Schools like Sewanee, URichmond (actually many Southern schools) mentioned in post #37 won’t fit the OP’s desire for a more quirky student body and a preference for no greek life.
With respect to the fraternities and sororities, check each school’s campus life tab for its entry on http://www.collegedata.com , or the appropriate section of its Common Data Set to see what percentage of students join fraternities and sororities (however, not all schools where they are present report the percentage).
A student not interested in them may find their presence acceptable if they make up only a small part of the students, but more bothersome if they make up a majority of the students.
My impressions about Reed come from reading about it extensively, but also talking to my very close friends, in Portland, about its local reputation.
And they all say - very intense. Lots (and lots and lots) of pot smokers. Extremely liberal. Not as social (“fun”) as other LACs.
Did I mention, very intense. And lots of pot. We live in a state with legalized weed (CO), so not as big of a deal to us, but you might be surprised how prevalent it is in the West. If you care.
That pretty much sums it up. Do visit Puget Sound and Lewis & Clark while you’re out there! Lots of people love Willamette, but we hit it on a bad day. In the middle of summer, painfully hot, stuck in an ugly, airless room for info session, and Salem is a seriously boring town. But, again, many love it.
Good luck! Great list so far.
Also, I second Grinnell. D was waitlisted there.
Right about geeky/quirky vibe - in the South, Hendrix and Southwestern would work. Also Guilford in NC, nice Quaker school with plenty of geeky/quirky kids. Maybe Centre.
OK, gotcha on Reed, thanks. Not quite ready to toss it from the list, but I see the problem(s).
I’ve heard great things about Grinnell, but my concern was that it might be too far off the beaten track. That was one of issues with Kenyon, which was lovely, but struck us as both isolated and somewhat rarified (and also predominantly literary rather than sciencey). Someone mentioned Bowdoin being similar to Kenyon, which had not been my impression (certainly the location is quite different), so I’m curious to hear more about that.
And thanks everyone, this is all very helpful.
If you are out West and looking at Reed and Puget Sound, take a look at Whitman. Great academics, a nice student body, and not as “in the middle of nowhere” as you might think. As for Grinnell, I haven’t visited but know several very happy kids there. They weren’t sure of the location at first, but both enjoyed their visits and enrolled.
I think Bowdoin is extremely selective. A friend with good test scores, NHS,3.9 UW gpa, years of volunteer work rescuing marine mammals, a parent who died, one with other serious health issues, applied ED and was flat out rejected. Our HS college counselor put Reed in the same category as Swarthmore Caltech and U Chicago in terms of academic intensity. He said that some kids thrive in that environment. You either feel comfortable there or you dont not much middle ground.
@Earthmama68 / @NROTCgrad Thanks for the feedback on Ithaca. (Any third opinions? It’s arguably a safety, but I don’t know how they are with merit aid and if doesn’t have what the kid wants, it doesn’t matter.)
@momrath Interesting thought re Williams. I’d pretty much ruled it out based on high rank/selectivity, which led me to believe it would be too competitive and intense. Definitely a significant reach, but if we’re going to toss some reaches in the mix, they might as well be places where the kid would enjoy the vibe. (And, ahem, where parents would enjoy visiting … Williamstown is lovely.) @doschicos & @Epeemom sounds as if Haverford might fit that category too (reach but good fit). We did visit, but it was an off day early in the search and didn’t rise to the top .
@mommdc Can you tell me more about Allegheny? Seems as if the Greek scene there might be a pretty significant factor.
@ClaremontMom Harvey Mudd has been on our radar, but I do worry about size and intensity for my laid-back kid. Does membership in the consortium significantly mitigate the small size? How would you compare it to other schools in play in terms of intensity?
@MomofM In your opinion, how does Carnegie Mellon rank in intensity relative to, say, Case, Rice and UofR? They all seem to me sort of ringers on this LAC list, but are also attractive to my kid, so we’re not ruling them out since a lot can change in a year.
@ucbalumnus Thanks for the very useful information on assessing the course catalog. Also re fraternities. In some respects, some modest fraternity presence is not a bad thing, in that it rounds out the student population. Just trying to avoid a dominant scene.
