My daughter is a high school junior and we are trying to find some LACs that might be a good fit. As we are in Texas, our knowledge of most of them is only what we can find online and I thought this community might help us. I will be as specific as possible with what she needs.
Highlights:
Not first gen, not URM.
She has an unweighted GPA of 4.0. Weighted will be around 4.5.
Top 7% in a class of 450
Aggressive AP schedule
2 sport varsity athlete (also plays select for 1)
3 years of local leadership in FFA
4 years of state level team contests for FFA with some state placements
4 years of showing livestock
Lots of other filler stuff like NHS, volunteer, etc
What she is looking for:
Test optional (she just isn’t performing on her ACT and IDK that it is worth the beating to raise the score when other options are available.)
We have another daughter in college, so solid need based aid will be important. We have an income of less than $100,000 per year but own our home w no mortgage and that seems problematic in some places.
I am guessing we may need to find need blind admissions?
Liberal campus is good, but she is not a social justice warrior and they aren’t her people.
She would prefer not to be extra rural.
I would like a reasonable distance to airport.
She would like a diverse group of peers (international/ethnic and financial mix). Not super nerdy or super hipster.
No “great books” type curriculum.
Collaborative as opposed to competitive.
She won’t do greek stuff so it doesn’t matter if it is there, but probably shouldn’t be the whole culture.
Biology undergrad maybe with some kind of environmental or sustainability or something.
Bonus points if she can play basketball (so probably D3).
We are not married to any part of the country in particular but want her to stay in the US.
Thanks for any suggestions you might have for her.
Oof the not rural and reasonable distance to airport requirements make it a little tough. Is test-optional an absolute must? What would “reasonable distance” from airport be?
A quick search on the Niche website will give you a list of test-optional schools that you can compare with suggestions in the thread.
If your daughter is open to looking at women’s colleges, the “seven sisters” schools might present some good options to fit your criteria as well (not sure which ones are test-optional, however).
Note that if she can get some strong secondary standardized testing together (SAT subjects test, APs, etc.) she can consider text-flexible colleges as well.
Within say a couple of hours would be my preference (taking into account weather). If she is drivable in say Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, maybe NM I could get rid of the airport clause. And I guess for the right school I could get past it. I just hate the idea of her getting hurt and me being an hour to the airport, airplane flight, and a 4 hour drive to her.
How about Warren Wilson College?
-The FFA and showing livestock stuff would make her appealing to them.
-Asheville, NC is supposed to be a pretty cool place.
-They describe themselves as “proudly test-optional.”
-Definitely have aid and it is not determined by test scores: https://www.warren-wilson.edu/admission/tuition-and-aid/scholarships/
My one concern about this choice for her would be that I do think it appeals to social justice warrior types…though I don’t think the whole school is that way. (My daughter is vegan and I believe Warren Wilson showed up on the list of schools good for “tree hugging vegetarians.” Lol.)
Smith College is also test optional! Beautiful campus, excellent academics.
I know the Northeastern schools best so these are my ideas for that region in addition to the recommendations other posters have already made…
I would recommend a trip to see the three Maine test optional LACs, Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby. Bates and Bowdoin have been test optional for 30+ years and Colby went TO last year. All would be reaches but IMO reasonable ones. They could be seen in a two day swing out of either Boston’s Logan airport (2-2 1/2 hours from Bates and Bowdoin) or Portland ME (limited flights but 30-45 minutes from Bates and Bowdoin). Colby is about a half hour further north.
Other NE TO optional schools that would fit her parameters- Connecticut College, Clark, Brandeis (not a LAC but a school that appeals to some LAC kids), Clark, Wheaton (very suburban but a nice match school), Goucher, Hobart and William Smith (might feel too remote and fratty, but a good match), Skidmore (probably a match, sounds very much like something that would fit your daughter-good arts), Dickinson (another possible match).
I expect that she will have some decent AP tests. Her ACT (taken once) was a 23. I don’t have the breakdown of sections handy and she is at range contest today, so no phone.
Southwestern University just outside of Austin is going test optional next year per the campus rep. This school might check most of your boxes, I don’t know about aid or scholarships.
I know GW is test optional and awards admitted students merit scholarships.
Your daughter is auto admit at a lot of the state schools so those are always an option. It might be worth a trip to UNT or Texas State if A&M is not her cup of tea. Texas State has some interesting ecology/biology related majors.
My advice is to run lots of Net Price Calculators at the test optional schools. (And have your DS take a practice ACT and SAT for free at a tutoring place. Then ask them for advice about her scores.)
