<p>St. Mary's of Maryland is on the US News list, and is affordable to out of staters (it is part of the MD state system).</p>
<p>I'd endorse the Colleges That Change Lives list--then use the Collegeboard.com's "Find Similar" search engine to build off of that. There are many, many great schools for a kid like this...</p>
<p>A few moderately selective eastern LACs that earn high marks on lots of the academic questions from the National Survey of Student Engagment:</p>
<p>Earlham, College of Wooster, New College of Florida, Marlboro, Sewanee</p>
<p>I will be the third poster to suggest Franklin and Marshall in Lancaster. This school has always had an excellent reputation as a small LAC, but it has recently made substantial additions and improvements to the campus. I think its reputation will only become stronger in the coming years. The city of Lancaster has also been on the upswing. All in all, a great place for a student. And no, I don't work for admissions.</p>
<p>Wow - thank you everyone. Am going to write these down. Love what I've heard about Macalester, Carleton, and esp Grinnell, but they might be out of reach.</p>
<p>I was also thinking of Drew, Momwaitingfornew.</p>
<p>Had forgotten about Franklin & Marshall. Brother applied there decades ago-- def. one to look into. Drew as well.</p>
<p>Another vote for Drew and a mention of Ursinus in Pa. which is very generous with merit money.</p>
<p>Penn State
UConn
Towson
UMass
University of Central Florida
SUNY Albany
SUNY Buffalo
New Paltz
UColorado/Boulder
UArizona</p>
<p>Lspf, you mentioned HWS...my daughter, a midwesterner to the core, applied to and was accepted there (HS class of '06). Her high school GPA was about a 3.75 UW and her test scores were nothing exciting by CC standards (although her ACT scores were substantially better than her SAT scores). She thought the prep reputation of HWS was way overstated and found plenty of "quirky" students (a positive from her perspective). Geneva isn't exactly a happening place, but since we live in an even less-happening place, this didn't bother her. They met 100% of our need based on FAFSA, even though they also require Profile. Need was met through a combination of generous scholarships, a grant, and loans. We could have paid the first year's bill with no problems, but my daughter decided against HWS (reluctantly) because she had very real concerns about the loan package(s) becoming a burden upon graduation. If $$ had been less of a concern, I think she would have gladly attended HWS.</p>
<p>One more thing, my daughter attended a performing arts high school which did not offer APs and had very few honors courses. HWS assured us they would consider her application within this context, and based on the acceptance/FA results, it seems obvious they were true to their word.</p>
<p>Consider: Ithaca College in upstate NY, which has people keenly pursuing bachelor-level conservatory degrees in music, theater, and musical theater within a liberal arts college. I can theorize (only) that this makes an appealing environment for other liberal arts students who'll have future professionals in the arts giving the college shows and concerts. </p>
<p>Academically, Ithaca College takes some refreshing approaches, for example, in the area I understand best (education), they have two different history majors (and maybe some in science, can't recall...), straight "History" or "History Education" for future high school teachers. Their new Dean for Interdisciplinary Majors has organized three: Geriatric Studies, Culture and Communications, and another I can't recall, but equally forward-thinking. I get the sense the administration, at least, looks seriously at undergraduate curriculum and how to support many kinds of students, many futures. It's the same ("gorgeous") town as Cornell U but my niece at Ithaca says there's little interaction between the two institutions. They use the same town (charming, progressive). Ithaca has the prettier hilltop location. Sidenote: the pioneer for vegetarian cookbooks, Mollie Katz, has run her Moosewood Restaurant from Ithaca for 30 years now. My niece was truly proud to show me around her town when I visited her there.</p>
<p>In upstate NY: Canisius College in Buffalo or Alfred University (rural town).</p>
<p>SUNY Buffalo is also great for you to look at, and I happen to think Buffalo is a more interesting town than Albany (duck, here come the missiles from our state capitol...).
