<p>Which I know sounds absolutely insane, given the number of places that I have applied to, but there are so many places which catch my eye that I had difficulty narrowing my list down to 16! There are two more which have recently come to my attention that I am quite enchanted with the thought of: Lawrence and Goucher. Given that 17 applications is already too many and 18 would probably kill my guidance counselor, I'm wondering which would be better suited to my tastes.</p>
<p>Other LACs amongst my list:
-Amherst (SUPER HIGH! INSANE REACH)
-Bard <3
-Beloit
-DePauw (only because a friend really wants me to, not necessarily because of its atmosphere)
-Elmira
-Hobart and William Smith
-Skidmore
-SUNY New Paltz seems a heck of a lot like an LAC
-Vassar (Less SUPER HIGH! but still an INSANE REACH)
And my top five, in no particular order besides alphabetical, are Bard, Penn State, SUNY New Paltz, Vassar, and Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>I am very political and a bleeding heart liberal planning to double major in biology and IS (potentially) with a music minor. My hair is purple, I am bookish and nerdy and not good at socializing with people who aren't like me, but incredibly talkative when you get to know me and/or we are arguing. May or may not be slightly gay, also planning on participating in a few intramural or club sports for kicks and giggles (like fencing and ballroom dancing; my older not-sister is very persuasive). My GPA is only a 3.2 for various reasons that I don't care to type out here, although I am smart enough for a 3.6-3.8. I'm not fond of really cold weather, but it can be dealt with because I am from the Adirondacks. I am co-captain of our academic team, have a wealth of useless knowledge, and am more than a little obsessed with The Bard. In fact, if it helps, think of me as the Luna Lovegood of the class of 2009! You could probably call me a Reed sort of student, if my GPA wasn't so depressing, but I had a 3.65 this first quarter (the only thing to bring me down being a 75 in math, everything else 94+).</p>
<p>Lawrence seems more like a reach than a match and is in a very cold climate, but the Princeton Review gave it excellent rankings and the school sounds very much like me -- and more than that, it gave me essay space to explain the exact reasons why my GPA was so low during my freshman and junior years. On the other hand, Goucher seems to be more within my GPA range and is in a much warmer locale, but I can't find much information on it. Soooo, given all of this information, which would you suggest?</p>
<p>Honestly, applying to so many schools doesn't make sense. It's probably a better idea to really get a handle on what you want as it would be really hard to produce 18 quality applications and you can hurt your chances. Do you fill in all those schools when they ask where else you were applying? Not a plus to adcoms! I'm guessing you haven't visited many?</p>
<p>I can see that my title is a bad one. What I really should have said was, "help me decide between Goucher and Lawrence."</p>
<p>Country day -- I only applied to DePauw to get a friend to stop nagging, and Hobart is sort of a safety and the application had no supplement. Ehh.</p>
<p>hmom5 -- Eight places didn't actually require essays that I wrote specifically for them (one asked for a previously graded paper, and a few only asked for factors to keep in mind while grading), so I was only writing "quality" applications for eight -- which is normal. Three or four asked which other schools I had applied to, and only gave space for six or seven. I've visited four so far due to financial difficulty; am visiting two more over Thanksgiving, and the rest are by acceptance basis. I'm not applying to 18, anyway, and I had spaced out my writing since mid-July. What does it matter how many I've applied to if I have fee waivers and I can see myself being happy at most of them (and the others are safeties/financial safeties/obligations)?</p>
<p>We visited both Lawrence and Goucher, although the visit to Lawrence was a few years ago. My opinion is that your purple hair would find more cohorts at Goucher, but academically, Lawrence was amazing. Something like 90% of the classes have 1 student, as faculty works to provide individual experiences. Kids all seemed happy at Goucher.</p>
<p>Do you know if Lawrence is forgiving of low grades if an acceptable reason is provided?</p>
<p>hmom5 -- I applied to them in the hopes that, if accepted, I could find ways to get acceptable aid packages. I'm realizing now that a lot of them are out of reach financially, but they're still worth a try. I'm paying for my own education, I can get at least $10,000 in grants and am having a job in addition to work study. After visiting Skidmore, it's pretty evident that the money will be an issue. We'll find a way to meet that hurdle if I'm accepted.</p>
<p>By the way, hmom, those aren't the only schools I'm applying to, those are just the LACs that I thought would give an idea of the sort of things I like. I'm also applying to plenty of SUNY schools and public universities.</p>
<p>I would have applied to Geneseo if there was any chance of admission, but it does seem like a really awesome place. A friend of mine goes there.</p>
<p>OK, but here's the thing, most of these schools do not give good aid, and those that get the aid are at the top of the pool, athletes or have something else the school really wants.
Even a $10K outside scholarship will be a drop in the bucket at these schools. If you don't want to end up at a SUNY, you need to research full need schools. If your parent's are low income, a full need school will probably be cheaper than a SUNY and may well require less in loans. Unfortunately, if you're low income privates that are not full need are often out of reach and most don't find a way.</p>
<p>Out of state publics are usually also not doable for low income students. I suggest you post on the parent's board for ideas on schools that could meet your financial need.</p>
<p>Sorry, had my figures wrong - here is a quote from the Lawrence website:</p>
<p>Of the nearly 1,800 courses Lawrence offered last year, over 800 had total enrollments of only one student. By the time they graduate, 90 percent of students will have had at least one class in which they were the only student.</p>
<p>From my own family's experience, a one on one with a professor will happen at Lawrence. Also, if you come from a family of modest means, the financial aid packages are fantastic. Also, on campus jobs are available and you can earn all your pocket money while you study. You can even work there in the summer if you want. The academics are rigorous; if you slide for a while they will work with you but you have to work there. It is not an easy ride, but you will come out the other side an educated person. As far as the cold goes, from what I have seen and heard, the dorms are warm and between classes not that much walking to do. You will be so busy, you won't even notice the weather. :)</p>
<p>cpeltz: Could it be that the one-on-one classes are musical instrument instruction in the music conservatory? Otherwise the tuition would be unusually high to support individual instruction.</p>
<p>Post #16: I know, that's why the average class size is less than one.</p>