Thanks for this - wasn’t aware even though my kid is at Oberlin - studying ES! They’re pursuing a dual major - Environmental Studies and Geoscience.
Oh and as I look at the list I see lots of the same schools. Their final list was:
Macalester
Oberlin
Vassar
Bates
Colby
Middlebury
Dickinson
Occidental
We’ll definitely look into Dickinson. In briefly looking at Oxy, it looks like they only have an ES concentration and major. Wouldn’t a major be better? Thanks.
It just means that if you do ES at Oxy, you’re technically either a bio or geo major, but working on an ES program within those majors. Essentially, you’re a life-sciences-focused ES major or an earth-sciences-focused ES major. That may work, or it may be too limiting. My D23 really liked Oxy, but her interest in environmental studies is truly interdisciplinary, encompassing the sciences as well as policy, history, and other humanities. So she decided that she really couldn’t pull off that kind of major at Oxy and chose a different school. Another thing to note about Oxy is that they have an outstanding Marine Bio program, which might appeal to someone interested in environmental studies.
If we really look into ease of travel, I like this list. Not sure if it needs more safeties though.
Bates
Bowdoin
Carleton
Colby
Macalester
Northeastern
Oberlin
Pitzer
Pomona
St Olaf
University of Vermont
Just to reconfirm - your daughter is a 10th grader? And no test score yet?
Or am I off.
Thanks
This list has no safeties – UVM and St. Olaf are marginal likely/safeties. So you need more in both the likely and safety category. Northeastern is both a tough admit and really an outlier on this list, so you could replace that with a likelier admit that’s more consistent with these other schools. Dickinson, Sarah Lawrence, Connecticut College, Bard? Western Washington (with honors college opportunity)? Also, if she’s applying to Pitzer, she should seriously consider Scripps – somewhat easier admit and exactly the same environmental studies major. The 5 college consortium means that a women’s college has a lot of co-ed elements. Best of both worlds.
When thinking about ease of travel, you should look on college websites to see what they say about transportation to area airports and train stations around college breaks. Many colleges offer these services, especially those that are not especially close to major airports. Dickinson might offer transportation to BWI, for instance.
Nope, she is just a sophomore. PSAT of 1340. I like researching. lol Plus, I like planning vacations way in advance. I think we might go to Minnesota at the end of this summer. I was thinking of visiting my sister in San Diego for spring break 2024 and visiting the Claremont schools. Possibly Boston/Maine vacation summer 2024.
You’re right to plan college visits in advance, so you can take short trips and visit small clusters, so it won’t become overwhelming and rushed. Then again, priorities will evolve over time, and you can’t visit everything. For my D23, her top 4 choices in the end were schools we had not visited – it just weirdly turned out that way (Covid prevented earlier visits, and we had scheduling limitations – for S26, we’ll fit in more short visits, and we’ll start earlier). There’s a thread somewhere on CC re: planning visits around geographic clusters of colleges. That might be helpful.
For S22 we didn’t get many visits in. He ended up visiting his ED1 school just a couple of weeks before the application deadline.
She’s going to be at Hobart and William Smith this summer. So she can see if she likes it. I think that would be a likely. We might add in Allegheny and Dickson.
OK - just making sure.
I think it’s fine to visit schools - if you’re in an area - but not to go full bore for college visit purposes. It’s more like - if you’re nearby.
The only one we visited officially in 10th grade was IU because they have a sophomore day.
You will find your child burned out otherwise - and you will also see in the next year, year and a half, their interests - in both major and school size may change. My son changed his interest four times in HS.
But incorporating into vacation like you said - absolutely. You might skip the info sessions though - they get boring and in a hurry. and they’re all the same…literally. We have so many clubs…we have Qidditch. Want to start a club…you can do that too? It’s like one script for the country.
But I’d walk the campus, area, even talk to some kids informally.
When we were in Maine this Summer, no kids, I demanded to get an hour at Bowdoin 
I missed out on Colby, Bates, and U Maine tho…
Good luck.
If you’re driving, maybe on the way or way home you can make a stop each way - like Allegheny on the way…
Also - a lot of schools have self-guided campus tours that you can do with an app (bring headphones). While they’re not quite as good as guided tours, because you can’t ask questions, they do offer both a thorough tour of campus and a lot of added information. I found that I got a lot more out of those tours than I did just walking the campus. Might be good for a quick trip to a campus that doesn’t coincide with scheduled info sessions and tours. And for schools that measure demonstrated interest, there’s a login so the admissions office can verify that you took the tour.
I just read Walla Walla will likely add a second flight per day.
I keep seeing University of Oregon on Environmental Science lists. Is the honors college impossible to get into? Does Oregon feel as big as say Mizzou or Wisconsin?
Campus doesn’t seem that big at all. Trying to remember in comparison to UWM and Mizzou. Been to both but years ago. Great ice cream place near campus in Eugene. A total chill city.
Certainly the school population is smaller.
Good luck. Hopefully others chime in.
You may want to consider McGill University. They have a Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. It is located on their Macdonald campus about 25 miles west of Montreal in a small town. There is a new light rail connection to downtown and students can take elective courses on McGill’s main campus.
My son and I just visited University of Wisconsin Stevens Point this weekend for a tour day. My son S23 has decided to attend Stevens Point this fall.
The college has a College of Natural Resources that has its own student success center. We have been through the College of Natural Resources building, which includes a water testing lab, a reptile exhibit that is as nice as a single exhibit in the Milwaukee Zoo, and classrooms full of fish tanks, tree branches, soil samples, etc. It looks like there are tons of clubs related to nature and the environment.
We were also able to tour the college’s 5 year old, $80 million (?) chemistry and biology building that is beautiful and equipped with great equipment, including individual microscopes that are new and nice, and an electron microscope. The biology department keeps up to 5 cadavers and the chemistry department has beautiful lab spaces as well.
I’d definitely recommend touring there.
ETA: Looking at the criteria, I cannot say that UWSP is super LGBT friendly, although I do not get any impression that it is unfriendly, either. From what I hear, UW Eau Claire is very progressive in that area.
While you are in PA, I’d stop at Juniata between Allegheny and Dickinson. My D23 looked at all 3 and ultimately decided on Juniata. Excellent for ES.
I saw another student on CC being advised that they should really take physics. Is physics really necessary for the schools on D25’s list. Here is her current 4 year plan:
9th
Advanced Algebra II
Advanced Lit & Comp
Advanced Biology
World History
Spanish III
PE/Health
Tech Theater I/Drawing I
10th
Math Analysis
Composition/Advanced Lit Analysis
Advanced Chemistry
AP European History
Spanish IV
Intro to Journalism
Adventure Pursuits/Drawing II
11th
AP Calculus BC
AP Language
AP Environmental Science
PAWS (veterinary science class)
AP US History
AP Spanish
Newspaper I
12th
AP Statistics
Expository Writing/Creative Writing
AP Biology
Personal Finance/Philosophy
AP Government
AP Psychology
Newspaper II
Today’s list of colleges:
Allegheny College
Bates
Bowdoin
Carleton
Colby
Dickinson
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Macalester
Middlebury
Mount Holyoke
Oberlin
Pitzer
Pomona
Scripps
St Olaf
University of Oregon
University of Vermont
Willamette