BUT, just same concern for UMass: in these very large settings, sometimes freshman get lost if they don't have a bit of inner drive to make their own good decisions. It's all there, the good the bad the ugly, at a big state U, and in that way a student can be reasonably serious/solid/sincere as a student and find many who think similarly, plus the great range of courses and profs. But he must be good at separating "the wheat from the chaff" and make good choices, not go with the crowd. Can he walk right by some people acting goofy and it won't bother him? If not, then maybe those smaller LAC's or smaller unis are right. </p>
<p>A safety school, perhaps: New England College, Henniker NH. Am not sure if you'd think it serious enough, but the student faculty ratio is around 10:1, so it's a haven for kids not wanting to face UMass' enormous size. (My parents were profs there long ago)</p>
<p>Of the colleges mentioned so far, Lafayette, Franklin & Marshall, Skidmore and (I think) Union and Dickinson have become quite difficult to get into in the last year or two. All have acceptance rates below 40% (except maybe Union) and have average SAT scores of at least 1300. The acceptance rates drop considerably below 40% for those applying regular admission. Some are SAT optional, but a B-B+ average may be marginal without high SAT scores. If your S or D is interested in any of these colleges, I would suggest that a visit and interview would probably be important, as these schools are sensitive to whether applicants are really serious about them or are using them as "safeties." If your S or D has a clear favorite, applying early decision could make the difference. This would also be true at Connecticut College and Bard College.</p>
<p>There is a group of first rate schools that offer great college experiences, but that are less difficult to get into, due mainly to their location. Of these, I would really suggest looking at Earlham, Beloit, College of Wooster and Lawrence. They are in the midwest; if they were on the east coast, they would be very difficult to get into. How important is an east coast location for your S or D? Profiles of these colleges are in Colleges That Change Lives.</p>
<p>I hope that this is helpful to you.</p>
<p>paying3tuitions -- I'm an Albany resident (and love it!) but no need to duck, no missiles from me. I think Buffalo is a great and interesting city, and we are definitely looking at UB as the SUNY for my D's list. She wants urban, and of the four university SUNYs UB is by far the most interesting to her.</p>
<p>There's a UB grad student who's been posting on the CC Music Forum with lots of good information, and she's a real cheerleader.</p>
<p>I'll echo what markr has said. The midwestern and southern LACs tend to be easier to get into, and less expensive, than their east coast equivalents. Schools such as Earlham, Beloit, Kalamazoo, Lawrence offer pretty rigorous academics. Others to look at are Wittenberg and Ohio Wesleyan in Ohio, Hanover in Indiana, Albion in Michigan, Knox in Illinois and Ripon in Wisconsin.</p>
<p>If business programs are important, look at some of the "University-Masters", such as Butler and Valparaiso in Indiana, Bradley in Illinois, Drake in Iowa, Xavier in Ohio and Creighton in Nebraska. </p>
<p>Butler, Creighton and Xavier are in decent sized cities. Butler, in particular, is in a nice neighborhood in Indianapolis.</p>
<p>Our jumping off points were the petersons.com college search and the couselor-o-matic on princeton review.com. You put in what you want and your stats and it spits out a list. One word of caution though if you get too specific you get no results but if you put in school size, locale desired and the student's stats you get a great place to start the search. After that research here and at collegedirt.com can help you refine your list. Also advise your friends to have their student attend college fairs. My D got hooked by her current first choice at a college fair.</p>
<p>Skidmore- for a kid into theater and visual arts</p>
<p>Agnes Scott- for women. It was my daughter's safety. It is in Decator near Atlanta. It has very good scholarships . We met the head of admissions and she was stellar</p>
<p>Rollins in Winter Park, Florida</p>
<p>Oh and Skidmore has a very good business department. It is in Saratoga Springs near Albany.</p>
<p>Thanks again, all-- these are great.</p>
<p>St. Olaf is excellent for music, math, and the sciences... and accepts about 2/3 of its applicants, unlike Carleton next door!</p>
<p>[edit: oops, sorry to dredge up an old thread. I forgot that this came up on an archive search, not the front page]</p>
<p>In the Pacific Northwest and Ca
Willamette
University of Puget Sound
Univ of Redlands
Univ of the Pacific
Maybe Loyola Marymount</p>