<p>Second St. Olaf. How about Concordia in Moorhead, MN. for lower on your list?</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon is <em>not</em> homey. Nerdy, yes.</p>
<p>She wouldn’t mind nerdy, as long as it was nerdy / supportive as opposed to nerdy / competitive. Doesn’t want a huge party-scene - that’s a turn-off to her.</p>
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<p>Yes, that’s right. My kid applied non-binding EA last year and got his decision before Christmas.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I sense you have an East Coast bias, as many College Confidential denizens do. Just look at how you’ve divided that pile. I’m at heart a New England snob myself. But don’t let it obscure other opportunities. I was just reading recently, for example, what a fabulous anthropology department Beloit College has. There are many good colleges out there, with sharp kids dispersed at schools all over the country. </p>
<p>I do remember feeling disappointed when my son decided, about this time last year, that a certain prestigious New England LAC (one I really liked) was just not his style. Now we’re thrilled that he’s settled and thriving somewhere that fits.</p>
<p>Sweet Briar is a really weird choice. Does she ride horses? Because if not, she really should aim higher. Even if she rides horses, she should think about Mt. Holyoke, not Sweet Briar. Great equestrian program at a good school that’s not, as someone before me noted, a southern finishing school. </p>
<p>Also, obvious recommendation from me, but Smith may also be one to look at. Her unweighted GPA isn’t super high, but it’s high enough, especially considering she takes APs and honors and isn’t concerned about getting merit aid or FA. So I think she has a good chance at any seven sister.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl - one way to look at some of the smaller midwestern school suggestions is to see how many students are in state and how many out of state, as well as how many states are represented and how many international students. You can get a pretty good feel if the school is too regional (translating what you said). I’m not plugging Beloit, I just know a lot about it and D attends - 80% of the students are out of state, many international students.</p>
<p>We do live in the midwest but H and I are east coast transplants - D’s biggest complaint is that we didn’t take her around the world because ‘everyone else’ at Beloit has traveled or lived overseas but her! She was the only one from a fairly large suburban HS who attends - last student from her HS was Valedictorian a few years ago. To sum up - many midwestern LACs draw students from around the country and are not regional at all. I guess I’m saying don’t toss out ideas without looking further into the details. Has anyone suggested Grinnell yet? </p>
<p>We also liked Case a lot and S had it on his final 3 list. Neither of my kids had lists that looked cohesive to the outside eye but made sense to who they were. Either could have ended up at a large or small school - it was the elusive fit they were looking for.</p>
<p>Denison has always been popular with Eastern preppies…so…I wouldn’t worry a lot about the regionally known factor. Party scene could be more of an issue…</p>
<p>I agree that she should consider looking at the list of usual suspects for the women’s schools – Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr are not a super reach based on her stats. </p>
<p>Has she considered Lawrence in Wisconsin?</p>
<p>For something a litter warmer She might want to check out Elon in NC. Lots of interesting opportunities to define what she wants and pursue it.</p>
<p>Yes, she likes Lawrence a lot. (and so did H and I) </p>
<p>I have lived in the Midwest for 25 years but I still do admit that east coast bias :-). Thanks for at least helping me acknowledge it! It’s not that I care about impressing anyone per se but there is some “heritage” associated with the names I know. </p>
<p>Somehow she got in her head that Mt Holyoke is a lesbian heavy school (nttawwt). I need to disabuse her of that. Thoughts re Smith and Wellesley? They feel more reachy to me than Bryn Mawr. </p>
<p>You guys are great!</p>
<p>Will second Beloit as cozy and supportive. St. Olaf and Lawrence as well are supportive and nerdy. Kalamazoo is very nice, but has a very strong international component of their program, which you didn’t mention your D wanting.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon is a funny place. I wouldn’t call it small - I’d call it medium size (about 5000 undergrads, but probably as many grad students). I think it’s a great place for kids who already know what they want to be when they grow up. At least 3/4ths of the undergrads are engineers, budding actors, artist or architects or confirmed computer science nerds. I’m not convinced it’s that comfortable a place for a kid who is still figuring out who they are. It’s been a great place from my older son, but he’s pretty quirky. (And single minded.) It’s definitely not a party school. I wouldn’t say it’s competitive exactly it’s just that a lot of undergrads there are incredibly driven.</p>
<p>I agree Sweet Briar seems a bit off. My niece will probably end up there. She’s smart, but not that interested in school, and extremely horse crazy. I really think she will end up running a stable - which is fine. I gather it’s come up a bit in the world since my day. (It has engineering!) Back when I was in prep school it was only the horse mad slackers who went there, so I am prejudiced against it. (And I’m not too keen on their PINK website.)</p>
