Oh, I understand the English university system. But to sell him on the idea of LACs, you can tell him that it’s the closest approximation of the Oxbridge tutorial system in the US (except with far more flexibility).
And they have some majors that are really double/triple majors there (like PPE, Math&Philosophy, History&Econ, etc.)
But yes, like many higher education systems in the world, under the English university system, you enter one major and that’s that.
BTW, if she is an EU citizen, many universities in Europe may be open to her and quite cheaply as well, right? I suppose that the difficulty may be getting in (most of those higher ed systems are set up for the secondary school systems of their country).
The Irish universities may be an option. Evidently, most of them don’t force you to declare a major until the end of your first year.
The Scottish ones don’t either?
@PurpleTitan , correct. As I mentioned,she is considering Scottish universities. Unfortunately, even though she has dual citizenship, it’s the residency issue that means she would have to pay the full price. Which, in fact, is still muuuucchhhh cheaper than many private universities here. Even St. Andrews, probably most expensive of the bunch, is $50,000 a year, all in.
Would she be interested in the joint program between William and Mary and St. Andrews?
http://www.wm.edu/as/undergraduate/curriculum/special/standrews/
She sounds a lot like my son who is applying now. He found Oberlin be to one note, everyone was very liberal. He is very liberal but wanted more of a variety of views. His safeties are College of Wooster, Beloit and Muhlenberg. He has also applied to Grinnell, Hamilton, Haverford and Macalester. Carleton was on the list until the last minute, but fell off due to application burn out.
Son did not like St. Mary’s College, but he does have some"hip, cool" friends who love it. It seems to be 2 hrs from everywhere and the campus is very isolated, but very pretty, right on the river.
Very cool, @Mom24boys. I am definitey going to have her check this out.
As far as I can tell, Oberlin seems to be a pretty strong STEM school.
In the decade from 2003-2012, Oberlin alumni earned more PhDs in math/statistics than alumni from many larger schools, including URochester, Vanderbilt, Case Western, Tufts, Johns Hopkins, Emory, UMass (Amherst), Michigan State, Purdue, and Minnnesota (Twin Cities).
Source: webcaspar.com (NSF data)
On a per capita basis, Oberlin alumni earned more PhDs in S&T fields in general than alumni of JHU, Duke, URochester, Dartmouth, Columbia, CO School of Mines, and UC Berkeley (all of which are among the top 50 in per capita alumni earned doctorates in S&T fields.)
Source: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf13323/ (Table 4).
Another vote for Oberlin, also love Macalester, Haverford, Bryn Mawr. Swat is a little more “high strung”
Yeah, if her dream school is brown, she needs to visit wes. There’s a pretty huge crossover there.
Edit: Weird, just saw that you said she didn’t like it. Any particular reason why?
I’d also add Bard to the list.
I agree, @ridethecliche, I suspect that visitng during the summer wasn’t the best idea, even though we did a tour with a student guide. I am very inclined to take her back, as we live just over an hour away.
Minneapolis IS a great city–and so is St. Paul, which is where Macalester is. They are actually two pretty distinct cities, even though of course they are easily accessible to each other.
I’d also say the vibe of Macalester is more “hip/cool” than that of Carleton.
Here some off the beaten path schools for the high achieving NY student.
Reed? Nerdy cool.
Lewis and Clarke. Can’t get much hipper than portland.
Pamona? good school access to other campuses. And SoCal is the birth place of cool.
Loyola Marymount as a safety and google opening shop across the street.
Seattle U, another saftey? very cool for Jesuit school. Capitol Hill is the home of hip.
I have 2 daughters attending the University of Richmond in Virginia, a very nice LAC with strong academics. Both are in the sciences,but UR also has an excellent business school, and many other good academic programs. My daughters really like being able to do some exploration and take classes they enjoy, supplementing their science and math focus. They are both Richmond Scholars, one with a full-ride and one with a full tuition scholarship. UR offers approx. 45 of these substantial scholarships each year with scholarships for science/math, leadership/service, and also in the Arts. A high stats student would have a decent chance at this substantial merit aid and they also meet full demonstrated need.
D1 is a junior and has had paid internships each summer and will be spending the upcoming semester studying at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
UR has consistently offered internship/research opportunities, and not just in the sciences. They recently announced that they were expanding their paid internship program so that every student would have an opportunity to participate: http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/ur-to-fund-summer-internship-for-all-undergrads/article_3a6f547e-f8d8-51fd-a636-79372bf9c7d8.html
Both daughters have also been able to conduct research with professors and participate in research symposiums(science and humanities projects). We have attended several symposiums and have been very impressed by the enthusiastic students-some really fascinating research topics.
