<p>I asked my wife, who is from a Rocky Mountain state, what she means by the “the East Coast”. She had to think about it, and gave 3 answers:
<p>Vermont’s the only NE state without a shoreline on the ocean. And poor WV (speaking as a native of the state). We are so conflicted. We’re never sure if we’re midwest, south, etc. I do call my carbonated beverages Coke although my neighbors called it “pop” so there you go.</p>
<p>Some people here seem to equate the East Coast with the Northeast, some don’t.</p>
<p>a drop over 6000 is Marist, Seton Hall, Univ of Scranton and Hofstra. All would be match/safeties.</p>
<p>I’d agree that Clark would be a place that might be a fit for OP’s child. I would, however, advise visiting before applying. Clark is in Worcester, MA, which is a god-awful place and Clark is in one of the worst areas of the city. </p>
<p>Another option, perhaps a little smaller than the OP’s size preference, is Wheaton College in Norton, MA. Solid LAC–used to be all women but has been coed for a number of years now.
It’s between Boston and Providence. </p>
<p>My D had similar stats. Some of the schools she considered that I believe are around that size are Endicott in Beverly, MA; Roger Williams in RI; University of Hartford in CT (safety); Univ. of NH; Drexel in Philadelphia. There’s also Stonehill in MA. Bryant U in RI; Drew in NJ. It might help if you mentioned areas of interest and urban/suburban/rural preference.</p>
<p>I was also going to suggest Roger Williams in Bristol, RI</p>
<p>American has 7000 undergrads, might be a tad reachy. Skidmore is just a tad small at around 2700. Fordham is a little big at close to 8000.</p>
<p>@mathmom—it’s like Goldilocks & The Three Bears! I think I commented yesterday that the 3-5K size is a tough one to hit in NE/mid-Atlantic. (I don’t know enough about southern schools to address.) There are so many schools in that 2000-2500 and then a fair # again at 7K+, but I am having a difficult time thinking of 3-5K.</p>
<p>Another school to think about might be the University of Vermont. While it has 11,000+ students, the campus has a relatively small feel. UNH had a similar feel.</p>
<p>If PA fits the definition of East Coast, York College of PA comes in just under 5000 students and many grads I’ve talked with love the school.</p>
<p>If interested in smaller, Franklin & Marshall gets big thumbs up too - as does Dickenson. </p>
<p>Another vote for Elon here. I don’t have any kids there but I really like that school and it meets your DD’s requirements perfectly.</p>
<p>Thanks from the OP for all of your helpful comments.</p>
<p>One point of clarification - I understand “East Coast” has different meanings to different people. My intention was to include the southern east coast states.</p>
<p>Second, D is hoping to be in or somewhere near (within an hour) of a city of some sort (pop. 60,000+?).</p>
<p>Here’s a list of some of the schools we are looking into at the moment, comments and input on any or all of them is appreciated (e.g., D’s chances, your experiences with the school and admissions, etc.).</p>
<p>1 Elon
2 Wake Forest
3 Furman
4 Drexel
5 Dickinson
6 Connecticutt
7 American
8 GW
9 University of Richmond
10 Stetson
11 Rollins
12 Sewannee (I know, Tennessee is not the east coast, in anyone’s definition)
13 Rhodes (ditto)
14 Babson</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>Babson is a college that’s focused on business and entrepreneurship. If your child is sure that’s of interest to her, then it’s fine, but if she’s looking for a general liberal arts and sciences curriculum, Babson isn’t it. Babson is in Wellesley, a suburb of Boston. The campus is very nice as is the town. </p>
<p>Decent chance at Elon, Dickinson, Conn, American, GW, but may need to apply ED to a couple of those to ‘ensure’ acceptance. Wake & Richmond will be too much of a reach, even ED. Babson could go either way. They offer both EA & ED and I am suspicious of schools that offer both at the same time. (Elon does also, so apply either ED or RD, not EA. Anecdotal, so those with first-hand Elon experience may need to correct me.)</p>
<p>If you have Babson on there, add Bentley. Larger, and less selective than Babson….a different feel to the school. Babson struck me as more polished with a more international & affluent student body. If I am recalling correctly, Bentley may be close to 5K students and Babson 2K, but both have very similar endowments, so you can argue that Bentley is underfunded or vice-versa. </p>
<p>To add to @Bromfield2 above, Babson students are allowed to take classes at Wellesley and Olin, as both are very close. (Olin’s gate was visible from Babson campus.) </p>
