OP, find your high school’s profile (usually can be found by googling name of school with “high school profile 2014” or “2014-15,” or can be found buried in the HS website, usually in the counseling area).
This will tell you what colleges are going to see with respect to how they configure gpa’s from your HS, and where your son’s will compare in their eyes.
OP, what schools of those four has he visited?
Only Haverford. We will be going to the other 3 before ED day. He is absolutely in love with Carleton and Bowdoin on paper. I think M may not be as good of a fit for him but the IR there and focus on languages appeals to him. Ideally, he would have seen all of these schools already. He will not apply ED to any school he hasn’t visited.
That’s what I wanted to confirm. 
Sorry to hear about the MIA recommender. If she’s mentally and physically able you might ask her to collaborate with an active teacher on a joint recommendation. A teacher who had left the school did this for my son – provided supplementary commentary (with attribution) to another teacher who actually wrote the letter.
If you’re visiting Middlebury you should try to swing by Williams. Something in the way you describe your boy resonates with the way I regard my son and his Williams friends: Self confident in their intellect but self effacing and warmly supportive of each other. Superb faculty interaction and mentoring during the four undergraduate years and well beyond.
I live in a developing country and interact quite a bit with foreign service and NGO professionals. My observation is that they come a wide range of undergraduate backgrounds. Kids from any of the academically rigorous liberal arts colleges and universities (regardless of size) can and do leverage summer internships and overseas volunteer experiences into IR careers.
I think Middlebury is a fairly different vibe than Carleton and Haverford. Don’t let him ED to Middlebury without visiting first. Much preppier and jockier than the other 2 colleges, although, of course, not every MiddKid fits that mold.
Sorry to hear about the bad luck with son’s reviewer. Hopefully, his school is helping him stragtegize about a good replacement.
Clark is in a horrible location. They sound like they have great programs, and a mission they are building and integrating into the life of the institution, but … yuck.
@intparent: “You mention that one of his best qualities is his true love of learning. This is a quality colleges are itching to find – there are so many “ticket punching” students these days, it can be hard for them to identify these students. One of my kids has that genuine love of learning, and used it to excellent effect in her admissions process. If he can present that in a unified way in his essays, ECs, and recommendations, it could really help him.”
Oh, my God. Wish everyone could read this. Can we do a ticker tapey thing that runs along the bottom of the pages here at CC with this quote? Pleeeaaassseee???
Excuse me? I beg your pardon? Nerds rule.
Yes, my daughter goes to a nerdy (engineering) school and knows it. She owns it. She’s a nerd in the way she studies, how she can get super focused on one issue, how she enjoys solving math problems, how she studies with a laptop, tablet, calculator, and white board. She’s not a nerd socially, is very cool in her choice of style, hair and make up, music choices. Not preppy either, more like a surfer girl with a country music style.
When you see guys heading to the library with a case of Mt. Dew on a Sunday morning, clearly headed for a day of studying with a jolt of caffeine, I think you can pretty safely call it a school with a nerdy vibe.
I wouldn’t worry about the teacher recommendations. Some teachers are just better writers than others, can really put together a letter that makes the kid shine. I hope he can find one of those to write his second letter.
Third person to say take a closer look at Kalamazoo College if you are considering Grinnell and also agree with Macalester.
Carlton would prefer you visit and interview before applying if I am remembering correctly.
Sorry about the teacher recommendation, especially since it was requested last April or May. But unfortunately things happen and teachers get ill or leave. I would have your son immediately contact his guidance counselor about what he should do. Perhaps the GC can contact this teacher and use some of her comments in the GC letter.
Clark would definitely be a safety for him and is not a great location if he wants to be in a city. But it is definitely a good place for quirky kids!
My son really liked Dickinson, but no money meant it was not worth the cost for our family.
What about University of Rochester? A sometimes under appreciated school that tends to be easier to get into than schools with similar academics and is good for relatively serious schools. Certainly a cold location! My nerdy son had a great experience there. He also wanted Georgetown SFS but did not get in (very low admission rate!).
Middlebury is a good choice. It is one of the benchmark programs in International Studies, so it’s great if your son is interested in a more international approach (especially with an eye to the environment).
If you are looking at PA schools, I would recommend Ursinus College in PA, west of Philadelphia. D1 is kind of a quirky, nerdy, non-partying kid and she really liked the campus atmosphere. It is on the list of Colleges That Change Lives. They do also offer merit aid to high stats students. http://www.ctcl.org/colleges/ursinus
There are other schools on the CTCL list that would likely appeal to your son as well.
Clark is in a city, just a rather down at the heels city. I’d actually heard so many bad things about it, I was pleasantly surprised that it really wasn’t that awful. There are five other colleges in town and it’s a day trip to Boston.
Thanks again everyone for your advice on this thread. We will be traveling to see a few more schools before the ED deadline. We will do a quick trip to Carleton, and then a 4 day weekend starting at Bowdoin and perhaps ending at Middlebury. Whitman is on the agenda too, but not before ED. DS is still reading about the many wonderful recommendations from all of you.
I hope you get to these places before it snows and while the leaves are on the trees; if the latter, I’ll bet you fall in love with all three.
I first saw Northfield in late April, and it was Chamber of Commerce weather. I remember freshman year, Ds sending me a pic captioned, “The leaves turn colors here. Weird,” 