Thank you!! Sounds like so many good offerings!!
If he’s interested in small and MN, check out St. Olaf’s. You’ll find a couple of very good write-ups on CC if you do a search.
S23 is only interested in large flagships, but we stopped on our way from UMN to Iowa State. It definitely wasn’t the right school for him, for many factors that had nothing to do with how great the school was, but he absolutely loved their honor system (not academic honors but personal honesty) in everything from the bike and mug share to kids leaving their belongings outside of the dining hall. S23 goes to a New England boarding school and his take away was "this is exactly what I pictured and hoped boarding school would be like ". I guess it kind of fit both the aesthetic and academic stereotype of a cozy little enclave. It was also the only school S23 could imagine himself continuing his sport(s).
They have a well-known study abroad program and a high percentage of international students.
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Other schools that my son looked at which might fit the bill:
Elon in NC has about 6K students but feels smaller. Over 60% of students live on campus, 40% of students study abroad. The academic profile might seem out of reach, but I think it is a bit skewed by their own generous GPA recalculations. They claim the current freshman class had a average 4.08 GPA but 1250 SAT. This was a final contender for S23. His college counselor though he would get in (almost) guaranteed with an ED and very likely with EA. It’s a lovely campus.
If Jesuit schools are ok, check out Xavier in Cincinnati. S23 really liked it. They have a very welcoming supportive vibe. Ironically, it led to his final school - Miami OH. We went to see Miami the first time on a whim while in Ohio to look at Xavier, and S23 loved everything about it. Funny how we started with small schools and ended at at school with 16K students…
Gettysburg is another school we looked at in PA that was recommended by college counselor. Dh did the tour there, so I don’t have personal experience on campus, but dh and S23 liked it.
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Agree completely with St. Olaf. Happy student body. Gorgeous campus. Lots of study abroad. Can cross register at Carleton. Like many colleges, was started by a church, and is still church-affiliated, but liberal-leaning campus environment.
Also worth considering in Minnesota:
-Gustavus. Does not have an International Relations major per se, but many related majors. Lots of study abroad. Also belongs to National Student Exchange. NSE is a consortium of ~200 schools mainly in N. America. You can do up to a year of exchange at any participating school, your credits transfer automatically, and you only pay whatever you are paying at your home institute OR in-state tuition at the exchange partner, whichever is lower. Gustavus has good merit. Again, church-affiliated, but doesn’t have a religious or conservative vibe.
-Schools in the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities. These are within the Twin Cities, so are urban, but most are in cute residential neighborhoods. They range from very selective (Macalester) to very accessible, but each has its strength. You can take classes at any of them: Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities - Wikipedia
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As someone that is non (boarding on anti) religious but all for the intellectual study of religion, we were very impressed with the required religion classes at St. Olaf and how their admission staff represented the philosophy of their place in the curriculum.
They were also very clear in their stance that they didn’t support speakers or philosophies that used religion as a vehicle for oppression and that they were actively examining their policies to make sure that they were not engaging in those practices as well.
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This list was developed using College Navigator (feds’ website) and if I mention various majors by the school, it’s because there are a decent number of participants, per the most recent graduating class data. The amount of description by each school should not be an indication of which I think most highly of…just had more to do with my energy levels. 
Some schools you may want to consider include:
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Allegheny (PA ): Also has a large number of majors in international public health, but also international relations and affairs, community organization and advocacy, and other fields that seem to align well with your son’s interests. About 1600 undergrads.
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Bethel (MN): Majors in peace studies, international affairs, etc. About 2600 undergrads.
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Furman (SC): One of the biggest groups of Spanish majors from any of the schools, and very solid academics all-around. About 2300 undergrads.
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Gettysburg (PA ): Seconding this rec. A number of Spanish majors, various area studies, and international/globalization studies. About 2400 undergrads.
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Guilford (NC): About 1200 undergrads here
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Hamline (MN): Although there was a recent decision by the administration about an academic freedom issue that has not been well-received (additional info), I have otherwise heard good things about it and it might be a good fit for your son’s interests as it offers majors in international/globalization studies and peace and conflict resolution, as well as Spanish, all of which have some good participation by students. About 1800 undergrads.
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Juniata (PA ): About 1300 undergrads
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Lafayette (PA ): About 2700 undergrads
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Saint Joseph’s (PA ): About 4200 undergrads
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St. Olaf (MN): Seconding this school of about 3k undergrads
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Susquehanna (PA ): About 2200 undergrads
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Washington & Jefferson (PA ): About 2200 undergrads
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Wofford (SC): About 1800 undergrads
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Elon has a huge study abroad program. When we toured there they said something like 85% of students study abroad. We loved our tour but it felt too small for my son. It has about 6,000 students but has a beautiful, compact campus. Worth checking out.
