Other SLACs with higher acceptance rates? [CS and French]

College Search & Selection
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My D25 is starting to make a list of colleges to tour this spring. She has already seen a few and definitely wants:

SLAC
Wants to study CS and French
Not in California (our home state)
1500-3000 students
NO Greek Life
4-year on-campus housing guaranteed and encouraged
Blue state and liberal-leaning campus

Current favorites are:
Middlebury
Bowdoin
Mt. Holyoke
Williams
Carleton

What other colleges should be added to her list? We are hoping to find some schools with 50+% acceptance rates, higher ideally.

Thank you for any suggestions!

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Willamette (in Oregon) would be a great one for her to take a look at. Apart from being a little smaller than she’d like (1,400) and having some greek life (2 fraternities, 2 sororities), I believe it checks all of her boxes. Acceptance rate is 81%.

Whitman (in Washington) would be another one to think about. (Acceptance rate is about 48%.)

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Thank you! We’ll add them to the list! Both sound excellent.

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For a moderately selective school, look into Macalester, which, based on this site, offers strong foreign language programs:

Also, as pertains to computer science, Macalester is notable among LACs for offering a data science major.

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Agree with Whitman and Willamette. If you visit Carleton, check out St. Olaf at the same time. Don’t let its Lutheran affiliation fool you, it leans liberal. Also check out Macalester.

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There are so many!!

Bard, Skidmore, Connecticut College, Hobart & William Smith (don’t know about Greek Life there though).

If she’s willing to compromise on Greek life, St. Lawrence, Union, Bucknell, Dickenson, Gettysburg.

My unasked for advice is not to include many, if any at all, colleges with sub 10% acceptance rates on your visit, unless she’s a super strong applicant (I am guessing she’s not, if you are looking for schools with acceptance rates of 50%). That’s because it’s so easy to love the reaches, and makes it harder to like the easier admits. My oldest was not in the ballpark for Georgetown, but after he saw it, he had a hard time liking American. Learn from our mistake :slight_smile:

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Thank you so much for the advice. I really appreciate it!

Skidmore and Conn College are also on the list, although we haven’t seen them.

So many of the PA schools have large Greek systems, which she is feeling pretty strongly against.

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Thank you! Will add Macalester and St. Olaf to the list!

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This site may offer you ideas for further colleges to research: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/most-on-campus.

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You can check each college’s common data set, section F1 for:

  • Percentage of frosh in campus housing.
  • Percentage of all undergraduates in campus housing.
  • Percentage of female undergraduates in sororities.
  • Percentage of male undergraduates in fraternities.
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It may help if you give some basic information to help others help recommend appropriate colleges, such as:

  • Unweighted GPA and type of courses.
  • SAT/ACT scores, if any. PSAT-based status (NMSF or CBNRP), if any.
  • Budget and financial aid situation (run the net price calculator on each college’s web site).
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University of Puget Sound has Greek life but very few students are involved. It has a very high acceptance rate but wonderful academics and beautiful campus.

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Regarding Willamette, note that it does not offer a major in French.

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Although it’s in a red state, Hendrix is a great LAC, high acceptance rate, no greek life, liberal campus community. I agree with the earlier suggestion of St. Olaf as well. My kid also wanted no fraterntities (ended up at Grinnell) and both of these were on the short list. Oh- and maybe Warren Wilson, although I vaguely recall we were underwhelmed with the CS offereings.

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Unless I’m misunderstanding something, I think Willamette does have it? (French and Francophone Studies; also, for easy access, Computer Science)

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These are some schools that your family may want to check out.

Higher Probability

  • Drew (NJ): About 1500 undergrads

  • Kalamazoo (MI): About 1200 undergrads but in the same town as Western Michigan which has about 15k undergrads.

  • North Central (IL): About 2400 undergrads

  • Stonehill (MA): About 2500 undergrads

  • U. of Minnesota – Morris: About 1100 undergrads

  • Wheaton (MA): About 1700 undergrads

Toss-Up

  • Clark (MA): About 2400 undergrads

  • Bryn Mawr (PA ): About 1400 undergrads at this women’s college, but about 2800 undergrads when combined with Haverford, with which it has a very close relationship. Swarthmore is the third campus in the consortium, but a bit further than Haverford. Total they’re about 5k undergrads.

Low Probability

  • Vassar (NY): About 2500 undergrads

  • Wellesley (MA): About 2400 undergrads

Seconding/thirding/whatevering Connecticut College, Macalester, and Skidmore.

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Hobart William Smith. There is a Greek system but only 2% are in sororities and 18% in fraternities. Their French major isn’t just French, but Francophone Studies, and offers great travel and study abroad opportunities.

Skidmore seems to fit all the criteria. Don’t let their published acceptance rate scare you away. From what I see on Naviance it is not as selective as the published rate.

Juniata. Fits all the criteria and has lots of merit awards (They even have one for lefties). One of the Colleges That Change Lives.

Count me in as another CCer that loves St. Olaf.

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I concur with those suggesting St Olaf and Whitman. Wooster might also be of interest. I had thought Kenyon might be a match but it looks like they don’t have a CS major.

If the ratio of academic quality/selectivity were a thing, IMO Reed is the perennial champ, but I’ve known more than a few staunch liberals who visited and decided it’s just too liberal.

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Thank you!!! This is so helpful. I love the “lefty” merit scholarship at Juniata - my daughter IS a lefty! So funny! And great news on Skidmore. I could see that as a place my daughter would love.

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Yeah, I think Reed may be too liberal, too!

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