<p>Being from Central Ohio I am familiar with both Wooster and Dennison. Both are excellent choices. Dennison is in the town of Granville Ohio, very nice college town, lots of hills, gorgeous campus and very good academics. And I agree with a previous poster, there is drinking on almost all campuses - it is your choice whether or not you participate. Wooster is also quite lovely, seems to have a lot of development of buildings. The students are quite thrilled to be there and very welcoming. They are both expensive but very good, small schools.</p>
<p>It’s funny, but most of the schools in the Midwest that I know with a conservative bend are also huge party schools. I would recommend DePauw for the conservative student body, merit aid and fellows program, but they are a “work hard, play hard” school. My experience with Denison is similar. DS has visited Centre and found it more liberal than his school. He regrets not looking at it more closely though he is thrilled with his school. It would be a perfect fit based on aid, politics, econ and chemistry, but you are the wrong gender. Closer to home, have you considered U of San Diego, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine or Santa Clara?</p>
<p>Centre is in Danville, KY.</p>
<p>I drove through Danville once, and it is a VERY small town.</p>
<p>I know several people from my (midwestern) high school at hope. A few of them (who I would not at all consider seriously academic-mediocre GPAs and SATs, not idiots but by no means braintrusts) transferred because the school was not academic or difficult enough for them.</p>
<p>University of Tulsa (maybe too far south for you?) has a generally conservative student body, and is “where the smart local kids go.” Good merit aid, strengths are maybe more in engineering than pure sciences. Relatively small (3k undergrads + 1k grad students) and undergrad focused. Tulsa is a good-sized town for the Midwest, although you won’t get direct flights to CA.</p>
<p>I also encourage you to look more closely at Case Western Reserve University. Medium sized, strong in the sciences, research, students tend to be more on the economically conservative side. Great merit money, nice Greek scene. My daughter is very happy there.</p>
<p>If you’re looking for merit plus need-based financial aid and “Midwest nice” kids, check St Olaf in Northfield Minn and Lawrence University in Appleton. Both colleges have strong academics incl sciences, excellent financial aid for your stats, friendly/attractive town settings, beautiful campuses, and lots to do. Beloit, Depauw, Knox, and Earlham Colleges in depressing Rust Belt towns w/serious unemployment, disinvestment and economic decline-related problems; Hillsdale same issue? OWU, Hope, and Wittenberg geared towards “B-students”. Hope may be too overtly religious. We visited schools on your list during past two years, some multiple times. Centre looks great on paper, but we didn’t visit.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your feedback! Does anyone have additional feedback on Wooster and Centre in particular?</p>
<p>MizzBee-- Santa Clara is on my “definitely” list. I visited and really liked it, and it is nice to have an in-state option.</p>
<p>higgins2013-- you hit the nail on the head with the “geared towards B-students” comment. It sums up my academic concerns perfectly. Rhodes and St. Olaf are two schools that I feel are more geared for A-students and would have plenty of academic rigor. The others are more difficult to say.</p>
<p>PhD productivity data suggests that liberal arts colleges can do quite well in preparing students for graduate work in many fields, including the natural sciences and economics. The alumni of small LACs (such as Carleton, Grinnell, Wabash, and Earlham) earn PhDs in some of these fields at higher rates than the alumni of undergraduate programs at many large research universities (such as Wisconsin, Michigan, or Illinois.)
[COLLEGE</a> PHD PRODUCTIVITY](<a href=“http://www.reed.edu/ir/phd.html]COLLEGE”>Doctoral Degree Productivity - Institutional Research - Reed College)
<a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/econ/wparchive/workpaper/vu06-w11.pdf[/url]”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/econ/wparchive/workpaper/vu06-w11.pdf</a>
You can get detailed information about PhD production rates for many fields from the NSF/webcaspar site. (<a href=“https://webcaspar.nsf.gov/[/url]”>https://webcaspar.nsf.gov/</a>)</p>
<p>As for costs, the Kiplinger college site is a pretty good source for comparing the net costs of several hundred schools after subtracting average need-based or merit aid. For a more detailed comparison of average net costs for families in various income brackets, consult the IPEDS data.
