Match D24 - “Average Excellent” Artsy Classics + Anthropology major for mid-sized Northeastern schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • US domestic -FLORIDA resident attending boarding school in VIRGINIA
  • Small, private, girls boarding school in rural Virginia with strong record of matriculations to T50s
  • White, female

Intended Major(s)
-Classics/Antiquity Studies + Anthropology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0/4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.2/4.3 (HS does not weight, but awards up to 4.3 for A+)
  • Class Rank: school does not rank, but received award for highest GPA end of sophomore year
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 34 Composite, only taken once

Coursework
*school does not offer AP/DE/IB, but has limited number of “advanced” courses. Through Junior year she has had highest rigor available at school, but she may take Stats instead of Calculus as a senior. She has done well in math, and has an A in H Precal, but she doesn’t enjoy math and thinks stats is better for her major. This is still flexible.

Senior year she is doing advanced coursework involving a 30 pager research paper

Taking Latin V next year (AP not offered) and French 2. She LOVES languages

Awards
Merit scholarship recipient, National Merit Rural Scholars, Sophomore Scholar Award, Humanities Award.

Extracurriculars
*Junior Prefect & Senior Honor Council (these are big responsibilities at her school)
*Co-Editor school literary and art magazine
*editor, school paper
*theater - performed in 4 shows to date, has lead role in Spring show
*President and founder, Latin club
*Co-President, GSA
*Art - loves to pant and likely will submit portfolio but doesn’t take classes (did do RISD pre college summer program)
*Robotics Team - served as communications/media manager
*Admissions Volunteer - is the virtual tour guide/presenter in virtual tour on school website, also serves as tour guide/host/student panelist

Essays/LORs/Other
*expect these will be good; very strong relationships with teachers; she is quirky, passionate, and interesting, but has not overcome unusual challenges, etc.

Cost Constraints / Budget
*None. Will not qualify for FA and we can make full pay work. We would be delighted to receive merit award if her ED choice doesn’t work out

Schools
*Tufts - planning to apply ED1 (we would love ideas on schools that are similar)

Working on developing list and open to suggestions, but she 100% wants a small/midsized school in Northeast (prefers Massachusetts/CT/NY) with small classes and collaborative/quirky/artsy/liberal/queer-friendly vibe. After 4 years in a rural boarding school, she would love to be near a city and particularly loves Boston. Prefers open curriculum/flexible distribution requirements and dislikes rigid core curriculum. Current thoughts include:

High Reach:
Brown (so unlikely may not apply)
Tufts - ED1 - toured and really loved it. Clear first choice
Barnard
Wellesley
Amherst - likes on paper but did not like tour/may not apply

Reach
Wesleyan
Vassar - absolutely LOVED her tour and the programs, hesitant about location
Boston University
NYU - concerns about lack of campus and size
William & Mary (legacy) - toured with her school and likes campus/programs/size but dislikes location
U Rochester

Target
Connecticut College
Brandeis
Mount Holyoke
UMass Amherst
U Maryland
Pitt

Likely
UConn
U Vermont
FSU (in state and she hates this idea)

I would love for her to consider Davidson and Emory but she feels uncomfortable in the South. These seem worth considering though?

Thank you in advance!

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I think your list is great, but needs some paring down. I do think that she will get into all of her likelies and targets (FYI, UConn is more selective than UMass). Know that she must apply early action to a lot of the flagship publics (are you listening, U Md?) in order to increase her odds of acceptance, and in order to be eligible for merit. She might want to take a look at the SUNY schools. They’re cheap, even OOS, and they have an incredible range of any major known to man. But it’s not that you need more schools - she already has so many on her list that will work for her. BTW, even if the school is enormous, she will be awarded honors probably, which means smaller pre-selected dorm community, plus in her fields of interest, the department will be a smaller setting, so she would have the best of both worlds, even at large flagship U’s.

Realize that the tour is very guide-dependent. School could be the perfect match for your kid, but if the guide isn’t, they don’t like the school! Best way for her to evaluate a school is to go for a 3-4 day weekend visit to stay with a student, eat in the dining hall, go to some classes. She shouldn’t write off Amherst because of the tour.

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Barnard?

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Yes, Barnard is on her High Reach list. Programs are fantastic. She is planning to tour Barnard and NYC this summer. I’m concerned it’s an extra tough admit bc she will apply ED1 to Tufts and Barnard doesn’t offer ED2.

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Sorry I missed it in your list…what feedback is she getting from her counselor???

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Our area sends a lot of kids to Tufts. Just anecdotally, since her grades are near the top, you ED, full pay, etc I’d say you have a pretty decent chance of getting in.

I know Tufts is a reach for everyone and we all want to be cautious and every school is getting more selective, but IMO, you probably fit their profile pretty well.

Once again, just my opinion.

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You may want to consider this site, which is the best I’ve seen in naming schools strong in classics:

Based on your daughter’s interest in languages in general, this site also may be of interest:

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What about Northeastern?

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I think your daughter has a decent chance at Tufts if she goes ED - we send 4/5 kids there from our public HS (in MA) most years and your daughter’s academic profile is in line with kids that have been admitted. Tufts loves ED. Of course, there is no guarantee (obviously Tufts is very familiar with our HS which helps with admission) but it seems like a solid ED1 choice to me. Don’t bother applying to UMD if she doesn’t apply EA - they take almost everyone EA these days and it would be a waste of an application fee. Your list seems well thought out and you have assigned schools realistically, but you’ll want to pare it down. She’s likely to get into all the publics you have listed (UMass, UConn, UVM, Pitt, UMD) so I’d cut that list in half – UVM sounds like a good fit in terms of location and vibe.

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Trinity in Hartford, CT?

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It is not safe for a woman of reproductive capacity in a state where there is any penalty for anyone providing the full range of reproductive healthcare. Listen to her about this - it could mean her life. Sometimes medical emergencies happen to someone who is pregnant, and they are not medically stable enough to be transported out of state to a location where they can receive the life-saving procedure that they require.

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Nice list. Tufts and Barnard sound great. UVM and Burlington are good options as matches/likely.

I would keep Brown on the list, even if high reach, and a deeper look at Amherst because of its open curriculum, location and access to the other 4 colleges in the area.

What kind of art does she do? She can get an opinion from a teacher about whether the portfolio is a good idea: if so, it can be helpful. Did she look at Tufts’ progam with the Museum school?

I think looking at the classics and anthropology departments might be important, as well as whether a non-major or minor in art has access to good art classes.

Sounds like a great kid!

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This describes Sarah Lawrence. You may want to research whether or not its program in classics would be sufficient for your daughter’s level. Of additional note, SLC is especially highly regarded for its classroom experience:

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Swarthmore?

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With respect to colleges with notably flexible curricula, it seems that your daughter has already considered most of these schools:

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I would not rule out Emory. It does not feel like a Southern school at all, more like a Northeast school that got plopped down in Atlanta. Nice blend of LAC and university, easy access to metro Atlanta.

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The concerns raised above are regarding the laws of the state. A college can’t override them.

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Statistics is probably more useful in general for most majors other than those explicitly requiring calculus, but some social science students may find calculus useful for calculus-based statistics.

Would some of the public LACs listed at Member Institutions be potential likely or safety options? But check for depth and breadth of classics, Latin, and French (and other languages of interest), particularly at smaller schools.

Due to state-level political stuff that could affect quality of life (e.g. anti-LGBT, restrictions on abortion, etc.), or other reasons (e.g. weather)? The reasons could affect which states would be acceptable to her.

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I didn’t see where the OP expressed concerns about the laws of the state and abortion policy. Did I miss that? I apologize if I did.

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