<p>Well, I think the idea that Mt Holyoke is a “lesbian school” or has more lesbians than Bryn Mawr or Smith or Wellesley is just plain wrong. I won’t go into the whole women’s college and lesbian stereotype issue here, but there’s lots of good info in the Smith and Women’s College forums (probably in the Mt. Holyoke forums and Bryn Mawr forums too). Really, if she’s going to go to a women’s college in more out of the way part of the country, she should go to one that she’s really qualified for, not one that’s known for having a good horse program and keeping debutantes occupied between high school and joining the Junior League. </p>
<p>I don’t think Smith is a much bigger reach than Bryn Mawr. Perhaps a little, but not much. Mt. Holyoke would be a great match if she’s considering Bryn Mawr. Not in Philly, but has a lot of similarities and great math/science programs. Plus, if she goes to Mt. Holyoke she can take classes at any of the other Five Colleges (Smith, UMASS Amherst, Hampshire, and Amherst College) for free. So she’d have access to a wealth of facilities and high quality classes and still have her supportive home base community. Like BMC, it’s also in a small town (if she wants a town with more going on, Smith is in the great, funky, artsy Northampton community. Mt. Holyoke is in cute but sleepy South Hadley) with a beautiful campus.</p>
<p>You never know with schools. Sometimes a school will reject as student as too high powered for its student body. S was accepted at Williams, Wesleyan, Amherst, Vassar but rejected at Bates which was supposed to be the safer school because she stats were lower.</p>
<p>The same thing happened to D. The admissions officer (director of admissions) who interviewed her at Sarah Lawrence wanted her to come immediately when he discovered she was in AP calc and in a science program (she’s a humanities/history person by choice) but then they wait listed her while she was accepted by Barnard.</p>
<p>I always say, “cast your net wide,” since you have indicated that finances were not a problem.</p>
<p>Barnard used to train 1/2 the female doctors in the country, and although its reputation is now being enhanced by its writing program, it still educates scientists, economists, jurists etc as well.</p>
<p>She may not like how urban Barnard is or how suburban Wellesley is (I think Smith, Mt. Holyoke and Bryn Mawr have more similar environments) but I would just have her apply to all of them.</p>
<p>My D refused to apply to Wellesley or even look at (for her own reasons that I never quite understood) and didn’t apply to Bryn Mawr, which I thought she’d really like, because she did not want to go South (we live on LI.) I always wished she had, though in the end it didn’t matter much.</p>
<p>It’s all good, because she attended Barnard, which was her first choice, being the urban creature she is, but I think all the women’s schools are going to give a young woman who wants to study science enormous confidence.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl- regarding schools in the know. I live in Ca. I have a number of friends who are graduates of Pomona College. Almost everyone on CC knows that Pomona is one of the top ranked LArts colleges in the nation. When they mention where they went to college the vast majority of California residents will say “Cal Poly Pomona”. When they say No the response is usually never heard of it.
My friend a Scripps graduate often gets didn’t know that was a college is it in San Diego?</p>
<p>I couldn’t care less about recognition by the average guy on the street - I just don’t want a place that would only be relevant to employers in the immediate surrounding area.</p>
<p>Love, love, love Colorado College. I have friends that went there and my kids have friends there, tried to get S1 to go but he didn’t like the block plan. Case Western is the outlier in my humble opinion. Like Lewis & Clark. If you don’t look east - Whitman might be more similar to Colorado and Lewis & Clark. I don’t have strong opinions about the east, although I do like Colby alot. Pretty laid back kids, Colby Birkenstocks vs. Bates’ athletic shoes if I had to summarize in 5 words…etc. etc.</p>
<p>D goes to Whitman and knows a lot of people who chose it over Colorado College. I’m sure it goes the other way too. Just trying to say that it seems like the same kind of kid. L&C is more of a safety for that group. D loves that the kids at Whitman are so dang smart and full of warmth at the same time. L&C was a tad too laid back for her.</p>
<p>What about Reed?</p>
<p>I think Reed’s too alternative for her - liberal is fine. I also sense an intensity about Reed that I think might be a bit much for her - not intensity in the sense of elbowing-one-another-out-of-the-way, but intensity of beliefs / opinions. I could be wrong, though.</p>
<p>Has she considered Scripps College in Claremont, CA?</p>
<p>That’s a fair concern – Both my kids loved Reed, but S2 surprised me in saying that he felt it was too alternative for him. You’re the expert on your D!</p>
<p>S1 was at CC for a competition two years ago and said it is gorgeous. Even liked the food (which is saying something coming from him!).</p>
<p>I think mathmom is spot-on about CMU. S2 has had it on his list, liked it a lot (so did I – I never got to see it when S1 visited) but I’m not sure it would be a comfortable place for someone who’s not a techy/science-y/theatre/arts person.</p>