<p>nm, why don't you spend the night in Williamstown? Three excellent museums, summer theater, great hikes, splendid scenery and good food!</p>
<p>The best essays are the ones that illustrate by an indirect example. It seems to me that dog training would have to provide a wealth of potential topics.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>For Cornell, the first year is a mix between small and large lectures from across most colleges. In CALS, She'd probably be taking biology (large lecture), calculus (~20 people), a writing seminar (~12 people), Introduction to Environmental Science/natural resource, and possibly chemistry (large), a language, or an elective or some sort. All of these courses have a mix of people across colleges except the Intro to Nat. Res. The Intro to Nat.Res. will have only environmentally-oriented majors in CALS. Its a lot of fun, with field trips, projects, guest lectures from various professors, etc. A lot of environmental majors also take part in Wilderness Reflections, which is a weeklong course at the end of summer that teaches you environmental skills, like camping, rock climbing, canoeing, etc. She could also live in the environmentally themed dorm her freshmen year. Though personally, I liked the general dorms, where you would have a variety of friends in all different majors and interests. </p></li>
<li><p>As for the gender issue, I have also heard stories from older women professors in fields like forestry and agriculture, talk about the difficulty making a path in a male-oriented field. However, I do not think that is the case at all today- the environment/natural resources workforce is one of the most progressive. She has nothing to worry about.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Can't help with colleges, but don't miss Salem, Mass and seeing the real house of 7 gables there. A fun tour! Mystic Seaport is great, too.</p>
<p>One other school I have also been considering for our tour is Bard College. In many ways it looks like a good match for my daughter and is in a beautiful area (the Hudson Valley) with interesting sights for us to visit briefly (the late 19th century mansions), but requires us to drop a school on the third week of our current itinerary. Right now I am inclined to drop Rochester (if we add Bard) as the most out of the way. </p>
<p>Advantages
1. Bard and the area looks lovely
2. The social environment is more liberal than most of the other schools we are visiting giving us a feel for how that affects daughter's enthusiasm.
3. The environmental science program looks particularly good
4. It ia an academic match, and about her (current) ideal size</p>
<p>Disadvantages
1. It has a postage stamp college town and we are already visiting several of those.
2. We give up Rochester with an overall stronger science program and an additional check on her reaction to an urban environment.</p>
<p>The Bard campus really turns me off. I don't think the environmental programs are stellar at Bard or Rochester. You're better off at a school like SUNY ESF or UVM, with better programs and a better price. My advise would be to knock both of them off your list.</p>
<p>More puplic universities might be good. SUNY Geneseo has no Environmental Sciences, Binghampton is larger than my daughter's ideals, but otherwise good. New Paltz,with the Newsweek article, has attracted my attention, and meets my daughter's nominal requirements, but I still wonder why they coose with all the other schools?</p>
<p>FWIW now that D1 & D2 are back, I have been able to ask D! what caused her to reject Middlebury and a couple of other schools. She wants particular alternative majors (but not all of them together) in areas outside of Environmental Science/Studies in case she changes her mind or wants a minor or second major. Other subjects of interest include: business, medieval/renaissance studies, ancient history/classics (but not just Greek and Latin), and animal studies/science. Odd list but thats what she gave me.</p>
<p>After reading that last post, I gotta think that Cornell is a "must stop."</p>
<p>FYI- Cornell is only about an hour or so away from Syracuse- ESF. So it really does make sense to check out both schools. D # 1 just graduated Cornell ILR. My appreciation of Cornell's mission has grown so much during the 4 years that my kid attended. It's that unique blend of Ivy and land grant school that makes Cornell so special to me.</p>
