<p>My son will starting his senior year next fall and so we are of course in the midst of college discussions. He has expressed an interest in attending college in California or the southwest (we live in Illinois). He is torn between large university with plethora of options or small LAC with smaller classes, and so we have been looking at both. He has an interest in writing and/or anthropology and/or philosophy & theological studies. Schools he has been looking into include University of Arizona, Arizona State, University of New Mexico, St. John's College, UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, or one of the Claremont Colleges (as well as Global College, part of Long Island Univesity, which I know next to nothing about).</p>
<p>His credentials:</p>
<p>GPA - 3.75 (weighted)
Class Rank - top 25%
ACT - 30 (34 english, 34 reading, 24 math, 28 science, 11/12 writing)
Nat. Honor Society
Marching, competitive & symphonic bands - 4 years
Diversity club - 4 yrs (president 3 & 4)
Literary Magazine - 4 yrs (poetry editor 3 & 4)
Volunteer in a tutoring program
Boy Scout Camp Counselor
Close to completing Eagle Scout requirements</p>
<p>Any comments regarding the above schools, his chances of admittance or any other possible schools out West would be appreciated.</p>
<p>All schools in the UC system including UCLA and UC Santa Cruz are subject to a mandatory 10% cap on out-of-state (OOS) students. As a consequence, admission is extremely competitive for any OOS applicant regardless of credentials. Your son’s ACT 30 composite is quite good, but top 25% class rank is probably not helpful for either UCLA or UC Santa Cruz—UCLA reports 97% of entering freshmen are in the top 10% of their HS class, and Santa Cruz is right behind at 96%. I think these are distant reaches.</p>
<p>The Claremont colleges are outstanding liberal arts schools. Pomona, Harvey Mudd and Claremont-McKenna are among the most competitive in the nation in admissions, again probably high reaches. A fourth Claremont college, Pitzer, is a little less competitive, possibly closer to your son’s range. You might also consider Occidental, another very good LA-area LAC.
St. John’s is a very unusual college built around a 4-year Great Books curriculum; some people thrive on this approach, for others it just wouldn’t work. Interesting option, but check it out very carefully.</p>
<p>Arizona, Arizona State, and UNM are all decent-but-not-outstanding state universities with all that entails: large classes, high OOS tuition, etc. Admissions to any of them is not terribly selective, but I don’t know what their policies are with regard to OOS students. I also don’t know how they match up with you son’s interests, except I do know that Arizona has a very strong philosophy faculty (ranked #13 nationally by he Philosophical Gourmet, a widely cited ranking in the field).</p>
<p>Interestly, when he did the Princeton Review “Counselor-o-Matic,” Rice came up as one of his possible matches. He has heard that the school is very selective, however, and wasn’t sure he would qualify (and also didn’t know much about the school).</p>
<p>Take into consideration the ASU Barrett Honors Program—the out of state tuition is not as high as other universities and if his stats are good (unlike OOS for some state universities) they will throw plenty of money his way. ASU does have a strong philosophy department (as mentioned above). Also VERY strong are archeology,architecture, music, and design. Taken as a whole ASU doesnt have the most spectacular reputation, but there are some spectacular departments and schools within the university.</p>
<p>I think he would have a good shot at Rice. It is a little bit of a reach, but worth investigating. My daughter is a grad, and I have a son at an Ivy, and I believe the Rice experience is superior in many ways. The campus is wonderful and in a beautiful area of Houston. Check out some of the threads on Rice on this forum. It is a real gem. Everyone who goes to visit falls in love with it.</p>
<p>Has he checked out the University of Denver? It’s a wonderful school with about 4500 undergrads. The campus is lovely and it’s just a few miles from downtown Denver–the light rail stops right next to campus so the students have the best of both worlds.</p>
<p>He looks like a reasonable match for USD. As a Catholic school, theological studies are obviously strong and the humanities are good as well. Many people enjoy the small private school environment in the context of a lively city, so it’s definitely worth a look, especially since he is possibly in merit scholarship range</p>
<p>university of oregon is a good match school i think.
or some of the less competetive UCs like Irvine or San Diego
plus california has TONS of cal state schools and privates</p>
<p>Any interest in the Northwest? Whitman College is strong for writing and has a very interesting “Semester in the West” program. Gonzaga might be of interest also.</p>
<p>Second everything you say, though ASU has quite the reputation as being a party school. My brother-in-law graduated from the Honors College (he definitely didn’t party, being a pre-med) though, so it’s not all THAT bad. If your son does decide to attend ASU, he’ll find plenty of down-to-earth Arizona natives. </p>
<p>Generally speaking, around here, U of A is considered stronger in most fields, but ASU has the stronger honors program. However, a weighted 3.75 GPA sounds pretty low to be admitted to the honors colleges (though I don’t know much about admission.) Also, if he expresses interest in writing, I can tell you that Barbara Kingsolver (writer of The Bean Trees, among others) went to U of A. U of A is a bit smaller, and I find that ASU Main is rather crowded for my tastes (my sister had many intro classes with 500+ students), though I don’t know how much better U of A really is. Both offer excellent merit aid though from experience.</p>
<p>Oh, and he’s pretty much guaranteed a spot at both U of A and ASU (but not necessarily to their respective honors colleges.)</p>