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Week #2’s 20-min once-a-week session w/D24 was this evening, to talk about college stuff. Somebody on here suggested this and it’s going great so far…thank you for the suggestion!
Some highlights from this evening’s discussion:
- D24 really likes not being nagged about college all the rest of the week. This appears to be resulting in her being a bit more ‘engaged’/plugged in this week compared to before we started.
- She looked up the major requirements for 1 major at 1 college and put the info in a spreadsheet that we’d come up with.
- she had a hard time navigating through NAU’s physician assistant master’s program website to find all of the info I assigned her to go look up, so we did it together.
- D24 thought some of the comparisons between the “BS in Biology, biomedical sciences emphasis” requirements & the NAU PA program’s admission requirements were interesting…the latter not requiring Calculus or Physics, for example, while the BS in Biology program requires 1 yr of non-engineering physics.
- D24 liked how the NAU PA program gives preference to students who indicate an intent to remain AZ after completing the program (we are AZ residents).
- Also talked about cost of grad school programs (she’s aware that she’ll need to fund grad school herself), and NAU’s in-state tuition & fees totals up to just over $80,000, compared to an insane total of ~$169k (just in tuition alone) if you do the same program at Stanford.
- 2 of the other summer programs she’s going to apply to have apps due in early March, so she’s going to get started on those this week. 1 program has an app due in 2 weeks on 2/1, so if she wants to apply for that, she knows that she has to get her act together this week. 1 of these programs is just a 1-week stay-in-the-dorms thing at the med school…she thought that sounded awesome (to live on campus for a week). 1 of the other programs is an 8-week volunteer thing where you volunteer for a 4-hour shift per week, so she could still get a part time job, too.
- she thought that all of the various bio & chem courses required for the Biology degree that she looked up sounded interesting, was not intimidated by any of that. The only thing that gives her pause is physics and math.
Asked DH if he wanted to be present for this today. He declined, which was wise…he knew that he’d probably do all the talking and we wouldn’t get anywhere.
During dinner this evening, DH praised D24 for going each week and being reliable in her hospital volunteer position, told her that when it comes time this spring to apply for a summer part time job somewhere, being able to show a long track record that you can show up on time and be reliable and do what you’re told is a real positive.
DH, some time down the road, wants me to bring up w/D24 the topic of juggling/balancing one’s social life with grad school. He’s also concerned about the day some time in the future when she has a boyfriend and is worried that it’ll result in a hard time to get decent grades and all that.
I told him not to worry…that topic will come up at some point, but it’s too early for that right now. So far, she & I have talked about big general differences of the different types of healthcare graduate programs, what they cost, what type of job you end up with, how long it takes, certification exams for those, work-life balance (or total lack of work-life balance), etc.
this next week, she’s going to look up the PA grad program requirements for a different PA school. And she’s going to look up the requirements for U of A’s BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences.
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Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful valuable input!!
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Agree that this is a solid school. Applicants should be aware that it is a “fit” school, in that it is very religious (Christian.)
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Dickinson sounds like it checks a lot of his boxes!! It is on our need to visit list
Good to know about Bethel.
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Half way through junior year. How did that happen? S24 is signed up for SATs for March. He did decent on his PSAT’s and he is now finishing up Algebra II. Should his PSAT scores translate to the SAT score showed in the calculators, he will be done. Fingers crossed. We starting touring schools this summer and he prefers the smaller schools. We toured Springfield College, Assumption, and Endicott this fall. He thinks he would be happy at any of them. Next up are Westfield State and Saint Anselm. The only school off the list after we visited is University of New Hampshire because he realized he wants a small school.
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D24 learned a valuable lesson yesterday…1 of the summer programs that she was going to apply to is a high school summer volunteer program at the Mayo Clinic here in the Phoenix area. Involves 1 4-hr volunteer shift per week during the summer and you get to learn about all the different departments there. Well, in order to apply, you and a parent/guardian need to attend an online information session. And D24 waited too long to go to their website to find more info about how to apply. And all of the info sessions are now gone. She emailed them to confirm this and that’s what they said.
so much for that idea.
You snooze, you lose.