@ColdinMinny Trinity University is a new one for us. Wasn’t particularly focused on TX, but will check it out.
@julliet The schools that look like ringers on this list are just an alternate category that also appeals to our kid. Keeping them in the mix as tastes evolve. (Frankly I think one of the LACs will prove the answer, but it’s too early to call that.) UVM is probably the biggest ringer in the mix – there for vibe, mostly, plus kid likes VT. And yes, we have a several in-state schools in mind, but they don’t really match up with the broader search at this point so didn’t seem relevant in expressing the kid’s taste to date. Thanks for the note about Willamette/Denison Greek scene – will look into that. Initial impressions from afar of Colgate, Hamilton, Vassar & Skidmore didn’t make them seem like matches (Colgate in particular seems like the anti-quirk), but I’m interested in any second opinions.
@Sue22 Yes, we definitely try to cluster visits. Just trying to figure out if ANY of the Maine schools add something notable enough to the existing list to make the visit at all. (Apart from the fact that Maine its.
@4kids4colleges I’ll check out the schools you mentioned, thanks.
@MamaBear16 Whitman just seems like a schlep from the northeastI don’t mind my kid being a flight away, but a flight and then a long drive (that’s my perception anyway - perhaps I’m wrong) seems like more distance than we want.
Again, thanks all. This is very useful.
FWIW, Grinnell was the one school my S applied to that he had never visited beforehand. He did ask for an alumni interview to show interest, though. He visited but did not apply to Kenyon, which – in my opinion at least – felt the most isolated of any school we visited. Grinnellians are unpretentious, but serious about their work. The school is strong in the sciences, and it has a number of programs and opportunities that seek to connect what students are learning to real world opportunities. It is an environment where intellectual exchange and exploration thrives, but there is no “rarefied” feel to the place or to the people who populate it. At least, that’s been my personal experience as a parent.
Grinnell is two blocks from the town center. While life is campus-centric, the students do go into town from time to time to eat or get food (some of the restaurants are really good) and the stores supply what students need (but if a student is looking for fun shopping besides that, it is geared more to the local community).
Life in any (or most) LAC is going to be campus-centric. If your son wanted an outdoor environment that provides what only mountains can offer, for example, then I would say don’t consider it. but if that’s not a concern, then just based on your posts, I hope you’ll keep it as a possibility.
Just as background: My daughter is at Scripps (so I know a lot about the consortium and how it works) and takes a couple classes at HMC. My son has had his eye on HMC for a couple years so we’ve had a lot of opportunities to visit and meet people and do our homework. He’ll start there in the fall, so my knowledge is NOT from his personal experience (yet!).
I can’t compare since I don’t know the other schools, plus I guess I’m not sure everyone has the same definition of “intense”. But if your kid can get into Harvey Mudd (i.e. has the grades and test scores etc.) then he’s already pretty intense – at least in how I mean it. When I say intense I’m talking about a very rigorous curriculum — lots of hard work. On the flip side, from everything I’ve learned they have a very collaborative approach. The students are not competitive(competitive being another possible definition of “intense”). And they have a lot of fun! So they are the “work hard, play hard” mentality. Despite everything I’ve heard about how rigorous and difficult it is, they still manage to have time to do extra-curriculars…so there is life outside the classroom.
As for the small size…Yes, the consortium mitigates that. While each school has it’s on flavor - architecture, landscape, focus – and it’s own admissions, finances, administration etc. they share major resources such as campus security, library, bookstore (though each may have their own smaller student store and/or library), health clinic, religious center etc. They also have many clubs and organizations that include students from all the “5 C’s”. They can eat at any dining hall on each campus (total of 7 dining halls). And the really great part is they can take classes at any of the campuses. My daughter has taken at least one class from 4 of the campus’s so far. Their registration system is one shared system so their is no hassle is registering for a class on another campus. There are some restrictions such as how many total you can take, but I think it’s pretty generous, and some classes limit the number of students they’ll take from another school, but in general it’s pretty open and easy.
