloit, Kalamazoo, Pitzer, Franklin & Marshall, Ursinus, Mt. Holyoke, Union. Connecticut College, Trinity. Kenyon, Denison.</p>
<p>What JHS said about Case Western applies too, I think, to Carnegie Mellon. A fine school, but larger, more urban, more techie, and probably less homey than your other picks. </p>
<p>I like to see lists of schools that truly have features in common; yours looks like it is on the right track (except for Case Western and possibly Sweet Briar). Your range of reach-to-match looks about right, but you need a true safety (unless you want to take your chances on a few low match schools).</p>
<p>If your D is intrigued by the one-course-at-a-time “block plan”, one other school that offers it is Cornell College in Iowa. Not to be confused with Cornell University, the school in Mount Vernon, Iowa is on the “Colleges That Change Lives” list. Maybe a low match, not a true safety (with an admit rate under 50%). Anyway, it is less selective (and less expensive) than Colorado College (where my kid is a first-year student and loving it).</p>
<p>If she is interested in math and science and is happy to be in the Midwest, I’d suggest she look into Carleton. I liked that school a lot when I visited (many years ago, I confess) and S has several peers who graduated from Carleton.</p>
<p>I love Carleton, but it seems really reachy to me for her. I mean, if Carnegie Mellon is going in the too-reach direction, Carleton is too. A white midwestern female at Carleton - yawn!</p>
<p>How reachy / matchy are the women’s colleges in general for her with these stats? I’m a real Bryn Mawr fan but that reflects my Phila background.</p>
<p>I think Colorado College has both EA and ED. It was my son’s first choice. It was a long shot by miles for him and he did not get in. He did have a great interview with an admissions person who had attended the school. At least a couple of years ago they had an interesting essay question that was to design your own course. My son also applied to Lewis and Clark. From my part of the west they appear together on lists. Another school that seems to appeal to those who apply to Colorado College and Lewis and Clark is Pitzer.</p>
<p>It’s okay to have quite a few reaches on her list, as long as she has some safeties and matches that she really likes. I think an ACT of 30 puts her in range for all these schools.</p>
<p>Deep breath. This may be my own prejudice, but of the schools listed here, some of them feel like schools that will have some meaning to “people in the know” and some won’t. I would put Colby, Bates, Mt Holyoke, Conn College, Trinity and maybe Kenyon in one pile, and Beloit, Kalamazoo, F&M, Ursinus and maybe Denison in the other as schools that are only going to be known in the immediate area surrounding the school. Am I off base here? Appreciate your honesty - we are all influenced by what we know of already!</p>
I have my own thoughts as what might make sense, but want to hear all of you first.</p>