Mid sized schools?

College Search & Selection
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HI all— thinking about potential colleges for my DD, HS class of 25- want to do some visits in the spring.

Full IB diploma, mostly As (will have one class that is a B this year), probably around 1400 on SAT, varsity athlete in multiple sports.

Looking for mid-large size (nothing under 5000), school spirit and sports, good academics, but not too serious, campus (not city). Not interested in going out West so looking east coast, Midwest… Other than Syracuse, Tulane, Northwestern (reach), what others do you recommend.

Thanks

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So she is in 9th grade now? If so, it is too early. So much can and will change between now and 11th grade.

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Way too early :). And Tulane is a reach too. But waaay too early but I like that your are visiting. Miami Ohio. Butler. Lehigh. Rochester. Pitt.

But please don’t overdo it like many of us do. Incorporate a fun activity. Like dad and daughter go to Cleveland to see the Rock Hall. While here we say Case Western. Well that’s close to a downtown but you get the idea.

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Have you looked again at the suggestions for your older child which seem to have the same parameters? They are good suggestions…so maybe read through those again.

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Many of the schools around 5000-10000 students are the Catholic ones= Dayton, Scranton, St. Joseph, Loyola (Balt., Chicago and while in cities, they are nice campuses that you never have to leave it you don’t want to).

If she is already a varsity athlete as a freshman, is she planning on playing in college? That can change a reach into a probably.

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Apologies all- class of 2023. Typo. She is a junior.

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Actually my older D did Not want a School with spirit like Tulane and Syracuse and she looked at many city schools. Some overlap but not much.

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Oops— typo— class of 2023

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9

Miami in Ohio. Ithaca. Lehigh. Villanova. Colgate. Northeastern (in Boston but with a nice campus). Skidmore. Connecticut College. University of Delaware. Some of the SUNY schools.

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Elon might fit the bill. Maybe College of Charleston?

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Wake Forest sounds like a potentially great fit, although it may be a little on the small side for her (~5400 undergrads).

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Parent1973, Maybe I missed it, but what is your daughter interested in studying? We cannot recommend schools without knowing that. Is she going to apply as a recruited athlete?

If she could improve her SATs that would help with many schools that would be a good fit.

You might want to look at Case Western. It is strong academically, has a collaborative (ie not too serious or stressful) environment, has a beautiful campus, and is in her size range. I don’t think there is much focus on sports, though. If she doesn’t mind a huge state school, she should look at UofM. It certainly has school spirit and strong athletics. It is highly ranked in almost all majors, but she will need to increase her SAT score.

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So midsize East Midwest - - and I love @sweetgum Elon (ok, it’s South) and @thumper1 Ithaca. Mid size and not in big city.

Hopefully this helps some…i’m sure others have more to add.

CT - Quinnipiac

DC - American (very suburban…15 min walk to train and then to main part DC)

Delaware - UDEL / mid/large

Illinois - Northwestern, SIU, Bradley and Lewis - both maybe a tad small

Indiana - Notre Dame and Butler (maybe a tad small)

Maine - U of Maine (Honors)

Maryland - Salisbury

Mass - Boston area but not city - Tufts, Brandeis, BC, WPI if STEM,

Michigan - Michigan Tech (if STEM),

N Hampshire - UNH

NJ - Princeton, Seton Hall, College of NJ, Ramapo Honors

NY - Cornell, Rochester, Binghamton, Hofstra, Adelphi, Ithaca

Ohio - Case Western - in city but not really…more like adjacent. In Little Italy. Miami U. Dayton. Ohio U (mid/large) - if you go there, you can check out Marhsall (it may seem off the beaten path but it’s 90 mins.

PA - Lehigh, Villanova, Bucknell (too small)

Rhode Island - URI with Honors

VA - WM & Mary, UVA (mid/large)

Vermont - UVM (small city) , Middlebury (too small)

WV - Marshall (Honors)

Wisconsin - none

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14

In Wisconsin, I’d add Marquette. Yes, it’s in Milwaukee, but everyone I know who has attended has loved the college and the city.

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So, you want schools like Syracuse and Tulane with sports & school spirit, nice campus, not too big & not too small?

Miami is the most similar to those. North Carolina too. Boston College would be a pretty good match. I’d take a look at Clemson too. And Connecticut. UVA fits but admission is extremely difficult for out-of-staters. Vanderbilt would be great but it too is a reach like Northwestern. Delaware can get overlooked, but in many ways it fits the bill.

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crud - i got confused - i thought school spirit was out - that was the sister :slight_smile:

who’s on first?

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Rochester, Hofstra = no school spirit.

If you are willing to go a little west, SMU.

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Seconding. Just toured Marquette with S23 and it checks the majority of these boxes. Moved way up on his list. Also, was blown away by the city of Milwaukee. Would be a great place to spend four years.

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Not sure which university you mean by “North Carolina”. I wouldn’t of think UNC-Chapel Hill or NC State as mid-sized, nor UNC-Charlotte for sure. Maybe UNC-Wilmington or App State? If you meant UNC-Chapel Hill I believe it is a harder admit from OOS than UVA is.

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Midsized school spirit and attainable is rough. Our D21 had the same preferences and strong academics but, from her high school, we could see that the Northwestern, Duke, Vanderbilts would be just out of reach for her. Also, many midsized colleges with big spirit are Jesuit or Catholic and she wasn’t 100 percent sure about that.

Her list: Boston College, Lehigh, Colgate, Wake, Richmond, Santa Clara, Denver, Loyola Maramount, Davidson & Middlebury (both a little off track on the smaller side) and gave Vanderbilt a shot. Denied at Vandy and Midd. In the end, she narrowed it down to BC, Lehigh and Colgate. She really liked all three. She’s at Colgate now. She just felt that BC was too urban for her (even though it’s really suburban) and she didn’t like the possibility that she could end up on the second freshman campus. She really liked Lehigh but Colgate won her heart.

If you have any questions about these schools, PM me. We did a deep dive into all of them.

And some of the schools above are not midsized. D wanted to top out at 8000 undergrads max.

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