<p>My son is looking into "environmentally friendly" schools.
Those where:
Dining: recycles, composts, offers organic food
Dorms: ecofriendly- alt energy etc.
Campus Life: yoga, theater, music (jazz)
Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Guitarmom, welcome to the forum!</p>
<p>I think to get a good list of schools you need to provide a little more information. What grade is he in now? What does he want to major in, or what are his interests? What size schools? What geographical area? How are his stats (grades, test scores)? Are you looking for financial aid, merit money, or can you pay full price ($45k/year?) anywhere?</p>
<p>Most colleges are way more environmentally aware than any other institutions in the US. In the long run other factors are likely to make a larger impact on where he ends up.</p>
<p>Warren Wilson College in North Carolina</p>
<p><a href="http://greenliving.conncoll.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://greenliving.conncoll.edu/</a></p>
<p>also check out the list of "colleges with a conscience"
<a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/conscience/%5B/url%5D">http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/conscience/</a></p>
<p>i also suggest looking at the very liberal colleges to find 'green' schools, such as wesleyan, oberlin, hampshire, etc.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh, PA) has one green dorm and quite a few green certified buildings. I believe that all new construction on campus will be green. There are recycling bins on every floor of the dorms and I think there are more recycling cans than garbage cans on campus. There's even a room in the university center that just has a bunch of containers for more exotic recyleables.</p>
<p>While there are no organic food options on campus, I believe that there is a co-op. Freshmen can live in apartments close to campus and cook their own food, but I don't know how easy it is to get organic food Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>Great fine arts programs, so plenty of performances to attend. There's a non-majors theatre group that's fairly active, and yoga classes are $3, I think, unless you take them for credit (then they're free).</p>
<p>Look at College of the Atlantic in Maine and Prescott College in Arizona, Evergreen State in Washington. I don't have personal knowledge of any of these, but that's where I'd start my search. Even Yale has a green college, might have its own garden/organic veggies at meals. Also look at Deep Springs.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Most guides to colleges don't index schools by farming opportunities, so here's The New Farm's preliminary guide to farms on campus. The list is arranged regionally; each entry includes the name of the farm, year founded, acres in cultivation, primary markets, and web address if available. We've focused here on campus farms that provide substantial, hands-on, small-scale farming experience to undergraduate and graduate students; many also offer programs for children and the general public.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I realize you werent looking for agricultural programs, but the schools that do have organic farms are more likely to have other healthy activies out and around campus.</p>
<p>UC Davis - not only the school, but whole town is given over to granola-think. Recycling, solar energy, riding bikes, etc. are all huge there. I think it has the highest percentage use of solar energy of any city in the US.</p>
<p>Here's an interesting related article:</p>
<p>Oberlin fits some of your criteria -- mostly about the dining and recycling.</p>
<p>Thanks all for the quick responses. I am new to the forum and I believe it will be a valuable resource as my son begins his college search.</p>
<p>My son is entering his junior year. He is an honors student top 10% of his class in a small NH High school. He wil be taking PSATs, SATs, ACTs this year. (He scored very well on PSATs in Soph year).</p>
<p>He plans to major in English (Literature) and Music (possibly as a minor or double major).</p>
<p>Has many academic and music ECs, but he is not a "sports kind of guy" which I know can be a drawback.</p>
<p>He spent 3 weeks last summer at Brown taking a Classical Literature course which he loved. He liked Brown for its academics and diversity, but he wasn't thrilled with Providence.</p>
<p>We have toured, Williams, Bates, Bowdoin and plan to visit Wesleyan and Bennington (safety). We don't know much about schools outside of New England; Oberlin is one we are considering. Schools with an environmental/social conscience are impt in the selection process.</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>And YES, we will be applying for Fin. Aid.</p>
<p>guitarmom:</p>
<p>It sounds like your son has great stats -- so that's good! I do not think not being a "sports kind of guy" matters one bit (that from a mother with two non-sports guys).</p>
<p>For starters, I'd strongly urge you to fill out the financial aid calculator. </p>
<p>As you probably know, there is a big difference between applying for aid and getting any! Also there is usually a big discrepancy between what the financial aid process thinks you can afford (called EFC) and what you actually can afford. </p>
<p>Many people on here try to include several financial safeties (either schools that you can afford without aid, or schools where your kid will almost certainly get merit money, or, better yet, a combination of those) in their kid's applications, in addition to the usual reaches, matches, etc.</p>
<p>Of course, that means it is super important to include those schools on your tours!</p>
<p>If you think you are going to need merit money, check out the Master Lists on the top of the parent's forum that are called "Master List of Merit Awards" and "Schools Known for good Merit Awards" or something like that.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the reality for most families is that while their kid's dream school may be X they can only afford Y or Z. So the key is to try to make sure your kid doesn't fall in love with X, but, rather, knows there are many great options out there.</p>
<hr>
<p>My son found a great scholarship and a solid music program and lots of other good stuff at Denison Univeristy in Ohio. Here is my "report" on it:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=159719%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=159719</a></p>
<p>They have a good Environmental Studies Dept (my son even worked at the recycling center as part of one of his Env. Stud. classes).</p>
<p>Here is the greenest thing I know about it:
<a href="http://www.denison.edu/student-orgs/homestead/%5B/url%5D">http://www.denison.edu/student-orgs/homestead/</a>
(Unfortunately, that web site is missing all its photos -- you'd really have to see the place to believe it...It's quite, well, very primitive, and very green.)</p>
<p>You might want to take a look at Evergreen State in Washington. It has this sort of reputation, and it is famous for its hands-on learning approach.</p>
<p>If he's willing to consider the midwest, take a look at St. Olaf.
