LACs for my dd

College Search & Selection
1

<p>OK, we're finally in a position to request specific recommendations for schools, since we're beginning the college visits, and I want to make sure we're not missing any.</p>

<p>My d is a junior, and here are her stats:
GPA: 9th grade - 3.6 uw/5.2 w (on a 6 point scale)
10th grade - 3.7 uw/5.5 w
11th grade (projected) - 3.5/5.5
Projected cum: 3.6/5.4</p>

<p>Core courses: 9th grade - honors Geometry, Biology, French; standard History & English (no honors available)
10th grade - standard Algebra II, honors Chemistry, honors French, honors World History, honors English
11th grade - standard Pre-Calc/Trig, honors Physics, honors French, honors English, AP USHistory (only AP offered in 11th grade in core courses)
12th grade - standard Calculus, AP English, AP European History, honors French, AP Psych, standard Anatomy & Physiology
Cornell Summer program, Film Analysis: A-</p>

<p>SAT I: 760 CR, 720 Math, 770 Writing (does not want to take them again)
SAT II: Chem 560; will probably take Math 1 and US History
Will probably take ACT</p>

<p>EC's: 8-10 hours dance/week (ballet, pointe, jazz, hip-hop, tap).
Assistant dance teacher in jazz, adult ballet
Ski instructor, ages 3-5 and 5-7
High school improvisation troupe, founding member
High school musicals, freshman & sophomore years
Summers spent in dance camps/ballet intensives
This summer she'll be a counselor at a theater day camp.</p>

<p>She's looking for an LAC - hates lectures, and doesn't want to be taught by grad students. Currently, she's looking at elementary ed as a major, or just undecided humanities type courses. She needs a school that has dance classes for non-majors (or no major - minor only or PE classes in dance), and hopefully jazz dance classes, not just modern or ballet. She'd prefer an urban/semi-urban area - rural is out. Finally, she hates to fly, so we're looking from Boston to Washington southerly, New York and Pennsylvania westerly. </p>

<p>Here's the current list:
Vassar
Skidmore
Brandeis
Barnard (her dad, a Columbia alum, is trying to convince her that Barnard is a women's school in name only)
Swarthmore/Haverford/Bryn Mawr (this I'll have to push since she says she doesn't want a women's school)
St. Mary's College of University of Maryland
Washington College
GW
Georgetown
American</p>

<p>Safeties:
Goucher
Muhlenberg
Drexel (for the co-op program)</p>

<p>Any ones that I'm missing?</p>

<p>Thanks so much!</p>

2

<p>are you visiting this upcoming spring break? could you update us on your daughter's reactions to the women's colleges on her list? i go to barnard and, well, almost everyone here said they were absolutely not going to a women's college.. and the same is true for most women's colleges, i think. but prospectives come here and walk away stunned.. so i really hope your daughter likes it! barnard is fabulous. FABULOUS. and their dance program is the best of all the schools on your list, although of course i'm biased, and it's open to everyone - they have all levels, from beginners to pre-professional.
i would also suggest simmons in boston as a safety, but it's another women's college. what about dickinson? it may be too rural for her liking but i think they have a decent dance program. villanova?</p>

<p>by the way, st mary's college in md isn't really part of the "university of maryland" although it is a public school. and it's VERY rural (and gorgeous), so prepare your daughter for that.</p>

3

<p>I was going to suggest Barnard, but it's already on your list. :rolleyes: As a safety, I suggest she look into Hollins. It's an all-girls school, but VMI is right nearby, so it's not a big deal (similar to Bryn Mawr and Haverford). I know a couple of girls (one of them a NMF) there, and they absolutely love it. It's very strong in the arts, has a great alumni base, and offers plenty of opportunities outside the classroom (one of my friends is studying abroad and doing an internship as a freshman).</p>

4

<p>wesleyan and conn college can easily be seen on the same day- definitely worth checking out</p>

5

<p>oh, let me also suggest vcu (virginia commonwealth, in richmond) as a safety.</p>

6

<p>If you aren't insistant on the East Coast</p>

<p>The Claremont Colleges: Pomona, Scripps, Claremont McKenna and Pitzer (Pitzer is a safety)
Occidental
Whitman
Colorado College
Lewis and Clark (safety)
University of Puget Sound (safety)</p>

<p>If you're considering the other Women's colleges, Mount Holyoke and Scripps (one of the claremont colleges) are both lovely</p>

