<p>From my own personal experience, I’ve found a person can find a good party at most any college, or can choose NOT to party at most any college. Certainly, as a high school junior, it is unlikely this child can plan his life at this stage, for the next 20 yrs. Interests change. He may now believe animal rights means not eating meat, but who knows? Someday he may wear a leather belt, have a leather briefcase or enjoy a car with leather interior.</p>
<p>I think a school with an honors college would be helpful. Drew has a Civic Scholars program as well as an honors college and substance free dorms. Very small college with no college town to party in. That has been one of the complaints from students is that there aren’t enough places to go to party. No Greek life either.</p>
<p>@letsbefrank I went to a party back in my college days and to this day I do not understand what anyone sees in them for “fun.” I’m not a teetotaler - then or now - drinking parties just aren’t fun for me. So far, my guys have inherited that. They do plenty in college. My UR son (loves it there BTW) is in a dance troupe, ASL club, chess, a Christian club, works in a lab, has a work study job (separate from his lab) and enjoys learning, studying, study groups, and getting to truly know his profs.</p>
<p>There are partiers at UR, of course, but he’s had no problem finding like minded peers and they have a great time together.</p>
<p>To each their own.</p>
<p>It seems like the OP wants a prestigious and highly regarded school and it is really hard to find one without partying.</p>
<p>Hi OP - my older son starts his senior year at Hampshire this year. There are kids who party - I think that’s hard to avoid - but Hampshire is very “live and let live” so if a student chooses not to party, my feeling is that would be respected. The combo of designing your own curriculum and the fact that Hampshire is part of the 5 college consortium also was very attractive to him. He’s loved Hampshire and can’t imagine himself anywhere else. </p>
<p>S1 also liked and applied to Bard and was accepted there but as mentioned above, their financial aid wasn’t generous. Neither was Sarah Lawrence. We came away from SLC feeling that it really <em>was</em> a party school. I was surprised when we attended accepted students’ day at all the students who smoked (cigarettes) as well. </p>
<p>We really liked Bennington College also - no idea if it’s a party school or not but had a warm, passionate study body from what we could see. </p>
<p>S2 is at Bates. Again, Bates has its share of partiers but there are chem-free dorms and it seems like the parties happen on weekends and not during the week (my view from 200 miles away - haha). </p>
<p>I do think, as others have mentioned, that even with a reputation as a party school kids find their own group. I work for a college that’s considered a big party school. The student who works for me is very (very) focused and isn’t a party guy at all and is not in a frat, even though fraternity culture is big where I work. And he’s found a wonderful group of friends. </p>
<p>Not eastern, but easy to fly into: U Texas - Dallas is filled with a lot of serious, non-partiers. It is engineering/CS/pre-health/business oriented, but is a big public u. with a variety of majors. This school has a high percentage of international and grad students and is about 40% Asian. No football. (Not yet, but planning to have a team in 2018?) Known for its winning chess team. UTD is in a period of rapid growth–enrollment has increased from 15,000+ in 2009 to 23,000+ for this fall, and is in transition from commuter to residential school–thousands of dorm rooms have been added in recent years. Dorms are all suite style, with all individual bedrooms. Campus is modern, compact, walkable. SAT scores of entering students are better than those at UT Austin. If your kid has high test scores, he will get merit aid. </p>
<p>Now that I have two kids whove finished college, I can say that students who are seriously into substances, generally, do not finish college, if they ever were admitted in the first place & certainly not at schools who demand so much of them academically, like Reed.</p>
<p>I also thought of Hampshire, but wasn’t sure how his music EC would fit in there.</p>
<p>As an alumnus of Reed College who has a son who attended UChicago, I agree with the recommendations of those schools, as well as just about every other one recommended for consideration so far on this thread. I would add two colleges for which I have great respect, have known some of their graduates, and suit the thinking student well: Beloit (in Wisconsin) and Grinnell (in Iowa). They both tend to produce a more than proportionate share of future professional degree and PhD earners. Grinnell has a strong endowment and is known for providing good financial aid – both need-based and merit-based.</p>
<p>OP - you might want to look at Colleges that Change Lives, a lot of the suggested schools are in there and there are others too. I can’t imagine much partying at Warren Wilson or Prescott or Suwanee for example.</p>
<p>@NYMomof2 I second Case Western… It sounds like they have a lot of what you’re looking for. It may look like a relatively large Greek population but even most of these are somewhat “nerdy”! They love kids with your son’s stats and offer good merit $$. No app fee and no essay are certainly pluses…and lots of music!</p>
