Goldilocks needs a college list (any large LAC's??)

College Search & Selection
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<p>My D, a junior, has long thought she would be happiest at a small LAC with strong academics and a college-town environment. Had been thinking along the lines of Pomona, Amherst, Swarthmore, Davidson as her reach schools. But having gone through middle and high school at a small private school, she's now wondering if that size and environment might be a bit dull after the first couple of years. Yet a large state university strikes her as too large and impersonal. </p>

<p>So she needs some schools that offer just the right balance between large and small, but still offer the benefits of a LAC: small, discussion based classes taught by professors instead of grad students; a rich residential environment where students want to live on campus for at least a couple years; a real sense of community. Right now, a school like Duke looks good to her, but I'm looking for advice to supplement that very short list. And I'm not sure Duke even belongs on the list.</p>

<p>More about Goldi: energetic, extroverted and social; active in liberal politics; strong leadership record; 4-year varsity multi-sport athlete who also plays one sport at the premier level; excellent array of community service; expect strong test scores, possible National Merit status (a prediction based on 10th grade score); above average GPA at an extremely rigorous private school that sends more than 10% to Ivies. She's interested in studying history or political science/international relations. Her ideal job: she'd like to be Michael Beschloss (presidential historian and PBS commentator). She's open to living in the south or midwest if the college draws lots of students from all over the country. Otherwise, she's a more natural fit for either the northeast or the west. I'd like her to be within an hour shuttle ride of a major airport, ideally. She's okay with small towns or cities, but does like outdoor activities so access to those would be nice. She would probably have a chance of admission at top-ranked LAC's if she could play her sport and get a slight tip in admissions - she's a potentially recruitable athlete, but doesn't want to play Division I sports. DIII would be just right. Ability to play her sport in college is not a deal-breaker, though.</p>

<p>So, with those things in mind, can anyone suggest:</p>

<p>(1) LAC's that are 2,000 or more students - even larger is better. Or any LAC that feels larger than it is, because of location, opportunities, student-body, or whatever. Would appreciate any comments on Davidson, Amherst, Pomona, Claremont-McKenna with regard to these size concerns.</p>

<p>(2) Mid-sized universities. I'm thinking Rice, WUSTL, maybe Northwestern, but don't know much about them. I could easily see her at Dartmouth or Stanford, but the adcoms may not be so convinced :) so we need a realistic list - especially because she couldn't get a tip from sports at these bigger schools.</p>

<p>Thanks for reading this, and I would really appreciate your insights!</p>

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<p>Here are a few off the top of my head that I think would be worth looking into. Not all are LACs, but I think they might fit. I think only Rollins is Div III sports though. </p>

<p>Wake Forest
University of Richmond
Wiiliam & Mary
Rice
Elon
Delaware
James Madison
Emory
Mary Wasington
Bucknell
Colgate
Lehigh
Lafayette
WUSTL
Miami (OH)
Ohio University
Miami University
Rollins</p>

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<p>rollins, WUstl, mary washington and emory are all d3. most of those are kinda low d1 except rice, richmond wake etc</p>

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<p>Thanks Wneck, I wasn't too sure about that.</p>

<p>And maybe add University of Tampa as a safety -- they get overlooked a lot, but it's not a bad school and they have decent merit awards. Not sure how strong poli sci is for them.</p>

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<p>Thanks guys. I'll check these out. D-I is fine if she can get in without the sports tip. I'm wondering if Rice has sort of a LAC feel to it. I like everything I've read about it, but not many kids from our area go south so I've nobody to ask. Fron FLVADAD's list, Rice and WUSTL seem to have the most national draw, which might be important. D won't be too keen on being the token Yankee in a very southern school :)</p>

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<p>Pomona & Claremont McKenna are part of a 5 college community (academic, social, etc), making the total population about 5300 students.</p>

<p>Amherst is in a small college town & very close to UMass - Amherst, as well as several smaller colleges, making it seem much less "claustrophobic" than isolated LACs.</p>

<p>Brown is pretty much the first place I think of for a larger U with a liberal arts feel.</p>

<p>That's my take :)</p>

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<p>My school, Wesleyan, sounds like it could be a good fit:</p>

<p>--It's an LAC, but has ~2,800 students and a handful of grad students in the sciences.
--Basically everyone lives on campus all 4 years (off campus housing is rarely permitted except in special circumstances).<br>
--Good history and gov departments (she should also look into our college of social sciences if she’s interested in a really rigorous and personal education, though it might skew too theoretical for her tastes).
--Northeast (Connecticut)
--Less than an hour to the Hartford airport, with shuttles that run around breaks and such
--Lots of opportunities to be involved in political groups (esp. liberal ones) and community service, if she wants to continue with those
--In a small-ish industrial town, but with access to outdoors stuff, including an outdoors club that runs activates basically every weekend and sometimes during the week. (There is also a program house specifically geared towards people who like to do outdoorsy things, if she is really into it/like being around people who are really into it).<br>
--DIII, plus a variety of club sports if she isn’t recruited/decides against doing something so official. </p>

<p>Of the schools you’ve mentioned, Pomona seems the best because of the consortium. Amherst is also good for the same reason, though those consortium schools are, as I understand it, not as close together as the Claremont ones (which are literally all across the street from each other). </p>

