We’d love recs! We’re looking for a small / medium school for my son who’s interested in political science and environmental science (and history, and comp sci… he’ll need to explore,) in the Northeast. Smaller classes w intellectually curious kids and personal relationships w profs, He especially liked the senior project requirement at Bard. Hoping for whitewater kayaking and/or skiing (clubs, doesn’t have to be competitive) and a liberal/diverse/lgbtq+ vibe. 3.7 unweighted, a few honors classes, 30 ACT, some extracurriculars and volunteer time. He’ll only have two years of language because he transferred schools junior year (his first school didn’t offer language.) He will have excellent letters of recommendation that are personalized and an academic journey essay explaining he left his last school for boarding school in search of academic rigor in spite of managing a LD.
So far: UofRochester (legacy,) Hostra, Marist, Bard, Vassar. I’m sure there are so many more… he’d prefer a pretty/green campus. Thank you in advance!
Several of the NESCAC schools would fit the bill - Colby, Middlebury (both with good skiing nearby), Bates & Bowdoin - although they are all reaches these days. In VT, there’s UVM, St. Michael’s & Champlain (all in and around Burlington with excellent skiing locally). I think most of these schools would be considered at least somewhat liberal and LBGTQ friendly.
I think Wheaton (in Norton, MA) fits your list and is a Target or Match school. Not great skiing close by, but surely as good as Hofstra has?
I have a son graduating in ‘23 who also manages LD and wants a liberal arts school with small classes. We are looking at green/pretty campuses in the northeast. Just based on that and skiing, here are some suggestions:
St. Lawrence
Hobart & William Smith
Skidmore
Union
As a unifying concept, these colleges compose four of the six New York Six schools:
Below are some schools that your family may want to consider. I focused more on schools that are extremely likely admits because those (to me) are the most important schools on a person’s list…if their only admits are from their extremely likely section, you want to make sure they’d be happy there. I suspect that low probability schools will be pretty easy for you to pick out, should your son want any schools in the low(er) probability categories. I am not an admissions professional, so the categories here are just my (very fallible) guesses as to what his chances for admission might be.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
- Allegheny (PA ): About 1600 undergrads
- Ithaca (NY): About 4800 undergrads
- Juniata (PA ): About 1300 undergrads
- Lycoming (PA ): About 1100 undergrads
- Moravian (PA ): About 1900 undergrads
- Roanoke (VA): About 1900 undergrads
- Saint Michael’s (VT): About 1400 undergrads
- Shenandoah (VA): About 2400 undergrads
- Siena (NY): About 3500 undergrads
- St. Bonaventure (NY): About 1800 undergrads
- SUNY Geneseo: About 4500 undergrads
- Susquehanna (PA ): About 2200 undergrads
Likely (60-79%)
- Champlain (VT): About 3200 undergrads
- Hobart William Smith (NY): About 1700 undergrads
- St. Lawrence (NY): About 2200 undergrads
- SUNY New Paltz: About 6300 undergrads
Toss-Up (40-59%)
- Union (NY): About 2100 undergrads
Lower Probability (20-39%)
- Skidmore (NY): About 2700 undergrads
Low Probability (less than 20%)
Be sure to check whether computer science is an overloaded major at the colleges in question. Being an overloaded major may mean (for an initially undeclared student):
- Difficulty getting into the entry-level courses.
- A high GPA requirement or competitive admission to declare the major.
- Rationing of upper level courses for majors.
Note also the computer science and environmental science are likely to have some sequential prerequisites, so it may be necessary to start the prerequisites from the first semester to avoid accidentally shutting oneself out of the majors. History and political science prerequisites are less likely to be sequential, so they can be taken more opportunistically by a first year exploring student.
Dickinson in Carlisle. PA would be a good fit for the academics, size, and mix of students but not for skiing, and not sure about kayaking.
Second (third?ing) St Lawrence, in upstate NY. A really lovely school, has an Adirondacks semester where a group of students live off-campus and off the grid and do environmentally-focused coursework.
Connecticut College would be worth a look. They have an active outdoors club that could provide lots of opportunities to explore the outdoors and has a somewhat higher admit rate than other NESCACs. Also take a look at UMass-Amherst and Sarah Lawrence.
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