Help me lower my (very long) list!

College Search & Selection
1

I’m a transfer student looking at colleges for next year, and am having eliminating colleges on my list.

I’m interested in -

  • liberal colleges with a decent lgbt population
  • more of a “hipster” vibe than frat/athletic feel
  • in/or near a city but with more of a contained campus (bonus if it’s near home - MN)
  • very interested in psychology and arts (bonus if they offer graphic design)
  • medium-sized school is ideal
  • option to live off campus or single dorm
  • cost isn’t much of a concern

Stats:
1800 on the old sat
(roughly) a 3.8 gpa
went to a college prep school if that makes a difference?
AP art history (3) and AP lit (3)
good recs and strong essays

The (never-ending) list:

American University
Augsburg
Boston University
Brandeis University
Clark University
Conneticut College
Emerson
Evergreen University
Fordham University
Goucher
Illinois Wesleyan
Ithaca
Lafayette
Lawrence University (not into the size, but love the strong programs)
Lehigh University
Lewis and Clark
Loyola chicago
Macalester (definitely applying)
Northeastern University
Reed
Skidmore
Syracuse
The New School
Trinity College
UNC Asheville
University of Michigan
University of Oregon
University of Pittsburg
University of Puget Sound
University of Richmond
University of Rochester
Vassar
University of Vermont
Virginia Commonwealth University
University of Washington
Williamette University

Any that seem out of place or I can easily knock off?? I love the idea of Swarthmore and Washington Uni in St. Louis but I feel I will take those off because their so selective… Thanks for any advice (:

2

When you say that cost is not much of a concern, does that mean that your parents are willing to pay $65,000 or more per year? Have you used the NPC’s and shown the number to your parents?

3

@twogirls They don’t want me to take any off because of cost. I’m fortunately pretty well off and combined with financial aid, they don’t seem too worried about cost if it’s the right fit for me?

4

Northeastern is in the city, and I wouldn’t consider it a contained campus. Same with Boston U, but Boston U is a little more “campus-like”. So if you are looking for an actual campus feel, I would knock these two off the list.

5

These are very different schools.

  1. How did you build the list?
  2. How many of these (or other) schools have you visited and what did you think?

A spreadsheet with info important to you (size, diversity, etc. etc.) will serve you well, but some answers to the above will help those who want to try to give you a quick off-the-cuff take.

6

Unfortunately, I’ve only visited Evergreen and Macalester. I really enjoyed Macalester campus and surrounding area, plus the classes are very interesting. I didn’t get a great feeling for dorms unfortunately, but I’m definitely applying there because I live in MN and it’s so close + an overall great school. As for Evergreen, I honestly don’t remember much about it, I visited like two years ago… I wasn’t super into the campus, but I don’t recall loads else.

7

Syracuse and Lehigh are heavy Greek.

8

You won’t qualify for FA if you are well off.

Based on your criteria I think you may like UNC-A, Ithaca College, the U of Vermont, Reed (?)

Northeastern has a contained campus, as does Pitt. BU does not.

Some schools are reaches: Northeastern, U of Michigan… possibly others but I am not sure

Syracuse and Lehigh may not be a good fit- sports, Greek

9

Super quick take, mostly on basis of hipster vs. fratty vibe. Can’t speak to programs, how contained the campus is, or whether it’s close enough to a city for your purposes.

KEEP FOR NOW

Clark University
Goucher
Ithaca
Lawrence University
Lewis and Clark
Macalester
Reed
Skidmore
University of Puget Sound
University of Vermont
Williamette University

DROP.

Probably too much of a reach…
-Vassar
-University of Michigan

Probably too non-traditional…
-Evergreen University
-The New School

Probably too strong a religious affliliation for your wishes
-Loyola chicago
-Fordham University

Probably too sporty/fratty
-Lafayette
-Lehigh University
-Syracuse
-Trinity College

TBD / No info or no strong opinion on suitability

American University
Augsburg
Boston University
Brandeis University
Connecticut College
Emerson
llinois Wesleyan
Northeastern University
UNC Asheville
University of Oregon
University of Pittsburgh
University of Richmond
University of Rochester
Virginia Commonwealth University
University of Washington

10

I would drop Lehigh and Lafayette.

11

If you find Lawrence too small, I think you might find Lewis and Clark, Willamette, and several other LAC too small. I think Reed is a big reach.

12

Reed’s hard to predict, I think, but it’s pretty intense once you’re there. Interested that you “love the idea” of both Swarthmore and WUSTL. They are very different schools.

13

Wow, lots of information, thanks everyone!

I do have a spreadsheet with all these schools and some important categories to me. I built it mostly by looking at LAC lists and colleges with strong psych/art programs. In the past, I applied (and was accepted to) Bennington, Champlain, Evergreen, Goucher, SCAD, Wagner, Wheaton (MA) and UofRedlands. I ultimately went with the Johnston center at the UofRedlands, but it definitely was not the right fit for me. I hope this gives a little more information?

