<p>It it a little early to hone in on schools seriously without stats. But it’s a great idea to start exploring to see what factors are important (big/small, city/rural, etc). Do some college visits near home. Some factors will be critical, others not so much. Also use the time to start learning more about how NPC work at various example college websites.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your comments. College visits start in early December. I’ll keep you posted.</p>
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<p>Not to harp on this too much, but you might want to shift your thinking here. Top “academic” schools can also have very strong party scenes. Of course you don’t have to participate, but if you go in with the idea that drunken crazy situations are not going to be going on around you, you will be very disappointed. </p>
<p>I mention this because I have a friend who is just appalled that there is partying at her daughter’s school since she was told by the school that there is not drinking allowed in the dorms. Her daughter keeps transferring to try to get away from it. I try to explain that transferring won’t help. She needs to find a way to navigate around the drinking/partying if she is not interested and find her crowd among that environment.</p>
<p>I work for a top academic school and can attest there’s plenty of partying going on. That said, the kids who don’t want to be involved, aren’t and find their own group of friends.</p>
<p>I thought of Clark immediately. Check out Colleges that Change Lives by Loren Pope (book and website). Pope also wrote “Looking Beyond the Ivies.” Clark is on it. Clark is diverse, friendly, and the academics are wonderful. They offer some majors I have not seen anywhere.</p>
<p>Worcester has improved but I understand the reservations. However, Clark has one of the best town gown relationships you will find anywhere. I just really like the school for its relationship with surrounding community. The school that Clark runs wins awards.</p>
<p>I remember sitting in an Ivy League admissions office and we were all gushing about Clark.</p>
<p>Muhlenberg is supposed to be very friendly.</p>
<p>Goucher and Lesley are friendly. Might be safeties, not sure, don’t have enough information.</p>
<p>I am going to second Muhlenberg as a good school for a visit. It seems to meet all of your requirements although I don’t know what kind of financial aid you will need. It is a very nice school, small, strong in sciences, very accepting, very small Greek life, not a big party school, located in Allentown, … worth a visit and talk with admissions and tour at the very least. Does your guidance office have Naviance? It can be a great help in locating schools and helping you decide which ones you want to visit. Best of luck in your search.</p>
<p>I don’t think that classifying campuses as “friendly” is all that useful. I have never been on a campus where every possible kind of student would feel welcome. At some campuses, students of X-type would feel more welcome than students of Y-type, and at other campuses the reverse. Some people would find Wesleyan to be extremely friendly and others would find Texas A&M to be so, but few would find them both equally comfortable and accomodating. I think it is much more about fit than friendliness.</p>
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<p>The friendliness can certainly be part of the fit…we visited The College of New Jersey and our tour guide had a bunch of her freshman mentorees saying “Hi!” to her during the tour. I took that as a sign where there are people looking out for you which is important to my daughter with some anxiety issues.</p>
<p>Whereas for my DD2011 this is not even an issue…only when we went to Cornell and saw almost no students at all and did not get a “warm, inviting” feeling but a “cold” feeling did it even register.</p>
<p>^ I agree that how friendly people are to a particular student is part of the fit for that student. I am just saying that two different students may have very different experiences in terms of the friendliness they encounter on a particular campus, in part because of whether they fit that campus. I certainly found that to be true when I was young and looking at schools, as my older sisters had completely different experiences from mine.</p>
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<p>No, I’m afraid it really doesn’t.
There is no direct correlation between the two.
As others have stated, 18-20 year olds, away from home, opposite genders at close hand, mix in alcohol … you do the math.</p>
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<p>I’m sorry to point this out but several of the schools on your list offer very little or no merit aid.
It’s great that you’re trying to get a start now, but you need to make sure to do a lot of research before things really start to happen.
Take it from experience, there is little worse than having a child fall in love with a school and then later discover that there is no way to afford it.</p>
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<p>Or is it more a social studies topic than a math topic?</p>
<p>BTMell, check Colgate</p>
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<p>moneyp,
Not sure what you’re referring to.
BTMell already has children at Bates and at Hampshire.</p>
<p>The O/P’s screen name is TAG.
And TAG has stated that they are looking for schools with merit aid.
And Colgate does not offer merit aid.</p>
<p>Colgate has a very small Alumni Memorial Scholars program, but that’s it.</p>
<p>thanks, GolfFather (I’m a golf mother, btw) - I was confused at the post.</p>
<p>If you are willing to stretch your borders to western NY, the University of Rochester is an excellent school that gives merit aid. Whether it would be enough is another matter. S was offered $10K per year in a named scholarship, another kid I know was offered $7K per year. I know that their big scholarship is something like $30K per year, but I don’t know whether your D’s stats would be strong enough to be considered for it. (Actually, I’m not really sure of their criteria, and diversity may well be part of it.) It is generally thought that demonstrated interest counts at Rochester, so if she is interested it would be wise to interview either on campus or with a traveling admissions officer.</p>
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<p>In fact, Rochester publishes its merit aid profiles:</p>
<p><a href=“https://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial/estimator/merit.aspx[/url]”>https://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial/estimator/merit.aspx</a></p>
<p>Well, that is interesting, but it seems to refer to non-specific merit awards, not the kind of thing S received, which was “The Youth Symphony Award” or something like that, and specifically for a kid who had participated in a youth symphony and apparently had a fixed $$ amount. But maybe all such tings are bundled in. His profile was in line with the upper levels in the link. The really big scholarship I was thinking of–the Renaissance Scholars, IIRC–was something like $30K at the time, and involved special interviews.</p>
<p>One thing definitely worth noting is that they mention the percentage of awardees who interviewed. Clearly they care! :)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t necessarily write off a college with only need based aid. My D received significant merit awards from schools known for strong merit, but also received similar offers from Emory U and Connecticut College, which are need-based only. It’s nice that U. Rochester publishes their merit scholarships (and typical stats) online; my D received a $10K merit scholarship but it wasn’t in the same ballpark with offers from Emory, Connecticut or Rhodes (D’s at Emory.) We’re middle class, so most of our D’s applications were to schools with high merit aid.</p>
<p>Conn College has a new science building and offers a guaranteed study abroad paid internship. However, New London is similar to Waltham (Brandeis) and Waterville (Colby) where the towns are rather sleepy around campus. Tufts and Brandeis are easy enough to get into Boston and Cambridge by public transit for a change of pace. Our high school sends 4-5 students annually to Tufts and everyone seems happy there (good financial aid also.) The students we’ve sent to Brandeis seem pretty serious, not the partying type at all.</p>