Hi - my S is going into 12th grade. He is fairly introverted. Does not like going to parties or school dances. Does like to join big groups for activities, but enjoys smaller activities esp related to art/graphic design and computers. He enjoys hanging out with small groups of friends. He loves, loves watching sports but does not play any anymore (used to play baseball and basketball). He’s politically moderate and shies away from political discussions for fear of offending. So probably not a super liberal school.
He’s very undecided what he wants to study. He loves math and history. Is looking forward to taking Statistics and Econ in 12th grade.
He’s a very responsible student who likes to be able to ask his teachers questions. He thinks he wants fairly small classes in college. He doesn’t want to feel like he bangs his head against a wall for a B, but does want to be challenged and be around kids who are similarly interested in academics.
He is at a very competitive public HS, in top 10%.
He’ll have taken 12 AP classes when he graduates, including Calc BC as junior (taking multi var as sr), Spanish Language, Chem, Physics, WHAP, APUSH, Comp Sci, 2 AP Art classes, etc.
ACT 33
SAT math 780, verbal 680 (think he’s taking again with some prep for the verbal this time)
SAT subject tests: math 2 780, US History 800
Can anyone please suggest schools for him? Seems like he finds one he thinks he likes then hears the social scene revolves primarily around big parties at fraternities/sororities. None of us have any idea if he’ll end up being the kid who seemed like he’d never join a fraternity then does and loves it, or if he’d absolutely hate it since he hates parties and dances.
He doesn’t want to be on the west coast or anywhere extremely cold.
None of the college match websites he’s used seem to take into consideration many of these factors. Thank you in advance for any help – whether it’s specific college suggestions or general advice.
Do you have financial constraints? What is your home state? Has he visited any schools to see what he likes – large universities vs LACs?
Note that lots of schools have partiers AND non-partiers. He will be hard pressed to find none… the honors college kids are sometimes more serious about academics, too.
At this point I’d say no financial constraints, or at least none that would keep him from at least considering, even visiting a school. From what we’ve researched we’ll be able to cover from savings what he doesn’t qualify for in aid. Last kid through college for us. We are in Texas.
He’s visited a few colleges. That’s how he decided he’d prefer smaller classes generally. Also, I think at the big universities, he’s concerned about having to apply to a major when he doesn’t know what he wants to major in yet.
What about one of the Claremont Consortium schools? He gets the benefit of a small school and the other consortium schools, too. Although it might not feed his sports interest – he maybe really needs a D1 school for that. And it is west coast – but given your location, and the fact that he doesn’t want cold weather, I am not sure why the west coast would be off limits. CMC would be a reach, but if he could get his CR score up it wouldn’t be out of reach.
Sounds like he wants a moderate political climate rah rah school w/o big Greek systems in warm weather.
Many of the schools I’m thinking of either are in cold weather areas (basketball schools) or warm areas (too much Greek). Generally speaking, the football schools will have lots of Greek.
Are Catholic schools ok? Some are rah rah basketball with little Greek…but weather may be cold
Tulane? Don’t know how much Greek. Duke? Miami? (may have too much Greek).
I’m biased because I’ll be attending next year, but I think Washington and Lee sounds great for him!
The small school size is good for an introvert
W&L is unique because it has kids that are both liberal and conservative. In the group chats there's a lot of Kasich and Rand Paul fans, but I've met fans of Bernie, Clinton, Trump, Rubio, etc. Some people consider it a conservative school but I promise you it's just because it's less liberal than other colleges, which are typically super liberal.
It's a fantastic, highly ranked school where they encourage you to explore academic interests, so it's good for undecided. Research more about W&L's spring term, it's very unique and interesting!
Everyone at W&L is academic because there are no sports scholarships and things like that. Even the hard partiers I've talked to sound very intelligent
The small class sizes at W&L are fantastic! You get a really personalized, in-depth experience. I've visited a lot of colleges and the professors at W&L were by far the most caring, enthusiastic, and eager to teach.
His scores/stats sound very similar to mine. Write a stellar essay and he could be going to a 60k/year school for free like me! The Johnson Scholarship is a phenomenal opportunity
Greek life is a large percentage, but in a way that helps because there are the more intense greek houses and the less intense houses. If he joins a less intense house he has automatic friends (good for an introvert) without being swept into the whole partying scene.
The weather in Virginia is perfect! Not too humid, not too cold, often sunny-ish.
When W&L flew me out for the Johnson weekend competition, I was constantly amazed at the students. Dorks, nerds, jocks, popular kids; they were all friendly and they always said hello to me when I passed. One day I walked out of the dorm and had no idea where I was going, so I walked up to a random guy and asked him to show me where breakfast was, and he walked me all the way there. And one last thing! W&L has this new thing called Friday Underground which is a super fun thing you can go to on friday nights if you don’t want to party. There’s food and live music and dancing and it’s so cool and fun!
If you have any questions at all don’t hesitate to ask
Ugh realized I meant to type he “Does NOT like to join big groups for activities”
Thank you all for the suggestions.
Rice is on his list, but he’s below the naviance scores for his school so it looks like a too big a reach. Duke seems to be an even bigger reach I think.
He’ll add Tulane, University of Denver, UT Dallas to his list to investigate. W&L was already on the list but he’d heard it was a big fraternity scene. We’ll look into that more based on your rave review @collegebound1516. Best wishes to you - sounds like you found a great fit for you.
He was liking Villanova but I think was turned by the required theology classes (he’s not religious). We’ll look into it again and see how religious it is.
@mom2collegekids you description “Sounds like he wants a moderate political climate rah rah school w/o big Greek systems in warm weather” is great summary. He’s compromising a little from warm to not horribly cold, so adding Pennsylvania to the areas he’s looking.
Thank you all for the suggestions. Would love any others!!!
I’d check out Davidson too! It’s very similar to W&L except less conservative and their greek life is WAY smaller. For the sororities at least you don’t even live in the greek houses, you just eat there (not sure about the frats). Sports are a little bigger (home of steph curry!) and the community feel is undeniable and professors care a lot. I think their acceptance rate was like 8-10% last year which is super hard, but again I got in with similar stats to your son…
None of those theology courses are intended to force religion on you…and they look at religious topics from a variety of angles, such as historical, philosophical, psychological. Lots of Catholic colleges fit your criteria: smallish, no greek scene, politically moderate, challenging but not intense. They will all probably require a theology course or 2.
Tulane’s about 40% Greek and known for “work hard/play hard” atmosphere. Personally, I had similar thoughts about partying, but Tulane was pretty high on my list, anyway. If he looks at Tulane and likes it, maybe also consider Emory?
W&L is 80% Greek. That means there’s more diversity in the organizations, but is probably a big negative for someone not interested in joining one.
WUSTL or Georgetown maybe? They’re both reaches.
URichmond might be a fit, though I don’t know about their sports.
