<p>^^^ LOL, emilybee.Can understand your confusion. The threads are similar.</p>
<p>Cobart, yes I am sure you know people who would differ with that opinion. Iām sure one of your many cousins, too! </p>
<p>But, I live here and see plenty of UAlbany kids out on weekend nights at the mall/ movies/local eateries, etc. </p>
<p>No matter which school chosen I highly recommend living on campus freshman year if possible. So much after hours learning is missed- my poor friend who walked to campus is an example. There was no way we honors students were going to her house late evenings to ask her to join us! Her parents would not have gone for that at all.</p>
<p>I would never want my son to live at home. I want exactly what intparent (#195) said. Iām only trying to guide him to a situation that will work well for him. And I will be very open about this issue. He doesnāt go to wild parties here - he and his friends donāt do that now, and there are plenty of them going on. He meets friends, they walk around and get something to eat, go to someoneās house and hang out. He has a burning need to talk about what is on his mind - these days, ethics pertaining to animal rights and poverty. </p>
<p>^ I donāt think your son would have any trouble at any college/uni finding like minded kids, even at party schools. </p>
<p>And for the record, I only posted about living at home because I thought this was the apolitical colleges thread! I would never suggest that for OPās son. </p>
<p>I canāt remember whether I posted here previously, but I wanted to mention Pitzer and New College of FL. Pitzer might be known for some partying, but it also is committed to involving students in all levels of decision-making, and they are very politically and environmentally conscious. New College is surprisingly affordable, and students can design their own curricula. They have a student-run, vegetarian/vegan cafe on campus. Community service is central to both collegesā philosophy. I can also reiterate that Quaker colleges (e.g. Guilford, Earlham, Haverford, et al) have a strong tradition of sustainability and service. </p>
<p>emilybee, I understand - itās confusing to have two similar threads!</p>
<p>woogzmama, I hadnāt heard of Pitzer, but the other schools in your post are on the list. The vegetarian/vegan thing is another consideration. Iām sure that some schools will be ruled out if itās impossible or even difficult to follow his diet (almost vegan, but he will eat dairy products). </p>
<p>Iām about to make Mark Bittmanās silken cabbage and tofu - really easy and delicious!</p>
<p>I bet most schools have vegan options. Have you been in a college dining hall lately? They all have different food stations and are well accustomed to serving vegetarians and vegans. Itās not just one cafeteria line with mystery meat and a salad bar anymoreā¦</p>
<p>Yes, Macalesterās vegetarian/vegan options were extensive. My son has a friend there whoās apparently quite the foodie, and he said the off-campus dining options are a great perk to going to school in such an ethnically diverse city. Tons of opportunities for service in the local St. Paul community too.</p>
<p>Pitzer might be a great choice. It is one of the colleges in the Claremont consortium in California. He would definitely find like-minded friends at Pitzer, probably also some at Scripps and a few at Pomona. The five colleges in the consortium are part of a bigger ~5,000 student campus ā they fit together sort of like lego blocks on the bigger campus. Each college has its own admissions, dorms, graduation standards, etc., and their own personality. But students can easily cross-register at the other four schools, too. One of my kids goes to one of the other schools in the consortium, and I think it is a pretty great deal with a small school feel but some resources of a bigger campus.</p>
<p>My son and I loved the Claremont consortium. We knew that Pomona was out of reach for him, but he applied to Claremont-McKenna and Pitzer. CMC was a reach, but his strong āleadershipā resume made it worth applying to. They rejected him, but Pitzer accepted him. Unfortunately, they offered no aid whatsoever. New College of Florida was a similar school, in many respects, but costs almost $40k less per annum. He will go there, but would have gone to Pitzer if finances were not an issue.</p>
<p>That is kind of weirdā¦ I canāt imagine a student happy at Pitzer and at CMC (I think the OPās son would not find many like-minded peers in the CMC student bodyā¦).</p>
<p>I have another suggestion: why donāt you and your son consider a gap year? He can still apply to colleges and defer going. The reason is that it would give him some more time to mature, not only emotionally and judgmentally but neurologically. As you probably know given your familyās history of addiction, the young brain is more susceptible to addictive behaviors. He could probably find a program that would satisfy his social justice interests and by being out in the world for a while, he may not feel so tempted to take part in some of the typical first-year partying and letting loose that happens. </p>
<p>Temptation is going to exist at every college. Trying to shield an 18-year-old from drugs and alcohol is an exercise in futility. You have to prepare young adults to make mature decisions and to tune out the distractions. Furthermore, kids change their interests at the drop of a dime, so I personally think itās a mistake to seek out such a niche school.</p>
<p>THAT SAID, schools like Hobart and Florida State donāt deserve a cent of any self-respecting parentās money.</p>
