Lehigh for a humanities student? My kid was looking at it for engineering, and it was too techy even for for him. And a Jewish young woman we know who studied business there told us she never really cared for the school. I suspect she ended up there because it was “prestigious enough” in her circle. (Her sisters were much happier at Vanderbilt and Tufts, FWIW, but they had higher stats, I believe.)
Tufts is a tough admit these days. I think she’d need to go ED on that one.
Re publics, I agree UVM sounds like a good match, as well as many of the Midwestern (Miami, Wisconsin, IU) and southern schools (CofC, Bama, Ole Miss) she won’t consider because they’re too far away. Most of them have far more appealing campuses than Rutgers, for sure, and many offer nice merit money that would make them comparable to (or cheaper than!) in-state at Rutgers for a student with high stats. TCNJ seems like an obvious match too. Pitt is pricey out of state and isn’t as generous with the merit money as it once was. Great school, though.
I gotta say, it seems like many kids these days have a lot of contempt for schools that have plenty of students with better stats than they have!
“and D cannot apply STEM anyway” and
"She is looking for a mid size research university. " and
“Although why does the unhooked humanities girl…”
here are some questions:
does she want to study stem or humanities (or both)?
if humanities, why has she limited the search to a mid-size research university? why not include LACs?
is the gpa you list weighted or unweighted? if it’s weighted, what is the unweighted gpa?
has she taken more than 5 aps?
She’s 17, is she a junior or a senior?
Have you done any research in naviance?
arguably, my D is from a worse demographic (white female from westchester) and we struggled with many of the same questions. We also told our kids that they were going to SUNYs unless they could demonstrate to our satisfaction why we should pay for a more expensive school. School ranking held no weight but specialized programs/branding and job outcomes were just fine.
we visited a lot of the schools that have been mentioned. Rochester and tulane like our school and would be safeties for her if she attended our school. Lehigh, Emory and Cornell are all reaches but kids have been admitted ED from our school with your D’s stats.
again, using her stats with our naviance data, no one from our school (male or female) with her stats has been admitted to tufts, wustl or vandy. So while I agree with your friend that it’s harder for white females, sex isn’t the determining factor for those schools (using naviance data). Instead, the gaiting factor is her ACT score.Have you thought about investing in an ACT tutor? we did for our boys and it really helped.
At most large schools, majors like biology, chemistry, math are in the school of Arts and Sciences. There is no separate way to apply to the specific major, just to that college. Some majors in the college of engineering may allow (require) applying to the specific major. Within the college of Arts and Sciences, switching around majors is usually quite easy.
@twoinanddone sorry for being thick, while what you say is true, I don’t understand how your point relates to my question. If she’s “a humanities girl”, maybe a better fit would be an LAC that has a good science program? Or maybe she doesn’t want to study stem at all. I dunno, it’s hard to tell much (and therefore make recommendations) from the OP.
LACs offer many STEM courses - math, bio, chem, geology. There is no need to apply directly to a major. My kids were pretty clear that even if they changed a major, it wouldn’t be to the ‘dark side’, which for each was different. If the engineer child had changed her major, (she didn’t) it would have been to chemistry or math or accounting. Her school has those things, but very little in humanities. If the other daughter changed her major (on her third) it would never be a STEM major (math? please!) but to another humanities. If that daughter was more like OP’s and unsure what she wanted, she could easily change from history to chemistry to math, as they are all in the college of arts and sciences and when applying to the school, there was no need to pick the major, just the college of arts and sciences. If she wanted to change to engineering or nursing or agriculture, the switch would be harder because those are different colleges, so the core courses could be different. If an engineer switched to chemistry, there might be a bunch of core courses to make up, but the chemistry stuff would transfer.
My daughter at a smaller tech school would have no major to switch to if she suddenly didn’t want to be an engineer but instead an actress or sculptor. The chemistry major at a small LAC might have to switch schools if she found she really did want engineering and the LAC didn’t offer it.
I really like midsize to large universities. I like the variety.
College choices are very personal and based on fit.
Anecdotally to rule a school in or out from a sample size of one or two students is probably not advisable.
A great school for the OP might be a horrible fit for a different type of kid.
That being said visit schools and find ones that work for you. Posters have provided a wealth of options that meet your parameters. Look at the quality of the schools and more than selectivity and test scores. Outcomes are important - freshman retention rates, graduation rates, placement in top grad schools, careers, salaries, etc.
