<p>Wisconsin also has a private college week, but it was in July. The web site [Wisconsin</a> Private College Week, July 12-17, 2010 - Tour any of our 20 Private Colleges and Universities](<a href=“http://www.privatecollegeweek.com/]Wisconsin”>http://www.privatecollegeweek.com/) has info about and links to all of the participating Wisconsin schools, many of which have been mentioned in posts above.</p>
<p>I also suggest looking at Luther and Wartburg in Iowa. Wartburg’s athletic facilities are amazing! If looking for highly selective school look at Carleton in MN. St. Olaf is also a great school in the same town.</p>
<p>Bradley in IL, DePauw in IN. If he wants to look as far as Ohio or Michigan, there are lots of great private schools there. Denison, Wooster, Kenyon in Ohio. Kalamazoo or Albion in Michigan are just examples. Lots of choices other than these too.</p>
<p>I just want to say thanks again for all the great responses. This site has been a blessing as this is our first college experience and it is comforting to hear all these recommendations. We would appreciate any advice you may have when it comes to the process of picking a school. Also, we would welcome any hints or tips on how to approach this process with our son. We started this process early as he is a sophomore. He is very intelligent (4.0), active in sports (Football, Basketball) and class President at a small Illinois High School. He is committed to going to college but seems very unsure of a path of study and what career to pursue. We don’t want to push too hard and over-emphasize the importance of straight A’s but it is very difficult not to push when we know what a difference it may make in his options. Any ideas on how to motivate without over-stressing him?</p>
<p>John, with his good grades and activities it sounds as if he is on track. I think that you are smart to get an early start.</p>
<p>You might want to meet with your S and his guidance counselor for more suggestions.</p>
<p>As for choosing a school, it sounds as if you have already narrowed it down geographically.
If you visit a variety of schools, he will get an idea of whether he prefers a large/medium/small school, city/suburban/rural campus, etc. That will also help narrow it down.</p>
<p>Don’t forget to look at the financial aspects. You can look at college websites and get an idea of how much they cost and what type of financial aid is offered (some only offer need based and some offer merit aid, it varies widely). Someone in another thread suggested doing a sample FAFSA to get a ballpark idea of how much your estimated financial contribution would be.</p>
<p>just going on capable student/midwest/LAC and not much else:</p>
<p>Macalester, Grinnell, Beloit. Kalamazoo, Oberlin, Earlham, Knox, maybe Hope… I’ll keep thinking! </p>
<p>If you can give us more on hie social/religious/political, comfort zones that may help.</p>
<p>Are any of these campuses suburban or in a good college town or mid-size town?</p>
<p>Without knowing your son, I can only tell you what worked to motivate my kids to develop a field of interest. I encouraged them to explore their interests as much as possible. This meant visits to places related to their interests (museums/planetariums, etc), talking to professionals in their career interests, clubs, camps/programs, etc. The point was to help them get beyond what looks interesting to what truly interests them. If your son is not sure what he wants to do, he should try to make sure he takes the most challenging classes that he can handle across the board-- that will keep his options open. </p>
<p>(If you meant how to motivate your son to pick a school, just keep visiting them. He will get a feel for what he likes-- large, small, urban, rural-- and his grades/scores/ field of interest and finances will narrow choices further.)</p>
<p>To get a notion of where you stand financially, run the EFC calculators at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and at [College</a> Calculators - savings calculators - college costs, loans](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Calculate Your Cost – BigFuture | College Board) Then think through how your family can come up with the EFC. If you can meet your EFC, how much more can you pay? Many places will not meet the full need of a student leaving a “gap” between the aid offer and the EFC. If your family can’t come up with the EFC, which places on your child’s potential list have a history of offering merit aid/sports scholarships/etc. that could make the institution affordable?</p>
<p>Don’t forget to find at least one rock-solid True Safety. In other words, a place where he would be guaranteed admission based on his GPA and exam scores, that your family can afford without any aid other than federally determined (FAFSA) aid, that offers his major, and where he could be happy if all else goes wrong in the admissions process. It is most likely that this will be a community college or an in-state public U, but it also may be an affordable denominational college, or other small local college.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>
<p>Lake Forest College?</p>
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<p>I made sure that my S got the info off the data sets posted at the websites of the colleges he was interested in possibly attending. It was an easy conversation to work in the observation of the level of grade point averages and other factors these schools apparently valued. I let him draw the conclusion of what he might want to strive for to make him “admission attractive.”</p>
<p>Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington, for sure. Maybe Augustana in Rock Island.
A lot of kids around here really like St. Norbert’s outside Green Bay.</p>
<p>Blackburn College in Carlinville, IL. Lake Forest College north of Chicago.</p>
<p>Illinois Wesleyan for sure (my school). I went there not knowing what I really wanted to study and ended up with a double degree (BA & BFA) as well as 1 course of a second major in the BA–all in 4 years. Lots of opportunity for participation in student government and other activities, even in you aren’t a major. </p>
<p>Always heard good things about Monmouth, but neighbor’s child was ready to transfer before orientation was over and is now going elsewhere. School was too small for their taste.</p>
<p>Beloit, Beloit, Beloit.</p>
<p>^ I agree! Beloit is a wonderful school.</p>
<p>JohnEH, keep in mind that although each school suggested is terrific in its own way, the academics vary. For example, we visited Ripon and Carleton, and were favorably impressed with both; however, Ripon is not as selective or as diverse. Which school is a better fit may depend upon how academically competitive your son is (or wants to be during his college years).</p>
<p>John, in case you haven’t seen it yet, here on CC we often talk about safety, match and reach schools, based mostly on the relationship between an applicant’s GPA, class rank and test scores vs. the average stats of a school’s most recent incoming freshman class. Most schools publish these stats in their Common Data Set, sections C9 to C12 (google can usually find it on the school’s web site). The importance of these stats as admission criteria vary greatly from school to school, e.g., from as low as 20% to perhaps as high as nearly 100%, but they are a starting point. I think of a match as roughly a 50% chance of admission, a safety as a 99% chance, but a reach is harder to characterize.</p>
<p>Happy hunting!</p>