Priority is warm weather, pretty campus, safe environment, caring teachers, and a strong community. Does not want a dominant Greek life. Wonderful, warm and empathetic woman, not particularly academically focused.
Plays varsity girls soccer and is a goalie
Majors could by sociology, psychology, poli sci. Prefer limited math / science requirements.
B/ B+ GPA
1200
No financial aid needed
Prefer a program with some structure to help them thrive.
She likes Elon, but we need a longer list! Goucher (slightly too cold) and Highpoint have made the list.
A GW or American feels right but likely too selective and difficult.
Are Jesuit colleges OK? If so maybe Loyola New Orleans, Loyola MD (can look at other Jesuit colleges as well)? The caveat is that they may have too many required courses for her tastes.
Washington college in Maryland. Weather is not as hot as the south, but stays warm until mid December and warms up again in early March. Being by the river helps, I think. Greg’s soccer program and a lot of support for athletes. Great in psychology, sociology, anthropology and close-ish to DC for politics. Greek life exists, but small and does not dominate.
Also in Maryland, McDaniel College might be a fit. Only 20% Greek, more diverse than most LAC’s, lots of career guidance, with both social science and business-y options… and DIII soccer (does she want soccer?)
No, I’m not in the college counseling field, just a parent. This list was developed by using College Navigator (the feds’ website). These were the general steps I took (changed this to bulleted form rather than what was turning into a lengthy paragraph):
I selected southern states plus California,
Capped the undergrad population at 5k or 7k (can’t recall which) since “caring teachers” can be found at all universities, but those most interested in undergrads are usually at smaller schools).
I used sociology as an available major as of the three majors interested in, it’s the one most likely not to be offered (as astounding as that is).
I also indicated that schools should accept at least 30 or 40% of the students to eliminate the most selective schools from the list.
Also indicated that housing should be available, to try and eliminate as many commuter campuses as possible.
I then went and looked at particular schools, noting how many students in the most recent graduating class majored in sociology. I looked for more robust numbers (whether larger raw numbers or in relation to the entire graduating class) and used that as a proxy for the strength of the sociology major.
A couple of colleges whose campuses I wasn’t as familiar with I did an internet image search on (California Lutheran and UNC-Asheville I eliminated as not having “pretty” enough campuses, though they are in very pretty locations).
Also, when looking at the list produced by College Navigator, I generally didn’t focus on schools that would have a very niche targeted group (for instance, evangelical colleges) or that seemed more than likely to be commuter-based. I also looked more seriously into schools that I was personally aware of or have heard good things about from the CC community, or other knowledgeable folk. I also, for most, checked the admissions stats to make sure that it was a school your D had a reasonable chance of acceptance to.