My daughter is a volleyball player who doesn’t want to play in college but wants a school with a healthy athletic program for club and/or intramural players. She wants a medium to large school with a lot of school spirit that is not in a South. Doesn’t know her major yet, maybe business, sports management, history or poli sci. She’s a pretty good student, somewhere in the top 25% of her class. Any advice or suggestions for schools?
Does she have any SAT or ACT scores? Area of the country? Is cost an issue?
As the parent, have you worked out the college budget, checked some college net price calculators, and informed her of the cost constraints that she will have to work within?
There are probably hundreds (if not a thousand+) schools that fit that description. To advise, we’d need more info, including on the OP’s home state.
I would try the supermatch function to the left (under find a college). Also get your hands on some college guide books (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review, Insiders Guide) and start reading up on schools. You didn’t provide a lot of academic stats, financial requirements, or home state so it is hard to give really meaningful suggestions. Perhaps Syracuse? UConn? Villanova? Lehigh? Penn State?
My first thought was Syracuse.
University of Michigan has got Ross school for business or a school of kinesiology for sports management. It’s big, has a ton of school spirit, and a big football tradition
We need the information requested in post #1.
Thanks for the questions. It helps me clarify things for us. She’s a rising junior, so no SAT or ACT scores yet. I think she will not be a candidate for super selective schools like Stanford but could probably get in anywhere with a better than 15% or 20% admit rate. Luckily for us (and her) cost is not an issue. Wisconsin, U Michigan and U Penn are on our list but I’m hoping to find somewhere a bit more like an LAC but with real school spirit (so a poor man’s Stanford I guess!)
I think you mean Penn State, not UPenn? Sorry, just trying to avoid confusion!
-Boston University
-Ohio State University
-University of Notre Dame (Reach)
-University of Virginia (South, but just under the mid-atlantic region)
-Villanova University
The highly selective (but >20% admit rate) Colgate offers much of what you describe, excepting, I believe, much in the way of the direct study of business.
Given the criteria that you’ve put before us, I can only think of one school that fits them all.
Notre Dame
However, I think you may be overestimating your daughter’s ability to get into some of these schools. Notre Dame’s acceptance rate was roughly 18% this year which fits your criteria. But this year 94% of the people admitted were in the top 10% in their school. If she’s outside the top 10%, she better have near perfect test scores, come from an extremely competitive high school or have a great “hook”.
Michigan is a little easier to get into, but if she’s closer to the top 25% than she is to the top 10%, I don’t necessarily like her chances either. If she could get in, that would be a tremendous school as well.
Other schools that may be a good fit for your criteria (except for LAC criteria) would be Indiana University and Penn State
Some smaller schools that seem to have a lot of school spirit are:
–Lafayette (LAC) and Lehigh (mid-size university) have a huge sports rivalry which brings out a lot of school spirit on the side of both schools. For full disclosure my D was on the Lafayette side of the rivalry!
-Villanova is a mid-size university. Its basketball team just won the NCAA tournament.
–I’ve heard that Holy Cross has a good bit of school spirit although I have no first hand information.
Thanks everyone for all the helpful suggestions. I will take a look at everyone’s suggested schools. I know nothing about these big schools having gone to a small liberal arts college myself. Her brother is studying comp sci and had a very narrow set of requirements, so we are in new territory with her. Btw, I did mean U Penn because their B-school is just so good, but I know it is very very much a reach! We are willing to go after some of more more selective schools (U Penn, Michigan) but I know it’s a crap shoot. Her grades and AP scores just arrived and things are looking up. She may be able to get her GPA up enough to make top 10% but even then, you just never know. Her brother (different story – he went to a nationally known science and tech high school, had very good test scores and an unusual interest in constructed languages) got into Pomona, Brown, Swarthmore and CMU for comp sci, but not Berkeley or San Diego. Go figure!
Glad you have been through this before, so you know how difficult top school admissions are.
Wharton is more difficult to get into at Penn than CAS. Ross is also more difficult to get into at Michigan than LSA because it is very small (about 1% of students).
Lehigh has good liberal arts and a business school. At Lehigh you can change to business, or any major easily. The school has a feel that is in-between an LAC and a University.
Congratulations on your son, and good luck with your daughter, BlueMama!
Thank you, Much2learn! I just looked at Lehigh. I think that’s the kind of thing I’m looking for, something between reach and safety schools. Not sure if it’s got enough “school spirit” for her (whatever that means!) but it looks like a smart, happy community.
Boston College, Villanova, Notre Dame, Iowa, Lehigh.