As I have said before, after you look at the NPC, ED is the last bastion of the unhooked.
Wake Forest? Boston College? Tufts? Vandy?
Grinnell is a great suggestion, one of my favorite schools ever. Oberlin and Kenyon are worth a look, acceptance rates have been around 35% the last few years. True safeties might include Lawrence University in Appleton, WI or College of Wooster in Ohio. If she’d consider a women’s college, Bryn Mawr and Mt. Holyoke are wonderful academic communities, collaborative, not cut-throat.
In terms of building the list – we identified the key features of the schools our kids loved, then built the list from safety up. So, if someone loves Williams for its isolation and beauty of the surroundings, think St. Lawrence. If it’s the Art History program/museum, consider Oberlin. It’s easy to find reaches that you love, the part that takes work is finding the safeties and matches that you also love.
Kenyon’s list of overlap schools (see The Company We Keep below) includes many of the suggestions on this thread as well as Williams. As a further reference for ideas and consolidation, it could be helpful.
https://www.kenyon.edu/admissions-aid/admissions-statistics/
I do see her applying ED to her top choice school. But it seems that timing wise she needs to have a well thought out back up plan with the applications close to being done. The link from Kenyon, The Company we Keep is very helpful. I think we need to plan a trip to the Mid-West and New England. A few days before Thanksgiving we are going to be in Philadelphia area and if possible, trying to look at Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Haverford, Swathmore, Lafayette and Muhenberg. I know Haverford and Swarthmore are not match or safeties but I think they are worth taking a look. What do you think of the list? Any we should drop or replace? We will have the three days to tour school. We can go to New Jersey or NYC as well.
I think you have some great match schools there. If possible, look for that safety, or find an EA match school. It’s a bit challenging to find LACs that have EA though a number of them are adding that option these days.
Because LACs have so few seats to give out, they are big on Demonstrated Interest. I’ve seen well qualified kids get deferred, WL and rejected. That’s why Of like to see one good accept for her early in the app season. Then she can just apply to all reaches, if she’s happy with that one accept
Probably. There may be a few “self selecting” schools (Reed, maybe?) where that admission rate can be deceptive in some cases where the fit is wrong. But in general, that’s probably in the ballpark.
While it’s a good idea not to focus on super selective reach schools, there also may be risks in aiming too low. Personally, I like small schools in the south and midwest (like Grinnell, Macalester, Rhodes) where admission rates are a bit lower than at some of their bi-coastal peers. IOW “contrarian” choices can be good alternatives for high-stats students. Public honors colleges might work, too. Or your state flagship (if it’s not Berkeley, Michigan, or UIUC for CS/engineering).
Clark University, in Worcester, MA, has a great psychology dept. That would be a safety for her. If she’s willing to consider a larger school, University of Pennsylvania has an excellent psychology dept. Also, most large state universities have excellent psych departments.