Allegheny is strong in ES.
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Thanks. Allegheny looks good. Is it safety-ish?
Yes and very generous with merit. They have an honors program too.
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Allegheny
Bowdoin
Colby
Cornell
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Macalester
Middlebury
Mount Holyoke
Oberlin
Pitzer
Pomona
Scripps
St Olaf
Union
University of Vermont
Weslyan
Willamette
Assuming we cut a few reaches, is this enough safeties? Are there any more midsized schools we should be looking at? I don’t think she’ll like a big school but we’ll probably look at University of Minnesota when we are in the area.
You need one safety that’s assured to meet budget. Not can meet - but assured to meet.
You say no cost limitations so I assume you don’t have a max budget figure in mind.
But let’s say you were open to anything (we’re at $90K now) but boy I’d really like to be $40K or less - then you’d need another safety that will 100% get you there. Or if you were like - since we can get merit, we don’t want to pay $90K - then you’d pull some off because they offer no merit.
Otherwise with the 4.0 and assuming a strong SAT, I think between an Allegheny, Hobart, St. Olaf, UVM, and Willamette you have plenty of safeties and could even cull 2-3 if you need to.
PS -someone mentioned Kalamazoo yesterday - I thought it was a fine suggestion, especially given their open curriculum (and aggressive merit) - so you might want to revisit K. While it’s small, it’s adjacent to Western Michigan - so it has a bit of heft in the area.
You have a lot of very small schools - other than UVM and Cornell - you might check a couple small and midsize - even if not on the list - just to ensure small is right.
Best of luck.
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We are full pay at Haverford for her older brother. So we would full pay for a good school. I mean merit would be nice. but we want to offer her the same as her brother.
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We live near Wash U so we can tour there. Grandparents aren’t far from Northwestern too. Any good small or midsize schools to pop into in Minnesota or Wisconsin? Thanks.
Then I think your list is fine and if you had two between the five mentioned, it’s likely enough safeties - These five Allegheny, Hobart, St. Olaf, UVM, and Willamette
And once the test comes in, I’m sure one of the reaches will be in play.
I do think, given this major though, fit should definitely take priority over “prestige.” For all majors, but especially this as I imagine different schools will have different levels of programming within the major and the reality is, it will likely lead to either further schooling or a lower paid position.
Best of luck.
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One thing that is especially important as you look at different schools: see which ones have their own department, and specific ES faculty vs. which schools have a major, but all the courses/faculty are shared/donated from another department. It can make a big difference in small schools with the type/level of mentoring your student gets. I have seen some small schools that offer Environmental Studies, but the faculty are all quietly trying to recruit the students into the “real” major in biology or poli sci or philosophy or geography or whatever.
Some split faculty or cross-listed courses are Ok, good even, but it might be a warning sign if ALL the courses are cross-listed and no faculty are full-time ES, if that is your primary interest.
Look at Oberlin’s ES department, for example: they have some faculty that are 100% Environmental Studies, some that are split between ES and another department, and some that are mostly in another department, but occasionally teach courses for ES. (Of course, Oberlin is widely considered to have one of the best ES programs in the US, thanks to their visionary former faculty member David Orr.)
In contrast, you can look at the ES program at Vassar - 40 participating faculty, but for not a one of them is ES their only/primary affiliation. It is a fine program and a fantastic school, but no comparison to a program like Oberlin’s.
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Thank you! We’ll definitely look at that.
I’ll probably stop playing with the list for a little bit. We may visit schools in Minnesota at the end of the summer since she seems to really like Macalester and none of us have visited schools there.
Allegheny College
Bates
Bowdoin
Carleton
Colby
Colorado College
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Macalester
Middlebury
Mount Holyoke
Northeastern
Oberlin
Pitzer
Pomona
University of Vermont
Willamette
I’d replace Willamette with Whitman, better weather and prettier campus 
and very strong ES
But how do you actually get to Whitman? What’s the closest airport?
Fly into Pasco (Tri-Cities regional airport - PSC), it’s about 45 minutes from campus. Also Walla Walla currently has one flight per day, connecting from Seattle. It’s remote, especially if you’re on the east coast. Walla Walla airport has one flight per day to/from Seattle.
The College of the Atlantic may be worth a look as a less selective option. It’s about as small as it gets for a LAC, but it has quite a good reputation for environmental studies, especially marine ecology. It’s a rather unique place that’s not for everyone, but a motivated and intellectually curious student will do well there.
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I feel like most places are hard to get to from St Louis. I guess Middlebury is hard to get to too.
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Would you be willing to share why St. Olaf was cut from the list? It’s one that I would have thought had good potential.
I’m going to throw out some other names in Minnesota & Wisconsin that you may want to look into:
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U. of Wisconsin - Stevens Point: This residential campus has about 7500 undergrads, so a mid-sized option if your D is hoping for that. Additionally, it has a whole College of Natural Resources with a variety of environmentally-related majors. Between 2008-2018 it produced the 2nd most doctoral recipients in the life sciences of any Wisconsin school (second only to UW-Madison, and had more doctorates received than many larger and/or more prestigious universities) @ScouterMomof3 might be able to provide more insight on that one, too.
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Gustavus Adolphus (MN): This school of about 2300 might interest your D, including its environmental studies offerings.
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St Olaf might go back on. And we’ll definitely visit. I’m not sure how good their environmental science/studies is. I’m also not sure how D25 feels about taking a theology class.
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Juniata College in PA is supposed to be very good for environmental science/studies. This could be another “safety.”
Also Dickinson College, also in PA.
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My child had similar concerns, completely allayed when she found out the range of options available to fill that requirement. Glad you’re at least giving it a tour.
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