Less "touchy-feely" LACs?

College Search & Selection
1

My D18 is interested in looking at LACs for the class sizes and other advantages inherent in a smaller school. So far, she has mostly toured smaller research-type universities such as Emory, Tulane, etc. She has also visited Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr and a few others.

What she’s finding is the LACs tend to be very touchy-feely and sort of smothering, while the research schools tend to emphasize students’ independence and opportunities for problem solving and growth.

The exception seems to be Swarthmore, which (to her) struck the perfect balance between “we’ll keep an eye on your kid” and “hey, come explore the world and learn some things too”. However, given Swat’s acceptance rate, she’d really like to find some other LACs that don’t focus so much on "making sure your child is “ok” with a super angsty student body.

She’s intelligent, capable and grounded. Even as a sophomore, she knows she wants a place to go where she can learn and grow, but not be babysat or where there is an overly-emotional student body.

Location-wise she’s flexible. Loved New Orleans, Chicago, and the PA schools. Is an atheist so nothing overtly religious. Home state is TN. Her intended major is something sciency - physics, chemistry or similar. We will also need significant financial aid - she has about $60k saved in an UTMA account. Her dad is retired and I make about $50k a year. I also have stage 4 cancer so no guarantee that income will exist when she’s applying or attending.

Anyone have suggestions for her? Stats-wise, she’ll probably end up with about a 3.75 unweighted/4.1 weighted with an ACT of 32-ish. She’s a recruitable diver, but not D1 level - will have been a 4-year state qualifier. In a few clubs (beta, French), competes in triathlons outside of school and some other random activities.

Appreciate any suggestions. We’re planning her spring break college trip and looking for more ideas.

2

Which have you seen?

3

Most NESCAC schools would match what you have described, as might a couple of the Claremonts. Wishing you well with all of your circumstances.

4

Not quite sure how to interpret “not overly emotional” and not “super angsty”. If there’s a high degree of student activism, concern for social justice, etc, does that fall into the category you’re looking to avoid? Does she find being around a lot of artsy types tedious? Would a school with a reputation for a fairly sports-focused culture, or one with a greater emphasis on Greek life be more to her liking?

I wouldn’t apply either of those last couple of descriptions to Swat, which apparently felt right to her, so I guess I’m a little flummoxed at the moment. And I agree with @TurnerT that it would be helpful to know which schools you’ve seen and didn’t like to get a better read on what you’re after (and what you’re not).

5

Also some of the Patriot League Schools (Bucknell, Lafayette, Holy Cross, Colgate) might work. Perhaps a smaller to mid-sized university would be a good fit as well.

6

Since she is an athlete the NESCAC schools are probably a good fit along with Patriot League schools. The proportion of total students playing varsity sports in NESCAC is huge and swimming is a big sport in the conference.

7

As you live in Tennessee, what about Rhodes or Sewanee?

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Gotta agree with @TurnerT . Unless you’re talking about the well-publicized incidents at some colleges around “microaggressions”, which I don’t think is limited to LACs, I’d say there’s not a lot of hand-holding at the better colleges. Not everyone would agree that’s the ideal situation and frankly, in terms of support staff per student (a
Wellness Dean?) few can compete with Swarthmore. By that metric alone, I’d have no qualms about recommending NESCAC for both its Div III swimming and diving programs and for the relative non-coddling of their student bodies.

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I second Sewanee and Rhodes if you want to stay in TN. Another college close to TN would be Agnes Scott (women’s LAC). Centre in KY. Hendrix in AR. For science, maybe Rhodes and Hendrix would stand out among these. All great LACs.

10

Dickinson in PA? Trinity in CT? They come to mind as schools which are not likely to have protests over food labels (a la Oberlin).

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I’d suggest you sort out the finances first. Have you run a few net price calculators to determine that the amount of need-based aid you might be eligible for? Swarthmore and many other top ranked LACs only offer need-based aid. It that works for your family, then fine, your daughter can put together an open ended list.

If need-based aid doesn’t cover your actual needs, then you should be looking at colleges that offer merit aid. In many cases, the merit aid list is different from the need only list.

Has she already made contact with coaches and is she interested in being recruited for diving? At a lot of schools this would give her a major boost.

I think there’s a difference between colleges with touch-feely administrations – the hand holders – and colleges with touchy-feely student bodies – the angst-y super sensitives, though they are often mutually enabling.

As mentioned all of the academically rigorous schools, expect students to keep up with their peers. Help is certainly available in the form of writing workshops, tutoring, study sessions and accessible faculty, but classwork is seriously demanding.

On the social side, the degree of touchy-feelyness at LACs varies widely by culture. Some are more competitive, some are more laid back, some are in the “duck” category: gliding along the surface and paddling furiously underneath.

If your daughter liked Swarthmore – which has a high degree of social activism – she might like Wesleyan, Oberlin, Smith, Grinnell. If she prefers a more sporty, politically middle road atmosphere she might like Williams, Bowdoin, Kenyon, Hamilton, Mt. Holyoke, Davidson.

