As for Williams, their math department is outstanding – as good or better than any LAC (Swarthmore’s also great, but very different vibe than Williams).
" Likes small little college towns a lot. Needs good options for doing research. And good higher level math, "
Like others have said, it may be hard to find something that matches a lot of what you’re son is looking for. small college towns would favor LACs, research would favor RUs, high-level math you’d have to do further research on. Amherst and Cal Tech would be typical suggestions, maybe find out colleges are similar to them on websites, Fiske etc…
Reed would check off a lot of his criteria. Portland isn’t a small college town but Reed is tucked away in a leafy residential corner of the city and is certainly green. The math department is stellar and they do have computer science but not a traditional engineering department. They have a 3-2 engineering program with Caltech. The hard sciences are top notch and the physics department has the only nuclear reactor in the country maintained by undergrads. Reed has no varsity sports so no athletes, but a huge variety of outdoorsy club sports like sailing and rugby. It’s a very eclectic place.
As for water you can’t see across. The Pacific Ocean is an hour west. Portland is a river city located at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette. So there is a lot of boating.
Great write up on the Pac NW! UBC is also a very picturesque campus, on a peninsula surrounded by the Pacific ocean, with snow covered mountains in the distance. Also has beaches. Very large student body, though, and not really close to a LAC vibe.
UNC and Duke are amazing universities and great campuses.
But forested or near water are not what I recall imho.
Warmer weather yes. Dry and arid no. No cornfields.
So 3 out of the 5 requirements met.
So they’d be on my list but not really the vibe you describe.
Thanks for all the replies, everyone! We have a good bit of research work ahead of us. I know some of these requirements or preferences seem outlandish. And many of us seem to be looking for that perfect school. He won’t find everything he wants or thinks he wants. But I truly believe that kids can thrive at lots of different schools. And realistically, finances may trump all else as we head into next winter.
Since the University of British Columbia has been mentioned:
The University of Victoria in British Columbia may be a school to consider. Certainly has water & tuition should be just about $12,000 US per academic year if OP’s son receives an annual $10,000 CDN merit scholarship. (Housing, food, books & transportation would be additional expenses.)
I do not know about math dept. & academics. but Victoria is beautiful & Vancouver Island is spectacular.
Have you run Net Price Calculators for a number of the private schools? Though some of these LACs guarantee to meet full need, they define that need. Many also do not offer merit scholarships. You should nail down what you are willing to pay and what various colleges define as your expected contribution. If Financial aid numbers at some of these private schools look doable, they are good possibilities. But if, say Amherst’s NPC says you should be paying $60k a year and the budget is $30k, the school is not going to make up the difference. A school like Rollins , Stetson,Eckerd to name some, might, as they give out hefty merit money.
Hamilton’s wooded areas received New York Times coverage for the national champion spruce in a corner of its 1350-acre campus. The article below is old, but the tree remains a focal point of campus.
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/26/nyregion/new-york-has-top-norway-spruce.html
I have 3 kids who went to LACs: Wesleyan, St Olaf and the youngest at Dartmouth. I’ll give some perspective on those 2 schools. I think for getting vibe of a school, watching YouTube channels by the school and students at the school is really helpful.
With #2 kid (St Olaf), I did a bunch of research on STEM at LACs and collected a variety of data on that (because I am a data scientist). I posted that here:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1883153-data-comparing-liberal-arts-colleges-in-the-sciences-p1.html
Scroll through the pages as there is a variety of datasets that quantify strength in STEM in different ways.
2 kid was really focused on math (and ended up graduating double math-physics) and wanted a LAC in a cold place outside the PNW, preferably with mountains but strength in math was most important. She applied to Williams, Bowdoin, Carlton, St Olaf, Bates, and Colorado College (for LACs). Williams and St Olaf were the strongest in math and St Olaf had a music culture that she really liked (though didn't participate in college). She ended up at St Olaf and had a great experience there. The math department is very large and very strong. They rival much larger public research universities for math grads and future PhDs (note someone else posted a list of top LACs for math and the same can be said for those too). St Olaf is nowhere near the mountains but it definitely checked off the COLD box!! #1 had high stats and got a good 4-yr merit scholarship which was also nice.
