Please help us find colleges....

<p>My daughter is a junior and is in love with Tufts where she will apply ED next fall. However, we are unsure as to other colleges and need some help.</p>

<p>She likes:
* Boston
* Tufts convenience (accessible to downtown but with its own campus)
* Tufts size (not too big, not too small)
* that they have a dental school
* co-ed</p>

<p>Her stats:
* weighted gpa about 4.1 at top DC-area public school
* courseload: at least 6 APs total
* underrepresented minority
* financial aid applicant</p>

<p>She has not taken her SATs but is actually scoring lower now than she did a year ago. (She was scoring about 2000. She is now scoring around 1800 which is considerably below Tufts' average.) </p>

<p>She doesn't like BU and doesn't want to look into BC or College of the Holy Cross (because they're Catholic and we're not). We are considering visiting Vassar (smaller than she wants, no dental school, but it is a train ride away from NYC). The only other school that is probably on the list is U-Mich (bigger and further but has dental school). </p>

<p>Other schools that have come up:
* Amherst -- probably too much of a reach
* Hamilton / Colgate -- probably too rural
* NYU/ BU - no campus </p>

<p>We just don't know enough about: RIT, Carnegie-Mellon, Case</p>

<p>Help!!! We want to visit schools over Spring Break but need to figure out where to go.</p>

<p>I'd say Rice - (Rice mom here), but, no dental school. But why exactly does she want a dental school??? Dental school is not an undergrad major, and after 4 years at one school, most kids are ready to move onto new challenges at a different university.... Rice has good financial aid, in a nice part of major city near medical centers, museuems,parks etc convenient to major airports. 2800 undergrads, but is planning to increase in size to 3600 in the next few years.</p>

<p>Brandeis?....</p>

<p>I know from experience it's difficult to find a Tufts comparison. Here's a couple of thoughts - Haverford in Philly - smaller than Tufts but excellent academics and very convenient to Philly - gorgeous campus. Also Connecticut College - often overlooked - excellent academics - between NY & Boston - also may be too small though
best of luck!</p>

<p>I agree-don't base your search on only schools that have dental programs. A) There's no guarantee she'll get into that school's program if she goes there undergrad, B) There's no guarantee she'll even want to BE a dentist 4 years from now, and C) There's no guarantee she'll even want to go to the same dental school as undergrad. I had a friend in high school who was totally convinced for years that she wanted to be a dentist. She's now a nutritionist. </p>

<p>I've heard that Boston College does a good job of integrating all students, Catholic or not. Don't have any first-had experience but it's worth checking out. I do know that Brandeis has a very large Jewish population, and she may feel like more of a minority there than at a Catholic school. My friend (the one who wanted to be a dentist) went to Lehigh, a very good school in PA. </p>

<p>But really, you gotta scratch that whole dental school thing off your list. You're really going to limit yourself if you don't.</p>

<p>Boston College, but from reading posts about BC, the financial aid doesn't seem to be good at all.</p>

<p>Fordham, Marymount Manhattan, UMiami, Tulane</p>

<p>Welcome to CC!!</p>

<p>I can't help on the dental school thing, but in terms of finding places near Boston like Tufts, I'll second Brandeis. Fordham might be a good safety to consider, even though it is Jesuit. How about Northwestern (just outside of Chicago) and Brown? If it's the city she likes, Barnard is another possibility. I'd also suggest she look at UWisc/Madison. And Case Western and Univ. of Rochester.</p>

<p>My daughter also loved Tufts; she liked most of the other schools I just suggested. If your daughter really wants close access to a city, then I'm not sure Vassar is a great choice. I'd definitely consider Tulane also.</p>

<p>One way to learn more about all these schools is to use the search function here on CC and search the school name. You'll come up with threads that describe visits and other people's impressions of the school. That helped me a lot a year ago.</p>

<p>If you're on the Virginia side of the DC area and if proximity to a city isn't a deal breaker, how about William and Mary?</p>

<p>It's Tufts-sized and somewhat Tufts-like in style, but less expensive if you're in state and probably easier to get into.</p>

<p>What does she like about dentistry? If it is the science/medical part, I would look at schools that have the good general pre-med,science/biology departments. If it is serving others, or generally health related, you can explore those areas... </p>

