<p>Vassar and Wesleyan would be good options if you wish to look in the northeast. The students at both are engaged and music and the arts are strong at both. I am not sure about the aid at Wesleyan but I know Vassar will at least consider the details of your financial situation if you bring it forward to them. Vassar is non competitive - very collaborative and has plenty of ‘environmental awareness’ also.</p>
<p>I’m looking for a lot of the same things your son is! Unfortunately, he’s not in a position to apply to any women’s colleges (my plan at the moment).
Hendrix and Wooster both sound like great options to look at. Bennington and Allegheny might be worth a look as well.</p>
<p>If you don’t already have a copy of Colleges That Change Lives, get one! A lot of the colleges that have been suggested already are in there. You can find some great matches for curious, passionate students like your son.</p>
<p>As a reach, Swarthmore? I think your son would love it. 32 ACT isn’t completely out of the ball game considering your son’s stellar grades, and Swarthmore likes a love of learning combined with plenty of passion. It’d be a toss-up, but that’s college admissions for you.</p>
<p>Vassar and Wesleyan are both co-ed. Vassar’s ratio is 45%/55% men/women. In addition to Vassar and Wesleyan, I also recommend Swarthmore. Take a look at all of them and hopefully you can visit becasue each has a different vibe even though they appear similar.</p>
<p>Did you run the net price caclulator on the Oberlin website? He’s very likely to get some merit aid there. My D’s stats were similar and she got a nice merit package.</p>
<p>Don’t know if he’d consider all male, but Wabash might be a possibility.</p>
<p>Cumulus, I’m not clear on reading through this thread whether you have totally eliminated need-based schools, or if your son will apply and see what happens. Many of the schools recommended don’t offer merit, period.</p>
<p>My understanding is that Grinnell is generous with merit. I’d also look at Emory, though it’s not an LAC.</p>
<p>If you’re okay with need based aid, I’d suggest Williams: excellent academics plus an elevated advantage for kids with music and sports interests. Very active, engaged student body; lots of music performance opportunities, even for non-majors.</p>
<p>I could definitely apply his Oberlin impressions to Williams as well.
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<p>He should submit a music supplement to his application, even if he doesn’t plan to major in music.</p>
<p>Earlham, Denison and Wooster all have good merit aid for students they want and I believe they’d want your S…</p>
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<p>Try this link: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/usercp.php[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/usercp.php</a></p>
<p>I agree with momrath - definitely submit a music supplement if music is important to you.</p>
<p>While this may not be exactly what you asked for, your S sounds like he might enjoy the University of Chicago. It’s a terrific school for the most intellectual of kids. And they do offer some merit.</p>
<p>I see that Eckerd is on your son’s list. If you would like any info, let me know. We have a son and daughter that loved Eckerd.</p>
<p>My DS is a rising sophmore at Hendrix and he loved it. Counting the days till he can go back…
He was an IB student, 4.3 weighted 14/488 class rank. He UW was kind of low. I think 3.4. 33 ACT. He got a great merit aid package. Of course it is still expensive. Especially considering the offer from our State school.<br>
But, no regrets. Hendrix is amazing. He loved Rhodes. They are similar and only 2.5 hours apart, but Rhodes is preppy and Greek and Hendrix is hipster This is according to the kids perception. Who knows…
PM me if you would like more information.</p>
<p>People have already suggested a lot of the schools I was going to (Lawrence, Eckerd, Bennington, Allegheny, St. Olaf…) I also suggest Gettysburg ¶ and Knox (IL).</p>
<p>Also, maybe Occidental? Not too sure about how preppy/Greek it is.</p>
<p>If you’re willing to come further east to New York, there’s Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Emory and Henry College. Maybe also Skidmore and Bard.</p>
<p>Syoung 2, I would love to know anything you can tell me about Wooster. He really liked it when he visited. Are the people friendly? Is everybody pretty involved and active in things? How do you like your classes? Anything would be great!</p>
<p>Sally305, I evidently don’t have enough posts to PM you, but would love to hear anything you could tell me about Hendrix. Can you PM me? 
