<p>I'm looking to apply [with a major in biology or a major/pre-professional track in pre-medicine] to 1 more college, and I want it to match precisely what I'm looking for in a college.</p>
<p>I'm considering: Grinnell, Oberlin, Colgate, Muhlenberg, Franklin and Marshall, Kenyon, Bucknell, St. Olaf, Colorado College, Reed, Haverford.</p>
<p>Can someone talk about:</p>
<p>Academic Environment:
Is it cut-throat?
Do they weed out pre-med students expecting to apply to med school? Is there a large percentage of students who get accepted to med school?
Is the climate intense (and if so, is it more competitive or cooperative)?</p>
<p>Academic Opportunities:
Internships or research opportunities?
Is the college nearby any hospitals or institutions?</p>
<p>Social life:
Is there greek life and does it dominate social life?
Do most kids smoke weed/cigs or alcohol, and is there peer pressure to do so?
Do all the students form cliques or are they all open/tight-knit with each other?</p>
<p>Diversity:
Is there ethnic/cultural/religious diversity?
Are the students generally liberal / leftist?</p>
<p>Finances:
Do they give good financial aid (need to save up for med school, assuming I end up going)?</p>
<p>Any additional or useful information would be much appreciated as well. Thanks!</p>
<p>KCS, First on the financial aid. Does your family qualify for need based aid? If yes, ask your parents to use to use an on-line calculator to determine if it works for you. The amount of need based aid will vary somewhat from school to school but this is a good starting point to determine whether it will be enough.</p>
<p>If it’s not enough you’ll need to look for colleges that offer merit aid. Some of those on your list do, some don’t. </p>
<p>You have quite a range of personality types on your list so it’s hard to characterize. For example, Oberlin and Reed are diametrically opposite from Colgate and Bucknell in culture – though all are good choices. It depends on what you’re looking for.</p>
<p>Oh thanks, I completely forgot about those calculators.</p>
<p>I doubt I’ll get merit aid with only a 91.2 unweighted and 2170 super score… :(</p>
<p>Thanks to the both of you!</p>
<p>In a college, personality-wise I guess I’m looking for:
Neither a complete party school nor a stone-cold sober school, something in between.
Preferably a place where greek life or drinking doesn’t really affect social life.
Students are generally quirky and intellectual.
Looking for an intense academic climate, but not competitive/cut-throat.
Students tend to be on the liberal side.
Students have their niches but not isolated cliques, so that everyone can be a tight-knit family.
Really like the honor code at Haverford, it would be cool if there were another college with something like that except less selective.</p>
<p>Certainly not. For one, my stats and EC’s are way too low for Brown. Secondly, Brown dislikes my high school; only 1 or 2 get accepted every year…
I’d prefer to apply to one of the colleges that I listed above ^ or something very similar. Nothing too grand like Brown.</p>
<p>Ah, I see. Now that I look back at your original post I see that I mistook Haverford for that oh so prestigious university we all here so much about. I have a school in the back of my head that I’m thinking of, but I can’t remember the name. I’ll look it up and try to pop back over later.</p>
<p>No worries. See, here’s a part of a student review:</p>
<p>“When I tell a lot of people I go to Haverford, they tend to shrug their shoulders and go “where’s that?” even though it actually is a good, competitive school. Or the other reaction is “Woah! Harvard!”, at which point I have to let them know I don’t actually attend an Ivy League.”</p>
<p>Haverford jumps out as the school that best fits your priorities – not competitive among students, good med school prep, no frats, liberal but not too “hippie”, close to Philly and presumably great internship opportunities. </p>
<p>Grinnell has great science resources though it is an hour from Iowa City so not exactly near hospitals or universities. Pretty relaxed student body. A lot in common with Oberlin, though Grinnell seems to be stronger in sciences. Oberlin is about 40 minutes from Cleveland, thouh in a small town itself. I think Oberlin has a January term where you can do internships etc elsewhere. Though my son was not a sciences kid so we didn’t look at those resources. I have a hard time thinking of Kenyon as a strong science kind of place, though I may be entirely mis-informed. Kenyon is about an hour from Cincinnati, and not close to anything. </p>
<p>I would categorize Bucknell, St Olaf, F&M, Colgate as less “groovy liberal” and more conformist than the Haverford, Grinnell, Oberlin and Kenyon type school. </p>
<p>Colorado and Reed are just different feel – block plan at Colorado is distinct, and no idea how that impacts med school. Reed is great school for the kids who respond to it, but again, a special feel, from the kids we know going there. </p>
<p>Spend time on the CC sites for each of those schools, read college prow*** about them, to get a sense of the campus feel. </p>
<p>No one can make a decision for you, so use lots of different resources to identify the pros and cons of the schools you are applying to. </p>
<p>All of these schools satisfy most of your criteria (more or less), although I agree with momrath about the different personalities. Of the schools you’ve listed, Grinnell and Haverford probably have the best need-based aid. They are both need-blind, full-need schools. Haverford is a bit more selective than Grinnell. So maybe go with the one that best fills any gaps in your safety-match-reach selections.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the detailed descriptions and your opinions! Judging from these, I’ll be applying to Grinnell or Haverford. Now I just wish I had 1 more space on my commonapp so I could apply to both haha.</p>
<p>So the question is still does your family qualify for enough need based aid to allow you to attend a private school? </p>
<p>If Haverford is your ideal then I would eliminate Colgate and Bucknell. Grinnell is good. Oberlin and Reed have a very distinct personalities – very liberal, very activist – which may or may not be what you’re looking for. I like Kenyon, but it may be a little too Greek centered. I’m not sure about the others.</p>
<p>Other options would be Colby, Bates and Hamilton. Maybe Skidmore and Conn College.</p>
<p>If you are female you should look at the all women’s schools, especially Holyoke and Smith.</p>
<p>Almost all LACs lean left but there are different levels of involvement. </p>
<p>Admissions to selective LACs is based on much more than grades and scores. Grades are important of course (scores less so in my opinion) but so are extracurriculars, interests and various diversity factors, like race, religion, economic background, geography and so forth.</p>
<p>Just want to correct/clarify something re: Kenyon. Kenyon is not an “hour from Cincinnati” - more like an hour from Columbus, OH (and Ohio State University). It definitely feels like the middle of nowhere – very tiny town – but it’s only about 30-40 minutes from Denison University.</p>
<p>might look at Holy Cross-one of the better premed programs on the East Coast. HC IS SIMILAR to Colgate and Bucknell as all 3 are members of the Patriot League. HC has better location only 1 hour to Boston. Holy Cross(DON’T need to be religious) is also one of few schools that is need-blind.</p>