<p>We just returned from our East Coast college tour.</p>
<p>To reiterate, our daughter is an opinionated, left wing political science major. She is interested in law. She is tired of toning down her beliefs, in order to be accepted by moderates and republicans. She wants a liberal environment.</p>
<p>While in N.E. we visited 8 colleges, her favorites were: Bennington, Clark and Mount Holyoke. We were surprised that she became excited about MHC. She was not that serious about Bennington, but her visit changed her tune, and had the opportunity to sit in on a class and join in the discussions. She was always interested in Clark, and the visit was special for her, and was very excited about it. </p>
<p>My daughter is enrolled in all AP or Honors classes. When she graduates she will have 5 AP classes. Her unweighted average her Junior year was 4.0. Her freshman and Sophomore year she attended a Catholic school and was not used to the strict teaching or Catholic way of learning. Rote memorization. Her average those years were a solid "B". </p>
<p>At this time her favorite colleges are: Bennington, Clark, Earlham and Mount Holyoke. We need help with finding five to eight schools as safety schools, both academic and financial that will have the same vibe as the schools she visited.</p>
<p>Here is the list of the other schools she is interested in and we need to cut the list down. Your comments will be appreciated, and the schools are in no particular order.</p>
<p>Hiram
Wittenberg
Capital
Eastern Michigan
Ohio Wesleyan
College of Wooster
Dennison
Beloit
Ohio U.
Eckerd
Alfred</p>
<p>Thank you again for your time and comments.</p>
<p>My daughter’s first choice at this point is Mt. Holyoke…we’ve visited 16 schools I think lol. Other top choices include Dickinson, Smith, Vassar, Barnard, and Wesleyan. Funny that you say she wants a uba-liberal school, that’s all we seem to be finding and we lean more to the right Financial safeties are hard to find in the Northeast. Daughter’s academic safeties are Simmons in Boston, UScranton in PA, St. Mikes in Burlington VT, and Ithica in NY. Our only financial safety if you can call it that is UMass Amherst at $28K, ugh! I think Assumption, Stonehill, Wheaton are all safeties both ways but we were not interested in them.</p>
<p>@NEPatsGirl is that 28K for instate at UMASS? That’s crazy if it is. I recently learned that Albright College in PA meets full needs. Haven’t visited it yet, but it would be both an academic and a financial safety.</p>
<p>Is Wheaton generous? </p>
<p>There are some colleges in Ohio that lean right - Miami University in Oxford is a state school with a very private “Ivy” feel. There is a healthy Republican presence there. I have heard the same about College of Wooster. </p>
<p>Yes, that is in state tuition and with our household income of $50K±, daughter will receive $5K off the $29K pricetage for the honors school if she gets in, ouch! I am making her apply there as a safety because the NCP could doom us at all the other schools. At least if she goes there, she can take classes at Amherst, Smith,Mt Holyoke…three of her choices…its a great education just so much bigger than what she is accustomed to and wants.</p>
<p>I do believe Wheaton has generous merit aid for the top students, yes.</p>
<p>Just shaking my head, but I’ll try and help anyway. (Where DO you people find the secret cache of schools suppressing liberal/progressive thought?)</p>
<p>It might help if you listed her test scores, that would give us a better idea on the schools that would better fit. You also seem to be missing most of the liberal bastions that a student like your daughter would normally be interested in. There are a few that she might be qualified for that seem to be in the same range, but perhaps you’ve eliminated them already, schools like Hampshire, Skidmore, Marlboro, Bard, Sarah Lawrence and others on Princeton Review’s list of “Most Liberal”.</p>
<p>Off the top of my head, Ohio U by reputation is probably too conservative for your daughter, since it’s known as a very preppie place. Bennington and MHC are certainly good fits.</p>
<p>^ I was also going to suggest some of the schools MrMom62 listed. My D is at Mount Holyoke. She applied to Skidmore, Bard, Smith, Wellesley, MHC, and Hampshire. She also required a very liberal atmosphere and our financial situation is very similar to NEPatsGirl’s, so our college list leaned heavily towards schools with good financial aid. (Our state school, U Maine, was similarly expensive to UMass, and she didn’t even apply there. No way we could afford it!)</p>
<p>LuxLake, not sure if your financial situation is similar or if you are looking for merit aid. Bard and Hampshire came back with similar EFCs for us, which were about $10k more than the meets-full-need schools.</p>