<p>@intparent - my son liked both CMC and Pitzer simply because he is sort of a combination of the two ātypes:ā he is a born āpolicy wonk,ā who is interested in Poli. Sci. and Government, with his sights on law school down the road, but he is very progressive politically. Model UN and JSA/Debating (both huge at CMC) were his sports.He is strictly a āmeat-and-potatoesā guy, but has a great deal of respect for vegans and vegetarians. He was more attracted to Pitzer socially, but to CMC academically, and so the consortium structure really attracted him. He loved the Athenaeum tradition at CMC, and the music/food festival descriptions at Pitzer. Not everybody can be easily labeled and pigeonholed, thank goodness.</p>
<p>DD is very social and will start college this fall at the age of 16, so āpartyā atmosphere was a concern for me. I interviewed the Residential Life Administrator, the person in charge of student discipline, at our local state flagship. Turns out he had worked at many of the top colleges in our region and was familiar with all of them. His observation was that flagship had much less party scene compared to others in the region on account of competitive admission to majors ā his reasoning was a) flagship is much harder to get into than any of school in the region so it attracts more serious students to begin with, and b) once admitted, freshman and sophomores were competing intensely for a limited number of seats in choice majors, so they took academics much more seriously right from the beginning than underclassmen at the other schools, hence less time for partying.</p>
<p>Another vote to check out St. Olaf. Great science and music departments. Ranks second among small college for graduates who join the Peace Corp. Alcohol is not allowed on campus, so while there will always be some people breaking the rule, the partying will be quiet and not too obnoxious for those who arenāt partying.<br>
I suspect it is big enough for your son to find some like-minded vegan activists, but he will also find kids from farming families who can have interesting discussions with him about animal rights and ethics. Thereās no point in going to a school where everyone already agrees with him ā who would he convert? :)</p>
<p>Food is another good thing at UW dorms. Only pay for what you choose, and easy to identify vegan et al online. There is a Whole Foods close to the west end of campus for when he lives in an apartment, as most upperclassmen do there now. I still remember spending evenings into nights just discussing anything and everything with friends. </p>
<p>triserdad- donāt worry about your son. My 16 year finally was challenged enough at our flagship. I would have been more worried if hadnāt gone there myself and knew there were all kinds of people. It helped that he was taking several Honors courses and was running club CC as well. He chose not to do Orchestra even though encouraged by an older student from his HS he happened to run into while moving in.</p>
<p>The checklist will include academics first. Then he needs to list his priorities (not yours, btw). Climate, distance from home, size of school, Greek system influences on campus, athletics and other clubs, and so much more. He likely wonāt target drinking and that can be found anywhere. There are many, many diverse intellectual settings. It will be interesting for you to see him make his choices. You now have many schools you can put on a list for him to investigate. Notice that it is HIS search, you can only provide some schools he may not otherwise think of.</p>
<p>Another vote for Grinnell. Also, how about Brandeis? Frat-less and not a big party school.</p>
<p>OP, forgive me for being late to the party, and I havenāt read the entire thread, but I saw that Earlham was mentioned several times. As the mom of a recent Earlham grad, I wanted to give you a couple of details which might matter to your S.</p>
<p>There is no Greek life at Earlham (it goes against the Quaker principle of inclusiveness), so that source of party energy is completely absent. Also, until 2 or 3 years ago, it was officially dry. It was never <em>actually</em> dry, and a kid whoās looking for a party will be able to find one. But they arenāt blow-the-roof-off keggers of the variety which I experienced as an undergrad at a big public U. Students who want to stay straight & sober will find lots of support and lots of company.</p>
<p>There are LOADS of music opportunities for non-majors. <a href=āhttps://www.earlham.edu/countdown/learning/choral-and-instrumental-music/instrumental-program/ā>https://www.earlham.edu/countdown/learning/choral-and-instrumental-music/instrumental-program/</a> </p>
<p>I think you mentioned that heās a bit of a nerd (as is my D 
). Earlham is always mentioned on lists of nerdy, quirky, geeky schools. Iād rather think of it as a place which takes people for what they are. Some of Dās friends were not what Iād call nerdy in the slightest, and some were very much so. Itās a place which gets beyond the high school categories to a large extent.</p>
<p>Social causes are huge, as youāve probably already picked up (if thereās not already an animal rights student organization there, your S could found one!), and are reflected in the curriculum, which you may wish to check out: <a href=āhttps://www.earlham.edu/academics/depts/ā>https://www.earlham.edu/academics/depts/</a> </p>
<p>ETA ā There IS an Animal Rights Friendship House this year! I donāt think the friendship houses are available to first-years, but it means thereās already a group of committed animal rights students on campus, and no rule against a first-year hanging out with them and getting involved in whatever they do. <a href=āhttp://www.earlham.edu/residence-life/programs-and-services/living-learning-communities/ā>http://www.earlham.edu/residence-life/programs-and-services/living-learning-communities/</a> My D was in one of the Friendship Houses for her last two years, and it was a wonderful chance to pursue her interest with like-minded friends.</p>