Poli sci, comms, or international relations. She’s likely pre law. She skies so NE is better, and she’s liberal so some states aren’t a fit. Hope that helps!
Love this forum this whole process is so overwhelming especially when kid wants to go across the country.
Our competitive public school is well regarded and sends a few to top 20 every year, but doesn’t use naviance so we are dependent on our own research.
Sure
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I just moved this to college search and selection…and tagged University of Pittsburgh…this was ok’d by the OP! And added rolling admissions to the subject.
Interest can be done online. You don’t need to go crazy with it but…a couple webinars and every few days open the emails etc.
Not sure on transitioning emails - you might ask each school. Or simply keep the email you have now for this set of schools or even for all of you can manage it. I helped manage my kids. The amount the schools send is ridiculous. But we started with 100+.
Having a college only email just helps keep you organized. It’s not a must.
As noted, there are bunches of rolling admission colleges all over the country…where you will hear back rather quickly after you apply.
If your student applies early action anyplace, those results typically are released between end of November and end of January…varies by university.
One nice thing about a dedicated email for college application business…once that is all over, you can close that email account. Otherwise, you will hear from them forever!
Re: email…for all things college…you also need to check your spam folder regularly because some emails will end up there (and they could be important)
Our youngest son did a summer program at Syracuse. We parlayed that into visiting schools in Boston and NYC. 4 hour drive. Pittsburgh is a pretty easy 5 hour drive from Syracuse.
If you want liberal, NE and mid size and close to skiing (close is relative), you might add UVM or Maine. And frankly schools in Colorado. DU, for example, not liberal. But access to Arapahoe.
That said I think politics on campus is vastly overrated. Most kids are apolitical. There’s exceptions of course - AU might be one. But then you are skiing SnowShoe and that’s not good. And it’s still far.
But if I wanted to ski I’d be out West…even Utah or UNR or something small like an Adams State. The East coast has nothing ski wise compared to the west although I suppose Tremblant is closest - northwest of Montreal.
If you’re contemplating Pitt and Syracuse, take a look at the University of Rochester (airport is 15 minutes from the school). It’s smaller than Pitt and has a traditional campus making it more desirable for many students (including one of my sons - though not Poly Sci for him). They aren’t big in Div 1 sports and they aren’t rolling admissions. They are more Open Curriculum if she doesn’t want to have to take many Core classes. This allows many to double major. Plus the school is well known for undergrad research if that interests her at all.
Here’s an “About Us” page for their department:
ETA: From the link some rankings I wasn’t aware of - seems others think they’re a good school too.
In its most recent rankings, U.S. News and World Report confirm Rochester’s continuing stature as one of the nation’s preeminent political science departments. Rochester’s Department of Political Science was ranked #4 (behind just Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton) in Political Methodology, #14 in International Relations, and #17 overall in Political Science.
These rankings are based on surveys of leading political scientists who evaluate departments according to the quality of their research and teaching.
There are plenty of nice ski areas in northern New England. Pitt really isn’t near any bigger ski areas with easy access. If this is really important, you need to look a little deeper.
Is accessibility easy to skiing important to this student?
Yeah she’s just excited to leave the west coast. May Apply some WA schools. Have warned her it’s not powder, it’s icy! We toured UVM and loved the town but she didn’t love campus. Felt a little disjointed and run down. I liked it, but 
It’s a nice to have. Syracuse and Lehigh both have good ski clubs and race teams which is fun club sport.
What about University of New Hampshire? It’s not enormous and with an early action application, the student should get an admissions decision by early January.
Beautiful area in New Hampshire, and definitely skiing!
Just fyi - There is not great skiing anywhere near Lehigh. There are a couple of modest resorts with a chairlift to the top of a mountain that most West Coast skiers would scoff at.
I don’t know if they’re any good or even as good, but Rochester has one too. 
https://ccc.rochester.edu/alpineski/home/
The skiing nearby won’t be as good as the Adirondacks and VT though.
Pretty much any place in the east won’t rate for a West Coast skier. They just don’t compare from snow type to run length to Vertical drop.
Mont Tremblant is probably my favorite, better than Vermont or Maine but no comparison to the West. Since UVM is ruled out that removes most the good skiing. The student can try U Maine or Plattsburgh.
No NE or MA schools will meet the ski desire so OP will have to settle for hills or small mountains vs the fantastic snow, length and vertical drops of the West.
But DU (white, wealthy, not liberal) and CSU and Cu Boulder would put OP in range.
Closer to skiing but also too big would be U of Arizona. The school leans left, the city very much so and it’s an hour from the slopes and the Honors College could be in play. Plus UNM.
Best of luck to OP.
@OregonMom2024 would your son be happy with less challenging ski areas just for recreational purposes?
We live in the northeast. Our kids have skied all over the country, and are quite happy with many of the ski areas in the northeast. That’s why I suggested University of New Hampshire.
I don’t think this is altogether true. Different people have different criteria for what they want in a ski area…and the depth and challenge.
But this is getting VERY off topic.
Certainly the colleges in Maine, NH and Vermont would have skiing available, and some might be excellent choices for this student…with some having early action notification dates that might meet that early admission sweet spot.
As a reference, my kids applied EA wherever it was offered on their list of colleges, and both had three decent acceptances before Christmas.
Yes available. OP wants a liberal area (technically not NH or Maine) but I noted they can work. They did not like UVM so I noted Plattsburgh but it won’t draw heavily OOS or Region. I suppose Albany or North too can work for a Killington or Lake Placid area - like a Skidmore or SUNY A.
The fact that American and Elon are on the list might make skiing of lesser importance but OP mentioned skiing and depending on the ski level, you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone skiing out west truly accepting of the East…as the parent already aware per a previous comment they made. I’m sure they have plenty to nibble on.
They started with Pitt (maybe just for the early emotional victory) and now we’ve gone skiing.
Good luck to OP’s search.
Hi, I have a freshman at Pitt…almost a sophomore…and live in the general area.
Pitt students have been pretty politically active lately. It isn’t overwhelming on a day-to-day basis for kids who aren’t interested, but for kids who are interested there are many outlets.
It’s a good time to be in Pennsylvania for those, like your daughter and my family, who are politically liberal. We have recently elected a Dem governor, have two Dem senators, and the local leadership in Pittsburgh are Dems.
Governor Shapiro’s daughter is a student at Pitt and she and the college Democrats played a significant role in his social media presence and election. He visited often during his campaigning.
Pitt students are also active in protesting what they think is wrong at the university. Last week, Pitt’s college republicans invited Michael Knowles to campus and there were protests all day — at least 7 hours — because of the visit. The previous week, the students had a sort of sit-in on the common area of campus to object to the university’s slow emergency system notification to students after a swatting incident.
I am a lifelong Pennsylvanian and it’s definitely a purple state. More accurately, it’s a red state with some big blue dots on the major cities. I do not think she would be at all uncomfortable with the politics on campus and, at least for the near term, she will be living in a state that still protects many of the rights that other states do not.
(She could get to skiing in an hour or so, but as others have said, these runs are like bunny hills out west.)