3 kid also wanted LAC feel but not so small. He was strong in math also (MV senior year; various math comp awards) but was not focused on math like #2, rather STEM in general. He wanted a very strong outdoor culture and wanted to be in a rural environment with a winter season (we discovered this during touring). He also wanted strong STEM but didn't want a "tech" school (we discovered after visiting MIT, Harvey Mudd, and RPI). He was really attracted to the Ivies, another thing we discovered on touring. And he really wanted a strong, sense of community. I had no connection to Dartmouth, but every Dartmouth alum I knew in the PNW (where we live) was just like #3: an nature boy/girl with a strong academic/creative side. The Animal House reputation gave me pause (#3 was not aware of that, until much later) but I'd heard that fraternities are different at Dartmouth.
Anyhow we visited Dartmouth and #3 fell in love. The tour guide was like a female version of him: heavy into the Outing Club, had been a 4-yr varsity athlete but did club sports at Dartmouth, and neurobio major. She was also a sorority president though she’d had had no intention of even going Greek and after hearing that he was open minded to Greek life. He did end up applying ED there and did get some financial aid. His safety was Univ of Vermont, which has a similar outdoorsy vibe. I forget all the other schools on his list. He wanted something a little bigger than Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin, so those weren’t there. Univ of WA was also on the list, and I expect that’s where he would have ended up if he hadn’t gotten into one of his reaches. Bigger than he wanted, far too close to home, but strong depts in his area of interest and a big outdoor culture.
For a kid into the outdoors, Dartmouth has been heaven. Mountains, the river on campus with the big canoe/kayak club, xc skiing on campus, the cabins. The outdoor community on campus is huge, varied and storied. Greek life is big, but you can’t join til sophomore year. #3 got into a LLC (like a theme house) on international relations and so has been more removed from the party crowd. Though, ah, that is a thing at Dartmouth, and which #3 enjoys. But most of his socializing is with the Outing Club sub-clubs–meetings, trips, training w rock-climbing and xc-ski racing clubs, work-parties and their social gatherings. Academically it’s been great (and hard) and he started research in the bio dept, his second qtr. The number of political and government speakers has been a big plus for him. Though he’s going into STEM (not sure what), he’s really enjoyed the speaker line-ups.
That said, this wouldn’t have been a good school for #1 (Wesleyan) or #2 (St Olaf). For #1, Dartmouth’s rural setting would have felt very claustrophobic. #2 is much more introverted and that the social scene is dominated by the Greek scene would have irritated her. At St Olaf, the social life is dominated by music and singing (She said it was like living 4 years on the set of a musical). Quite different vibe. On the other hand, #2 would have gone stir-crazy at St Olaf, without weekly hiking, white-water kayaking, rock-climbing, ice-climbing, skiing and the huge quarterly community events (with bands, parties, big and small parties).
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I would second considering Rice. I have a niece who went there undergrad and loved it. She went on to get her Phd in math (number theory) and was definitely on the laid back side of the spectrum
It might be worth checking out Vassar and running their NPC. The campus is beautiful and it is located near the Hudson River Valley with access to hiking, water etc. The town isn’t so great but the little village that is directly adjacent to campus is enjoyed by the students. Intellectual, collaborative, not very sporty and not a big party atmosphere. Overall top liberal arts education but not sure about the math offerings. Great financial aid.
I haven’t read all of the comments, but your son sounds perfect for one school already mentioned. I will underline it now. University of Puget sound – any sports are outdoorsie things like kayaking and hiking in the beautiful environment. It’s near a bay that he can see across. It’s got a pretty nice vibe (full disclosure, one of my kids is currently considering this school and shares almost the exact same list, minus the water you can see across–my child doesn’t smoke or drink alcohol and finds UPS top of the list currently. St. Olaf is second choice currently.) Academically the school is on par with Connecticut College which is no slouch.
@Zinnia203 I’ve read this thread with interest bc our kids sound somewhat similar. Mine is more humanities than STEM but otherwise like yours. I’m curious where your son ended up applying. We have largely finished the app process but have room for 1-2 more schools.
Same here
HI Zinnia,
I was wondering how your son’s process is going.