I would take a serious look at Denison. It’s an incredible school with great academics. And they are also very generous with merit aid. My daughter is finishing up sophomore year and is incredibly happy there. Also as a lucky strike extra it’s only 30 minutes from Columbus.
Macalester has 2 Environmental Studies courses about the Arctic. They’re the only college on the list that has any Environmental Science courses about the Arctic. For a student with an interest in the Arctic, this seems to be a nice feature.
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Yes, Mac also has glacier specialists on the Geology faculty, and offers research trips to Glacier National Park (which I know is not the arctic but the science still seems relevant). The Keck Geology Consortium is based at Macalester - co-directors are from Mac and Carleton.
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Show Colby the Carleton or Kenyon offer, ask them to review explaining you may have made a mistake somewhere filling out the Profile for Colby since the Colby offer is an outlier compared to other offers (don’t say you’re negotiating, don’t say they made a mistake).
MIP750 Thank you! I appreciate your one-word descriptors too!
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Thank you aquapt and Bill_Marsh. I did not know about those specifics. Definitely a factor.
We started down this path but realized they are just going to recalculate again next year and we’d start again. D is (hopefully if she can get her residence permit) taking a gap year to …yup…travel to the Arctic.
This is a good tip for others out there…W and L…but I am out of children after this one. Also, I am not sure which college W & L is…Washington & Lee is my guess…
Thanks for all your help!
Yes - I’m not saying fit wise it’s right - it’s obviously different politically than the rest - although changing - it’s right now a real life social justice experiment as kids protest the school name.
I only point it out because it’s strong - and if you’re one of the lucky ones - free - and who can say no to that?? My daughter wasn’t one of the lucky ones - she’s the $81K to attend one.
Tsbna44 thank you - that adds some clarity.
Carleton for $55k is unbeatable IMO. It’s one of the top LACs in the country and attracts intellectually curious kids who still know how to have fun and get their studies done too. I’d choose it in a heartbeat over the others. If it’s not arty enough for your child though, I’d choose Kenyon, which has that creative bent she might like and also has excellent professors. There is no bad choice here though. I do think Carleton is the clear and best choice, money or not.
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It’s hard to miss your strong opinion on Carleton over the other choices. For perspective, would you please share how many times you have visited Carleton?
A close friend has a son (who is brilliant - NMF, perfect grades and ACT score - but also a wonderful, down-to-Earth kid) at Carleton and he LOVES it. Academically challenging with unpretentious, interesting kids. He says there are a high number of kids whose parents teach at selective universities and chose Carleton for those reasons. He had a lot of other options, but he decided on Carleton sight unseen and hasn’t looked back.
When we visited just before the pandemic, my D was impressed with the science facilities and - even though it’s a small thing - the writing on the walls in the dorm she toured. Students had written quotes, musings, and quirky, intellectual drawings all over the wall in one of the hallways, and she immediately felt like she would fit in there. It’s a cool school.
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Trying to put aside my obvious affinity for Carleton – I’m an alum and our daughter is a Carleton '20 grad – I would opt for Carleton.
Note that Laurence M. Gould, Carleton geology prof and then Carleton president 1945- 1961, was second in command on Admiral Perry’s 1929 Antarctica expedition. Sure, this might seem ancient history for a student born in 2003, but Gould’s influence continues. Geology is one of Carleton’s many strong academic departments.
Not stuffy, egalitarian in outlook and personal, Carleton is a good choice for many highly- capable students.
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None. My daughter spent three weeks there. I’m going with Carleton’s rep over the years I have been on CC, and other sources. Attending Carleton at that price is hard to beat. From what the OP says about her child, I think Carleton or Kenyon are the best choices. As you know, I am a fan of Kenyon too.
Does anyone consider the fact that Macalester College offers the only courses in the student’s primary focus area (2 Environmental Studies courses on the Arctic) ? (As noted above by poster @Bill_Marsh.)
Although 2 courses may not seem like enough to eliminate the other options, 2 courses can make a difference in one’s professional life especially in light of the fact that the student would have access to at least one professor with a strong interest & expertise in that particular subject area.
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This student should email the Mac professor, share her interest in the Arctic, what she’s going to do there next year and ask how it’d fit in with his/her (prof’s) research.
Then email the professors at Carleton and Kenyon, and share her research interest, see if anyone is working on something related to that.
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I have a daughter who graduated from Kenyon in 2020. She LOVED it. All that some of you are saying about Carleton match her experience with professors, peers and intellectual life at Kenyon. She had an amazing four years.
As for the rural nature of the location, this to her was a plus. She and her friends made multiple trips to Columbus and Cleveland. In addition she did a few longer trips to visit some interesting historical sites in Indiana. She even traveled to Standing Rock to help with the Dakota Access Pipeline protests with a group from Kenyon. These are things she could not have done had she chosen a school closer to her New England home.
I post this simply to assist others in understanding that although Carleton I’m sure is wonderful and fits all the comments shared by other posters, so does Kenyon. No student should feel they have given up something special by choosing Kenyon over Carleton. Reasons for making this choice can be quite personal. For my daughter a desire to experience a new region of the country eliminated serious consideration of New England schools. I suggested Carleton several times, but she wanted to be in a warmer climate.
For this OP, I’d carefully consider available academic programs. If Arctic studies and environmental studies are of great interest, then perhaps the school that appears strongest in these areas makes the most sense.
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Contacting the Macalester professor would be a good idea to ask if those classes will be offered in the next few years - sometimes courses are on the books but aren’t offered regularly.
It might be helpful if someone posted the course titles available at Macalester in Arctic studies. For example, BIOL 362 (Arctic Ecology) appears in the “archived” listings, and would not represent a reliable indicator of currently available courses.