Or putting it on here is fine, too.</p>
<p>Winnieroot and ECmotherx2 I would love to hear more about Eckerd. </p>
<p>Sorry, I can’t PM anybody! Basically, anybody with kids at any schools we’ve mentioned I’d love to hear what you have to say about them. PM me or put it on here. </p>
<p>Thank you all so much for all your great ideas. It was a huge help! Lots more colleges to look at.</p>
<p>Since there seem to be cost limitations along with likelihood that private LACs will not be affordable with just need-based financial aid…</p>
<p>Truman State, University of Minnesota - Morris, University of North Carolina - Asheville, and SUNY - Geneseo are public LACs with relatively low costs, even for out-of-state students. Truman State also has some automatic merit scholarships – see its net price calculator.</p>
<p>There may be some others in this list: [COPLAC</a> | Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges](<a href=“http://www.coplac.org/members/]COPLAC”>Members – COPLAC)</p>
<p>This is exactly what I am looking for. Thank you for the info</p>
<p>Cumulus-</p>
<p>I will just be starting at Wooster this fall, but I have gotten to know many of my future professors and classmates, so I’ll do my best to give you some info about Wooster.</p>
<p>The people are friendly. One of the great strengths of Wooster, imo, are the professors. They are well liked by students and very focused on teaching. On (college *******), Wooster is rated #1 (over all of the Ivies and similar schools) for “Professors Most Interested in Class” and “Smartest Professors”. Of course, rankings like this can be biased/unreliable, but I think there is a large element of truth to this. I have gotten to know a number of the professors already and I have been thoroughly impressed. For me, the great academics and professors were my main reason for choosing Wooster.</p>
<p>There are many activities happening on campus, and most students are involved in a variety of activities. It is not uncommon for athletes to also be involved in academic clubs. Some of the activities that I plan to get involved in include Moot Court, Model UN and Student Government. What kinds of activities does your daughter have an interest in? I may be able to give information more specific to her.</p>
<p>One important aspect of Wooster, and one that sets it apart from many other LACs is Independent Study. IS is a yearlong research project that all seniors undertake with the help of a faculty member. Students actually work one-on-one with a professor to complete a project of the student’s design. Many of the top IS’s are comparable in quality and length to some master’s theses. If you daughter has grad school aspirations, IS will be great preparation for any research oriented graduate degree. Additionally, there are many opportunities for undergraduate research even before senior year and IS.</p>
<p>My older brother is a great example of how Wooster can be a “College That Changes Lives”. When my brother entered Wooster about 10 years ago, he had no idea what he would major in. At Wooster, he connected with a geology professor during an intro class, and soon decided to major in geology. Now, 10 years later, he has a PhD from SUNY Buffalo in Geology, has been published as a first author in the major journal Science, and is now a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia. He credits this success to his time at Wooster.</p>
<p>If you have any more/specific questions about Wooster, let me know!</p>
<p>What about Bates College in Maine? Maybe too far, but seems very intellectually geared and has no greek system. I know they meet all calculated need, but I’m not sure about merit aid, but it might be worth looking into?</p>
<p>“Carleton is reachy. DD2 was waitlisted with a 4.0/#1 in class/34 ACT.” </p>
<p>Obviously, this was your experience, but analytically, how does one id a school as a reach? I wd think that a school is a reach if the applicants stats fall below one or more of the published stats of the previous yr’s accepted class profile, OR if the school has a low admit rate.</p>
<p>What counts as a sufficiently low admit rate to justify the tag of automatic reach for a school? Anything under a coin flip of 50 pct? Carleton’s is 20 pct, and yes, I say that this seems to justify the ‘reach’ moniker. Oberlin’s is 30 pct ish.</p>
<p>I suspect that the lower the admit rate, the less exceeding the stats will be predictive. As the admit rate climbs , starting at…something pct (low 20s?) … my impression is that stats become more of a predictor. </p>
<p>In your case, as well as the OP’s case, the apps were not only NOT below one or more of the stats ranges for carleton, they EXCEEDED the ranges. my recollection says that Carleton’s 75 th pctile is 33, and being the top student is way above the avg of course. Actually, I have notice the act ranges climbing , probably because more people are taking prep courses and when my first D looked at C it was 32.</p>
<p>So it looks like the OP can definitely fold in Oberlin and others of this caliber, too. Being a male at Oberlin would help, I bet.</p>
<p>OP - to get a (hopefully) somewhat of an accurate price estimate, you s/ grind through the Net Price Calculators that all school have now. This is newer on the scene and so I do not know how accurate they are , but I have heard some reports that they usually are pretty close as long as you fill out everything as accurately as you wd fill out the app.</p>