<p>Speaking of safeties… Pitt can also work there if she likes it. They’re rolling admission, with great neuro and decent opportunities for merit aid.</p>
<p>Rather than randomly tossing school names at her, it might make more sense for her to establish her list of criteria and the importance she attaches to each, and the come up with schools that are reach/match/safety that fit those criteria. Examples of good criteria:</p>
<p>1) Type of school (LAC-which have no grad schools, medium or large universities, huge public schools, the tech schools)
2) Size of school (often tied to the type)
3) Any geographic constraints or preferences (including weather, distance from home, availability of skiing/scub-diving or whatever): add urban/suburban/small college town
4) Offers depth and breadth in her potential majors
5) School culture (jock, artsy, intellectual, quirky, preppy, granola, etc…)
6) Deal-breakers (religious? single-sex? tech?)</p>
<p>Once she knows what matters to her, it’s a lot easier to come up with schools that might fit. If she isn’t sure, she should start by visiting one of each type (LAC, State U, private research)</p>
<p>^ right. They need to visit some schools of different types just to see what might appeal to the girl. In fact this might be achievable just visiting the schools around Chicago area - Chicago, NU, Notre Dame, UIUC, Wash U, and some smaller schools (I am not familiar with LACs in the Chicago area).</p>
<p>It is a bit early to narrow down based on majors, finances, and reaches. She has 18 months before application season starts.</p>
<p>18 months would put me right at her high school graduation. ;)</p>
<p>If its not too south check out Furman. Smaller, strong music and strong bio/premed. Big enough so you can feel comfortable if don’t go greek. Know lots of kids there and it’s about half and half the ones who join sororities. Nice size town.</p>
<p>To save us some time, before oldest applied we did visit local schools of varying types just to help my guys figure themselves out more (middle and youngest got dragged along as there is only 4 school years difference between oldest and youngest). It definitely helped with oldest and youngest. </p>
<p>With middle, again, wanting neuro or cognitive, he opted to let strength of the program factor in pretty highly and would have gone to a place like Pitt (not his first choice due to size and being really urban) over an LAC with a lesser program. He felt he would end up happy no matter where he chose and, having heard from many high school alumni who return, I think he’s right. </p>
<p>Whether to sort first by type or strength of program depends upon the student, and for those who have an idea of what they want to do, the desired major or field. To a large extent, both will fall into the final equation. My youngest knows he wants small, so we’ll do type first. Middle knew he wanted a decent program, so we did strength of program first. For ours, finances also come into play, so for us, schools without merit aid just don’t make the list at all.</p>
<p>Just a word of advice, have her go look at an all girls campus. I had that same reaction and I was invited to an overnight at an all girls campus and I loved it ( plus where there is all girls school there are usually other coed schools, in my case RPI was a walk away where it was 80% male)</p>
<p>muhleneberg college would be the best all around school for what you describe! 99.999999% match.</p>
<p>Sorry I was reading it as Sophomore. So she has taken any SATs PSATs etc?</p>
<p>I actually do appreciate the throwing out of names - very much so. </p>
<p>I’d like to see as many schools as possible w/o killing us - or especially their father. </p>
<p>I’m also not that concerned right now w/ making sure each one could be a “fit” - especially since she really has no idea in terms of what kind of “feel” she would like campus life to be. Notre Dame, UofChgo & Northwestern are very doable for day trips - not even full day trips. So those are on the backburner for a quick Sat. trip sometime this spring.</p>
<p>I also have a sophmore DD who will be going w/ us - and they’re VERY different. So while one might not work for my junior, it may be a fit for my sophmore. Regardless, we get to spend time together as a family - so no matter how you look at it, spring break will be a success.</p>
<p>@texaspg … her PSAT was not good. 185. And she scored 187 sophmore year. I don’t know what happened w/ that - especially since she walked away from it in October thinking in was very easy.</p>
<p>She just got her Dec. 1 SAT scores - 2080. She didn’t prepare at all … she told me she wanted to have a baseline so she’d know where and what she needed to study. I’d hazard a guess that she should do 2200+ the next time around. She’ll take the ACT in Feb.</p>
<p>If you’re from Chicago, then I hope you’re familiar with the fabulous LACs in your area: Oberlin, Macalester, Grinnell, Carleton – all worth considering! Oberlin and Grinnell provide merit aid. Her personality and interests sound like a perfect fit with any of these schools. </p>
<p>Since your daughter is a musician and a scientist, i thought you’d really appreciate this video about Grinnell: [Grinnell</a> College “That’s Science. This is Grinnell” - YouTube](<a href=“Grinnell College "That's Science. This is Grinnell" - YouTube”>Grinnell College "That's Science. This is Grinnell" - YouTube)</p>
<p>If she can get in, Penn has terrific neuroscience with lots of encouragement for research. German department has an excellent reputation.</p>
<p>Lots of students are active in musical groups, even though they’re not majors. Downtown, the Philadelphia Orchestra has a student season ticket for only $25 for the entire year.</p>
<p>Penn also RECRUITS creative writers! See Kelly Writers House website and maybe go to an event there.</p>
<p>Penn is on our list. 
