Liberal Arts Schools for a down to Earth Guy (3.7W GPA, 2100 SAT)

College Search & Selection
21

<p>If you want to stay south look at Flagler, Furman, Davidson</p>

<p>If willing to go north, take a look at Holy Cross, Trinity, Bowdoin</p>

22

<p>Rhodes fits your checklist well: Good reputation, most beautiful campus you’ll find, located in Memphis with nice weather (though today is as cold as it has been in many years) and lots to do. Students strike a good balance between work and play. Only thing that might not fit well is sports. We’ve got something like a dozen NCAA D3 sports, but it’s not exactly a huge part of the culture.</p>

23

<p>Goucher, Guilford, Pitzer, and University of Richmond are all LACs in/near cool cities and aren’t extremely selective or extremely cold, though the last one is a lot different in culture than the first three.</p>

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<p>Definitely look at Rhodes.</p>

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<p>Holy Cross-near Boston.</p>

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<p>Deadlines of suggested schools: </p>

<p>ALREADY PAST
Davidson 1/2 </p>

<p>UNLIKELY TO MEET DEADLINE
Occidental 1/10 </p>

<p>FEASIBLE
Colorado College 1/15
Furman 1/15
Haverford 1/15
Holy Cross 1/15
Macalester 1/15
Oberlin 1/15
Reed 1/15
Rhodes 1/15</p>

<p>VERY FEASIBLE
New College of Florida 2/15 </p>

<p>About Rhodes…Memphis gets a bad rap, and it’s not as bad as people make it to be – especially the Midtown area – but it can never been mistaken for a particularly nice city. That said, one of my best friends is studying psychology at Rhodes and absolutely loves the school.</p>

<p>I recommend Lewis & Clark in Portland. It has a February 1 deadline.</p>

27

<p>What about Hendrix? It is in Arkansas, you would get in there.
Closer to home.</p>

28

<p>I was going to recommend Pitzer College (Part of the Pomona/Claremont McKenna/Scriips/Harvey Mudd/Pitzer) Claremont Consortium of co-located colleges. However, I checked and found the application deadline was 1/1/10.</p>

29

<p>The ones that come to mind are:
Oberlin (OH)
Reed (OR)
Williams (MA)
Hampshire (MA)
Middleburry (Maine)</p>

30

<p>Middlebury is not in Maine, it’s in Vermont.</p>

<p>Besides, it’s cold there and the OP doesn’t want cold schools. Most of the schools that I would suggest for you are in places with cold winters–probably because there are more LACs in the northeast and midwest than elsewhere–so if that remains a criteria it limits things.</p>

<p>Elon would seem like a reasonable fit for you. I know several kids there, and they aren’t snobby or rich or conservative, although they also aren’t intellectuals. (Furman is by reputation MUCH more conservative.) You might look at Southwestern in Texas. It’s supposed to be beautiful, it’s right outside Austin, and it looks like a match for you. How about Centre College in Kentucky? I don’t know what the deadlines are at these places.</p>

<p>Reed, Davidson, and Haverford would be reaches for you, I think. Macalester is also reachy and is cold.</p>

31

<p>Sorry I got confused with the location of Middlebury, but you are right there are more LACs and in the south besides the schools already mentioned maybe Sewanee-University of the South?</p>

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<p>Sewanee is only for a particular type of person… I don’t really know how to explain it, but I don’t think OP is that person.</p>

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<p>What about Centre College? Whitman?</p>

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<p>Whitworth(WA), Westmont(CA)</p>

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<p>Columbia_Student – Westmont takes their religion rather seriously… while all faiths I’m sure are present, at least 80% are Christian. I don’t recall OP mentioning religion thus far. Westmont is very much like a Wheaton College (Illinois) of the west.</p>

36

<p>How is my shot at schools such as these.</p>

<p>Colorado College 1/15
Furman 1/15
Haverford 1/15
Macalester 1/15
Oberlin 1/15
Reed 1/15</p>

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<p>Reach: Haverford (US News LAC selectivity ranking #2)
Low Reach: Oberlin (#16), Macalester (#21)
Match: Reed (#32), Colorado (#21)
Safe: Furman (#42)</p>

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<p>^
Here one wonders why Macalester and Colorado College – both ranked #21 – are in two separate tiers in your post. :confused:</p>

<p>Without knowing the other details of your application (uw GPA, rank, essays), I mostly agree with pointoforder’s assessment, except I’d bump Oberlin and Macalester down to matches and bump Furman up to a safe match.</p>

39

<p>^Fair point, I guess my assesment and the US News data are two seperate things.
The Mac SAT range is a bit higher, but their % in top 10% of HS class is the same. </p>

<p>Coming from Florida would probably be a slight advantage for both schools so I considered that neutral.</p>

40

<p>Try University of San Diego. Reasonable academic/merit scholarships. Great location.</p>