<p>I agree... it is too early to narrow schools to just those with dental programs...</p>

<p>You might want to look at U. Rochester. Similar in size to Tufts, has a medical and dental school, not as exciting as Boston, but a very interesting undergraduate program.</p>

<p>After visiting Brandeis, my Jewish/Asian/secular son said something interesting to me when I asked him how he would feel about going to a majority Jewish school. He said, "why would you even ask me that, you never asked me how I felt about going to a majority Christian school?" Honestly, we found Brandeis to feel more diverse than some other LACs we visited. (My S is in a majority minority school near DC and diversity is very important to him.) I think you just have to visit it; like all the other schools it just has to feel like a fit.</p>

<p>S</p>

<p>Agreeing with other posters and adding a few more:
Rice, Wm & Mary, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Middlebury, Rochester, Brandeis, GW. </p>

<p>Rice and Middlebury appealed to our S. very much, and would have been on his 'to see' list if Tufts hadn't worked out, though have to admit distance (from L.I., NY) may have been a factor. I think a lot of these schools are great for their potential to expose students to many different possibilities in terms of majors and careers. Like your daughter, he also preferred medium-sized schools to small LACs, but did like Amherst. BC just didn't "click" on visit. </p>

<p>If she works on her SATs over the summer, I bet she'll have a lot of nice choices next year. Experience helps too. S. was very disappointed with his math score first time around (panicked, ran out of time), so took them again almost immediately, the following month. Just knowing what to expect can make a big difference.</p>

<p>Your daughter might want to check out the individual college threads here on CC early next week when decisions come out -- many students post their results, scores, statistics, etc. Not necessarily an admissions tool, but interesting nevertheless.</p>

<p>Most that I would have suggested have been covered, but also:</p>

<p>Trinity in Hartford, CT.
Hofstra in NY (super-safety?)
Villanova in Phila.</p>

<p>I noted that she wasn't interested in BC/HC because they are Catholic. But is she aware that there are many non-Catholics at all of these and that, for many, it is not a dominating atmosphere.</p>

<p>(count me as another person confused about why a BA/BS candidate would care about there being a dental school; if this remains a key factor, it will be quite limiting in combo with her other criteria, I think)</p>

<p>Thanks There are a lot of good suggestions here. She wants to go to dental school eventually and wants a school with a solid pre-dental program. Believe it or not, one of the best is BYU but she wouldn't be comfortable there. Most dental schools do take students disproportionately from their undergrad-- but if she went to a very good LAC, it would probably be ok too.</p>

<p>We're on the Md side of DC. </p>

<p>There's a good selection here. I think Brown, Georgetown, Dartmouth, Rice and Hopkins are too far reaches but it's always fun to dream. (I looked it up and Rice is harder to get into from her hs as HPY.) </p>

<p>Trinity-- well, I'll have to get over the fact that they waitlisted me a million years ago but, yes, it should probably make the cut! I <em>always</em> mix up RIT and Univ of Rochester so I'm glad to see one on the list. And Case Western fits the profile but I know little about it. I think I need to do a lot of searches on these suggestions. (Thanks for mentioning that. I haven't done that.)</p>

<p>Thanks. I'm so glad I asked. We've been stuck about this for a long time. I'm making a list of all these schools and looking them up. Thanks again.</p>

<p>Wake Forest could be a good match</p>

<p>Not outside Boston, but outside another great city (Chicago) and well-known for its excellent pre-professional programs is Northwestern. Although it's not quite as small as Tufts (that's a very hard size to find among universities!) it's mid-sized. About the same level of selectivity, too.</p>

<p>My daughter has a friend who will be attending UOP (University of the Pacific) in Stockton, CA this fall. He has a full ride and will be enrolled in a program that will guarantee him admission to the UOP dental school upon graduation. Stockton doesn't quite come up to the level of Boston - or even Palo Alto - in terms of excitement, but the winters are a lot shorter, and it's not all that far from culture centers such as San Francisco or Berkeley. And only a couple of hours from skiing!</p>

<p>Consider Leigh and Lafayette, not in big cities but accessible to NY and Philadelphia</p>