12

Might look at Holy Cross in Massachusetts. HC has great science programs, meets 100% demonstrated financial aid and with 3000 students is one of the largest LAC’s. Holy Cross is a Jesuit school(like Georgetown) and seeks students of all faiths or no faith-great school.

13

I second hendrix!
I would add muhlenberg college and maybe rollins college

14

Tufts is on the small side for a research university and many of the grad programs are nowhere near the main campus.

15

Thanks for the responses - I haven’t read through all but wanted to respond first. Sorry for the delay - work, chemo and holiday things got in the way. The school that raised the issue was Bryn Mawr. Every single person we came into contact with stressed how they’d check on her to make sure she’s “ok” throughout the year. By implication, that could mean that a large portion of the students aren’t, or have the potential to not be “Ok” at least some of the time.

She’s fine with the social justice types, and while straight, is fine with an LGBT population as well. I probably didn’t explain her hesitation very well in my original post. She loathes the typical high school teenage girl drama, and both the fellow tour attendees and even the guide gave off a very angsty vibe. Combined with repeated assurances about making sure she’s “ok”, she got a little concerned that maybe LACs aren’t the right schools for her.

She did not get that feeling at all at Swarthmore, and loved it - I’m just not she’s got the stats for it. I’m a little concerned that a lot of the suggestions are for equally selective NESCAC schools, but we’ll check out all your suggestions. Sewanee is already on her list, I think it’s a good fit selectivity-wise, and she could dive there. Given the drinking culture, I also think staff hovering is probably at a minimum as well!

@momrath all of your suggestions are good, and we’ll investigate each. “I think there’s a difference between colleges with touch-feely administrations – the hand holders – and colleges with touchy-feely student bodies – the angst-y super sensitives, though they are often mutually enabling.” This is exactly the info we’re trying to ferret out with the help of the forum. It’s a bit difficult to “sort out the finances” when I don’t know if her dad or I will be alive in two years. We’re doing the best we can on that front.

Thanks again for the help, and if any other schools come to mind I’d appreciate any input y’all can give.

Happy New Year!

16

Definitely check out Rhodes, especially since you’re in Tennessee already. If she’s interested in Christian-affiliated LACs, Belmont and Mississippi College could be worth a look. One good safety, based on her stats, would be University of Montevallo, a public LAC in Alabama.

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@jcc Hope the chemo works… never an easy process.

Many kids have a tough transition to college life. I wonder if your statement that this particular college “stressed how they’d check on her to make sure she’s “ok” throughout the year” was an attempt to ease the transition into college for freshman. This wouldn’t be a negative, in my opinion. My D’s LAC did reach out to every student a couple times during freshman fall semester to ensure the college transition was going well; her responses required only a simple answer.

18

I’m a fan of Rhodes as a school, though we’ve never visited. It’s actually farther away from home than the PA schools, but that’s ok. She’s an atheist, so doesn’t want any overtly Christian schools, but is ok with loosely-affiliated places like Furman or Wake. She’s spent her entire life in TN, but is also is fairly well travelled, having been to Europe, Canada, the Caribbean, etc., and enjoys experiences outside our region.

I should have mentioned before, she has legacy at Colby, Carnegie Mellon and VMI. She would like to stay in the mid-Atlantic (NY, CT or south, Midwest is good, far west is possible). Not a fan of the Maine side of the family unfortunately!

Again, thanks for all the ideas and insights. The personality of schools is so hard to determine from a website!

19

I’m going to go out on a limb and presume that your perceptions of anxiety/angsty-ness at Bryn Mawr are going to prove more the exception than the rule. There are lots of excellent LACs that meet full need, are strong in the sciences, and are less to a lot less selective than Swarthmore. You may want to avoid a small handful of schools that have reputations for particularly freaky student bodies (Oberlin, Bard, Sarah Lawrence, etc) but that still leaves lots of choices. It might be helpful to consider other criteria that might narrow the field. Urban vs rural? liberal vs conservative? Preppy vs non-preppy? Heavy Greek culture vs no Greek culture? Do you particularly want a strong D3 diving program? If all of that stuff is wide open and you mainly care about strong sciences, there are a number of threads devoted to that topic as well. Here’s one, for instance: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1737399-which-top-liberal-arts-college-has-the-strongest-science-programs-p1.html

In addition to the obvious possible New England trip, you might find an upper midwest one to be well worth your time, since Macalester, Carleton, St. Olaf and Grinnell are all particularly strong in the sciences and, if you’re willing to drive 4 hours each way down to Grinnell from Minnesota, can all be done in one swing. The sports facilities at Macalester and Grinnell are both particularly stunning as well. All of those, with the exception of Carleton, would be a match stats-wise, and Carleton, while more of a reach, wouldn’t be out of the question by any means. Carleton’s sciences are second to none among LACs.

20

St Olaf, Dickinson, most NESCAC, Wellesley, Rhodes, Kenyon, Denison, Muhlenberg, all come to mind.
I second Carleton :slight_smile: but it’s a “reach for everyone”.