<p>I’m surprised not to see Hampshire on your list… any reason why? She could take classes at MHC from there.</p>
<p>I think that she should re-think Hampshire. We visited on a day when the campus was empty, right after MHC. Hampslire looked “like a random depressing community college”. to her. That’s a quote. </p>
<p>It was originally on our list. I think it should go back.</p>
<p>Financial aid is important to us. We ran the NPC on MHC and we were very, very pleased.</p>
<p>She has her “liberal bastions” - Clark, Mount Holyoke and Bennington. Also Earlham, a progressive Quaker school in Indiana. MHC would be the “reach” here. Clark is not a sure shot, but it’s close. Bennington is a bit easier than the other two but their admissions standards are quirky. Earlham is a fit or a match.</p>
<p>Adding more “liberal bastions” that are of equal difficulty would seem redundant. However, I think she should reconsider Hampshire. </p>
<p>I guess what I am looking for are academic and financial safeties. </p>
<p>Marlboro is not on the list because our S attends there. It’s too small for the two of them. </p>
<p>There is no “secret cache” of liberal or conservative schools. The internet in full of these lists. College Express has numerous interesting lists of both liberal and conservative colleges. </p>
<p>My son looked at Beloit last year. He ruled it out because he attended a poly sci class (his intended major) and all the students in the class were too liberal for his comfort and in high school he was more liberal than most. So I think Beloit would probably be a good one for you to look at. We looked at both Earlham and Beloit and felt they gave off a similar vibe.</p>
<p>We like Beloit. Our only problem with it is that we have one student in Vermont and we live in Ohio. We were hoping that she would either go in the same general direction -</p>
<p>@ Erin’s Dad - I agree. Not enough. That’s why Dennison isn’t on the list. She could get in. Probably would. But they would not reward her. They are still a pretty “go by the numbers school”.</p>
<p>Yeah, Hampshire’s campus/architecture is not very impressive! But it’s in a beautiful location, has a neat community of passionate students, and allows you to take classes and interact with students at the other 4 schools. </p>
<p>My son applied to Wittenberg, Beloit, and Allegheny last year. All three gave him similar merit (about $22000, I think) However, Wittenberg has the lowest list price so it was the lowest price (not considering other types of aid). His stats were slightly higher than your daughter’s but I still think you would get merit for her stats at all three schools. My daughter who is a senior this year is looking at Wooster and Allegheny. We did not get the impression that Wooster was conservative but were there during the summer so we will be going back for another look. Allegheny struck us as being very service oriented and tolerant. I think it would be worth a look.</p>
<p>Honestly, I get mixed messages about how consevative/liberal Wooster is. I have read lists that say both. I’ll have to visit myself to see how it feels.</p>
<p>It’s hard to guess. Marlboro has a fairly modest endowment. My son was vacillating between Marlboro, Bard and Hampshire. While he waited, MC kept sending increasing amounts of money. So much, that in the end he chose them. We were left with under 10 thousand. Not bad.</p>
<p>I think with the quirkier schools, when they want you, they go out of their way to get you. </p>
<p>Alfred is actually an interesting pick and option. I think it would be a good fit but I am not sure how much you know about the town of Alfred. It is a small town in a valley. On one side of main street is Alfred University which is a liberal leaning school. On the other side of main street is Alfred State College of Technology, which has more of a moderate or conservative student body. </p>
<p>Basically all that is in the town are these two schools. </p>
<p>If you have not looked, here is a map you can zoom in on to show how close the two schools are with their shared downtown. You can see that the campuses are long and narrow due to the valley. </p>
<p>I am pretty familiar with how old, isolated upstate towns are. Not exciting. Perhaps a little depressing and remote.But I think Alfred might be a good one for her to include. </p>
Financial safeties are hard to find in the Northeast. Daughter’s academic safeties are Simmons in Boston, UScranton in PA, St. Mikes in Burlington VT, and Ithica in NY. Our only financial safety if you can call it that is UMass Amherst at $28K, ugh! I think Assumption, Stonehill, Wheaton are all safeties both ways but we were not interested in them.</p>