A safety could be Eckerd College, good merit, well know for environmental and biology-research opportunities beginning freshman year, collaborative learning, strong mentor relationship, D3 basketball, 30 min from Tampa International, located on Boca Ciega Bay, 10 min from downtown St. Petersburg, no Greek life, students come from an average of 1,000 mi. away, international students.
If you haven’t done so yet you may want to get your hands on some good college guide books (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review) and start reading up on different options.
Hmm, Denison checks a lot of those boxes. 25-30 minutes from Columbus, Ohio airport. Test optional and merit is available for test optional kids. Collaborative community, tolerant, strong economic, social, racial, ethnic and international diversity, not an overwhelming “social justice warrior” culture. Strong Environmental Sciences/Studies, with a 350 acre Bio Reserve on campus where there is also student housing complete with chickens etc., called the “Homestead.” There is greek life but not overwhelming. Excellent fine and performing arts and strong D3 sports generally, not sure about Women’s Basketball. Increasingly competitive admissions, 29% acceptance rate this year.
Beloit is just across the Wisconsin border, about 60 minutes from O’Hare so a non-stop flight to Chicago could be pretty efficient. Test optional, with merit for test optional kids. Collaborative, tolerant, no greek life. At least in my kid’s sport, they were thrilled to have him. EA decisions come out around mid-December – with merit decisions included – so great for an early acceptance to relieve the pressure. Sounds like an admissions safety for a kid like OP’s.
Dickinson is test optional, though requires scores for merit greater than $10k, at least when my kid was applying a few years ago. Environmental sustainability is one of the touchstone values of the community and my recollection was there were a lot of academic options in that regard. Collaborative, tolerant community, like at Denison, there is greek life but not overwhelming. Some very competitive sports teams, not sure where Women’s BBall falls on that. About 2 hours from Pittsburgh, 30-45 minutes from Harrisburg, PA.
Bryn Mawr is test-optional, suburban but close to an air-travel hub, collaborative, not hyper-political, full-need-met and D3 for sports. It’s great for her areas of academic interest, and closely integrated with nearby Haverford (with additional cross-reg opportunities at Swarthmore and UPenn). It isn’t need-blind, but like many need-sensitive full-need-met schools, it admits a majority of the class without regard to need, and only makes need-influenced decisions for the remaining spots after available aid money has run out.
Mount Holyoke has many of these same attributes and has an even higher acceptance rate, but not quite the same ease of travel access.
Pitzer is test-optional, full-need-met, and pretty easy to get to from TX. Environmentally-related majors are its greatest strength. It might be a little more social-justicey than she prefers, but it’s also part of a 7000-undergraduate consortium with a range of personalities and “vibes,” so I’d expect she could find her tribe, especially if she were on their D3 bball team, where her teammates would be a mix of athletes from both Pitzer and Pomona. (And her bio major would be in the Keck Science department which is shared with Scripps.) Also in LA, Occidental is another D3, test-optional, full-need-met LAC that could be a fit.
Pacific Northwest LAC’s that are test-optional (and do not guarantee full-need-met but might end up offering a good package) include Lewis and Clark in Portland, which would fit the ease-of-transit criterion, and Whitman in Walla Walla, which would not but which sounds like a potential good fit in other respects. L&C has a specific pathway for submitting an academic portfolio in lieu of test scores.
Bryn Mawr is also test optional. She could almost certainly play her sport there!
Most colleges and universities in the country are need-blind for admissions, and most haven’t got a lot of money to spread around. So don’t focus so tightly on need-blind. Focus on places where her GPA and her ACT score (such as it is) will get her good aid.
Have her take a look at Guilford. My multi-year livestock-showing (4-H not FFA) niece who had a GPA like your daughter’s,and barely managed to crack 29 on the ACT ended up there with a Bonner Scholarship that made it affordable.
I would also mention Southwestern U near Austin – she’d definitely get merit there; very large, pretty campus, near Austin and the students go there often, socially conscious students but not social justicy, very pretty old historic campus, arts and the students seem happy.
Pitzer is not that easy to get into. Lots of students trying to back door to the 5Cs apply. They only accepted 13% last year. Dickinson seems like a fit.
@intparent , I agree that Pitzer attracts so many similarly-qualified test-optional applicants that it becomes a low-odds crapshoot. However, if Pomona-Pitzer wanted OP’s daughter for basketball, that could be a different story altogether. If she’s interested in the school, it would be worth filling out the recruitment form on the Sagehen Athletics website and seeing whether they express interest.