<p>You might also check out the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA; it may fulfill most, if not all, of your criteria. The folks there are doing some really amazing things with interdisciplinary learning and technology, and they have some terrific, creative faculty and staff as well. I’m a professor myself (not at UMW!), and I’ve been keeping a close eye on what’s going on there–the school has transformed itself over the past 20 years into a very interesting place. You can even see some of what students are doing in their classes via their campus publishing platform, UMWBlogs.</p>
<p>I was going to say Smith until I saw that your D doesn’t want single-sex schools. </p>
<p>My daughter got $26k in merit aid at Fairfield University, which is a small Jesuit school in CT. That might meet her/your criteria.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you to those who offered constructive comments. Based on some of the posts, we will widen our scope to some of the schools mentioned in upstate NY and Pennsylvania, as well as checking out Clark (near WPI). Anyone have any thoughts on Wesleyan University?</p>
<p>I believe Wesleyan U has no or very little merit money. You’ll want to run their Net Price Calculator to see if the school’s need-based aid would make the school affordable for your family.</p>
<p>Wesleyan – great school, on the edge of an old, rather gritty, New England city in the center of Connecticut.</p>
<p>*Quote:</p>
<h2>I am not under any false illusions regarding drinking and sex in our colleges, but I do believe that if we consider the more academic schools it does minimize the degree of partying.</h2>
<p>Quote:
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>The second quote is very true. My sister purposely led her kids to elite academic schools because she believed that there would be less partying and “they don’t allow booze in the dorms”. (lol…as if other schools have bars in the common areas.) Well, second child is about to graduate and she’s lost all those delusions. </p>
<p>When you get 18-23 year old kids together, there’s going to be a lot of partying. Even the more low-key kids will have get-togethers (may not loud functions) and there will be booze flowing.</p>
<p>My older son went to an elite univ for his PhD. The “who brings what” to parties still falls largely under stereotypical lines… girls bring food, boys bring booze. That probably plays out at many schools.</p>
<p>I’ll be the lone person to say that there <em>is</em> a difference in party intensity among schools…I wouldn’t say “academic” is the right alternative word, but it is a reality that, while there is drinking and flirting and general bonhomie and mischief amongst rapscallions, (trying to sound as old as I feel…) there is a variation in terms of both the intensity and the degree to which social life is structured around that sort of thing. You cannot compare the atmosphere at MIT or Holy Cross or Wesleyan with what goes on at Penn State. (Having relatives living in downtown State College, I have to say it is shocking bordering on the repulsive, and I’m no stranger to college hijinks.) However, anyone who thinks that all the students at ANY college are spending their Saturday evenings drinking cocoa and playing Monopoly are in for a rude awakening. </p>
<p>Your daughter may relax her opposition to a women’s college if you take her to visit some that are located in a larger community of college students that include coed institutions. Basically, any college in Boston is going to be part of a huge social scene of university students…so Simmons is a possibility. Likewise Smith and Mount Holyoke, which are a little more removed from Amherst, UMass, and Hampshire, but the Northhampton community is right there and is a fabulous place to be a student.</p>
<p>Also, as a Colby alum, I am contractually obligated to make a rude remark about all the Bates love in this thread. Boo, Bobcats. ;)</p>