Need LAC suggestions for future "Nate Silver" kid... :-)

Parents Forum
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FYI, University of Wisconsin is known to be more of a “party” and Greek school than U of M, to the extent that my son is very interested in going to the latter, but not the former. Both are good schools academically. S1 is very interested in U of M, though he likely won’t be able to play Varsity baseball there.

St. Olaf is known for it's strong music dept. It tends to have more of a local flavor than Carleton.

Both S1 and myself were knocked out by Carleton, except for the baseball field. The field itself is OK, but the stands, dugouts, etc. were small and looked like something you'd see at a smallish middle school. Not a deal breaker, but not exciting, either.

Macalester is of interest to my son, and seems to be a good match, but there is a 62%/38% female to male ratio which is offputting to him.

Hope I'm not repeating myself, but has he considered Canadian Uni's? McGill, or U of T, Queens, are all really good schools, with the latter being the smallest.  They've certainly got the cold thing down.
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My H went to his first college because he liked the baseball field. Big mistake. :smiley:

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I concur on checking out Case Western.

Also, I still think Grinnell is also worth looking at, because the vibe sounds exactly right. And Iowa is interesting, politically. Swing state, lots going on during election season. Some conservative areas, some not so conservative areas. Town is a mix, college is pretty liberal. PM’d you some info.

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Now that I think about it, University of Toronto is competitive as hell. Probably not a good choice. McGill isn’t too bad, unless you are in Medicine, but it certainly isn’t a small, collaborative atmosphere. Montreal is also known as being Gay friendly…it’s not so much it is politically correct but just that people are refreshingly not into judging minorities quite so much there.

As far as the Minnesota schools, there is a thing called “Minnesota Nice”. Some locals scoff at it, but as an outsider I’ve found it to be very real. They are a bit reserved(though a bunch of loudmouthed exhibitionists compared to English Canadians) but decent, for the most part, as long as you’re not cheering for Wisconsin.

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This is the way the process is supposed to go! You go to see if a school is what you’re looking for, you get information that alters what you’re looking for, you refine your priorities, and eventually, you end up with a good list. Sometimes, it takes seeing several of a type to figure out that the type is either a good or bad fit. Glad it was a productive trip.

I would recommend visiting Swarthmore when you go to see Haverford, if only to compare. Your son sounds open to the process so might be able to glean some insights into what is really resonating with him.

Thanks for the update!

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Thank you for the update! Enjoy your travels and visits.

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Yes you are right, I miss that. Haverford seems a nice school and not very isolated, so hopefully S will like it when we visit. Thanks!

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S didn’t like Case Western from his research (I know, he’s very pick,… sigh), but I am keeping it in my list of maybes in case we have time to visit and he changes his mind. Thanks!

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@57special Yes, Canadian schools are very competitive and not a match for anyone… but more than that, they are HUGE schools, and even though it seems S is more open to universities, I think if he does choose that he will eventually settle in a smaller one. UofT for example has very large classes and lots of TAs. But yes, the weather there would be just perfect! :slight_smile:

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I will definitely include Swarthmore and any other school in the area if we go to visit Haverford. He did change his mind about Carleton after visiting, so he may see that Swarthmore is not THAT bad (although I also have never heard anybody say it’s NOT a competitive/cutthroat school). Thanks!

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Yes, Grinnel is still in our list, it has an excellent reputation, S is in contact with them already asking info about their programs. Thanks!

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@agatha1939 If the MMSS degree is right up his alley at NU, I would check it out. My husband and I are NU grads and it’s not in an “urban area” like you said in one of your posts. It’s in a Chicago suburb and up against Lake Michigan. It’s not in the middle of nowhere but that’s an advantage. It’s a proper campus and not in a city. And the MMSS program is small. I had two very good friends who were MMSS majors (back in the 80s) and they were very tight with the other kids in the program. Seems like it’s the perfect match.

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@homerdog Yes, he is VERY interested in the MMSS program, he’s been in contact with them since he found out about the program and every time he gets more information he likes it more and more. I have a feeling that if he approves the school when we visit (he read a few bad things about Greek Life and kids being “cliquey”, so he wants to check it in person), NU will be his 1st choice because of the program.