<p>I don't think Cornell would be classified as an 'extreme reach' with a 32 ACT and an expressed and enthusiastic interest in the environmental sciences. Cornell downgrades standardizes scores in favor of interest and high school record. It also loves kids who do 4H.</p>
<p>The thing about Cornell is that it is a very large and diverse place, academically speaking, but each major/academic interest is a pretty cohesive learning experience. So the business students and hotel students will dress pre-professionally, but the natural resource and environmental science majors will not. The Ag Quad is a very different place from the Hotel School.</p>
<p>I also agree that you should check out ESF.</p>
<p>let's not forget the kid is from New Mexico- and how all the NE schools love geographic diversity. A 4H kid, with a 32ACT from New Mexico. I can see the possibilities.</p>
<p>Cornell has an absolutely fantastic medieval studies concentration.</p>
<p>Cornucopia</a> - Medieval Studies at Cornell</p>
<p>Please visit Cornell.</p>
<p>For all the things she is looking for, she is going to have a hard time finding them in a LAC. She really is better off looking at larger universities if she wants that kind of programmatic diversity.</p>
<p>We are also looking for a college on the east coast that offers a good environmental science program. My son is currently in a four year environmental research and field study magnet program at his high school in south Florida and wants to pursue that in college. He has a 1300 SAT and 32 ACT, 21st in his class of 720. His high school magnet program is nationally recognized and he has had pretty intensive field work experiences, locally and eco studies in Costa Rica, the Everglades and the Keys. We are 4 minutes from the ocean and Intercoastal Waterway so they have done alot of work there, although he is not that interested in marine studies. We are looking for a program that will continue to give him field experience. He is not very outgoing and kind of shy. He also loves music and has played in the marching and competition bands at school. We have looked at U of Florida, Stetson, U of Georgia, Clemson, Appalachian State, Catawba, and will look at Juniata next weekend. Does anyone have any knowledge of the programs at these schools or any info about these schools in general? We pretty much have ruled out U of F because it is so huge even though it is our home school and it would be paid for with the Florida Prepaid and Bright Futures plans. Financially, we are not definitely in the Ivy league ballpark. Any help would be appreciated.</p>
<h1>53 Shennie</h1>
<p>She doesn't want all of then, which helps a good deal with LACs. She wants one, and having two is a plus. She is thinking about business as a second major to leverage in getting a job. In most major universities that is in a separate college which can complicate the paper work (and add additional core courses and time) at major universities, but is a relatively easy to add at the few LACs that have it. She is thinking of animal science as mostly a fun second major that might improve her job prospects. Animal science is not available at any LAC that I am aware of or at many "prestigious" small national universities, but is available at Cornell CALS, SUNY-ESF, and many larger national universities. I think she is considering getting a (fun) minor in either classical studies (with an emphasis on history, culture, and sociology, but not the languages), or medieval studies, but not both. Many LACs have classical studies in some form or another, but typically emphasize the languages more than her preference. A number of LACs have medieval studies (I think they tend to attract members of the SCA) in a form she likes. For Cornell, both would require taking courses in CAS, i.e., outside CALS where Environmental Science is based. I think about half the LACs I have looked at provide at least one of the above.</p>
<p>FWIW her ACT interest inventory suggested whe would enjoy working with "Things" (segments 5, 6, and 7). The secondary major most LACs have in that category wold be Computer Science. She likes CS in school, but is resisting going into it. Cornell CALS and SUNY-ESF have a lot of alternative majors she could go into if she decides Env. Science is not quite for her.</p>
<p>
[quote]
He has a 1300 SAT and 32 ACT, 21st in his class of 720.
