<p>What about Bradley or Drake? No one ever seems to mention eithr school, but I have heard good things about both of them. A bit farther afield, what about Marietta in Ohio--it's doing good things for the son of a friend of mine. I've also heard good things about Monmouth in New Jersey as being a fun place to go.</p>
<p>Is she a big city girl? Then she might look at Saint Louis University. I have a few nieces and nephews there and the Jesuits provide an experience exactly like the one you describe, challenge with a good amount of encouragement and hand-holding.</p>
<p>It's a great peer group too--especially for kids staying in the midwest.</p>
<p>Drury in Springfiled Mo is another one--in a semi-rural location.</p>
<p>Manchester College in Indiana might be a good choice. It's a Christian college, but from what I've heard it's not the least dogmatic. It's a small school. Check out <a href="http://admissions.manchester.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://admissions.manchester.edu/</a></p>
<p>If Catholic colleges are okay, try Marian College , also in Indiana. <a href="http://www.marian.edu%5B/url%5D">www.marian.edu</a></p>
<p>If Christian colleges aren't out and you're willing to let her travel, you might take a look at Wilson College in NC. A very supportive place.</p>
<p>I had a senior moment--it's Barton College in Wilson, N.C. that I intended to recommend. <a href="http://www.barton.edu%5B/url%5D">www.barton.edu</a></p>
<p>Maybe I'm getting the wrong vibe here, but it sounds like you really could stand to give this child a little more credit. OK she's not the best student but if you have so little hope for her academically how is she supposed to react.</p>
<p>Just to set the record straight...Hartwick is not an "easy" school for underachievers. It has always had a solid academic program, and in the past has accepted students who show intellectual promise but may not have had a stellar highschool record. This is now changing. The school has become wealthier, and has been 'found' and thus more well known, with a much stronger applicant pool. Hartwick is becoming more of a direct competitor to Hobart William Smith and St. Lawrence, neither of which are easy schools at all.</p>
<p>umm some of you ppl are naming the hardest schools i mean seriously who on earth said ohio wesleyan was easy... but anyway there arent any easy 4 yr. colleges but there are places where students can get a lot of help from professors and other stuents.. one of these such places happens to be my first choice school OHIO UNIVERSITY-ATHENS. Seriously look into it she will love it i have never met an alumni or student who had anything bad to say about it. In addition to that it is in a perfect small town college setting and its fairly small for a state college (17,000) it is beautiful and oh sooo much fun (took classes there over the summer)... It is a great school i have the grades and scores to get into a lot of better schools but it blew me away so much that i dropped all the prestige stuff... another option would be univ. of dayton its almost as great as ohio univ. and its in a more urban setting. You really should check out both but I think Ohio univ.-athens is definitely worth the visit.(you have to visit to get the full effect)</p>
<p>A school with a lot of academic support- Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio. I know you asked for Illinois, but it really may fit the specifics academically.</p>
<p>Maybe I did not interpret the original post correctly, but to me it sounds like you are doing your child a great disservice. By encouraging "the easy way", it doesn't sound like she will be learning real, important skills that will help her succeed in the workplace, not to mention in life and important decisions. Unless she wants an "easy" job, but that probably won't necessarily lead to an "easy" life. It's not all about a good time. Granted, it's not all about Harvard or MIT either, but these don't sound like very good criteria for college searching to me.</p>
<p>I want to put in a vote for an already mentioned school, The Evergreen State College (<a href="http://www.evergreen.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.evergreen.edu/</a>). Not because it is particularly easy, but because it provides an alternative multidisciplinary approach where many students thrive who might not in a more traditional environment. From their website:</p>
<p>"At Evergreen, a student's learning and progress is assessed in narrative evaluations rather than grades. At the end of a program, students discuss their academic progress one-on-one with faculty, and they receive written evaluations of their progress. Students also prepare self-evaluations, discussing their accomplishments, learning environment, new understandings and goals for the future. Students also evaluate their faculty."</p>
<p>Yes, I did list Evergreen earlier in this thread. I spoke with a mom whose son graduated from there with several of his HS classmates. She said it was a wonderful, nurturing place where they all blossomed and it is growing in popularity. It's also rather reasonably priced, tho it is in the state of Washington, not IL.</p>
<p>In Illinois there is Shimer College (<a href="http://www.shimer.edu/)%5B/url%5D">http://www.shimer.edu/)</a>. It is a great books college with about 2/3 of the courses that are non-electives. The books are not light reading, but it is based on a discussion teaching format, with very supportive faculty. </p>
<p>The IL state U's (Western, Eastern, etc.) can be good, but are also full of non-academic temptations that are hard to resist.</p>
<p>Look at Curry College. I know someone who did not do all that well in High School who went there are they really taught her how to study properly. It improved her so much in a year that she transferred to a relatively high profile college.</p>
<p>Get the Colleges That Change Lives book (or at least do a websearch and they have a site that gives you a capsule about each school). Reading about these schools may well open your eyes about what supportive environments small LAC's can be.</p>
<p>Sounds like OP is describing my delightful, but not acadmeic superstar daughter. OrangeBlossom and Caroline, count me in the offline discussion, too. I have some suggestions to offer and would love to hear others. My child will be a tremendous success in life, moreso I think than her tortured genius brother, but getting through college will be an effort. She would love to stay in California and go to a school with "everything" (which I think means sports, dance team, sororities, etc.). I'm not sure that is in the cards for her (unlikely she'll get into SDSU with her grades and SAT's, even with consideration for her LD) so she's lookig outside of CA, too. Considering our son's delerious happiness at Beloit, and ours with his success there, we wish she'd consider small and private. Ah, the captain of the varsity cheerleaders has broader social but not academic horizons.</p>
<p>lalady,</p>
<p>I'm so happy your S is thriving at Beloit. Very appealing school. It would be great to get a Beloit thread going with more details.</p>
<p>If your D wants sororities and you want private, maybe Santa Clara? If she can give up sororities, Loyola Marymount-- & if she doesn't mind the religious part, she should look at some of the Christian colleges like Cal Lutheran, Point Loma, etc. Another possible LAC might be U of Pacific, Whittier, Chapman?</p>
<p>idad- I have visited and taken a very careful look at Shimer College in Chicago. Easy is Definitely not a word I would use to describe the curriculum at Shimer. Just clarifying so the OP can know.</p>
<p>I second the Muskingum suggestion. This is a very nice college in Ohio that offers a lot of extra support to students with learning disabilities and to students who need a bit of extra help.</p>
<p>This thread was started in 2005; I’m hopeful that the OP’s D has found her way by now!</p>
<p>(Not that the information couldn’t be used by someone else with the same question, however, of course!)</p>
<p>Do you have one of those talked-about bonuses at hand? </p>
<p>Then what about the University at Sea? The campus is a luxe cruise liner that travels about the world giving on-board classes and stops at various ports for real life geo/culture/history lessons. Seriously expensive, I’m sure, for the indulged and affluent student.</p>
<p>Shuffleboard, anyone? :)</p>
<p>Somewhere2012: I never said it was easy. As a matter of fact, I said, “It is a great books college with about 2/3 of the courses that are non-electives. The books are not light reading, but it is based on a discussion teaching format…”</p>
<p>In fairness, I did post in a thread where one might draw that conclusion. I was responding to the most enjoyable aspect. I interpreted it to mean “or,” not “and.”</p>