<p>I've been reading here for quite a while and have gotten lots of great info. Now I need your help!</p>
<p>My son (3.9 UW at a competive private high school, 1990 SAT first taking, will have 8 APs, decent but not spectacular ECs mostly in debate) wants to major in either history, political science or philosophy. Wants a school that isn't a huge party school and doesn't have a large Greek presence. A medium to large school (1500 to 5000 students) would be ideal. We live in the Southeast but he wants to go to school anywhere but the Southeast (little stab to my heart there).</p>
<p>He's come up with a list of what his college counselor and his dad and I consider to be mostly reach or match/reach schools: Carnegie Mellon, Reed, Lewis and Clark, U Penn, U Chicago, Northwestern, William and Mary, Georgetown, George Washington, American U, William and Mary, U Richmond. We definitely need some safety or match/safety schools on this list!</p>
<p>He's rejected College of Charleston (his brother went there and based on that experience, he's decided it's too much of a party school) and our various state universities (not enough serious students). His college counselor also wants the school to have early action or rolling admission in addition to it being a school where his stats make it a safety.</p>
<p>Any ideas of schools he might consider? I appreciate any help!</p>
<p>If he’s interested in CMU, try their neighbor Pitt. They have a top 5 philosophy department and rolling admission. School is large by your definition though. American shouldn’t be a reach at all compared to the other schools on your list.</p>
<p>University of Vermont and Syracuse were on my son’s list with somewhat similar interests. They are both at least slightly easier to get into than American. Both are bigger, but not huge schools. Syracuse is about 18% frats and somewhat known for a party scene. If your son’s scores go up on a second taking American may become reasonably safe.</p>
<p>His SAT breakdown was 670 CR, 680 Math, 640 Writing. He took an SAT II in Euro History and got a 730 and a 5 on the Euro History AP exam. He will have had 8 APs by the time he graduates, mostly in English and social sciences with the exception of AP Chem this year. Except for Spanish (the source of his only B in 9th grade), all other courses on honors. His school doesn’t rank. We’re not looking for financial aid.</p>
<p>A medium to large school (1500 to 5000 students) would be ideal.</p>
<p>:) That would be a small to medium school. :)</p>
<p>St. Louis U
Marquette
Fordham
U San Francisco
U San Diego</p>
<p>What is your budget? How much can you afford. Typically, safeties (and many match schools) cannot provide much need-based aid and will gap you. However, some give merit aid which can help with costs.</p>
<p>As mentioned above, most OOS publics don’t help with costs…some do give merit. Some don’t give merit, but some give a lot for high stats.</p>
<p>I would have my child take both the SAT and ACT to better his chances since some do better on one than the other.</p>
<p>Sorry to quibble, but by 1500 to 5000 students, do you mean for the school as a whole? That seems more like tiny-to-medium than medium-to-large to me.</p>
<p>If he’s drawn to Chicago (based on the U Chicago/NW choices) maybe check out DePaul? And I think Pitt’s a very good thought, even though it is bigger than your target. Perhaps Goucher in Baltimore?</p>
<p>^I agree that 1500 is small in my book. He’d be in the top 25% of CR/M at Vermont and only just shy in math at Syracuse. Fordham is a good suggestion. It was too close to us to be on the consideration list. It’s also a bit on the big size 8000 undergrads. If you are really looking for more at the 1500 end you need to be looking at LACs not smallish universities. Bard should be a safety school if he likes it. Reasonably serious academics (senior thesis requirement), it’s in the woods, which my kid hated, but yours might like. It has a hipster reputation, but I didn’t think it looked as hipstery as I expected.</p>
<p>How about checking these out:
Earlham College
Washington College (MD)
Ohio Wesleyan University
Muhlenberg College
Washington and Jefferson College
Allegheny College</p>
<p>How about Case Western? I found it quite similar to CMU in many ways (well, on paper, I never visited). They gave me a nice merit scholarship, too - it’s definitely easier than CMU in terms of admissions, but the academics are very rigorous and, from what I’ve heard from people I know who go there, the students are quite serious.</p>
<p>EDIT - sorry, didn’t read to carefully the first time, and didn’t see your son’s intended major. I suggested Case because, like CMU, it’s very big on the engineering/science front…not as sure about non-math/science majors there, but still might be worth looking at anyway…</p>
<p>If the SATs were just a little higher – and they probably will be if he retakes them with modest advance preparation – I would think you already had a good number of match/relatively safe schools on that list.</p>
<p>School size is really not the most important factor–just trying to avoid the truly teeny and the super-sized. Either LACs or small universities are fine. We can afford up ~50K/yr. If he gets merit money somewhere, that would be great because it would allow us to help him with law school or grad school. Otherwise, we’re tapped out by then.</p>
<p>He’s taking the ACT for the first time next month. And we’re hoping the SATs will go up a little on a retake in June. His PSATs were actually higher than his SAT score. I think he might have a shot at the 2050-2100 range.</p>
<p>Thanks, by the way, for all the suggestions.</p>
<p>First, does your S want to have the option of debating in college? If so, be aware that some of the colleges on your list do not have debate teams. </p>
<p>Second, I think your S is making the classic mistake of choosing too many colleges to apply to which will attract a gazillion applicants just like him. GW, Georgetown, and American fall in this category. Try Grinnell (1600 students) and Dickinson. These are match rather than safety, I admit, but certainly easier to get into than some on his list. A high safety–low match would be College of Wooster.(I see someone else suggested it too.) I concur with the Earlham suggestion. </p>
<p>Contradicting myself a bit, I’d put Claremont McKenna on the list. It’s different because everyone focuses on things like govenment there.</p>
<p>One caveat: Some LACs lock up an awful lot of the “middle class white kids without a hook” slots in the early decision round(s). (Skidmore is a good example of this. It offers ED II. ) So looking at the 25/75 SAT ranges can be misleading since there are for the class as a whole and those of middle class white kids accepted in the regular round tend to be higher.</p>
<p>I was going to recommend the College of Wooster as a safety, but I see a couple of people beat me to it. I like jonri’s advice just upthread.</p>
<p>BTW, many of his target schools will want two SATIIs, and it sounds as if he has only taken one so far. He should plan on taking one more–or two, to be safe, score-wise–this spring. Personally, I’d do that and do some SAT prep instead of taking the ACT, since there isn’t an obvious mismatch between his grades and SATs so far.</p>
I like jonri’s advice just upthread.</p>