<p>first, he has no idea which is ranked higher. I think the talk of a 100-150 page thesis prior to graduation may have spooked him. in the end, he said he liked the vibe more at bennington, my wife felt bennington was more warm and fuzzy and they seem to provide a lot of support for the kids.</p>
<p>Interesting - Bennington was my older son’s second choice but it was a hard decision for him. Bates wouldn’t have been the right place for him at all. Of course younger son is at Bates and loves it and wouldn’t have been a match at all for Bennington. They are so different!</p>
<p>by way of an update, he’s been admitted to knox, vermont and tulane (a little surprised). We’re thinking about adding rhodes to the list.</p>
<p>Is there a reason for adding more schools to his list at this time?</p>
<p>IMO, if you find a school that is a good match, why not? Most of the small, LACs on his list are in small, somewhat remote locations, Rhodes has an interesting location and on the surface, seems a bit more rigorous than say Knox.</p>
<p>@quietdesperation If you’re looking for a small southern LAC. Rhodes seems like a great choice. Also check out Hendrix, Birmingham-Southern, Centre, Sewanee, Furman, Southwestern University, Trinity (TX), and Wofford.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about parchment and had never looked at the site - but it looks like the evaluation of “chances” for a school like U Michigan is based on both out-of-state and in-state stats, which would invalidate the percentage it is giving out.</p>
<p>I agree on the parchment prediction for michigan, we have it down as a far reach. Still, he has some things going for him there, solid SATs, UM used to not count freshman year, now I believe it does but discounts the year, decent rigor (five aps), the rising gpa (including a 4.0 first quarter, senior year) and by all accounts, a very strong essay. also, his big bro goes there and has done very well. Given all those factors, maybe he has a (small) chance…</p>
<p>@quietdesperation Just coming back to this thread after looking at Hendrix more for my D. Hendrix seems like the ultimate “quirky” school. They even describe themselves that way. No greek system, and that’s the way they like it. The school recently brought back football to the school, and there was a lot of kvetching about this decision on campus because many thought it would change the Hendrix culture. Hendrix is a quirky oasis in a sea of southern conservatism.</p>
<p>Hendrix parent here–I’d say it is mostly the social scene that makes Hendrix quirky. The students have a lot of traditions, many going back for decades, that they are really proud of and that make campus life fun. It’s a wonderfully accepting and tolerant place.</p>
<p>There are definitely kids there who would fall squarely into the “quirky” category–but also many who are more mainstream or conventional. The students I have met through my son are very bright, motivated and poised kids who are enjoying great opportunities through the school and making the most of them. Hendrix has a high acceptance rate, but the student body is “smarter” (at least based on test scores) than many other colleges that get more attention on this site and even in this thread.</p>
<p><a href=“Smartest Colleges in America”>Smartest Colleges in America'</p>
<p>As for the addition of football, I don’t think it is having much if any effect on the culture. It attracts more diversity to the campus and is a draw for alums. Hendrix already has a lot of really good D3 teams so if anything I think adding football will just contribute positively to school spirit.</p>
<p>thanks, we’ll take a look a closer look at hendrix…sounds like the kids are self-selecting. </p>
<p>Sewanee has a Shakespeare minor. Great English dept & a really nice theater facility for a LAC.</p>
<p>@sally305 My D has been accepted to Hendrix, and I think it’s a perfect fit for her… excepting her idea that she wants to live in a more urban environment. When I think of quirky students, it’s not a synonym for weird by any means… just kids that you described perfectly and my D as well.</p>
<p>@quietdesperation I think you hit the nail on the head about Hendrix applicants somehow being self-selected. I’m perplexed that the average ACT score for Hendrix admits is 29, but the acceptance rate is 83%! Somehow, the applicant pool is skewed toward the top end of the ACT spectrum compared to other southern LACs.</p>
<p>this thread has a happy ending. In the end, he decided to apply to some quirky schools and some not so quirky schools so he could contrast and compare. He was admitted in this order to:</p>
<p>university of vermont
knox
clark
tulane
case western
Oberlin, ED </p>
<p>his stats are in my original post, we were surprised by his acceptances to tulane, case and oberlin. I think his writing skills really helped, he had a great essay and his supplemental essays were original and funny. I’m guessing he also had stellar teacher recommendations. </p>
<p>Finally, in the end, parchment did a better job of identifying his chances than naviance. Parchment had him above 50% at all the schools above while Naviance showed that he’d have the lowest gpa in the history of school acceptances if he was accepted at case and oberlin. If we had just used Naviance, he probably wouldn’t have applied to those schools.</p>
<p>So it’s Oberlin next fall, thanks for all your help!</p>
<p>Congratulations! I love happy endings :-)</p>
<p>What nice news! Sometimes kids are stronger than their stats.</p>
<p>Congrats @quietdesperation! Your son sounds similar to my oldest who was accepted by Oberlin 7 years ago. He loved it there and did well -his college gpa was higher than his hs gpa. He graduated in 3.5 years thanks to AP credits and is currently doing improv in Chicago. Enjoy Oberlin and have brunch at the Feve when you visit!</p>
<p>Good choice! Congrats!</p>
<p>Parchment was pretty much spot on for son #3 two years ago with one exception. A school deferred him then rejected him and Parchment showed him at 98% chance of acceptance and he was well into the accepted range otherwise his acceptances and the couple rejections pretty much matched the Parchment projections. Ironically the uni that deferred was one school he would have attended but the deferral stung and he moved on…oh well their loss 
he’s a happy sophomore where he is. </p>
<p>Congratulations to your son @quietdesperation . He is going to love Oberlin! I completely agree with @mathmom that kids are more than their stats!</p>
<p>Oh, and for what it’s worth I was at a party last night with a young woman who is a senior at Oberlin and she was singing its praises. In particular she said that even though it could be intimidating to be surrounded by excellent musicians, the music lessons are fabulous and there are amazing opportunities if you study a more unusual instrument. (She was a dance major, but in a steel drum group as well.) There was another kid at the party who had just sent in his application earlier that day and she was giving him the hard sale. (He had a very typical quirky school list BTW.) :)</p>