[/quote]
Enviromom, Any reason for the discrepancy, except maybe that the ACT was better suited to his testing style? Many schools that accept the ACT also request 2 SATIIs, so he should be prepared. </p>
<p>Most importantly, what's his GPA?</p>
<p>Also, please clarify your financial situation. Most privates use pretty much the the same formula for need *based aid. Actual results may vary but you can use an on-line calculator as a starting point. *Merit aid comes with a different set of colleges. So be clear on what you need -- or want.</p>
<p>I'd suggest that he take a look at Grinnell, Hamilton and Skidmore.</p>
<p>He has a lot of good things going on -- very good ACT, very good rank, excellent extracurricular interest, valuable geographic diversity. Have good matches and safeties, yes, but don't aim too low on reaches.</p>
<h1>54 EnviroMom</h1>
<p>Your son sounds like the male equivalent of my daughter: SAT 1330, ACT 32, introverted (but not nearly as shy as I was at her age), school doesn't give class rank, but our best guess is top 3-5% of a good school, and no desire for marine studies. I did suggest Juniata for her spring break trip, but it got cut when they decided I was too ambitious. It is a good school, and relatively inexpensive for a private school. It is a small school in a very rural area, with a very small college town, and is associated with the Church of the Brethren. I don't know how religious it is in practice. On the map it looked about an hours drive from Gettysburg which my daughter loved, and Dickinson which also appears to have a good program. However Gettysburg and Dickinson are more expensive than Juniata. A longer drive would be Allegheny, north of Pittsburgh, which reads as if it is better than Juniata and only slightly more expensive.</p>
<p>I encourage you to check out the SUNY schools. They have relatively low OOS tuition. The best match with his interests is SUNY-ESF, but SUNY-Binghamton is a very good alternative. SUNY_ESF has a very extensive field program. Given that he doesn't want marine studies, I think SUNY Stony Brook, Southampton campus, is not the best match.</p>
<p>He might also check out New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, and New Mexico Tech in Socorro. We love Las Cruces, and its climate outside the summer is superb. The NMSU campus is more attractive than UNM. As with many land grant colleges NMSU's overall academic reputation is at best mediocre, but its Environmental Sciences program is one of its strong points. NM Tech is a small school, and Socorro is a rural area a little over an hour from Albuquerque. We have not seen as much of NM Tech as UNM and NMSU, but it is the most academically demanding of the New Mexico schools, and is supposed to have a good program in his area of interest.</p>
<p>I would not give up entirely on the top rank private schools. Some of them can be very generous with financial aid. It would help, of course, if he could improve his SAT and ACT scores. The best match high rated private school for him would be Cornell. A well rated private with a good Env. Science program that is nearer to you is Warren Wilson College in North Carolina.</p>
<h1>56 MomRath and #57 nmparents</h1>
<p>My son's GPA is 4.0 and HPA is 5.0. He has taken all honors, AP or Dual Enrollment classes. I'm not really sure why there is a discrepancy between his SAT and ACT scores other than he is just so science oriented. I think we will just stick with the ACT since he seems to score better on it than the SAT. He can take it again in October. His previous score was a 29. Financially, I don't think we would qualify for "need" based aid but think that tuition in the range of $45,000-$50,000 may be a little high for us. I appreciate the suggestions of the colleges and will spend sometime online tonight checking them out. We have primarily been looking at smaller schools because he is just a shy kid who loves the environment and music and is definitely not into the "rah-rah" crowd of big athletics, etc. His high school has 3000+ students so some of the really little schools of 800-900 may be a little too small. We were looking at Catawba and Juniata because of the on campus (or very near to campus) natural areas. Catawba has an on campus Center for the Environment that contains a "green" building as well as a 500 acre ecological preserve in addition to a 300 acre wildlife refuge. As far as visits go, our visit to Catawba couldn't have been more pleasant and everyone from the Dean of Admissions, who happened to stop our tour, to the kitchen staff, who opened the dining hall just for us, couldn't have been nicer. Looks like we still have our work cut out for us.</p>
<h1>56 momrath</h1>
<p>As I understand it the SAT tends to emphasize reasoning skills relative to the ACT which in turn emphasizes knowledge relative to the SAT. This difference in emphasis may allow quite different scores. Also an ACT score of 32, according to the concordance is roughly equivalent to an SAT score of 1400-1430, about 100 points higher than what he got. His first time score of 29 is roughly equivalent to an SAT of 1300. So retaking the ACT reuled in an improvement roughly equivalent to the "discrepancy."</p>
<p>Here is one more suggestion for Environmental Science/Environmental Engineering (same thing)</p>
<p>
[quote]
As our world becomes seemingly ever smaller due to increasing population size and declining natural resources, environmental engineering has emerged as a field of critical importance to society.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Johns</a> Hopkins University - Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering</p>
<p>
[quote]
DoGEE, has always been concerned with identifying, understanding, describing and solving environmental problems.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>First thing that popped up when I typed "Environmental Engineering" in google. A very popular major at Johns Hopkins. One of the most rapidly rising majors that people declare. </p>
<p>It consistently ranks among the top ten programs in the nation. Interesting huh.</p>