</p>
<p>And orchestra season tix would thrill her to pieces.</p>
<p>Here’s another question if someone would know the answer for …</p>
<p>(And again, bear w me - the is our oldest and we’re learning as we go.)</p>
<p>I’ve “read” that to be involved with choir at the college level, you need to be a music major. Is that true in most cases? </p>
<p>She would hate that if that were so …</p>
<p>*Though I don’t know if she’d fit in - southern belle she’s not. *</p>
<p>LOL…At Vandy? What “southern belles”??? You did visit, right?</p>
<p>I live an hour away from Vandy…been there many, many times. My Godson goes there now (a senior).</p>
<p>However, premed is intense at schools like Vandy (and similar schools). If that’s ok with your D, then fine. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t spend too much on undergrad if premed. Med school is super expensive.</p>
<p>*I’ve “read” that to be involved with choir at the college level, you need to be a music major. Is that true in most cases? *</p>
<p>I doubt any one knows what the situation is in “most cases”. We haven’t polled the thousands of colleges out there. </p>
<p>At my kids’ undergrad, you didn’t have to major in music to be in the choir. You’ll have to inquire at each school of interest or look on their choir webpages.</p>
<p>
Definitely case by case. Williams, for example, has a wide range of performance opportunities for non-music-majors – vocal, orchestra, ensemble – and is intensely focused on the arts, moreso than most LACs of the same academic caliber. Double or even triple majors of widely different disciplines are quite common, in fact encouraged.</p>
<p>Small to medium sized colleges need students who are also artists, musicians, actors, writers, etc. and this can be a plus in admissions. These colleges pay a lot of attention to the subjective, talent, interests, life experience side of the application as compared to larger universities which are more statistics driven. So – within reason of course – when putting together the application she needs to illustrate and reinforce her interests through supplemental packages, resumes, essays and recommendations.</p>
<p>Because there are so many choices, she’ll need to do some editing for this trip. Try to get a range of personality types – size, location, culture. It’s hard for a high school student to envision the environment until she’s been there and seen it. </p>
<p>If this will be the only trip she makes before applying, I would suggest that you try for depth over quantity, even if it means limiting choices. Try to get exposure to small-medium-large, rural-suburban-urban. Many kids’ pre and post visit lists change dramatically, so concentrate on her “must have” criteria and don’t get distracted by stereotypes. </p>
<p>At small colleges (and some mediums) demonstrated interest is critical, so taking the time to interview on campus, while not required, can be a plus. </p>
<p>And lastly, on her safety: your state U may or may not be a good option. If it turns out that she falls in love with small LACs like Wesleyan or Williams, or medium sized privates like Dartmouth or Colgate, she may need to find some less selectives in the same profile.</p>
<p>KamaMom - I think she will need about 2200 or 32-33 to be in the ballpark for top 20 schools for consideration. She will also need a couple of subject tests in the summer timeframe.</p>
<p>@ mom2college kids </p>
<p>Re: Southern Belles! </p>
<p>The girls on campus were very well put together and accessorized from perfectly coiffed head, to pretty leather boots … not at all what I expected to see walking around on a college campus at 10am on a Saturday morning! Not an eyelash or fingernail out of place!</p>
<p>To a sloppy northener like me, I was very impressed! ;)</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Many of those girls are not from the south…so really not “southern belles.” lol Vandy recruits nationally. Many Vandy students are from the NE!!! </p>
<p>As for looking so good on a Saturday morning…that’s not likely the norm. When was this? Was this during sorority recruitment or some other special day? </p>
<p>Frankly, on a more typical Saturday morning, at 10 am, many of the students are still asleep! lol My sister has lamented that during all of the Vandy Parents Weekends, the parents complain that their students don’t show up for the breakfast cuz they’re still asleep (but that’s not just a Vandy issue…college kids do often sleep-in on weekends everywhere.)</p>
<p>The times that I’ve been on Vandy’s campus, I’ve seen a variety of dress, but the Greeks do tend to dress “nicer.”</p>
<p>m2ck - Vandy football games are supposed to have preppy dressed boys and girls in dresses?</p>