The campus is very pretty, in a safe suburban area, but only 10 minutes from downtown and the area has a very vibrant art scene and wonderful shops and restaurants and outdoor activities nearby. As with most LACs, there is one main dining hall, along with a variety of small cafe-type restaurants, and the food is excellent - we usually eat there at least once when we visit. I also really love that most students live on campus all 4 years (they have on-campus apartments that are popular with the upperclassmen), as it really contributes to a tight-knit sense of community. At most large universities, it seems as though most students are desperate to move off campus after freshman year.
Richmond is slightly under 2 hours south of DC and easy to reach via amtrak also, about 4 miles from the train station.
Between the 2 daughters, we also visited Dickinson, Muhlenberg, Lafayette, Gettysburg, Ursinus, Swarthmore, Bucknell, Franklin and Marshall, and Providence College, and liked what they had to offer as well. These LACs, including UR, all have very active alum networks and excellent job placement services.
When I visited schools as a student a decade ago, I felt that Lafayette and Colgate were pretty preppy and heard that bucknell had a similar vibe.
I have a cousin that went to swat and another at F&M and they liked it a lot.
Honestly, if your child is interested in professional programs at all, then undergrad doesn’t make a huge difference as long as they’re comfortable and do well. I think the only thing that any of this actually matters for is for jobs in the business sector, tech, etc. Engineering is another ballgame altogether as well.
Wesleyan felt plenty quirky to me at the time, but I think the sports culture is definitely growing and it has a better overall mix now. Regardless, I honestly feel that one finds people they like anywhere as long as one is a reasonable person to start out with.
D1 is freshman at Brown and is more STEM oriented. The LACs she had as her safeties/matches were Smith, Wes, Hamilton, Wellesley Dartmouth and Amherst. I think Wes (along with Dartmouth) was most appealing to her out of those, and had the best science programming outside of large universities. Smith made a great appeal late, and I think you’ll find it the best at STEM among the seven sisters. Oberlin is a great school, and while it is on the crunchy side, it’s balanced by the STEM students and music conservatory. Has much more respect among grad schools and PhD programs than its USNWR standing might suggest.
I see some comments about Bucknell. I don’t consider that a “hip” place at all…more button-up and conservative.
Agreed re Bucknell, it is not on her list. Also not on her list, Villanova, Lehigh, and what she would call rah rah schools. Also, stepay, she is NOT interested in STEM, whihc is why she is generally steering clear of those types of colleges, though there is certainly nothing wrong with good science programs and the like at LAC type schools. What does USNWR mean?
I can’t begin to tell how how happy this question makes me. * wipes tear…*
USNWR stands for US News and World Report; a magazine. Once a year they publish a ranking of US colleges and Universities which sadly, carries an enormous amount of influence with too many parents and high school students.
Oops, not reading carefully, I thought you said she was interested in STEM. Anyway, the same set of schools are still good for humanities. When it comes to hip and cool, I still like Oberlin; it’s where Lena Dunham of Girls went to school and you can’t get more au courant with young hipsters than that.
Ha ha @joblue! I don’t give two hoots about that report. I have since read dozens of other lists that seem to be much more accurate than that one. And any site that makes you pay to access the info that others give free has no credibility in my book. You will be happy to know that apart from getting occasional statistics and addressess, I rarely use USNWR.
collegedata.com is my go to site.
We live in suburban DC, so some level of familiarity with many of the colleges mentioned here. I second the recommendations to check out St. Mary’s College of Maryland and Washington College, as well as some of the LACs in Pennsylvania. For example, we visited Goucher, which my D found to be way too “hippie” for her, though I didn’t find it to be nearly as hippie as Bard, where I visited five years ago to see a niece. We also visited Gettysburg, which my D found to be too Greek. Like you, we are searching for a sweet spot in-between. I don’t know of anyone who would consider Hood to be hip. It’s lack of hipness, and the availability of more rigorous but not super-elite options in the Mid-Atlantic, would lead me to suspect it might not be what she’s looking for. McDaniel, though less than hour from us, is an intriguing option that we have yet to explore. Franklin & Marshall and Dickinson are two strong Pennsylvania LACs that I know little about but may fit the bill, as well as two CTCL schools in Pennsylvania: Ursinus and Juniata. Moving further south, if she didn’t like BU or Northeastern, then George Washington I’d guess likely wouldn’t appeal.Richmond is an intriguing option, though it has a reputation among my friends and D’s friends as a bit preppy and Greek. Good luck!