<p>Quirky is a horrible word anyway - to some quirky is the quintessential math nerd, to others it is the granola crunchy trustafarians, to others it is the multi-punctured, blue haired types, or the perennial skinny jeaned hipsters, or the kid who socially awkward and the list goes on.</p>
<p>JKR’s agent only read her book after his asst insisted- isn’t that the story? Like Dr Suess, she was rejected by umpteens first. And, many feel she, like Stephanie Meyer, won based on the marketability of the topic, not the quality.</p>
<p>Mini- also a prof writer and have some concerns about so-so programs.</p>
<p>This is a 17 year old. Right now she plans to be a writer. She may be right. </p>
<p>That said, what can possibly be wrong with going to college? The more she knows, the more she has to use. I believe that Barbara Kingsolver has a degree in biology, for example.</p>
<p>Hello everyone,</p>
<p>Thanks so much to all of you for your suggestions. I’m afraid I had to go away yesterday and came back to see a number of posts, some of which have interpreted my original post in ways I never intended. Let me just say that I mean no disrespect to any of the schools I have mentioned. I don’t expect all places to be all things to all people. How awful that would be.</p>
<p>Some clarifications: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Writing programs: I think it might be good for my daughter to take some creative writing classes, if for no other reason than to meet deadlines. I don’t think she would want to be a writing major. Really, she has her own voice, and I suspect that the best way to develop that is to write, publish, and interact with editors. The wrong writing program could really be detrimental, I think, and it’s tough to figure out where to find an entire department that would do only good things to her writing instead of things that would make it … less. So, college, for her, would be about experiencing new things and learning new disciplines – not necessarily about being taught to write better.</p></li>
<li><p>When it comes to diversity, I’m very aware that the very most elite colleges tend to have a great deal of financial aid available, which means – theoretically – that they should be economically diverse. My own experience suggests this is not so to any great degree. It’s the very rare child from a substantially impoverished background who achieves the credentials necessary to qualify for these schools. I’ve known some kids from lower-middle-class backgrounds who’ve attended Ivy and Ivy equivalents. Most have come from extremely educated/well-read families who’ve either fallen on hard times, or in which the parents work in rewarding, responsible, but low-paying jobs. They don’t come from wealthy families, but they seem like upper-middle-class kids. Nothing wrong with that, at all, except that friends like this are all my daughter knows at this point in her life, and she wants to branch out. </p></li>
<li><p>One thing I should have made clear in my initial post is that we live in a very wealthy college town (small city of around 100,000 about 25 miles from a major city), next to a large, flagship, state university. I believe that around 80% of adults here have at least an undergraduate degree, and the median home price is around $650,000. The town is almost always on every list of “best places to live.” My daughter was born and raised here. Naturally, she wants to go to college in a place that is very unlike where she grew up, rubbing elbows with kids who are very unlike those she rubs elbow with, now.</p></li>
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<p>Thanks again for all the input. There are some wonderful new ideas on here, and I greatly appreciate the time all of you have so generously given to us.</p>
<p>Having read apps for a school that could be on posters’ radar, I can say there are plenty of quite poor, quite accomplished applicants. Not recent poor, but long-time family challenges, under-educated and under-employed parents. They get adcom attention based on their performance in spite of various challenges. I can say that they get moved along inthe process- but even at this meet full needs school, I imagine plenty of admits can’t enroll, for financial reasons.</p>
<p>fwiw: [Which</a> Colleges Have the Most Student Diversity? - Morse Code: Inside the College Rankings (usnews.com)](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/2009/08/27/which-colleges-have-the-most-student-diversity]Which”>http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/2009/08/27/which-colleges-have-the-most-student-diversity)</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>** sorry, I realize that doesn’t cover economic diversity. Perhaps that might be reflected by looking at which of the various schools have a lower 4 or 6 year grad rate, higher number of part-timers or commuters. Ie, kids who don’t have the luxury to immerse themselves in 4 sweet years.</p>
<p>I’d suggest a gap year. Get out and rub elbows with the world! :)</p>
<p>Macalaster, Haverford, Wesleyan are a few that are worth looking at.</p>
<p>It would be helpful if you could mention your town so we could think through what is not like it!</p>
<p>Any college – rural or urban, small or large – that offers intellectually rigorous academics is by default going to be full of students who had privileged or at least comfortable pre-college lives. You just don’t spring fully formed from extreme poverty to Yale. This is a quandary for colleges that sincerely want to expose their students to the Real World. They are willing to recruit and fund low income students but in order to be assured that they can do the work they have to see some evidence of academic achievement. </p>
<p>Most colleges – again across the spectrum of location and size – encourage their students to interact with the local community and travel opportunities that get them out in the world.</p>
<p>Can this be done independently? Absolutely. The question is can a student experience the Real World in all its gritty spendor and at the same time take advantage of the ivory tower academically? Maybe not. </p>
