Ditto the Midwest’s large flagship U’s. btw- a BA or BS depends on the breadth courses, not necessarily the major. I chose a BA in Chemistry- honors (because I liked the white tassel better than the yellow) and had just as much chemistry as anyone. Being quirky, nerdy fits right in with sciences at UW-Madison. Larger schools have room for different personalities within a major. When there are 100, not 10, in your major it is easier to find your likeminded peer group. Large schools are just many neighborhoods overlapping. Good Honors programs, including the sciences. Plenty of choices for quirky/offbeat classes. Students get known in their majors in the big schools. Do your own thing and no one cares. It doesn’t matter if many are big into sports viewing, also plenty who are not.
Great idea to have two instate choices.
I guess small schools are good if you finds the one that matches your personality. And that have the math/science courses.
My friend’s Aspie child did not do well at an LAC. She was overwhelmed with living on campus, trying to get enough sleep, organizing her life, the pressure to make friends and eat with them and do things with them. She now lives at home and commutes to a school with 25,000 students. That works better for her and she controls the social life she wants…
I second St. Olaf, Willamette, and Carlton, and would add Lewis & Clark. Reed is a great school, but really gives the vibe that you need to have a strong personality to fit in there. I’m not sure about shy types. I don’t have anyone going there, but we live locally.
My borderline Aspie kid did fine at medium size (Carnegie Mellon) because he was surrounded by kids just like him doing stuff he loved.
I’m fairly introverted myself, I liked being at a college where if you left your door open people would ask you if you wanted to go out for pizza. (If it was closed they’d leave you alone.) I also liked having a mix of big lectures where I could get lost in the crowd and smaller seminars where I had to participate.
I’ve thought a great deal about a small school vs. big school, and I admit that my own college experience plays a big role in my opinion. I was also a shy and introverted college freshman. As a first generation student, coming from a tiny town with very poor career guidance, I had no idea that smaller colleges were even an option. I just applied to a big state school, got in, and that was that. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy my dorm experience. I also had my boyfriend and several friends from high school at the same school, in off-campus housing, so I pretty much just stuck with my existing group and didn’t make any new friends. I was quiet in my classes, didn’t get to know any professors very well, and just kind of glided through unnoticed. In retrospect, I think I could have thrived at a small school. My experience also leads me to believe that it might be good for her to go out of state, where she will have to develop new relationships.
But, maybe she would do just fine at a big school, and I’m not giving her enough credit. Just because it wasn’t great for me, doesn’t mean it won’t be great for her.
Isn’t it funny how much our own experiences influence the way we guide our kids through this process?
While I had no issues participating in a large lecture class of ~300 at H for a summer course in the end of the '90s as an admitted slight extrovert, I did find students who weren’t proactive in seeking out help early in the session easily fell through the cracks and then ended up in a panic at the end of the session when it was too late.
Moreover, this isn’t necessarily an issue limited to first-year students. At least one classmate in that course who apparently ran into severe trouble was taking it to fulfill a graduate program requirement and was frantically trying to get our Prof to reconsider his problem set/quiz/exam grades at the very end of the semester.
In short, students in larger classes/university settings, especially shy introverts need to be more proactive/careful in staying on top of their work/keeping up with the class as with few exceptions, the Profs/TFs/TAs aren’t usually inclined to chase down students…even first-year undergrads who have gone off-track.
A girl with math/physics interests should keep open options schools with strong a STEM selection. Their interests blend well with a large variety of engineering as well as math/physics majors. It is a big new world for women out there and they might benefit by opening wide the doors of science application.
Because of the supportive group project curriculum, a very faculty advisor directed, exploratory environment and a rapidly growing (for STEM schools) female to male ratio, she should look into WPI. Just looking into the schools truly unique program structure is an education in itself!
I liked the program primarily because of its integration of interdisciplinary thinking which actualizes the social impact of the STEM fields on all of us. It is a truly liberal education built on a model for math/science directed students.
