My S19 needs help!

College Search & Selection
1

I had an earlier thread about my S in January and got some great suggestions, but we did not know his SAT scores at the time. He is also focused more on History now than Creative Writing.

S19 has finally realized he needs to solidify a college list but is overwhelmed by all of the choices and doesn’t know where to focus. I have mentioned some schools to him, and he has gotten lots of emails and mailings from a variety of places but nothing that has really grabbed him 100%. He has expressed some interest in schools as different as Goucher, George Washington, and Deep Springs in the past. I would love some suggestions from the community here based on the following:

Rural HS

GPA cumulative 99.9 (weighted, don’t know unweighted), has a few B’s and a C in Honors Trig and Pre-Calc 11th grade

AP Gov 10th grade got a 3
APUSH 11th got a 5, AP Lang 11th got a 4
Taking AP Lit, AP Comp Sci A, and AP Stats in 12th and doing an independent study in History

Spanish up to level 3 (possibly interested in taking Russian in college)

SAT 1460, 740 E, 720 M (no subject tests)

ECs: Varsity XC and Track 9,10; NHS 10-12, Summer volunteer at local hospital between 10-11; marching band 10; concert band 10-11; only guy in color guard 11; has edited and produced videos for school teams and graduation. His main EC since fall of junior year is his part-time job (first as a busboy, now as a store cashier), usually puts in 18-24 hours a week during the school year and over the summer he has been 30+ hours per week. He also set himself a reading program fall of junior year and spends a lot of free time reading authors like Kafka, Twain, HG Wells, Vonnegut, Huxley etc.

Wants to study History; a minor or double major in Historic Preservation or Museum Studies is a great bonus.

He is open to any size or location, would prefer that Greek life not be the main social option if it exists at all, wants to study abroad, and still does not want to attend school in-state (PA). I know that cuts out a lot of good schools but it is what it is. I would love for him to apply to Ursinus or Juniata as they have his major and minor, but so far it is a no. His priorities really seem to be 1) great history department 2) good study abroad program/support 3) not in PA 4) he can get in. It’s not a lot to go on!

Personally I see him at a university or LAC under 5000 students with smaller discussion based classes, but obviously if there is a great program at a larger school he should consider that too. I also think he would be fine in a rural area/small town (he is used to it) or a smaller city. He is comfortable getting around in DC but finds NYC too crowded and busy.

We are full-pay but I think he might qualify for merit some places?

Interested in any ideas for likelies, matches and reaches but mostly likelies and matches as he only wants to apply to 5 -6 schools if possible. He is also open to applying ED if he does find a school he loves.Thanks!

2

Since he has expressed interest in schools as diverse as Goucher, GWU & Deep Springs, it would help to know of any career goals or plans–including graduate school.

GWU & Deep Springs are polar opposites in many important respects.

3

Yes, I know they are very different! He was interested in them at different points in the past year and I frankly don’t know if either is still on his radar. His ultimate career goal is working in a history museum, historical site or archive which probably means a master’s degree.

4

It might be better to just add his stats to the previous thread…

5

Sewanee – The University of the South.

6

A quality school which does not get a lot of attention is The University of the South. It has a 13.000 acre campus popularly referred to as the “Domain” between between Nashville and Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is a LA college affiliated with the Episcopal church.

Also known as “Swanee,” it has has less than 2,000 students, offers the languages which interest your son, has a solid history program, an art history program and a study abroad program which involves 40% of the students all over the place. The “capstone” experience is especially beneficial for the self-study student. I only know of the University because my cross-country coach in an episcopal secondary school graduated from there. The student faculty ratio is 10:1. The average class size is 15 students.

For the history major see http://history.sewanee.edu/about/

To me, this is a gem we do not hear much about. For years all students wore academic robes as it was the long standing tradition. Decades ago they reformed to modern dress.

7

These schools would be excellent for his interest in history and meet most of the stated general criteria:

Bowdoin
Hamilton
Haverford
Holy Cross
Kenyon
Oberlin
Grinnell
Drew

He can screen out the ultra-selectives if desired. Some of these colleges might offer him a merit scholarship. You’ll note a safe admit as well.

8

My daughter has one semester left and will graduate with a degree in history and either a minor or certificate in museum studies (I’m not sure if there is a minor offered) from Wyoming. She’s taken museum classes, art history, and she’ll do an internship in the museum this semester. There are a couple of large lecture classes required like History of Wyoming (required of everyone at the school) but the large lectures have smaller discussion groups. Most of her history classes are limited to 24 students. Don’t be afraid of a larger school because of the class size as most schools have smaller class sizes for upper division classes. Wyoming has 10k students but most classes have fewer than 30 kids in them. There is also an honors college where all the classes are limited to 25 students.

One thing about picking history as a major is that many schools are very good in a focused area of history. Wyoming has a lot of courses on Native American history and western US history, and has a museum focused on western art. You can study other areas, but the best courses focus on NA and western themes. My daughter wasn’t really interested in western US history, but those were the best courses taught by the most interesting professors, so she took a few and loved them. There are also courses that are only offered every other year. Religion was the focus last year but won’t be offered again until 2019. The smaller the school (and department), the fewer courses they can offer each semester. The catalog might list 50 history courses, but check the current schedule to see how many are offered each semester. For this last semester for my daughter, she really only had a few choices because she’s already taken some of the courses offered, and 2-3 were offered at the same time (ALL her classes are T-Th, and 3-4 of the courses she hasn’t taken yet were offered in the same time slots!).

Not meant as a recommendation to look at Wyoming, but just to show that there are a lot of schools that could work and give him what he wants. But Wyoming is cheap, has a lot of study abroad opportunities (subsidized thanks to Dick Cheney), has a Greek row but only about 5% of the school is Greek, isn’t in PA. He can not only get in but would get the highest merit aid (tuition would be about $6k, room and board another $10k, and I’m sure he’d get other aid).

You might want to look at the Catholic schools. Most have around 5000 students and most have pretty decent history departments. Consortium schools also are great because if Amherst only has 10 history courses offered one year, Smith might have another 8, and MHC another 6. More choices.

9

Echoing idea to add his stats to the previous thread.

It would also be helpful if you calculated his unweighted GPA, for core classes only (no electives, no gym). The 4.0 scale is most common (some schools like UCs do their own thing), so A=4, B=3, C=2 and so on. Add up all his core class grades according to corresponding number, and divide by the number of total core classes. It is really difficult to suggest a range of schools, across categories (eg reach, target), or assess merit without unweighted GPA.

10

Do I add his stats to the previous thread just by posting again on it or is there something special I should do to let people know I have updated it? Can this thread be combined with the old one?

I calculated his unweighted GPA based on the above post as a 3.7. Thanks for the help!

11

Though I understand this to be hypothetical, it might nonetheless be worth noting that a strong history department, even at a smaller college, may offer about 40 courses annually. Actually, I might look for this as a criterion.

12

I second the comment above. Actual number of history classes scheduled this year, excluding independent studies:
Amherst: 52
Smith: 38
Mount Holyoke: 38