([The</a> Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System - Home Page](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/]The”>IPEDS))</p>
<p>The table below (constructed from IPEDS data) shows average net prices for students receiving Title IV Federal financial aid (federal grants or federal student loans) in 2010-11. The table is sorted to rank the net prices across the average of 5 income brackets (shown in column 2 as “Avg Net”)</p>
<p>Columns 3-7 shows average net prices for family incomes of:
- $0-$30000 (e.g. for Earlham, the avg net cost = $12,992 for this bracket)
- $30001-$48000
- $48001-$75000<br>
- $75001-$110000
- over $110000 (e.g for Earlham, the avg net cost = $28,777 for this bracket)</p>
<ul>
<li>Two midwestern state universities are entered for comparison. IPEDS apparently does not track average OOS costs for these schools. Therefore I’ve entered numbers from the Kiplinger site (showing average net cost only for all OOS students after n-b aid).</li>
</ul>
<p>Bottom Line: If your family is in one of the higher brackets (which you probably are if you’re focused on merit aid), then Centre College looks pretty good from a cost perspective. I’ve read good things about the quality of this school, too. </p>
<p>By the way, here’s a web site that reviews colleges from a fairly conservative perspective:
[url=<a href=“http://www.collegeguide.org/index.aspx]CollegeGuide.org”>http://www.collegeguide.org/index.aspx]CollegeGuide.org</a> - Home<a href=“unfortunately%20they%20charge%20a%20fee%20to%20read%20full%20reviews”>/url</a></p>
<p>
School....... Avg Net 1 2 3 4 5
Earlham College 19665 12992 14333 20216 23532 28777
Centre College 22462 15683 14393 19375 20959 26459
Hope College 23660 14299 15839 19022 23659 28987
Wooster..... 23668 8805 11034 19706 22493 28666
Rhodes College 25540 15512 16649 20408 23529 28352
Ohio Wesleyan 25917 20002 23318 25326 26695 29634
Denison....... 26907 37613 37863 34295 39040 N/A
Santa Clara 33890 21824 22053 29332 33513 38935</p>
<p>Michigan<em>.... 29680<br>
Wisconsin</em>... 37734
</p>
<p>I know it is not on your list, and it’s not really in the midwest, but you are a good student and some of your criteria from what you want in a school (science, especially more biomedical) might fit with Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The med school plus several hospitals are right on campus and may offer additional undergraduate research opportunities. It’s not tiny but not huge either, and I expect it will be academically challenging because of the peer group. You could try and apply for the merit scholarships there: [Scholarships*|*Vanderbilt</a> University](<a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/scholarships/]Scholarships*|*Vanderbilt”>Scholarships | Vanderbilt University)</p>
<p>Northwestern (great NMF aid, very strong in bio and chem and economics), U Chicago, GRINNEL, Carnegie Mellon, and Oberlin has a nice 5 year combined program with Caltech.</p>
<p>Look them up in Fiske, mostly large private research Unis with diverse student bodies. You are a strong applicant. </p>
<p>You need to visit small LACs in Ohio - many people love them, but they are literally in the middle of absolutely no-where sometimes, with lots of corn all around, very little diversity and no ethnic restaurants. There are advantages and disadvantages to them, but you may not be able to accurately envision it from the Santa Monica Freeway. Honestly. I went to graduate school at USC and live in Ohio now. You need to come and see and you can decide if it is a fit.</p>
<p>“Look them up in Fiske, mostly large private research Unis with diverse student bodies. You are a strong applicant.”</p>
<p>Totally agree.</p>
<p>I live in Kentucky and most would consider Centre the best school in the state. Brown fellows program is pretty cool, the faculty’s pretty good, only problem is the small size of the school. Some might not even consider that a problem, though. I have stats similar to yours and I’m applying to Centre (4.0 36), so even though you will be more competition for the brown fellows, I can’t not recommend it. Also, afaik Centre has a free application, so that’s good.</p>
<p>I actually lived in the Midwest for several years and in many (most, actually) ways prefer it to southern California. I loved the Midwestern friendliness, the four seasons, and the lack of LA smog and traffic 
(The abundant merit $$ doesn’t hurt either…)</p>
<p>The way I see it, every place/region has its own perks and downsides. Though I didn’t put this in the OP, I do prefer suburbs/rural locations to urban in many ways. From my visits thus far, I liked the more isolated LAC campuses more than highly urban ones like USC. Either way, location isn’t a make-or-break issue for me.</p>
