My 11th grade twins and I are trying to come up with lists of colleges of most interest to aid in planning a college visit trip in March. My son has a pretty good and consistent preliminary list that includes some schools where he would almost certainly be admitted and that we might have a prayer of paying for via need-based or merit-based aid. My daughter has a list of ultra-selective schools and none where she can be sure of an acceptance. She is a 4.0 high-stats kid at a fine private school with great college counseling, so there are no real worries here other than our ability to pay (the fine private school has very fine financial aid, for those who wonder why we would be paying for high school when we are not financially secure). However, she needs at least a couple of options for schools that would fit her but be probable admits.
She is looking for an intellectual atmosphere with lots of high-level arts opportunities for non-majors (specifically in theater, vocal music, studio art, and writing). She thinks she will minor in French. Major yet to be determined, but probably in the social sciences, maybe economics. She loves intellectual competition and pooh-poohs schools that talk about how collaborative and non-competitive they are (which I think is silly of her, but…). She completely avoids sports and isn’t interested in a Greek scene. She would prefer a smaller school in a larger setting (city or busy town). We are in eastern Pennsylvania and the western half of the US is not an option. She refuses to consider any schools in the South. It would be really helpful to know about some colleges outside the ultra-reaches that have the atmosphere and opportunities she wants, especially colleges that are typically very generous with financial aid. I assume her college counselor will have some ideas, but it’s always helpful to hear what people on CC have to say!
Macalester in St. Paul, MN - if it’s not too far west. It is east of the Mississippi, but barely. If she’s willing to reconsider smaller towns - Oberlin or St. Olaf, both within 45 minutes of Cleveland and the Twin Cities respectively. They both are superb for music.
Closer to home, Dickinson also might be worth a look (Carlisle, PA). It offers an unusually high number of foreign languages for a small LAC and has a good music & theater program.
Case Western (Cleveland) is a small-mid sized research university, about 6K undergrad. It does have Greek life but is more service-oriented than party/sports oriented. Its liberal arts offerings are good.
All of the above offer merit aid ranging from 18K to high 20sK per year for high stats students.
Reed - small LAC in Portland, very artsy, lots of intellectual competition, meets full need, no greek life, basically no sports. The only criterion it doesn’t fit is the location.
New College of Florida - artsy and intellectual, no greek life or sports culture, may be a little hippie-ish for her (and it’s in the South, but it’s super liberal), but it might be a fantastic, affordable safety.
Muhlenberg. Has become very popular in my area for kids who sound just like your D. Ithaca- a good safety, don’t know about the $. Goucher-- they can be both generous and stingy so run the numbers. I don’t know about the money but would she consider McGill?
Would she consider Bryn Mawr? Denison might be too rah rah but it’s got great arts. Both offer merit to kids like her. Bard doesn’t offer much merit aid but sounds like it could be a good fit. All 3 of these are great schools and I don’t think she’d have any trouble getting admitted.
Any school that is highly selective and is also collaborative has plenty of competitive kids. Having gone to a school undergrad where people removed required readings from the library in order to get an edge, I would counsel her to avoid dismissing schools that claim to be collaborative. Most are simply managing a highly competitive student body… (imho)
I second New College of Fla. and think she should visit the west coast and see Scripps, Claremont, [ both in the Claremont consortium in SCal], and Reed.
I hope she has UChicago on her “wish list” as it sounds like a perfect fit.
Will she consider women’s colleges? Barnard sounds like a great fit–no merit, but the CU system has great need-based aid (actually I don’t know for a fact if Barnard’s is like the CU undergrad, but with the close affiliation, I’m guessing it is.)
Not a safety, of course, but sounds like her stats would make her very compeititive.
Not exactly competitive, but matching the rest of your criteria Skidmore. We are heading to Smith for a second visit Tuesday and second garland, Northampton is an awesome college town.
What a lot of good ideas - thanks, everyone!! I got her to sit down and do an actual search on her criteria on Naviance today and to read in the Fiske guide, so we came up with a decent list. Of those suggested, Macalester, Skidmore, and the very competitive Barnard and U of Chicago are on it. She honestly likes Columbia more than Barnard, but even less chance there, obviously. Reed would be on her list if it moved, but the geographic considerations are pretty firm. She’s not opposed to women’s colleges, but wasn’t crazy about Bryn Mawr for whatever reason. We drove through Dickinson and both kids hated the architecture. (Should be on the stupid reasons for rejecting college thread, I know…) No Catholic colleges, my own rule that I should have stated, otherwise Fordham would be a good choice. We will read more about the others suggested and maybe add a couple. @gardenstategal, great point about “collaborative” schools; I will try to get that concept into her brain. Personally, I think she has no idea what the competition is going to be like at the college level, although I’m sure she will be able to handle it when the time comes.
You already got several very good suggestions. Hard to know what would be a true likely school for your kid without full profile, but given what interests her, how about Brandeis? Bard? Also, possibly American? I would have said Skidmore, Conn College, or Muhlenberg had those not already been mentioned.
We have Carleton on the list, although I think it’s too selective to consider a true likely. She’s looking into Brandeis. The theater major at Muhlenberg is very strong, leaving less room for a serious non-major…we also have reason to think it is not too good a fit (have heard a lot about Greek life there). Bard would be good, but seems unaffordable based on NPC. Must learn more about Conn College, as it has been mentioned a couple of times. I may have had the wrong impression about it.