OP it’s been a while I believe how is the search going?
Cornell does not admit by major. They admit by college/school. Human Ecology is the college. She’d have to express interest in one of the majors in Human Ecology, but there isn’t one that’s easier than another.
@endora, good list but GW is not a low target with your daughter’s stats, probably more of a target (don’t mean to split hairs but it is pretty competitive). Tulane will want to see lots of expressed interest - D’s good friend with similar stats to your daughter (maybe higher ACT) got rejected from Tulane outright since it was apparently obvious to them that she wasn’t that interested, though everyone was surprised she wasn’t at least WL. She isnow at Emory (no merit aid). Delaware gave my daughter with lower stats pretty good merit money that made it pretty affordable OOS. Pitt will only give merit money to extremely high stat students (I think ACT must be at least 32 if not higher. They are rigid with that. I agree that your safety list needs a bit of work. D2 and her friends (as mentioned) had similar stats to your D, some a bit higher some a little lower, and it was shocking to see schools we thought were solid targets outright reject sometime one of the kids and accept the other, or sometimes all of them. Tulane as mentioned above - one got rejected and one got in EA- both similar stats. Skidmore WL our valedictorian. Go figure.
Something that Tulane uses as a test of interest: The “optional” essay. If you don’t do it, don’t expect to get in. I know people with super-high scores–boys (and boys are highly valued at Tulane because of the school’s uneven ratio) – who were flat-out rejected. Failed to do the “optional” essay.
re#127: “Cornell does not admit by major. They admit by college/school”
Well the university does admit by college/school. But at least the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences (“CALS”) DOES admit by major: http://admissions.cals.cornell.edu/apply/first-year
Eg, it is generally thought to be harder to get into CALS as an AEM or Biology major than for its other majors.
Human Ecology does not explicitly say the same thing,as far as I can find on quick glance just now. But, though they have an "undecided category for freshman entrants they clearly want people to sort it out fast: http://www.human.cornell.edu/student-development/newstudents/freshman/
Hum Ec has some drastically different, disparate majors, for which qualified applicants might have very different profiles and interests. I believe that ones expected major is likely a factor in its admission process. Though I could be mistaken.
@monydad, yes, a significant part of the evaluation for Cornell’s College of Human Ecology is demonstrated interest in the major to which the student is applying within the college.
it is a common fallacy that declaring an interest in a non-STEM topic at JHU “puts you over the top”. It is a fallacy. Hopkins has highly regarded programs in writing, political science, literature, history, etc. which are every bit as competitive as being “pre-med”.
Moreover, the adcom’s at Hopkins know full well that a high percentage of students are going to change their major once they arrive on campus. Declaring a humanities major on your application is neutral for the purposes of Hopkins admissions.
Tulane besides being generous school in terms of giving school funds, it is also a fit school. Meaning that you have to do Essay. And Tulane does not like to be the back up school for any high ranking or top schools. Who wants to be the backup of anything aka like a backup boyfriend/girl friend or a spare tire?. When they read your essay and they detect that you are not 100% wanting to go to Tulane (or just to be the backup school) then you are bound to be rejected. Good luck and may the Force be with you.
I think UVM and UMass are very similar in terms of stats and how academic they are. I know kids in both honor programs and they are all happy. UMass definitely has its share of parties, imagine UVM does too but don’t know for sure.
@Endora my son is at oberlin and one of his hs friends was offered a package that lowered the cost to a suny. I don’t know too much about unc-chapel hill (is that what you mean by unc-ch?) but I can’t imagine it will work as an oos student seeking merit. you may want to look at some of the ctlc schools.
@Endora didn’t realize that about unc and uva, my d submitted to uva (and cornell cals) on fri. she also didn’t like hamilton but loved colgate. like your D, my D has small classes now and wants big lecture halls but I think what she needs is small classrooms. anyway, maybe our D’s will be classmates!
for oberlin, my son’s friend interviewed and then his mom had a talk with the financial aid people, so my sense was they knew well in advance what the package was like. I guess you’ve considered mcgill but the ooc tuition is too high Seems like a good fit, my D also has an app there.
btw, you’ve unintentionally hijacked someone else’s thread, you probably should start one of your own.