<p>Nervous1,</p>
<p>How about Emory? I know a handful of kids who didn’t quite have the “data” for Tufts, Wash U., and Rice, and who got into Emory, with merit scholarships, no less. Emory seems to fit your original criteria list. It’s a great school, great academics, beautiful campus, right size–high rate of freshmen retention (e.g. student satisfaction).</p>
<p>WCASParent makes a good point…even if Vanderbilt (or any other school) is more ‘selective’ by virtue of having more applications to choose from for each spot, it does not mean that it is more difficult to get admitted…the stats at Wash U are higher, no doubt. Our D visited and liked both places, but on paper Wash U did look like the more difficult admit. But I think that as nice as Wash U is, most people would find the Vanderbilt campus more ‘beautiful’. As far as greater, that would depend on what you want to do and other circumstances. We have a friend that is a prof at Wash U and others that have attended and it is tops in many ways, especially if you are talking medicine. That’s why the pre-meds are clamoring to get in!</p>
<p>Then you have to take into account what is going on in your area. Our D got tons of stuff in the mail from Tufts and she did look there briefly. (She decided she did not want to spend 4 years in New England.Couldn’t talk her out of it!) Looks like a great school, but in our area (the NW) Vanderbilt gets many, many more applications/enrollees, to the tune of 3-4 times the amount. Not many have heard of Tufts. I know that Tufts is wildly popular in the NE and that about 1/4 of the students are from MA alone. It must be frustrating to live there if you want to go to Tufts! </p>
<p>Emory is similar to Vanderbilt as far as geographic distribution, but here it is considered a safety compared to Vanderbilt! Funny how that works. Wait, maybe not. Wash U, Emory and Tulane all talked about their popularity in the NE…going back historically to the large Jewish contingent…so maybe it does make sense. Depends on where you come from-regional perspective, I guess.</p>
<p>Anyway, back to the point of this thread, none of the schools mentioned would really be a good ‘safety’ for the OP. Even Emory, which had the highest admit rate per the profiles of the colleges, stood at 28% last year. That and the average class stats make it no easy admit…although like SWHarborfan said, it may be a bit easier. The scholarship process at schools at this level seems so random.</p>
<p>Hmmm…it seems to be hard to find a good alternative to Wash U. I guess to some degree it is a one of a kind? I know, that isn’t very helpful, but maybe it does explain its popularity.</p>
<p>Do we know where the OP is from? That obviously makes a difference!</p>
<p>I’m the OP, and we’re from the Northeast. Thanks again everyone for your thoughts. Keep them coming!!</p>
<p><<not many=“” have=“” heard=“” of=“” tufts=“”>></not></p>
<p>Maybe in Paducah, KY or Spivey Falls, Idaho they haven’t heard of Tufts, but in the urban centers–L.A., SF, Seattle, Chicago, New Orleans, NYC, Philadelphia–we certainly know of Tufts. In fact, we know someone from Billings, Montana for whom Tufts is a first choice.</p>
<p>The WashU campus reminded me of the U. of Richmond campus when I first saw it - the buildings have a similar look. I saw U. Richmond first, and its campus is even prettier than the WashU campus, because of the lake in the middle of campus, and the student center that overlooks it. </p>
<p>U. Richmond is smaller than WashU, definitely less selective to get into, has a gorgeous campus, is accessible to city of Richmond (the capital of VA). It does have a fairly big greek scene however, which the OP didn’t want. My S also didn’t want a huge greek influence on a school, yet liked U. Richmond.</p>
<p>What about Wake Forest?</p>
<p>Vanderbuilt (95% in frats)
Rochester-- cold (less selective than others in here)
Emory – be sure to visit to show "interest"CMU-- techie school
Comparable acceptance as WashU
Tufts – very tough to get into
Rice known as the "Southern ivy"JHU-- graduate school
Northwestern – #s just like WashU
Georgetown – as difficult as an ivy</p>
<p>Then there’s LACs:
Rhodes
Wake Forest - is it a LAC?</p>
<p>Suggest you direct us so more: nat’l U or LAC? Are you thinking Midwest, NE, South, or West Since "too high + WashU, what does her GS say is "just right? a Safety?</p>
<p>My vote is to explore William & Mary (public) , Holy Cross, Providence, Villanova (Catholics) LACs in PA: Lafayette/Bucknell/Lehigh/Dickinson/ etc.</p>
<p>34% of the guys at Vanderbilt are in frats.</p>
<p>Lima Beans had lots of good suggestions, but again, not sure how much they are like Wash U.</p>
<p>William and Mary is a tough admit out of state because they have more out of state apps and only 1/3 of the spaces. The admit rate was 27% last year for out of state and down quite a few percentage points for the girls. The Greek scene there is comparable to Vanderbilt and most southern schools, percentage-wise. If that is ok, it’s a fine school and might be a good option but we have been there a few times and it doesn’t really seem a lot like Wash U.</p>