<a href="http://www.stolaf.edu/green/%5B/url%5D">http://www.stolaf.edu/green/</a> Green and great for music, and probable merit aid.</p>
<p>IMO, athletics is a plus at Williams and Bowdoin, so just be a bit careful to include an additional strong match on your list to make sure of good options in April.</p>
<p>Definately look at Oberlin - sounds like a very good fit all around.</p>
<p>Case is doing a fair amount of green stuff in an engineering slant, with their new residential buildings, with Squire Vallee View farm. Case also collaborates with Cleveland Institute of Music in their music degree programs. Case is <em>not</em> a major league granola kind of a place, but they are cultivating humanities admits. It would be easy enough to tour Case if you are also visiting Oberlin.</p>
<p>Worth a look, music conservatory and environmental studies and activities as below:</p>
<p>If your son liked Brown, he might like Vassar very much - as they get a lot of cross-applicants. They actually have an Environmental Studies program in which you can concentrate in another field (i.e. English, History, etc.) This doesn't sound like what your son necessarily wants, but as noted by a poster above, a school that offers such a program may have an environmental/social conscience. It is not a very "athletic oriented" school, but the academics and diversity are there. </p>
<p>Here are a couple of quick facts about the program: (and as an aside, I second the Oberlin idea ...)</p>
<p>Vassar's 280-acre ecological preserve and its field station, built in 1995 for the study of natural history, ecology, botany, and geology.</p>
<p>The college's location in the Hudson River Valley, one of the world's great watersheds, and proximity to the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains. </p>
<p>Opportunities for urban ecology study in New York City, an hour-and-a-half from campus, and in association with local and regional organizations such as the Vassar-founded Poughkeepsie Institute. </p>
<p>Nearby ecological and environmental institutes such as the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook and the Daniel Smiley Research Center in the Mohonk Wilderness Preserve (only 40 minutes from Vassar), as well as the Hudson Valley's many conservation and preservation organizations, such as Clearwater, Inc., and Scenic Hudson. </p>
<p>Frequent lectures by nationally and internationally known environmental thinkers, working in a variety of different disciplines in the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the arts and humanities. </p>
<p>The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center and its Magoon collection, a gift from the college's founder Matthew Vassar, which includes many Hudson River School landscape paintings illuminating the complex relationship between nature and culture in our historic region. </p>
<p>Also, here is their Vassar Greens page which I just stumbled upon:</p>
<p><a href="http://vsa.vassar.edu/%7Egreens/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://vsa.vassar.edu/~greens/index.html</a></p>
<p>This might sound kind of strange, but MIT is actually pretty green. They have several environmental initiatives; a lot of environmental engineering stuff, Sea Grant, Terrascope program, and the Earth Systems initiative. </p>
<p>I am very interested in environmental science, especially environmental biology and ecology. I will attend MIT this fall...</p>
<p>Here's a useful link:
<a href="http://web.mit.edu/environment/%5B/url%5D">http://web.mit.edu/environment/</a></p>
<p>Check out Green Mountain College in Vermont (<a href="http://www.greenmtn.edu/)%5B/url%5D">http://www.greenmtn.edu/)</a>. It's known to be very environment-conscious (even lets students grow their own food if they want to, I believe) and offers some very appealing merit aid.</p>