But the consortium isn’t “too big”. And that’s what I love about sending my kids there. There is a personal touch and the professors care about teaching. My daughter has had some amazing teachers and an opportunity to get to know them. She spends lots of time in their office or emailing them to get the help she needs. And they are always willing to work around her schedule if she can’t make it to their office hours.
@porcupine98, sorry I’m not familiar with Allegheny personally, but have heard good things about it, wanted to mention it as another option in PA. Seems like it has all the majors/minors your son might want and music.
Maybe you could visit?
Harvey Mudd is seriously intense. The first year, they don’t give the kids grades, it’s just pass/fail which does help as far as pressure. But at least in my day, HMC kids were very intense. You don’t get into Harvey Mudd without an 800 on your math SAT and B/C level Calculus. Also quirky, creative, super geeky and lots of fun (they rode unicycles, flew airplanes, played music, rewired their dorms for fun)! (I am a CMC alum although I actually majored at Pomona and a good friend of mine is now the president of Scripps College so I’m fairly knowledgeable about the consortium).
My older daughter wants to apply ED to Carleton; we visited it in January and she really loved it. Other schools of interest are (in no particular order) Grinnell, Middlebury, Bryn Mawr/Haverford, Mt. Holyoke, and Oberlin (she visited, but didn’t love it). I want her to look at Scripps and Whitman but she’s concerned about going so far away (we live in upstate NY about 30 min. from Ithaca). Schools we haven’t considered but maybe should are Skidmore, Bowdoin, and Vassar. Wooster would be a good “safety” school for her (I hate the term safety school). Two really out-of-the box schools I want my daughter to consider are Warren Wilson College and College of the Atlantic. She’s intrigued by the laid back quirkiness at both schools and the hands on science opportunities (she wants to be a veterinarian and she’s also very interested in geology/ecology/biology/environmental science). But she wants to be pushed intellectually and academically by her peers and she’s unsure whether that would happen in those programs. Also, they are really small schools and they don’t offer as generous need based aid. We are on the highest end of households that might qualify for aid.
My adult daughter teaches at Allegheny and really enjoys it. She has been impressed by the academic ability of the students. I remember touring the school back in the dark ages when I was applying to colleges, but didn’t apply because at the time the application required an “autobiography”. I know Allegheny has Greek organizations but don’t know how prevalent they are in the social scene. I understand the desire to avoid schools with a Greek-heavy presence. I ended up at Bucknell and though I found a nice group of non-Greek friends, I would have preferred a college without fraternities/sororities.
Has anyone mentioned New College of Florida? Quirky for sure, great scholarships.
Sorry, I don’t know much about the other colleges you asked me about, although my friend’s son goes to Rice (but not for science) and is a pretty “chill” guy. My son has a few friends at Carnegie-Mellon so I texted him to ask about the culture and stress levels and his immediate reply was, “Stress culture.” Then, "Computer Science people and theater people are condescending toward liberal arts people. " However, when I asked him about science, he thought “science should be fine.” Now he goes to Wesleyan U and loves it and it is not particularly high stress in terms of competition among students, but, certainly, in terms of their expectations for themselves (senior thesis, for example) and he seems to have a lot of writing assignments; however, he takes a lot of social science courses and only took whatever science he needed to fulfill distribution requirements.
We are also considering Wooster, Centre college and Kalamazoo for my daughter who want to major in biochemistry. We are leaning toward Centre because it is less expensive and higher ranked.
Looking through many of the suggestions, there are quite a few LAC’s that have excellent science opportunities. I’ll mention Earlham because I know it well. No Greeks, cooperative rather than competitive atmosphere, very high in rankings of students continuing on to PhD. In general, midwestern colleges might be good in terms of avoiding overly competitive environments.
@lananh, Centre is one of my D’s top choices. They are flying her out for accepted students day this weekend. We have been so impressed by this school. And not only is it less expensive to begin with, but they offer excellent merit aid. Hoping she will choose Centre! Good luck to you.
I’m a Reed student who doesn’t smoke marijuana and has plenty of fun with friends, which seems to contradict both of your third-hand impressions.
(Reed’s local reputation, furthermore, tends to be based on outdated stereotypes and resentment over the fact it doesn’t accept many students from Oregon.)