<p>As for Tufts…again…if it is well known in the NW, not many from this area are choosing to go there. WA (including Seattle ), OR and ID have a total of 20 enrolled there. (But it seems to be popular in CA.) You could scrape up another 20 between Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada and the Dakotas. That’s low compared to the amount from the west that choose to attend many other top schools back that way. I don’t know why. Obviously, Harvard is well known and I wouldn’t be surprised if Boston College doesn’t draw quite a few of the Catholic kids. (We looked into it with D because we thought Tufts would be a good place for her and she is big on profiles/numbers.) Anyway, to be honest, UW (esp honors) is the big draw here. Out of state it’s Stanford and the Claremont Colleges, for the high end students. Seriously, even Brown has had an exasperating lack of recognition here, but that is changing with Emma Watson there! I think the regional trends are interesting. Of course,YMMV</p>
<p>BTW…I see the OP is from the NE. As many have said, Tufts would most likely be a tough admit from there.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Wake Forest in North Carolina is a university. It has a graduate school, a divinity school, a management school and a medical school. But the undergrad college is just under 5000 I think.</p>
<p>Colgate, Bucknell, Holy Cross, Lafayette</p>
<p>William & Mary very similar to WashU but very difficult to be admitted. Maybe a school like Tulane? Lehigh? GW?</p>
<p>Tulane is a nice school that’s a heck of a lot easier to get into than Wash U.
Colgate and Bucknell have some similarity in feel, including the fact that both are in the middle of nowhere. Colgate’s campus is absolutely beautiful. And if you visit, you should probably take a look at Hamilton, which is not far away.</p>
<p>Well, this thread is convincing me of how uniquely wonderrful WashU is! I wish we lived someplace like Alaska, where most every school would want my D for geographical diversity!!</p>
<p>WCASParent and swish14 have some good ideas. I was thinking of Tulane and some of the PA schools too. Tulane draws a good # from the NE, like Wash U, has good public transportation, and Audobon park next door…plenty of things to do. Div 1 sports though. They give out a lot of scholarship money and waive the application fee if you apply early.</p>
<p>Our oldest looked at Bucknell and Colgate too. Nice schools. Not as familiar with Hamilton but I have heard good things.</p>
<p>GW is actually part of DC…feels more like NYU than Wash U, I would think. OP said NYU and BU were not a good fit for D.</p>
<p>Nervous 1, what kind of academic interests are we looking at?..Never mind. I see she is undecided, leaning toward humanities.</p>
<p>Your list of criteria just about mirrors that of our current senior D.</p>
<p>Guess it’s too late to move to Alaska?!</p>
<p>My D looked at both Tulane and Wash U last year, and really liked both. They are remarkably similar in some ways (about the same size, lots of pre-meds and pre-law, both have med schools and law schools, similar setting in nice old money parts of urban area, next to huge parks, very nice looking campuses). No question Wash U is academically more selective, but Tulane is about 20 places higher than its USNWR ranking if you look at only standardized test score averages, and both have about 20% acceptance rate (although this is first year Tulane is supposed to be that low, but still was about 27% last 2 years). And they both market like hell, lol. Also significant Jewish populations at both. So lots in common. She ended up at Tulane mostly because she got full tuition scholarship and nada from Wash U.</p>
<p>Looking back at the OP’s post, it is about 27% Greek and the party reputation is exaggerated because it is in New Orleans. Not saying kids don’t party hard, but it is no worse than similar schools, and probably better than at Big State U.</p>
<p>OP, you described what my D wanted too! She just got into WashU!! </p>
<p>Anyway, maybe the Claremont consortium. Outside of LA, although a haul to get in there, but it is in a nice town that is in walking distance, and the five college consortium gives it a bigger feel and access to more resources. Pitzer and Scripps would be less selective than WashU, but they are increasing in popularity as a backdoor into Pomona…</p>
<p>Not CMU. This is not the place for someone who wants to explore. If you’re a science/math/techie or a committed artist, it’s great, but otherwise, no. </p>
<p>Maybe also LACs which are in cities: Occidental and Macalester were two that my daughter also applied to. Smaller schools, but being able to get into the city may make it feel bigger.</p>
<p>as info, William and Mary does not have engineering or architecture (we live in Va, if it had them, daughter would have applied there) so if interest in WUSTL is based on those programs, W&M is not similar.</p>
<p>What about Syracuse?</p>
<p>American is kinda small, but what a fabulous place!!!</p>
<p>Tufts and Vanderbilt!</p>