<p>If my daughter could mesh together the two schools she likes the most, she have a perfect match. She might need to compromise, but am hoping someone can give her more suggestions to think about.</p>
<p>SAT 2120
GPA 3.8 unweighted</p>
<p>Wants a small LAC within walking distance of a nice town area with food, shops. Strong science and pre-health programs, good a cappella and choral music programs that non-majors can participate in. Doesn't want Greek life to drive the social scene. Wants New England, PA, NY or maybe OH. Financial aid will be important, so she is hoping to come in above the middle 50% at a school that offers merit aid.</p>
<p>Her chocolate/peanut butter schools are Muhlenberg and Bucknell. If she could put Muhlenberg in Bucknell's town, she feels like she has found her Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. She didn't like Allentown, and she thought Bucknell was a little too Greek. </p>
<p>She loved all the music going on at Muhlenberg, it is strong in her academic areas of interest, and she thought everyone seemed really friendly. Anyone know of a Muhlenberg-type school that has a nicer town within walking distance?</p>
<p>When you looked at Muhlenberg, did you happen to look at Moravian in nearby Bethlehem? It’s a great little college and is in a consortium with Muhlenberg, Lafayette and Lehigh, which btw, is right across town from Moravian. [Academics[/url</a>]</p>
<p>If she would venture to Wisconsin, Lawrence would be a good choice. Very strong sciences and it is also a conservatory. The city of Appleton has a surprisingly strong art community.
Good merit aid as well.</p>
<p>If you could persuade her to look outside the Northeast/Ohio, I second the idea of St. Olaf. It has everything she is looking for, except for the location.</p>
<p>This thread has some great comments on the programs and culture at St. Olaf–the OP chose it over Williams, Rice, and Davidson.</p>
<p>Dickinson? My D just graduated this spring, and had a GREAT experience. She did not participate in Greek life, and had a thriving social life and fabulous experience. She got good merit aid and got a very good job with benefits after graduation (not insignificant, given that she was a humanities major!).</p>
<p>Agree on St. Olaf as very musical with strong sciences, although obviously further away.</p>
<p>What about Mount Holyoke? Neither of my D’s thought they wanted a women’s college, but once they visited Mt. Holyoke they loved it. And the 5 college consortium is great.</p>
<p>One thing about Oberlin is that we got the impression when visiting that it is not that easy for non-conservatory students to get into many of the musical groups. D2 (who is a decent alto, but intends to major in a science) did not get the impression that she would be able to get into one of the larger choirs there, which is what she would like to do musically. Lawrence was a different story, it sounded like she would be able to there.</p>
<p>You’ve received a lot of good suggestions for the PA/east coast. I don’t know the midwest schools as well.</p>
<p>Ursinus and Muhlenberg are both somewhat smaller than Bucknell. All three have good science and premed courses in my opinion. </p>
<p>Bucknell does have the highest percent of Greek I suppose of those schools. You cannot rush until sophomore year, which does allow kids to make friends and establish their niche before deciding to go Greek. I do know Bucknell plans a lot of alternative things and there are lots of campus groups - if you don’t want to party hard on a weekend there are plenty of things to do: movie/dinner in town, guest speakers, athletics etc.</p>
<p>Does she care about sports? Bucknell is D1 and there is a TON of school spirit and basket ball games especially. Lots of spectators at other sports too. </p>
<p>Have you also considered F&M? I loved loved loved that campus and Lancaster is a great little town too. I know it is strong in science too, not as sure about music opportunities, but I would bet there are a lot.</p>
<p>We liked Dickinson, but were turned off by the major road running right thru campus. You may have a different opinion of course. Gettysburg is also a nice small school. I do think Bucknell is slightly more competitive but they all look like the provide great experiences~</p>
<p>We were quite impressed with Seton Hill in Greensburg, PA. The campus is beautiful, the setting amazing and downtown Greensburg has a LOT to offer, which really surprised us for the size town. They are VERY strong in the sciences/health sciences with a med school on campus and auto admit with a 3.5 GPA and at least a 25 on the MCAT-another bonus. I don’t know anything about the choir but they do have a large band program that non-majors can participate in. Financial aid is very generous.</p>
<p>Several reasons. There aren’t that many MATCH colleges that have everything she wants and are within her geographic range. Also, if merit aid is more important than other criteria, it might be worth it to expand the search. Sometimes being “geographically desirable” can make a difference in aid awards.</p>
<p>D2 was non-Greek by choice at Bucknell (graduated in May) and did fine. She had friends in and out of Greek life. But there are many clubs and activities to get involved with.</p>
<p>D did attend some frat parties first and second year. But overall, her activities involved little Greek life. Totally doable at Bucknell.</p>
<p>Wow! Thanks so much everyone. She looked Muhlenberg, Bucknell, Dickinson, Lafayette, Lehigh, F&M on the same trip. Also has looked at Colby and Union. Wellesley would be perfect in many ways, except I think that is a reach school for her. She’d prefer co-ed, but more important than that is feeling good about the community – both on campus and off.</p>
<p>I’m making a list of all of your suggestions for her to read up on. A few schools I haven’t even heard of, which is no doubt a reflection of my newbie status in the college process, and I’m excited to research, too. The sports and alternative activities definitely help Bucknell - we remember our tour guide talking about all the things B was constantly bringing to campus. Should add that I think she’s been leaning away from B because the net price calculator result is about 10K higher than M’s. She did like F&M a lot - to her it just seemed a little weaker on the music front and she read in The Insider’s Guide that it is cliquish – one comment from one anonymous person, and it has stuck in her mind, true or not.</p>
<p>A few months ago, I did a net price calculation on Lawrence and St Olaf and they came in higher than most on her list. I was surprised, because her stats were good for those schools and she’s outside the region. Maybe she should look more into those just in case.</p>
<p>Just in case you missed this, since you just mentioned it in your post. F&M does NOT give merit aid. They used to, but they ditched it a couple of years ago. It was on my D2’s list to look at, but we took it off when they did this. So if merit is important to you, you should drop them off.</p>
<p>I am not clear on whether all the colleges include potential merit aid in their calculators. When we ran them some did, but it appeared that some did not (D2 is a national merit semifinalist, so would assume that some of her safeties would probably give her some, but the calculators usually did not indicate this). Lawrence was a school that did not show any merit aid for her, but I am pretty sure in reality she would get some. So you can’t really tell about the merit aid from the calculators, I think. Some do show it (for example, Mount Holyoke did).</p>