<p>We have visited several schools (none that my son is thrilled with) but he seems to like the enclosed campuses such as Wheaton. I'm willing to have him look anywhere. Any suggestions for similiar schools. </p>
<p>He wants to study bio, has a 3.2 GPA and a 30 ACT score at this point!!</p>
<p>City?</p>
<p>Suburban?</p>
<p>Rural?</p>
<p>LAC?</p>
<p>University?</p>
<p>Home state?</p>
<p>Biology + 3.2 + 30 = lots and lots of options</p>
<p>Does he have any specific interest in biology, or is it pretty general at this point? Focusing on wildlife bio, or marine bio, or plant genetics, or some-other-bio-subfield would really shorten his list.</p>
<p>And as for Wheaton in particular, and any other Christian college/university in general, I would need to ask the faculty just exactly how they treat evolutionary theory. This is the cornerstone of all modern biology. Not all Christian institutions are able to successfully accommodate the need for preparing their students in this subject area.</p>
<p>Wait, which Wheaton?</p>
<p>Sorry, I didn’t realize there was more than one! The only one I know is the place up near Chicago.</p>
<p>There’s a Wheaton outside of Boston.</p>
<p>Sorry, the Wheaton we looked at was in Mass. He doesn’t seem to have a preference for location except that he doesn’t like a school right in the city such as Boston. He didn’t like Northeastern (too city and large) and really didn’t like Clark (in Worcester) in spite of the small campus. He’s also leaning toward LAC’s that are small to medium sized. </p>
<p>He also hasn’t zeroed in on a specific area of biology. He really doesn’t know what he wants to do yet. We live in Ct so we are familiar with the ton of schools in this area but I think we will need to expand our search. We are visiting Goucher, McDaniel and University of Mary Washington this week. I’m hoping that one of these will click.</p>
<p>I’ll be interested to hear what you think of Goucher. My son loathed the place – and I was ready to really like it. My S liked Connecticut, Wheaton, Bucknell, Lafayette, and Dickinson.</p>
<p>wb - I have a couple of questions:</p>
<p>a. Is he looking for as school “known for” biology, or a particular type of school that “offers” biology?</p>
<p>b. In your opinion, what is it about the several schools you’ve visited that put your S off? “We’ve visited six schools and my kid hates them all.” is a different problem than “My S liked Gettysburg but didn’t want to be stuck in such an isolated location.”</p>
<p>NewHope - I don’t think the school needs to be known for biology but should have a good program with a decent number of classes. </p>
<p>I wish I knew what he didn’t like about the schools or what he was looking for. I’m thinking that this will take a lot of visits.</p>
<p>He didn’t like Clark’s location and thought the food was bad. It also didn’t have an “intellectual feel”</p>
<p>We visited Emmanuel and Northeastern - didn’t like Boston. He didn’t dislike Wheaton (Mass), just wasn’t crazy about it. He did seem to like the size of the campus and it had a more intellectual feel. </p>
<p>We also visited Roger Williams (RI). He liked that the campus was contained but wasn’t sure about the academics. He hated Salve Regina. Too big, he didn’t like that some of the historic buildings had been modernized and lost their heritage???</p>
<p>We got a DVD about Sewannee - University of the South and he’s interested in that school.</p>
<p>As you can probably tell, I’m spinning my wheels…</p>
<p>My daughter ruled out every school until we came down to the finish line, and then she started liking some places. Sometimes it’s just trial and error. One school the whole family loved was William and Mary. I believe it has a good bio department and a brand-spanking-new science building. Very intellectual atmosphere; kids are there to learn. The school is very expensive OOS and hard to get in to, but a male will have a slightly easier time of it. With your son’s scores, it might be doable.</p>
<p>If you decide to visit, you can easily take in the University of Richmond also.</p>
<p>^^did you do your PA trip yet??</p>
<p>Our PA trip is planned for the middle of July. I’m hoping to have a better idea of what he is looking for before we choose the definite schools to visit. We’re also planning ( at this point) to visit College of Wooster, Oberlin, and Ohio Weslyan in Ohio (and more if there are suggestions). I’m looking for suggestions for schools we might not have heard of.</p>
<p>Earlham? and I know that others have recommended some other CTCL schools…</p>
<p>wb - OK. I’m going to assume your S isn’t at one of the top CT prep schools (Choate, Kingswood, Chaffee, Hopkins, etc.), so the 3.2 GPA is a fair representation of his academic work to date.</p>
<p>For a LAC-style plus academic feel you might consider (alphabetically) Bates, Bucknell, Earlham, Gettysburg, Juanita, Kalamazoo, Lafayette, Ohio Wesleyan, Ursinus, Wheaton (MA), and Wooster. Further west I believe Curmudgeon would give nods to Hendrix and Rhodes. Since it’s close, you might try RPI (just north of Albany) especially if your S might be interested in the Biomedical or Bioinformatics aspects of biology.</p>
<p>You can get a good feel for prominence of the biology program by checking the Academics section in xap (dot) com. For example, at Earlham biology is listed as a major with high student enrollment.</p>
<p>Thanks, we’ll check out these schools. Would he have a shot at a school like Bucknell with his lower GPA and a lack of athletics?</p>
<p>I’d say he’d be a likely admit, as long as:
<p>Check Allegheny on line, too, and see if it looks like it appeals to him. I think it sounds like a good possibility for him.</p>
<p>I was going to post University of the South-Sewannee, but you beat me to it.</p>
<p>Visited 2 summers ago with my sis and we both LOVED it. It is more rural, southern with a huge intellectual feel. Historic, self-contained in a small town with a gorgeous campus. It served as a good contrast with Vandy that is in downtown Nashville, but also has a nice campus. (And it WAS supposed to be our secret hidden gem for the next 10 years!!)</p>
<p>My sis and I decided then and there that is where my then 8 year-old niece was going to attend the Uni of the South!! It is also an outdoorsy school with lots of trails and bike paths, and fab overlook views.</p>
<p>I also had 2 kiddos that when we went to Boston to look at schools they both were a resounding no. Son later visited MIT on admitted student days and he still came back with a big NO. Same son last summer did spend the summer at Harvard’s med school doing research (but lived in a brand new dorm for grad students) and loved his stay for the summer. And it wasn’t the campus he liked but the flexibility of the Charlie card. He did find much to do and really enjoyed Boston. But it is still not one of his favorite campuses.</p>
<p>So do go visit. Also ask Curm for some ideas, he’ll probably know of a few as well.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>A friend’s son is happy to be going to Lawrence (Wisconsin) next year. He is from California and wanted strong programs in bio and music.</p>
<p>If he likes the look of Sewanee, then he’ll probably like the look of Rhodes. Very similar architecture, just an urban setting rather than a rural setting. And that’s “rural” as in “nothing - seriously, nothing - nearby”</p>