Need college list advice for D

Parents Forum
1

I had asked a similar question months ago but that was before we had test scores and before she was an active participant in the college process.

D is a rising senior with a 3.8uw, 3.97w GPA. She took 3 AP’s this year and will be taking 4 next year. With the exception of AP calc, all other AP’s are humanities classes. That is her passion. She is a full pay URM. We have the money for full tuition but she was told that any merit she receives, we’ll give her that amount for grad school.

She absolutely hates standardized testing. Did not do well on PSAT. She hates college board with a passion. She focused on the ACT and got a 29 on her first try. 32E, 34R, 27M, 23S. She would’ve been happy being done but I had already paid for tutoring and another test. I was hoping for a 30C and was so pleasantly surprised when she got a 33C. 36E, 35R, 26M and 33S. Sat subject tests back today and not great- 690 us history and 610 Spanish. She refuses to take any additional testing.

She is very involved in leadership at her school. ASB president, varsity cheer captain, a few other clubs, TA at religious school (paid job). She is very social and well liked by teachers and peers. Good sense of humor and doesn’t take herself too seriously.

Her sister goes to a small LAC and one of her best friends goes to a large state party school. She has seen both of their experiences this year and has decided she wants something in the middle. This is where we are stuck-not many schools that fit the bill.

Her ideal school- around 5000 students, school spirit, small classes, near a city, diverse student body. She is Jewish. Jesuit may be ok if there’s a Hillel but no catholic schools.

So far her list consists of Chapman and university of Denver. U dub was too big. She liked Boulder but it’s probably too big. We’re going to tour Brown, BU and BC. Also probably USC and LMU. I am struggling to find matches. I feel like we only have reaches and safeties. She is not applying to any of our state schools. I have racked my brain and cannot think of any schools that meet most of her criteria that aren’t reaches. Fwiw, she says she’d be very happy at Denver but I’m the one who wants her to have options when decision time comes.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

2

Jesuit is a subset of Catholic.

Religious affiliations of schools you mentioned:
Boston College: Catholic (Jesuit)
Chapman: Disciples of Christ
Denver: historical Methodist affiliation, now non-sectarian
Loyola Marymount: Catholic (Jesuit and Marymount)

Potential majors?

What type of “school spirit”? (e.g. spectator sports based or otherwise?)
Class sizes can be looked up in many colleges’ on-line schedules.
“Diverse” means different things to different people.

3

She has a solid ACT score and good GPA. Have you considered Santa Clara? It’s a Jesuit school…but very ecumenical. 4500 undergrads.

Not sure about merit aid…but worth looking at maybe.

What about Fordham? Yes…it’s a Catholic U…but it’s located in NY.

4

What kind of URM? For admissions purposes, all minorities are not created equal.

If you are talking about an African American, 33 ACT, you are going to get admitted to a LOT of schools. If you are OK with full pay, you may not need a whole lot of super-safe safety schools

“Her ideal school- around 5000 students, school spirit, small classes, near a city, diverse student body. She is Jewish. Jesuit may be ok if there’s a Hillel but no catholic schools.”

Tulane, Tufts, BU, Miami, Syracuse, USC, NYU, Emory, Penn, Columbia come to mind. All have a fairly size-able Jewish student population.

5

Jesuit schools are catholic schools. The Pope, head of the Catholic Church, is a Jesuit.

6

Tulane. Great city, generous merit aid, top 40 school, beautiful campus in great part of New Orleans, high concentration of Jewish students, and size not far off what you’re looking for.

7

What about College of Charleston. It has a very active Hillel. Price is more modest…size is about right.

8

Wake Forest, Bryn Mawr and Wesleyan are some great examples of test optional schools. She may want to look into those if she is that uncomfortable with standardized tests.

I hope she finds her match out there!

9

She got a 33 ACT score. That is terrific. I don’t think someone with a 33 needs to go test optional! Just my opinion.

10

Perhaps university of rochester in ny? I believe it meets most of your criteria.