@porcupine98 I’ll definitely take a quick look again at the ones you mentioned on dropping, but I think you are probably right with dropping most of those. I think I kept many of them on there for size honestly. As for Swarthmore and WUSTL, they are both very far reaches so I don’t think they will stay on. Taking a second look at Swarthmore, it looks a little too stressful for me. I guess I really enjoy WUSTL’s location, the vibe I get from reading about it, the size, as well as the fact that they offer lots of art programs and psychology. Thanks!

An overall question - what is an “ideal” number of schools to have on a list?

14

@AlwaysLearn You have mixed up Northeastern and BU campus wise.

15

What don’t you like about Redlands? That will help.

There’s no ideal number. But I wouldn’t go much over a dozen. Too much paperwork.

16

I have trouble putting my finger on it. But definitely the location - I felt like everything was pretty far away (at least without a car) and it was way too hot for me! I also just didn’t find “my people”, I guess? It was very hard to meet people, especially outside of the Johnston Center because it felt very separate from the rest. I’m also typically very introverted and I think that when everyone was able to form friendships or groups, it just made it harder for me to connect with others.

I think a big part of it was me not being completely ready for college, for various reasons, which affected much of my experience. Academics wise, I didn’t feel super challenged but I can’t say too much for that because it may have gotten much harder later.

17

I know a little about Macalester, Lawrence, Willamette, and UVM, so if they stay on your list, let me know if you have specific questions. As for Redlands and Johnston, I’m sorry the school is not working out for you. My older daughter went there and loved Johnston. But I understand the issues with the distance from things, the heat, and the separation from other students. My daughter was also in a sorority (crossing the divide between the “hippies” and the Greeks: amazing, right?), so the social aspects happened to work out for her.

18

My 2 cents. I didn’t really look at your list of schoools but reading your wish list I immediately thought VASSAR! Northeastern isn’t a very artsy school, nor BU. I’d scratch both.

19

I’m super confused. You say in your original post that you want a “medium-sized” school. But you have a lot of LACs on your list, and you said you built the list by going through a larger list of LACs and picking out which ones jumped at you. That seems counterintuitive, since most LACs are by definition small - but I think of any campus with less than around 3500-4000 students as “small.” Can you define what medium-sized means to you?

The rest of this post assumes that definition of small ( < 3000 students) but it won’t apply to you if you have some different definition of medium-sized. But even if you’d be okay with let’s say 2500+ students, most of the LACs on your list are smaller than that. (In fact, you say you’re not into the size of Lawrence, but Reed is smaller than Lawrence.

Wouldn’t a good first step be to take off the schools that don’t have some of your criteria? You say that a medium-sized school is ideal, but you have a lot of small liberal arts colleges and small universities on here: Augsburg (although the location in MN may be the important part), Connecticut, Goucher, Illinois Wesleyan, Lafayette, Lawrence, Lewis & Clark, Macalester (although the proximity to home might outweigh that for you), Reed, Skidmore, Trinity College, UPS, Richmond, Vassar, and Willamette. That takes a pretty big chunk off your list. (URichmond is a bit bigger, a little over 4,000 undergrads, so that may be closer to medium-sized and fit better for you.)

Also, Clark, UNC-Asheville, and Brandeis are smaller universities (3000-3600 undergrads).

You also have a lot of OOS public universities, many of which are on the other end of the scale. Michigan, Oregon, Pittsburgh, VCU, and UW are all big universities. You could take at least some of them off the list if not all. UO isn’t even really near a city, and Michigan kind of is but it’s an hour from Detroit. You’ve got other colleges on your list that fit your wants so much better. (Also, you have them but not the Univesrity of Minnesota, which will be lower-cost for you AND is located in the Twin Cities. Why? UMN has great psychology offerings, btw.)

Boston University is also large, with over 33,000 students. It’s bigger than some of the big public universities.

Northeastern is also pretty big, and I wouldn’t describe it as very artsy. It has a pre-professional vibe to it because of the co-ops and such, and the campus isn’t really contained…

Just cutting those by size leaves

American
The Evergreen State College
Emerson College
Fordham University
Ithaca College
Lehigh University
Loyola Chicago
Macalester <- let’s say you’re leaving this one for proximity
Syracuse
Eugene Lang <- actually pretty small, but there are other undergrads at other colleges within The New School.
University of Rochester
University of Vermont

Which is a much more manageable list of colleges. Even then, you could still do some cuts. UVermont is in Burlington, which is technically a city but still pretty small. It’s pretty far from any real cities. And Ithaca College isn’t in or near a city - Ithaca is essentially a small college town.

20

@TomSrOfBoston I am a BU alum (did my undergrad there.) However, it sounds like, based on your post and another one here, that my opinion is different. LOL I guess I consider both city schools without campuses , but I always got more of a campus vibe/feel at BU. Maybe my perception is skewed from living there. Anyway,it sounds like neither one of those options would be appealing to the OP.