<p>Tufts is not a partying school, but probably too much of a reach. CMU’s science school is easier to get into then either computer science or engineering, not sure how much easier. They have some frats, but they are pretty low key. Brandeis came to my mind as a serious place for the A- student. It’s also apparently a great place to be vegan: <a href=“Brandeis vegan food is among best of small schools | BrandeisNOW”>http://www.brandeis.edu/now/2010/october/vegan.html</a></p>
<p>Case gives some nice merit scholarships.</p>
<p>" UCSD is not a party school and ranks 6th in happiness for college student. " - Interesting. On of DS’s hs teachers told us that UCSD is not known as a party school, but she thought it was. She had graduated from UCSD, but many years ago.</p>
<p>Second the suggestions of Hampshire, St. Olaf, and Warren Wilson. Don’t think the Christian colleges are a good choice for someone as idealistic as your son is.</p>
<p>Others I might look into would be Earlham, Beloit and New College of Florida.</p>
<p>OP, your son sounds incredibly mature and interesting, and I wish I knew of a community of like-minded kids that I could steer him towards! As it is, my advice is to do what I’m doing for my daughter (also very interested in social issues and very UNinterested in partying or drinking), and look for schools that are known for intellectually curious, socially aware students. These schools’ reputation will attract other students like your son, and there are bound to be clubs and maybe themed dorms that will help him find “his people.” Once he’s found others who want to spend Saturday nights sitting around discussing everything from movies to politics to music, then it won’t matter if there are other students who are only interested in getting hammered and passing out in a pool of their own vomit. No, he probably won’t be able to entirely avoid those students, but that’s college. It won’t ruin his experience.</p>
<p>I’m not too familiar with East Coast schools so I can’t recommend any for you, but in general I would look for small private colleges known for serious academics. The fact that he’s reading these dense papers and treatises for fun shows that he has the chops to handle the demands of a serious liberal arts curriculum. I wonder if there’s a way to showcase that interest of his, since you say his grades and test scores aren’t super high? Is he interested in blogging on these issues? Something like that might demonstrate that he has these interests that set him apart from your average student with comparable stats.</p>
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<p>The other state university in the area, SDSU, has a much larger party reputation.</p>
<p>However, there are UCSD students who party, drink a lot, etc., so partying is not completely absent.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/niaaacollegematerials/panel01/highrisk_05.aspx”>College Drinking, Changing the Culture; describes the characteristics of colleges associated with more versus less alcohol drinking and binge drinking. You may want to consider such factors, although individual colleges should be investigated to see whether they do follow the general trends.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.samhsa.gov/data/nsduh/2k10nsduh/2k10results.htm#3.1.4”>http://www.samhsa.gov/data/nsduh/2k10nsduh/2k10results.htm#3.1.4</a> indicates that there may be less binge or heavy drinking at colleges with high black and/or Asian populations.</p>
<p>American University in DC–very strong public policy orientation, very strong Peace Corp participation rate, very ambitious and hence serious students. There is some partying / Greek life but because the students tend to be future-focused it’s not extreme.</p>
<p>Maybe Grinnell in Iowa? Or Earlham in Inidiana? Earlham might have the focus he is looking for, and he also might qualify for some serious merit money there.</p>
<p>Wow - so many great posts! I’ve just returned from a wedding 90 minutes away - except that there was a horrible traffic jam on the way home and so it took closer to 3 hours. I’m wiped out and can’t manage to respond to everything now, but I will in the next couple of days. </p>
<p>Around here, Haverford is a school for the very top students. I’d thought it would be out of reach, but I will check the HS data.</p>
<p>I would like to pin down the situation at U Rochester, because if that would work out for him, it could be the safety that he would love to go to. From the HS data I saw, he would be almost certain to get in. </p>
<p>bookmama, My son plays the trumpet in the symphonic band and the jazz band. He absolutely loves playing in these groups, particularly in the jazz band, which is very good at his school. At the moment, being in the jazz band is probably the highlight of his life. His first love is the piano, though. He is very accomplished and passionate about playing. He might only need access to good instruction, though, because while he loves to play he does not love to perform. He has not performed at school, except for a couple of special concerts, but next year the school orchestra will perform a major piece and he’s been asked to play the piano solo - it’s 41 pages long. So maybe performing opportunities on the piano would also be important for him by the time he gets to college. </p>
<p>Poohbah and bookmama, unfortunately, he does not like music theory. This may change as he gets older. And he is not interested in research, writing, music history - at least at this point. He does love regular history, though, so maybe music history will be an interest later? Right now he loves playing the piano and playing the trumpet with the jazz and symphonic bands. He’s a good HS player but he is not going to have any opportunities if he has to compete with conservatory kids. </p>