<p>Vassar is another larger LAC, though not as large as Wesleyan. Oberlin too, though it is more isolated. Barnard is right across the street from Columbia and has a LOT of overlap with it, plus it’s in NYC, so it definitely feels bigger that your average LAC, and it feels less like an all girls school, if that is a concern (though I’m not sure about sports or outdoors activities there). </p>

<p>For smaller Unis, I agree with the suggestion of Brown. Also check out the U of Rochester.</p>

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<p>FauxNom, your set of criteria is the same I'm using for compiling the initial list for my D. So far on my list, besides WUSTL and Rice are Brown, Tufts, U of Chicago, U of Rochester, John Hopkins, Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western (could be a low match/safety for your D). All great schools, with no more than 6000 undergrads. From LACs, we are considering Wesleyan, Vassar, Pomona consortium, Amherst with its surroundings of other colleges. All of the mentioned schools are Division 3 (except Rice) and most universities are part of UAA athletic conference. I also like Smith, but my D is opposed (so far) to women only colleges.</p>

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<p>I would agree on Wesleyan, Colgate, Bucknell.</p>

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<p>I'd second Oberlin. Not at all like Duke--but it fits every criterion on your list, including being 25 minutes from a major airport (Cleveland).</p>

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<p>Middlebury and Wesleyan are both excellent "large" LACs.</p>

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<p>She sounds like a perfect fit for Williams -- bright, extroverted, energetic, athletic, outdoorsy. A lot of overlap in character with Pomona, Amherst and Davidson. Excellent academics -- including history and political science -- and close knit community.</p>

<p>I'd also take a look at Weselyan, Colgate, Bowdoin.</p>

<p>My son found 2000 students big enough to form a critical mass of friends and plenty big for close friends. A student with multi-faceted interests -- in your daughter's case sports, community service, outdoorsy activities -- will interact with a wide range of her peers. The social opportunities at most LACs are structured for maximum exposure with the result being more insular than claustrophobic, and with the variety of experiences available anything but dull.</p>

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<p>Dartmouth. Dartmouth. Dartmouth.</p>

<p>It satisfies all of your criteria, except it's two hours (not one) from a major airport.</p>

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<p>I would have to agree that Dartmouth is a good fit here. Manchester airport is just a bit more than an hour and may also be an option depending on where you live. And while it's DivI, it's not exactly the Big 10. DS was a recruited athlete. He needed high stats but was accepted over others in his class with similar stats.</p>

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<p>Williams, Holy Cross-near Boston, Bowdoin.</p>

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<p>We're from Northern California, and my daughter is a freshman at Rice this year. Like your daughter, mine wanted a smaller school--smaller than the UCs. But, she's likely to be a science major and already had the research bug and wanted to continue, so most LACs weren't the best fit for her, not to mention the fact that many of them don't give much merit aid, so they don't come close to comparing in price to our UC schools. Rice, in our experience, was generous with merit aid, it's a gorgeous campus with that small school feel, there are small classes and lots of contact with professors, plus lots of research opportunities (she's already involved in an internship). Rice is pretty much an unknown quantity here in CA, too, so I sympathize with your quandry about it. If you'd like to know more, I'd suggest you post a question on the Rice forum. The parents there are really friendly and helpful (though maybe a bit biased, I suppose!). You're also welcome to send me a personal message, though keep in mind that my daughter has only been at Rice for a little over 2 months. Good luck with the search!</p>

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<p>Wow - thank you so much for all the helpful responses! It's good to have such an array of suggestions, and especially insights from people who've gone outside their normal geographic range (e.g. Berkeley to Rice - very reassuring!). We've been visiting Dartmouth and Brown for years because of family in the area, and she loves both of them. She could thrive at either, but they're big reaches when you come from a school that kills your GPA. (She's convinced she's not recruitable for soccer at those schools, unfortunately.) I'll make sure she talks to the kids she knows who went to Williams and Middlebury when they're home for break. And it looks like we'll need to fit in a visit to southern schools sometime this year.</p>

<p>Weskid - thanks for mentioning the Wesleyan social sciences program. It looks terrific - just her kind of thing. </p>

<p>Does anyone have thoughts on whether Duke, Northwestern or WUSTL would be a good fit? Keep those ideas coming!</p>

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<p>Smith meets every one of the characteristics you listed, and is the largest of the LACs cited. In addition, there is 5-College Certificate Program in International Relations, headed by Vincent Ferraro, Clinton's senior foreign policy advisor.</p>

<p>The</a> Five College International Relations Certificate Program : Welcome!</p>

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<p>I second Wesleyan and Brown, and would also recommend looking at Tufts. It's a small U that's usually also classified as a LAC, and fits all the criteria you mentioned to the best of my knowledge. She also sounds like a pretty typically Tufts student to me, and it's less of a reach than most of the other schools you mentioned.</p>

<p>If she doesn't want an isolated experience, I'd have to disagree with some of the suggestions here. Williams and Bowdoin are pretty small.</p>

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<p>I guess I should own up to this: Goldi stubbornly refuses to consider a women's college, so no Barnard, no Smith. But I think the suggestions are excellent!</p>