That really stinks. Everything is becoming harder and harder with things filling up before you can even think of signing up, etc. this will be a good lesson for signing up for classes. I hope she is able to find something else this summer. Which reminds me S24 needs to start looking for summer employment.
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thanks. We’re waiting to find out if she makes it to the semifinalist round for U of A’s KEYS summer research internship program. If that doesn’t work out, she’ll be applying for summer jobs in, probably, the April time frame. And I think that I’m going to recommend to her that she apply to be a volunteer at Banner’s MD Anderson Cancer Center because with her school schedule as a senior, her classes for the day will be done at noon…and the cancer center is only open until 5 pm M-F. This means that she could do a 4-hour shift one afternoon one day a week there…she’s said that she doesn’t get to do all that much at her hospital volunteer thing on Sunday afternoons, whereas at that cancer center, there’s always activity and they have the HS & college volunteers do stuff like man the information desk, take new patients around to the different locations they need to go to in the building, hand out warm blankets & snacks to patients in the chemo infusion clinic, etc.
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this week, D24 looked up another undergrad major & 1 more PA grad school. We talked briefly about what she thought so far, which was:
- U of A’s BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences requires less math than the BS in Biology.
- the BS-Pharm requires more chemistry, but it’s only by 1 or 2 classes compared to the bio major.
- she likes how the PA program at UNM wants ANY class in psychology - not just “intro to psychology.”
- thought it was interesting that NAU’s PA program admits about twice as many students per year as UNM’s program does. Tuition is about the same between the 2.
- she’s going to work on 2 essay questions per week for the summer scrubs application
- she’s decided that if she doesn’t get into the KEYS program, the type of part time job she’s going to apply for is retail. Decided she does not want to do food service jobs.
She said that lots of her classmates, even some of the smartest kids in her grade, are struggling with Calculus and honors physics this year (like she is).
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It sounds like the weekly meetings with designated research assignments during the week is really working well for your family. It’s great that your D is getting so engaged and seeing all the real-life implications of the assignments. Kudos on crafting them!
So…picking D24 up from the ASU language fair was an interesting experience this afternoon + a learning experience for her. She asked if it was ok to go w/classmates to a local taco shop chain. I said sure, plugged in the (what I assumed to be) location in my phone, headed there in the car. Then realized, Oh I should confirm which address. Called her and asked her to confirm address. She said it’s a 15 min drive from where they were, friend was giving all of them a ride, she’d text it to me.
Ok, great. I get address from her…it was different location…15 min drive from ASU main campus. Huh, ok…I head in that direction. Scanning the map on my phone and realize it’s in a lousy part of town. What the heck. I get there, call her, tell her to come outside to parking lot. She does…but she’s not at the one where she told me to go…
SHE’S AT THE TACO PLACE LITERALLY ACROSS THE STREET FROM ASU!
Holy mother of God.
Unleashed the biggest verbal can of you know what into that phone. Told her to stay put, and then ordered her to go to the taco shop counter and ask to confirm the address. Yep…she was at the one literally right next to ASU.
Guess what? That whole “it’s 15 min from here”? 15 min WALK. She assumed everybody meant ‘15 min drive’ and just picked the one that was a 15 min drive from ASU.
Good grief.
So I finally got there, she got in car, she burst into tears feeling guilty. Then I explained why it’s important to pay attention, ask for confirmation of actual location when you’re an adult…so when you’re out late and need to get an Uber or a Lyft somewhere or you’re making plans to meet up with friends at a restaurant somewhere, you don’t end up in a sketchy part of town with a bunch of nefarious characters and you’re left wondering where your friends are and how the heck you’re going to get back home.
She also learned today what the little blue dot means on the Apple iphone map app…that indicates WHERE YOU CURRENTLY ARE!
I have a few more gray hairs today from this. On the bright side, better she learn this now rather than later.
Adulting 101, lesson 4852 today. 
She had fun at the language fair. Still doesn’t want to go to ASU. Said that she doesn’t like how the student union has “too many stairs everywhere.”
She also ruled out going on a tour of New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology because of their math & physics requirements + there’s no movie theater in the town that the college is in.
Also learned today that the choir kid she ran into at the language fair is non-binary. I’m glad that my kid doesn’t care if somebody is binary gender or not…she treats them all the same. So that makes up for the map-reading mishap today.
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Tell her next time she can share her location with you via text and make it easier on everyone
ASU is on S24’s list and we will visit if he gets admitted. For some reason UA is not a school he is interested in so we do not want to fly all the way there for one school if he isn’t admitted yet (we are in MA).
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