<p>I noticed with a couple of recent post that there are a few Mn posters.
I was wondering what schools are you considering ? What in state schools are your safety and reach schools ?</p>
<p>Another Minnesotan!</p>
<p>I dunno.. the only in state school I'll be applying to is probably the U, I'm mainly looking at the east and west coasts.</p>
<p>mcsquared27, thanks for the reply. The reason I asked is that my daughter is now working on her list of safety schools. She is having a bit of trouble finding a couple of in state schools that she thinks she would be happy at that she could consider safeties. UofM Duluth is so far the only one that she has said she wants to visit that would be a safety for her.</p>
<p>Minnesotan here, dad in a homeschooling family in the Twin Cities metro. Oldest son is in high school class of 2010, unless we declare a grade skip between now and then. </p>
<p>U of MN Twin Cities should be a safety for him. He's actually applying in a month or two for PSEO dual-enrollment study beginning next school year (eleventh grade). I'm an alumnus of that college, as is my wife, and I can't say I know any of the public colleges in Minnesota but the community colleges very well. (I have friends who attended community college for two years and then transfered to the U.) </p>
<p>MN</a> Transfer, Home Page </p>
<p>Do you consider far away from home a plus factor, or a minus factor? We are pretty eager to help our children have the experience of staying away from home as soon as possible and as often as possible. My oldest has been to summer programs in various places, including Ireland, and most of his college list includes colleges more than 500 miles from here.</p>
<p>tokenadult,
Thanks for the input. I think far away from home would be a plus. I guess I always assumed that one would have to stay in state to consider a school a safety..and that applying OOS takes away the safety factor.</p>
<p>We are pretty familar with most of the state colleges here and my daughter is not thrilled with any of them for one reason or another.</p>
<p>If we could come up with some OOS safety schools for her to look at that would be great. I guess we are not sure where to start. Her stats are below if anyone could recommend a safety OOS it would be great. </p>
<p>She plans on double majoring in International Studies/Spanish and is also interested in possibly adding journalism. She is pretty serious academically and is not real interested in a greek life or sports.</p>
<p>She is ranked 1st in her class
4.0 unweighted-school does not weight
Taking ACT in April- Practice Tests scored 34
APUSH -5
Taking- AP Euro and Ap Lang and Comp this year
Next year -AP Calc, AP Government, AP Lit, AP Spanish, AP Psych
Many Music EC's and Awards
Would like a school with a music program so that she could continue to play with an orchestra for enjoyment.</p>
<p>Obviously Wisconsin would meet all her needs. Excellent in languages, especially Spanish. Great Journalism and international studies. Good music school. Wide variety of students from sports lovers to hippies. Instate tuition.</p>
<p>Yeah, with that class rank and that level of test scores, UW Madison should be an admissions and financial safety, and it would meet her needs. Madison appears to be very class-rank-sensitive in its current admissions formula--there are news reports and local anecdotes of Edina High School kids with great academic records who get rejected at Madison because they are "only" in the middle of the class at a highly competitive high school.</p>
<p>I, too, would suggest UW-Madison. If she is looking for something smaller, check out UW-LaCrosse.</p>
<p>Thanks, we are not real familiar with the Wisconsin schools. She took a brief look at the Madison website and so far likes what she read enough to warrant a visit. She will check out the Eau Claire web site also. This definitley gives her something to work with .</p>
<p>"I guess I always assumed that one would have to stay in state to consider a school a safety..and that applying OOS takes away the safety factor."</p>
<p>Is this due to financial concerns? Or are you simply saying that proximity would make it easier to attend? I would use the term "safety" to apply to any school to which odds of admission are near-certain (95+%) and "financial safety" to refer to that subset of such schools where financial aid offers need not be depended on to make them affordable.</p>
<p>For Minnesotans like us tuition reciprocity is more likely to make UW-Madison a financial safety (and, I might add as an alumnus, a good one for your daughter). But other MN-WI private schools might qualify as desirable safeties, as might other OOS schools in general.</p>
<p>Other excellent WI schools that might qualify as "safeties" for an applicant with your daughters statistics are liberal arts colleges Lawrence University and Beloit College, although I can't say whether or not their strengths align with your daughter's interests. If something bigger is desired, Marquette U might be worth a look, too.</p>
<p>MN also has reciprocity agreements with ND, SD, and Alberta, Canada if you are interested in exploring other alternatives.</p>
<p>Is she looking at private schools? I don't know a lot about public schools in Minnesota, but I know a lot about the privates (I'm at the University of St. Thomas right now). As far as private schools go I'd recommend Macalester. Or if she is thinking about doing something in music St. Olaf is good.</p>
<p>Descartesc,
Finances may be a concern, alot will depend on the outcome of colleges responses to the fact that we recieve garnished child support but yet we do not know where her father is to fill out any financial forms..he has never seen her. Distance will be a concern if the above mentioned turns out to be a problem, so we are trying to keep all options open but yet keep our eyes wide open.</p>