<p>I also want to challenge the idea that you can’t get a high-quality science education at the small Midwestern LACs. In addition to the PhD production stats that tk21769 posted, there’s also the fact that professors use undergrads as research assistants. In fact, due to the small size of these schools – and the LAC emphasis on undergrad education – professors tend to see their students more as collaborators than mere assistants. </p>
<p>At my D’s school, undergrads work alongside science professors not only in the lab, but also accompany them on field research to such places as East Africa, the Amazon and the Galapagos. Original research is required for degrees in Biochem, Chemistry, and Neuroscience. Her school is in the top 10 in the US at placing students in life sciences PhD programs. The idea that this school, and others like it, is not rigorous in the sciences is nonsense.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Unless it’s a program I’ve not come across as an Oberlin alum, you’re probably referring to the 3/2 Engineering program. </p>
<p>While Oberlin does have that, it’s exceedingly competitive to get into and is dependent on whether the OP/student concerned is really committed to being an engineer. The Obies I knew who successfully completed the 3/2 program at my LAC ended up going to Columbia SEAS or CWRU. </p>
<p>Oberlin campus culture tends to favor the more intellectual “learning for learning’s sake” rather than the pre-professional attitude of “college as job training” even though the college provides plenty of opportunities for both if the students have an open mind and put in the time and effort.</p>
<p>The campus culture also tends to lean very left and very vocally political. While it has mellowed out and become more mainstream since I graduated, Oberlin students do tend to relish being vocal about their politics and debating them in and out of class. </p>
<p>While it’s a valuable educational experience in itself, it’s not for everyone…especially when this relish for debate isn’t limited towards debating conservatives, but also fellow left-leaning folks over the most seemingly minor of differences*. </p>
<ul>
<li>A.K.A. “Who’s more leftier than thou” in the words of a friend and fellow Obie alum. I found it not only amusing, but a great introduction into intra-group political infighting dynamics.</li>
</ul>
<p>I’m not at all interested in engineering-- building/fixing stuff has never been my forte. Can’t tell one end of a screwdriver from another ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing your experience LasMa. I was a little concerned about the strength of science departments at LACs but have become less so as I read more about the research conducted by undergrads at said LACs :)</p>
<p>You may only get a choice of one research area at a small school- that which the prof does.</p>
<p>wis 75, at my D’s school, there are multiple research areas over a number of disciplines. It’s true that if you want to work with a particular prof, then that’s the research you’re going to do. But that is also true of large schools. </p>
<p>You’re correct that there are more profs at bigger schools, but that isn’t going to do an undergrad much good, since he/she won’t be working with ANY of them. And undergrads at large publics certainly aren’t going to have the opportunity to form close collaborative relationships with profs that are available at LACs. </p>
<p>Obviously you don’t believe that LACs are capable of producing high-quality science grads. Grad schools disagree with you. On these lists for life sciences, physics and chemistry you’ll find such Midwestern LACs as Wooster, Kalamazoo, Haverford, Grinnell, and Carleton. You will NOT find Northwestern, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, or Michigan. </p>
<p>[The</a> Colleges Where PhD’s Get Their Start | The College Solution](<a href=“http://www.thecollegesolution.com/the-colleges-where-phds-get-their-start/]The”>The Colleges Where PhD's Get Their Start)</p>
<p>I’ve been to many of the schools you listed. Top of the list are Centre and Denison in that order. Center is much smaller. Denison is in a better town. Hope is in a nice town on beautiful water. But the school is inferior, although conservative like you want. I strongly suggest you look at Depauw, Oberlin, and Grinnel, as well.</p>
<p>Can you tell us more about what kind of student culture you are looking for? Describe the typical student at your perfect school.</p>