<p>I don’t know anything first hand (or even second hand) about Drexel or Rollins but think they should be safeties almost, to the extent that any school can be considered a safety. Sewanee & Rhodes—matches? But I am just guessing here based on a couple of friends’ experiences. </p>
<p>Did you dismiss Franklin & Marshall? Similar to Dickinson and yet different. We were very impressed by F&M, but it is kind of out there in PA. I can’t recall if Dickinson’s location was closer to a 60K population, but the area immediately adjacent to Dickinson’s campus was a bit more economically depressed. </p>
<p>If visiting Conn College, may want to add Trinity to the list. I think full pay holds some value at Trinity.</p>
<p>Re: Dickinson & F&M. Dickinson offers merit awards, but F&M does not. It appeared to me that Dickinson uses those merit awards to attract the otherwise full-pay applicants.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Have a niece at GWU that fit exact profile you describe.</p>
<p>OP: That’s a nice list of schools. Do you have access to Naviance? If so, that would be a better tool for helping you determine your D’s likelihood of admission than what we can guess at here.</p>
<p>The closest city to Dickinson is Harrisburg which is about 50,000 but when I was there it still felt rural. Furman is probably similar with Greenville. Schools like American, GW, and Drexel are much larger than 3,000 to 5,000 and in big cities. If you like Philly or DC, it is hard to imagine being in a more rural area. Then you have a classic lib arts college like Connecticut and a business school like Babson which don’t seem to fit together. And you do have most of the east coast covered. </p>
<p>I do think you have a good cross section of schools. But some questions. What major or majors are of interest? What size school does she really want? What type of area? How close to home does she want to be?</p>
<p>No matter what I suggest you visit as many of those colleges as you possibly can.</p>
<p>Does your D have an idea of what she might want to major in? </p>
<p>Babson is very business focused, so probably less attractive if business is not what she is looking for. </p>
<p>Drexel is big on coops, where students take off some semesters from school and work for several months, and is strong in business and engineering. I’ve heard that it is good for students who already know what they want to do, esp. in business or engineering, and less attractive for the undecided liberal arts major. However, they are decent with merit scholarships, and make it easy to get your application fee waived.</p>
<p>Richmond is probably too reachy to be realistic. Its campus is amazing - the prettiest one I’ve seen, with lots of trees and flowers and a lake in the middle of campus, and student center with a wall of windows overlooking the lake. </p>
<p>Dickinson is in a small town, which is very cute, and quite accessible from campus. Carlisle isn’t so far from Harrisburg, but I don’t think the students really go there. (In any case, I don’t think my freshman D has ever gone to Harrisburg, and it’s now 3/4 of the way through the school year.) She does go to downtown Carlisle however. Your D should apply EA if she applies there, since it is non-binding, but gets an answer back earlier, and I think is just slightly advantageous for admissions. My D is really enjoying her time there, but has found that she has to work harder on her schoolwork than she was used to doing in high school. She has small classes with lots of individual attention, and has participated in a lot of ECs. This semester she has 2 classes with 7 students in them, and 2 “big” classes according to her. I asked her to define big, and she said about 30-35 students. So, it is all relative, since at large Universities, that would be a “small” class. </p>
<p>Elon sounds like a good choice, given your criteria. It was high on my D’s list, but in the end just felt too far away from home to her. The campus is beautiful, with great facilities. Its size is nice - larger than the LACs, so can offer some more variety of classes and majors. The CC forum for Elon is active, and you could get more info if you posted there.</p>
<p>GW is quite a bit bigger than a lot of the schools on your list. It would be a reach for admission, but a reasonable reach. It is really part of the city, without a distinct campus. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is a matter of personal judgment. American has a distinct campus, and is not right in the center of DC, but in a more suburban feeling area of DC.</p>