<p>Have you looked at any of the public LACs? e.g. Keene State and New College of Florida, both $30k OOS base price (but both have guaranteed merit aid that can reduce that significantly, and in NCF’s case all you have to do for half price is meet a deadline). St. Mary’s of MD is $40k-ish but also has merit aid. NCF and St Mary’s lean strongly left, Keene is more moderate-left. There are many more if you check out the COPLAC consortium.</p>
<p>I’d look at discarding a few of the more center-moderate options currently on the list (Denison, Ohio U, Eastern Michigan) and putting in one or more public LACs that lean more in D’s political direction. Particularly NCF if D is open to it, as it would be a good financial safety and is arguably the star of the public LACs. It’s a top producer of Fulbrights and eventual PhDs.</p>
<p>Eckerd does sound like a good fit. She may be eligible for $15,000 merit if her stats are what was quoted. Both of my children went to Eckerd and felt that it is a “way of life”. Interdisciplinary instruction, fabulous professor mentorship, engaging, very liberal in social justice, service oriented, lots of study abroad both short sessions and semester length, great internship programs, etc. Feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>I have two friends who taught at College of Wooster for many years and think highly of the school. I’ll ask them about the politics and the poly. sci. dept. I guess you’re not looking out West, but Occidential College is very beautiful and leans heavily left-wing. Also Scripps College is a fabulous women’s college in Claremont, CA and has excellent financial aid.</p>
<p>DD and I are going to Mt. Holyoke on 11/5 for an equestrian related visit and admissions interview. We visited in the summer, but are going back to see if she can find “her people.”</p>
<p>I’m from outside of Cleveland – have visited both Denison and College of Wooster (twice) with my daughter, who is also a senior. My understanding is that Denison attracts many kids from the “blue” (i.e. outside Cinci) part of Ohio. Wooster has a much more liberal vibe, and a lot more energy to the campus (although I’ll admit that we visited Denison on a sub zero day last winter). Wooster gives a tremendous amount of merit aid. Ohio Univ. is a different kind of school entirely. My daughter had intended to use it as a safety school, then she ruled it out entirely due to the administration’s very indifferent response to the recent ice bucket fiasco involving the school’s student body president. </p>
<p>I attended Claremont McKenna College and was able to get really cheap (and sometimes free) flights by signing up for some credit card. That said, I didn’t make it back to the East Coast for Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>New College of Florida has a lot of drugs and sexual experimentation (orgies and whatnot!) on campus according to my FL friends who are in the know. A friend’s daughter just matriculated. We’ll see what she has to say in a few months.</p>
<p>One midwest LAC to consider: Kalamazoo College. Strong academics–don’t know anything about merit aid, but it’s definitely a campus with open-minded and quirky kids who were definitely liberal leaning. My stepson graduated from there and loved it. I haven’t been there in a while but I always liked the school. It’s got an interesting curriculum called the K-Plan, which might interest your daughter. It’s one of the colleges in the book–Colleges That Change Lives.</p>
<p>I’ve heard much milder versions of the same rumor about NCF. Much of the sexual experimentation sounds like a natural reaction to an imbalanced gender ratio - girls experimenting with girls because there aren’t enough boys, boys preferring multiple casual relationships over limiting their options with a single committed relationship. </p>
<p>Drug use is reportedly tolerated but done responsibly by the usual self-selecting subset of students who are into that, which again is a pretty natural reaction to an isolated campus. The responsible use claim seems to be borne out by the lack of serious incidents that occur at many other schools. My impression is that the administration tolerates it liberally on campus because keeping it close enables them to keep it in check (and avoid DUIs, overdoses, etc.) The on-campus parties are reportedly self-policed by a joint force of campus police and student safety officers.</p>
<p>There’s also reputedly not the greatest of town-gown relationships, so a thoroughly typical amount of on-campus experimentation that would happen on any campus (especially an isolated one) might be exaggerated through the grapevine due to the culture clash of having a bunch of liberal nerds in the backyard of a sleepy retirement community.</p>
<p>I’ll be interested to hear what your friend’s D thinks of it in a few months as well.</p>
<p>Once again, we agonized over the FINAL list and here is the one we really like and feel comfortable with.</p>
<p>The big three- Clark, Mount Holyoke, Bennington and we added a forth- Hampshire. (since we heard a lot of good
things about the money and it is in the consortium.)</p>
<p>The second part has to do with being a good school, having a boat load of money and very liberal leanings.
Wittenberg, Hiram, Eckerd, Elmira, Alfred U., Earlham, (for some reason, I am not as excited about Earlham as my wife and daughter- any comment?)</p>
<p>The third part are decent schools that should be very easy for her to get into and give her all the money.
Capital (in Columbus- the capital of Ohio, where she will be a political science major), Eastern Michigan University (she will also get in state tuition and a lot of money) Flagler (recommended by someone on this forum (thanks), pretty and has a lot of money.</p>
<p>We also have a debate at home over two schools which we have conflicting opinions on:
College of Wooster and Ohio Wesleyan. </p>
<p>Just realized you are in-state for Michigan schools…and not sure why EMU is on your list above all the other state schools-flagship and directional. </p>
<p>Did you look at Kalamazoo? Liberal, open-minded, intellectual. S1 40% tuition scholarship, econ/business major, D1 50% merit scholarship, chemistry major. A great fit for both. My sister graduated 30 years ago, poly sci major, then attended UMich Law School. Not sure how much merit money you are looking for/needing.</p>
<p>D1 had Wooster on her list, but decided against attending; too much on-campus drinking for her. And less liberal than K.</p>