<p>Gap years are good for upcloseandpersonal experiences. Rigorous colleges for mental challenge. It sounds to me as if your daughter is restless and hungry. Perhaps she should ramble for a year or two, then come back ready to dive into academia.</p>
<p>I grew up in a protected upper middle class community and spent the next thirty years getting as far away from it as I could (and I’m still out there), but I understand now that my university experience was essential to my intellectual growth.</p>
<p>Then, Evergreen (where I live) is the place. Quirky, intellectual students with very wide interests. Committed, nurturing faculty that does quirky teaching. Lots of writers at the college, and the community. Time Magazine called it “the most happening place in America” for the arts. Great town, without any rich people to speak of.</p>
<p>mini- Evergreen State? (There is an Evergreen Valley,too)</p>
<p>OP - Oxbridge</p>
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<p>Why would her characters need to be narrowed down “artistic, quirky”? I question this criterion. </p>
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<p>Many of us say that everyone is unique or unusual. Perhaps your daughter is one of the few people who can actually articulate and reveal that. To that end, she might want to see humanity in all its diversity and its mundaneness. </p>
<p>To that end, I’m not so sure that any college campus has enough “diversity”. After all, the vast majority of the people there has the same occupation and is in the same age group. </p>
<p>Now, access to a large city will be something entirely different. In a city, though, how will she come to know the diverse people that she wishes to meet? One way used to be to work in all sorts of jobs and keep one’s eyes open.</p>
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<p>I’m skeptical about this criterion as well. It sounds like she has already proven that she can do perfectly well without hardworking, committed classmates, and their “brilliant insights”. She does need to feel that classes are not a waste of time, so she needs a degree of demandingness in the curriculum, and the chance to learn from her instructors. As you suggested, “alternative school” is not a good use of her time. </p>
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<p>With respect, this not your dilemma. This is her problem. She is competent enough to publish, to have an agent, etc.; she is competent enough to find a college or decide on another next step. There will be tradeoffs, and she can figure them out.</p>
<p>I really do not see any problem. If a girl is a genius, then get published, whatever it takes. It has nothing to do with the college that she will go. Any college has various groups of students, it will be up to her to choose her crowd. If financial is a concern, than research colleges that are known for good Merit packages (both public and priavate). There are plenty of very talented kids who go to any place and find their own surroundings and friends there, relying much more on their own ability both academicly and socially than name of UG. As long as they stay open minded, seek new activities, venture into unknown (for them), they will benenfit greatly at any place, not because of certain college but because of who they are. Do not underestimate your child, let her be where she feels comfortable, and she will thrive. I have been there 2 times so far successfully, both have achieved their goals, learned a lot, both started out as very talented HS graduates, obtained new skilss, developed new relationships and moved on to next steps in their lives. </p>
<p>BTW, super duper smart might mean nothing at college. Hard working attitude means everything. There are no stupid kids there, they do not enter any college.</p>
<p>This is not my area of expertise - at all - but to offer my opinions (I’m assuming money isn’t an issue):</p>
<p>-I second post #5 (and a lower ranked one will give you all sorts of diversity)
-consider a foreign university
-spend a couple extra years and hit two or three very different schools
-really step out of her comfort zone (ie - if liberal go to private religious school, if white attend a HBCU, if always lived on East coast find a West coast school)
-I also like the suggestions of a gap year/traveling</p>
<p>At least if I were her…with her smarts and opportunities, that’s what I would have done.</p>
<p>The location won’t suit, but Amherst is the most diverse LAC in the country and it has no core. Alma mater to authors as diverse as David Foster Wallace, Harlan Coben, Mark Costello, and dare I say it, Dan Brown, among others.</p>
<p>I’d second Maclaester. Very diverse student body, what with a big international presence, and its also in a major city --well, not NYC or LA, but Minneapolis/St. Paul has a lot going on and a lot of different types of folks. Whatever or whoever you can’t find on the campus, you can find in the Twin Cities. Most importantly some very good writers have attended (but not neccessaily graduated) from there including Mary Karr and Tim O’Brien.</p>
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I’m sorry to say that this criterion is not really very compatible with a school that has a substantial number of impoverished students from uneducated families. It might be possible in an honors college at a flagship–but she wouldn’t actually find herself taking classes with the impoverished people very often.</p>
<p>^^^ I actually met a Questbridge parent who has TWO of her daughters attending U of C at the Parents Orientation week.</p>
<p>But yeh, the chances of meet an impoverished student are slim in the Ivies or the like.</p>
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<p>If we’re talking a sufficiently critical mass of students from lower-middle/working/poor families, examine the FA policies of a given school. The more generous the FA, the more likely you will see this critical mass contributing to more socio-economic diversity than you’d otherwise find at the elite private unis/LACs. It was a factor in why I’ve encountered far more undergrads similar to myself at the Ivies and similar caliber private unis/LACs than at other private schools where FA policies were less generous or in some cases…miserly like NYU or the New School.</p>