<p>Lawrence and Madison are on her list. We will add Beloit...thanks for the tip .</p>
<p>Mnkeeper,
She is looking at both private and public. Macalester is at the top of her list for Mn schools. She will not study music in college but does want a school that will allow her to participate in an ensemble for enjoyment. She has received several calls from St. Thomas and will most likely plan a visit this year sometime.</p>
<p>Ex-Minnesotan here. You are all so lucky! When we moved here I asked, "So what states do we have reciprocity with? (I received a blank look.) You know, what states offer us instate tuition?" Well the answer is 0 and we're 10 miles from the Michigan border and 60 miles from Indiana.</p>
<p>Well, if she gets into Macalester (which it looks like she should) I would highly recommend going there over St. Thomas. UST is fine for a safety school, but I made the mistake of actually choosing St. Thomas over Macalester and now I'm transfering out at the end of the semester. Just let me know if you want to know anything about UST. I've also spent a pretty good amount of time at Macalester, St. Olaf, and Hamline (friends there).</p>
<p>Hi, MNKeeper, at the time, what looked better about St. Thomas, just in general?</p>
<p>Have you checked this website? <a href="http://www.mnprivatecolleges.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.mnprivatecolleges.org/</a></p>
<p>Each summer they sponsor a "tour" of Minnesota private colleges. If you visit x number of the members, then you get a voucher to apply to any for free, if I recall correctly.</p>
<p>tokenadult,
Really, one of the main reasons I went to St. Thomas was because I was considering doing engineering and business. I've decided not to do either and am now considering economics. Looking back, I'm really kicking myself for why I went to UST because I had spent a lot of time researching and touring colleges. In the end it came down to Macalester or St. Thomas and I chose St. Thomas because the students seemed "cooler" than the Mac students. In reality, that's just not true.</p>
<p>I thought UST students would be more fun to hang out with and I thought Macalester students just studied all the time and didn't do much for fun. After being at St. Thomas for a few months I realized that I was wrong. St. Thomas is decent, but I feel like most students are apathetic to what's going on in the world. Plus, the school is more religious than I expected and also pretty conservative; both of which don't suit me well. It's also a suitcase college and really empties out over the weekend and most kids go home since they live so close. </p>
<p>I'm transferring esentially for a few main reasons, </p>
<h1>1. I'm not proud to go to St. Thomas, anymore. I don't agree with most of the decisions made by the administration and the school has been in the news over the past few months for things that quite frankly are just embarrasing.</h1>
<h1>2. The academics are not at the caliber of schools like Macalester and I would rather be in classes with students who care more about their education.</h1>
<h1>3. The general student population. Students here don't seem to carry the idea of wanting to "change the world" that I hear about at many other colleges. I'd rather be at a school where more of the students care about what's going on and trying to do change things.</h1>
<h1>4. The general atmosphere. Like I said, the religious conservatives are prominent here. Not being Catholic, it's frustrating to always here "This is a Catholic university...." Being on student government, I hear it used as an excuse for a lot of things. Often I get the feeling that students think, "If you're not Catholic and don't like it, then leave".</h1>
<p>I could really go on and on. I guess this is a much more extensive answer than your question called for, haha, but I always jump at the opportunity to talk about colleges with which I'm familiar. In essence, St. Thomas is a good school; better than many in the MIAC. I personally ranked it 4th behind Macalester, Carleton, and St. Olaf. The quality of life overall is pretty good. If someone is Catholic, or doesn't mind the Catholicism here and is looking for a decent school (not a great school like Mac or Carleton, but a decent school) then St. Thomas would be a fine option. But a person looking to be challenged, seriously get involved with volunteer work, and graduate from a well-known school, St. Thomas might not be the best choice.</p>
<p>Any other questions don't hesitate to ask!</p>
<p>MNKeeper,
Thanks for all of the information...especially regarding UST. My daughter has not had it on her list but figured it couldn't hurt to visit. We think that Macalester would be a great fit for her personality and has a lot of what she is looking for in a school. One of her teachers is an alum there and heard that she was considering it and has already offered to write her recommendation letter, he said she would be a great fit there.<br>
Thanks again.</p>
<p>Another MN mom here, whose D sounds very similar to yours...except that she intends to major in IS/IR & French. She feels Mac would be a perfect fit for her, but she really wants a college a little farther from home. She's hoping to take French there next year through PSEO as a hs senior, but they make it pretty hard to get into. Her safety will be UW Madison, even though we haven't visited yet. We plan to head out east for Spring Break to visit some schools. We don't have a final list yet, but plan to visit at least Wellesley & Middlebury, & possibly Tufts.</p>