I think you have a good list of schools here. I just want to mention a couple of things about a few of them-1) U of Denver is Catholic. If your D is ok applying there, I don’t think she’ll find St Olaf much more religious than U of D. 2) Kalamazoo has a strong reputation for sciences. 3) We crossed Whitman off because of its remoteness. It sounded like a great school but the logistics of getting there and the extreme ruralness weren’t a good fit. Would be great for some, just not my D. 4) My D just started her freshman year at Willamette and I’d really encourage you to look at it for several reasons. The president has a PhD in physics and for a LAC it has strong science programs. The professors are top-notch. Willamette has won way more professor of the year awards than any other college in OR and if you check the Princeton Review, you’ll see the scores for interesting and accessible professors are both about 95 out of 99 possible. It is super friendly and collaborative as opposed to competitive, which sounds like it could be a good fit for your D. My D is also an introvert and so far, so good, although it has only been a week. Incidentally, I also went to a large public U and your experience sounds a lot like mine. I, too think a LAC would have been a better fit for me, but I was too ignorant to know it at the time.
Thanks for the information @NolaCAR. Kalamazoo has been added to our list for further research, but not Willamette since it has a religious affiliation. Methodist, I think?
DU does not have a religious affiliation. Perhaps you’re thinking of a different school? It was founded by Methodists and was originally a seminary, but is now a secular institution, even though the legal name of the school is apparently still The Colorado Seminary.
I’m with you, I’m sure there are some religiously affiliated schools where its not even noticeable, and she would fit in just fine, but she’s adamant on that one. That’s okay though, it’s an easy way to cross some off the enormous list of possibilities. Gotta narrow the field somehow.
DU is affiliated with the Iliff School of Theology (it is on the east end of campus and they share some resources and there is cross registration allowed), has a beautiful chapel on campus (my sister was married there), has a great music school that does offer many religious themed programs, but it is not otherwise a religious school. Regis is the catholic school in Denver, and many moons ago there was a Catholic women’s college, Loretto Heights, which has had a number of other colleges take over the campus. Chapel is gorgeous and still available for events.
Saw your post and wanted to add my 2 cents…I think a smaller LAC type school would be preferable for an introvert. My quirky son is a PhD physics student at a a large research university. It is a great place for him, but he has said many times that he is glad he didn’t go there for undergrad. He says he would have been overwhelmed by all the people, all the competition for professors’ time and attention, and getting through huge TA taught first year classes. At his LAC-like undergrad college, he had small classes from the beginning and was invited to join research groups. He was mentored closely by profs who were great teachers and looked for ways to nurture their students. He also was able to make friends and feel fairly comfortable from the beginning because the college did so much to welcome new students.
My daughter is a recent Bates graduate, loved her experience there, and I couldn’t recommend it more enthusiastically. It is a very welcoming and accepting community. Her only complaint was that she had to leave after four years! So I hope your daughter will continue to explore Bates as an option. The other schools that come to mind would be Haverford, Swarthmore, Oberlin. Whitman is a great choice also, and not thought of as much.
@auk508 Thanks for sharing. I’m so glad to hear your daughter liked Bates so much. It was an interesting experience touring the campus. It was the only school that split us up - students in one group and parents in the other. Then we could ask any questions we wanted without embarrassing our kids. When we came back together, my daughter and I had already formed the same opinion - that is was a perfect fit for her! Now we just need some safety schools that she is also excited about, just in case. Where did your son go for undergrad? Sounds like it was a great fit for him.
My son and I felt Bates has a very similar feel to some of the Midwest LACs. Similar kids, campus and academics, etc. I think it is more competitive to get in because of the sheer volume of kids in the NE and quite far away for the OP. Maine as a whole is very similar to the upper Midwest-Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota.
@ChristiGabi WIllamette was founded by Methodists but is secular at this point, as far as I know. I know a young man who will be a senior there this year. He is quirky and smart and needed some disability accommodations. He has thrived there and has loved his experience, as well as the location in Salem.
Others have mentioned Macalaster in passing. Founded by Presbyterians back in the day but secular now. I toured the campus with my daughter and she really liked it (as did I) and it was a contender until the end. It’s located in a very nice area of St. Paul, between a gorgeous residential area and a cute commercial strip. The Mississippi with biking and walking trails is a half hour’s walk away. Very welcoming campus, quirky and down to earth kids, merit available up to 20K as of last year.
You will find that many LACs were originally founded by Christian missionaries. A quick perusal of the website (or even the Wikipedia entry) will tell you which are still actively religious and which are not.