11

Actually, Fordham is Jesuit - plenty of kids there who are not Catholic. And around 14% are international I believe. Rose Hill campus is around 6,000 students undergrad - and very close to Manhattan. Definitely worth putting on “the list.” Washington University-St. Louis has more students, but is also worth a look. Boston University, too, if you’re looking at Boston College. American University and George Washington might also be matches. In all cases, URM is a plus as is full-pay.

I absolutely agree with you re: wanting her to have options come April 30th next year - and what you may find (as we did) is that the options will be very varied, which is a good thing. What they think they want at the end of junior year can be very different from what they want half-way through senior year.

12

@Marcie123 with a 33 ACT, 3.8 UW gpa and URM, she will have some very good opportunities.

Your criteria are pretty wide. Some thoughts in no particular order - some are better matches to the criteria than others. Just going off memory:

Claremont Mckenna individual schools are too small, but combined is in the range. A bit far from LA, but might work. Swarthmore/Bryn Mawr/Haverford is a similar situation, a group of small colleges, but closer (easy train) to Philly and can take classes at Penn if they want.
Brandeis fits the bill.
Might not be the city she wants, but University of Rochester has a great rep.
Rice is pretty much “in” Houston, but about the right size.
Wash U St. Louis - suburban ST. L
Tufts
Hopkins (maybe too urban?)
Princeton (maybe too far from NYC?)
Yale (New Haven is not exactly “urban…”)
Lehigh (might be too far from Philly/NYC)
Villanova (7 k, Catholic)
William & Mary
Stanford
Emory
U of Richmond (a bit small)

Most of these are fairly challenging admissions and probably will be reaches, but she sounds like she will be a decent candidate depending on strength of the rest of her applicaiton.

13

Emory sounds like it would be a good fit.

Also Tufts, Lehigh.

14

She’s Mexican-American. By diversity, she doesn’t want all white students. Her school is probably 40% Asian and she likes having friends of different cultures.

Re: school spirit. She says either spectator sports or simply a school where students are enthusiastic. Chapman doesn’t have sports but she felt like they were spirited. I think she’d love to cheer if possible.

Potential majors- philosophy, English (creative writing), history.

I have suggested most of the schools that @northwesty listed. But she doesn’t want the south so that eliminates some. I’m not sure she can handle Syracuse weather. Her dad and I went there but she’s grown up in CA!

I think her criteria is too restrictive. But she’s stubborn and not easy to convince otherwise when she gets her mind set on something. It’s one of her best and worst traits.

15

Thanks everyone. I will talk to her about these suggestions. I think there are some good options that I hope she’ll consider.

@4Gulls I agree that they change a lot. My oldest D didn’t even want to look at her college. I scheduled a tour because we were already looking at another school in the consortium. She liked it but didn’t think she’d apply because it wasn’t what she wanted. By November of senior year, it was her top choice and she applied ED and is very happy with her decision!

16

@thumper1 I was thinking College of Charleson as well.

Since she doesn’t want a school in the south, I’d also suggest Miami. Yeah, Florida is technically in the South, but we have a saying here that when in FL you have to go North to get to the South.

17

Tulane (where one of my kids went) and Miami really aren’t “southern” in terms of culture, feel and enrollment. They both draw most of their kids from outside the southeast region. You’re more likely to hear a LI or NJ accent on campus than a southern one. But they are in the south geographically obviously.

Latino will still help for admissions, but not quite as much as AA would.

18

If you are in California, what causes her to eliminate all 9 UCs and all 23 CSUs?

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@ucbalumnus she isn’t going to have a fine arts class. She doesn’t need it to graduate but would to apply to a CA school. For the past 2 years, leadership has taken up her elective period. She had always intended to take FA senior year but chose not to fit it into her schedule. She chose to take Spanish 5 and a double period competition civics class instead.

20

I think that ^^^ is a big mistake, to permanently exclude all those California schools just for one ceramics or theater or music or something class. Could she take one at a CC this summer, just to knock it out?

I can’t tell you how many kids I know who were SURE they were going to the state flagship who are now at the state flagship after a semester or year at another school. Good other schools (Reed, Rollins, U of Portland) but even though the kids knew those schools were exactly what they wanted, turns out they didn’t.