And you are right, NU undergrad is not urban, that was a mistake, I got it mixed with their med school. But suburban is fine with him and may be the perfect compromise, a proper campus but close to the city for more options. If it happens, I will be very happy too! :slight_smile:

Thanks!

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@agatha1939 I think NU can be a bit cliquey but not necessarily in a negative way. The theater kids hang out together, the journalism kids hang out together…and then of course there are the fraternity and sororities. BUT, many kids meet other kids in their major and make friends that way. Since MMSS is a small program, I think those kids end up finding their tribe there. In general, it still feels Midwestern even though it has its fair share of east and west coast kids. I think the “niceness” factor is pretty high. Good luck finding a good fit!

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My DD is very similar to your son and looking at similar schools. Please update us on the schools your DS liked and if you are comfortable, where he decides to attend. I’m sure he’ll have many great options.

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Hello everyone, Happy 2018! I am so sorry I abandoned this thread, life got so busy last year I hardly had time to check the website but I thought people would like to get an update now.

I believe my last update was when S and I visited colleges in MN. After that, we went to Chicago and visited UChicago and Northwestern. S liked both well enough and had a good time talking to students and some professors there, after that visit he was OK with applying to bigger universities as long as they had good programs he liked too. I was kind of surprised Northwestern campus is not very pretty (being in a suburb) but at least is close to the lake. UChicago campus is very beautiful and the school seems great, my favorite by far.

Then there was summer… my S went to Europe to visit some family and came back with some “crazy” ideas, he had decided to study computer science and go to university there. That caught me completely by surprise because he always gave me the impression of not being 100% sure what he wanted to study yet and in Europe universities are very concentrated in only one area, you have to know what you want to study before even applying. There were some very lengthy discussions between us on why (I believed) that would not be a good choice for him, and eventually I was able to convince him to focus on US schools again, but as a compromise he wanted to apply to a few schools there too.

After that we had some serious setbacks in my family, my father was diagnosed with cancer and unfortunately passed away after a few months. He was very close to my S acting as a figure father after my husband died 10 years ago, so his death had a huge impact on my son. For a while I thought it would be better for him to take a gap year and not think about universities for a while but he got better after some time and decided to go on.

We did more research on schools but we only had time to visit Haverford (what a lovely college!) and Swarthmore (S hated it) in PA. In the end, there was no school my S fell in love with, not sure if it’s his personality or maybe we just didn’t find “the one”. He was OK with some schools but felt stronger about schools he didn’t want to go at all, so with that in mind we put a list together. There were no real safes in his list IMO but we agreed that if he was rejected everywhere he would take a gap year and re-apply next year.

S applied RD everywhere and we are still waiting results: St Olaf (safe?), Carleton, University of Minnesota (safe?), University of Michigan, University of Chicago, Northwestern University (his “favorite” due to the MMSS program), Haverford and Amherst (S didn’t visit but has a cousin there who said good things). He also applied and was rejected at Cambridge University (UK), but he was not upset about it (neither was I).

We are now waiting for results and then hopefully, have some options to choose. We’ll see how it goes.

Thanks!

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Thanks for updating and good luck!
He ll get in to Minnesota for sure and they will “beg” him to attend. They really want students from the east coast and they put a lot of effort in to attract the ones that apply. At least this was my experience the last couple of years. I think he ll have more choices but Minnesota is a safety for him.

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Good luck and keep us posted if you can. So sorry to hear about your father. That sounds like a big loss for you and your son.

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Sorry to hear about your father.

Great list of schools. Best of luck when decisions come out.

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So sorry to hear about your father, and your husband.

I can understand your S’s desire to fall in love with a school, but honestly I think it’s better not to. Doing so can lead to huge disappointment if they don’t get in, and major disillusionment if they do and everything is not “perfect” right away.

You have a great list. I think it likely that he will have good choices, especially if his application reflected his intellectual passion.

Please let us know what happens. :slight_smile: