<p>I'm really interested in finding a college where I can get a good major in philosophy and/or religion. I'm visiting Denison, OWU, Wittenberg, and Kenyon at the beginning of next month to start off the search.</p>
<p>Honestly, I'd just love some suggestions on places to look at or eliminate. It'd also be helpful to have some insight on where I might receive a nice amount of aid.</p>
<p>If it helps narrow down options...
PSAT: 214
SAT: 800 reading, 800 writing, 670 math
GPA: 4.0
Other: NHS, Student Council President, Junior Class VP, principal's advisory committee member, chamber singers, cross country and heavily involved in church stuff. AP class last year in US History and this year in English, Statistics, and European History.</p>
<p>I live in Western PA and am happy with going any place in the country basically anywhere from Iowa eastwards. Thank you very much for your help. :)</p>
<p>Sewanee would personally be my top pick (though i did not go there) There are no TA’s teaching courses and no foreign profs that you can not understand, class size is capped so that you do not end up in a 200 person lecture hall your freshman year. It is consistently only beat out by U Hawaii as the most beautiful campus, and is always making top lists for great place to live and great college.</p>
<p>Sewanee does seem pretty impressive and beautiful (and I’ll admit that’s a little bit of a factor… my town has a state university which, though not otherwise a bad place, is full of 1960s era brick cubes). Sewanee seems like a Hogwarts of the South and I think I’ll look into it a more.</p>
<p>As for Pittsburgh, is it good for undergrad as well? I know its graduate program has an incredible reputation.</p>
<p>It would help if you could narrow down what you’re looking for. This is important for two reasons.</p>
<p>(1) Many of the schools with the strongest religion programs - Chicago, Duke, Emory, Princeton, etc. - are very different from one another, and it’s unlikely a student would be equally comfortable at all of them. </p>
<p>(2) The majority of students change their majors at least once. Asking for suggestions based merely on stats and prospective major is extremely ill-advised. </p>
<p>Consider:
[ul][<em>]Rural, suburban, or urban?
[</em>]Small, medium, large, or very large?
[<em>]Coed or single-sex?
[</em>]Greek life or none?
[<em>]Will you qualify for financial aid?
[</em>]Are you looking for a specific sport or extracurricular offering?
[li]What intangibles do you want in a college? Quirky, preppy, spirited, artsy, green, political, religious…?[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>Since you are looking for merit aid, it would also help to know if you qualify for National Merit / National Achievement.</p>
<p>UPitt does have one of the best philosophy departments, but not so much for philosophy of religion. Their biggest strength, I think, is in logic. Notre Dame’s philosophy department is much friendlier toward religious thought, even non-Catholic.</p>
<p>I’d suggest studying rel/phil within the context of a liberal arts curriculum (if you are led to LAC colleges) and do more targeted work in grad school. You don’t have to find a school with the “best” rel/phil. Many LACs in the Midwest fit this bill; you might want to add Kalamazoo College and Hope College (if you are looking for a fairly religious college) to your visits. I’m glad you are visiting Wittenberg. While I did not go there, I am familiar with the place and know several alums. Witt is friendly and students report high satisfaction with the classroom experience, including unusually dedicated and engaged faculty. It seems like a kind of “best kept secret” of Midwestern colleges.</p>
<p>If you major in rel or phil at a LAC and do outstanding work, getting into a fine grad school should not be difficult and will allow you to fine tune your undergrad work. Some places to consider then would be the University of Chicago and Harvard Divinity School for religion and the University of Michigan for philosophy.</p>
<p>The majors you are interested in branch into most of the other academic departments. To study religion or philosophy brings you into conversation with history, literature, language, art, music, math, even science. For that reason, you might be most satisfied persuing them while also in the academic mix of a LAC curriculum. Best wishes for your future.</p>
<p>The liberal arts path so far seems the best for me. Coming from a small rural school, I think it would be difficult for me to immediately transition into a Harvard-type university, and honestly I don’t plan on going to a big name-brand school for my undergrad, as asinine as that can sound. Liberal arts is probably the path I’ll take.</p>
<p>I’ve requested information from Kalamazoo, Hope, and Valpo, so that’ll be helpful. Regarding Calvin, I intend (if pursuing graduate studies in religion) to be in the Wesleyan or at least Arminian tradition, so that might not be quite right.</p>
<p>Does anyone know anything more about the Ohio schools I mentioned? I get the impression OWU is good mainly for the sciences rather than liberal arts, and I don’t know what to think about Denison.</p>
<p>@warblersrule86: I don’t care much about location, though I’m happy in a rural location. Small to medium schools usually appeal more to me. Definitely coed. And I’m probably not going to be involved in Greek, and have no specific sports I’m looking for besides maybe a running club. It’d be nice to have religious groups present on campus, though I don’t want a super-conservative Christian school per se. I should qualify for at least some financial aid, and am so far a high scorer in the National Merit Scholarship (they haven’t gotten to the next stages yet).</p>
<p>As a philosophy professor my advice is to make your decision based on what you like about the college as a whole and the philosophy faculty in particular. The question you should really be asking is “what professors do I want to work under?” Go to the department and faculty Web pages and read everything you can on the department and its people. The statistics and “reputation” of a school mean nothing at the undergraduate level. What matters is whether you are going to thrive under the professors you are going to be working under for the next four years, are they going to actually teach you something, and are they going to prepare you for and support your candidacy for grad school.</p>
<p>Could you please clarify your financial situation? Aid primarily comes in two versions – need based and merit based. If you’re not sure, ask your parents to use an on-line calculator to get an idea of the amount of need-based aid you might receive.</p>
<p>If you are eligible for need based aid then your list can be fairly open ended. If you require (as opposed to just want) a “nice amount” of merit aid, then your list will be completely different.</p>
<p>Kenyon was one of my son’s top choices. Beautiful campus, though small and insular. Nurturing, friendly intellectual ambience. He also liked Hamilton for same reasons. He ended up at Williams, which would be a good choice for you: Good philosophy, good religion. They like the combination of academics + music + sports.</p>
<p>But these three --and some of the other schools mentioned on this thread – do not offer merit aid. </p>
<p>I’m not an expert at merit but two ideas that come to mind are Rhodes and Grinnell. Smith if you are female.</p>
<p>I require aid. Definitely require, not want. I’m solidly middle class, and I think my family income is at most around $100,000 a year, with four children. I’ll be the only one in college for two years until my sister comes up as well.</p>
<p>Once I’m able to complete the calculator thing, I’ll put that up too.</p>
<p>And I’m male, so no on Smith.</p>
<p>@profgiles: That’s really helpful. I’m glad to hear that the prestige of a school isn’t necessarily the biggest thing for undergrad. Would you say that there really is a large number of good philosophy and religion faculties around, where I could receive a good foundation in the field? My interest, to be specific, is Christian philosophy extending into the apologetics field. I find it fascinating, and that’s the reason for my dual interest in religion and philosophy.</p>
<p>You may be eligible for need based aid. It’s difficult to tell as assets are considered in addition to income. Once you have an idea of what your family’s estimated contribution will be you’ll know how to proceed.</p>
<p>I think that most academically rigorous colleges – small, medium and large – have decent philosophy and religion departments; however, I’ve also observed that the study of classical Christian theology and philosoply is less prominent than other areas. Suggest you take a look at course catalogs to get an idea of the direction of the department.</p>
<p>How about finding a school with good financial aid that would let you do a year at Oxford in England? Most colleges apply your financial aid to study abroad.
[Homepage</a> - University of Oxford](<a href=“http://www.ox.ac.uk/]Homepage”>http://www.ox.ac.uk/)</p>