<p>On the East Coast
Wheaton College (safety)</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the suggestions. But d won't fly and we're in New England. So anything further west than Pittsburgh or south than Washington is out. That includes all of Virginia, Illinois, and anything on the west coast.</p>

<p>Just wanted to make sure that we weren't missing anything in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region.</p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>

8

<p>oh, and i wouldn't have the attitude that barnard is a women's college in name only. if you go with that it's an LAC in name only too. Barnard prefers applicants who like the women's college aspect of the school and are applying to other women's colleges. plus, the dorms are all womens and most classes AT Barnard only have a few men.</p>

9

<p>If she's thinking el ed, the co-op program at Drexel doesn't make any sense. Education majors have to do student teaching wherever they go, it's part of the program. Drexel is also very different then the other schools on your list, very techie and housing is not guranteed even for freshman. One thing you should do is to check into the percentage of graduates that pass the teaching praxis tests and when the students start student teaching. This can vary quite a bit and the sooner they can get in the classroom and find out if it's the right career, the better. </p>

<p>My daughter is an el ed major at a private college in IL and as a junior has done two long blocks (4 wks each) of student teaching - not just observation- and will do 10 weeks her senior year. A friend of hers will do her first stint of student teaching as a senior.</p>

<p>Also, make sure of the states that have reciprocal licensing agreements with your state. Knowing that my daughter can get her degree and certification in IL and it will be accepted here in PA makes me feel better.</p>

10

<p>I usually hate it when some one suggests a school that is exactly what the poster says they or their child doesn't want.</p>

<p>But.... only because this happened to us.......I offer the following.</p>

<p>My D had also said she was absolutely not interested in any school which was not close to a major city. In HS, she used to take the train in almost every weekend to NYC for concerts, restaurants and to visit friends. She wanted to go to NYU (where I had gone and which she got into) or Barnard (which she didn't get into). A guidance counsellor (she went to a Solomon Schecter School) somehow convinced her to at least apply to Colgate and Oberlin. When she was accepted, she reluctantly visited and then wound up going to Colgate. She's a freshman there and loves it.</p>

<p>While it meets many of your daughter's other interests and has a great education major too, I'm not necessarily suggesting Colgate, only that if possible, try to get her to visit at least one LAC campus which meets her other criteria but may also be far from the madding crowd: she might be surprised. The City (whichever one she wants) will still be there four years from now.</p>

11

<p>Thanks for all the suggestions - we'll see how she likes Skidmore, and if it's not too rural we'll add other "non urban" colleges.</p>

<p>Other than Drexel, are there any others that we should drop?</p>

12

<p>Scripps sounds like a great fit, but I can understand the location. Barnard would probably be perfect for her. My dancey friend is applying to Colgate, so you might wanna check it out. She's also applying to Goucher as a safety... not sure about other east coast schools, she's mostly going west coast.</p>

13

<p>Well, we visited Vassar, which she absolutely loved. Given the stats above, is she dreaming? Right now, it's her ED school.</p>

14

<p>I'd second the recommendation of Wesleyan. A lot of people that don't get into Wesleyan end up at Vassar. Your daughter's stats seem to be a good match for Wes. There are definitely jazz dance classes in addition to the modern and ballet (and West African dance, too!), and it seems like a good fit in the other categories as well (small classes, non-rural location...). If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I'll try my best to answer them.</p>

15

<p>Your D's combined SAT I's (CR & M) are above the 75% mark at Vassar (and close to it at Wesleyan) so that's pretty good. A 3.6 uw is a little more on the edge -- Vassar reports that its mean uw GPA is A- (which to me is a 3.7) -- but hardly out of the ballpark. And there will be a boost if she applies ED. (I'm assuming here SAT IIs will end up tracking her SAT Is.</p>

16

<p>Lafayette in PA</p>

17

<p>why doesnt she apply to columbia over barnard? she has legacy.</p>

18

<p>Why doesn't she just apply to both?</p>

19

<p>Sarah Lawrence, maybe?</p>

20

<p>Barnard over Columbia because she's interested in elementary ed and in dance, both of which are housed at Barnard, and in which Barnard students get priority registration. Also, she doesn't want the TA's that teach at Columbia; Barnard doesn't have any. How do the schools look at applying to both?</p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestions of Lafayette and Sarah Lawrence; we'll take a look.</p>