Note that no specific major is required for applying to law school. However, if he wants to be a political activist, he may want to include course work in varied areas of relevance, including various social sciences (e.g. economics and sociology as well as political science), statistics, and science.
@MIP750 You’ve gotten some great suggestions! You asked specifically about Rice so I thought I’d offer what I know. Your description of your son sounds a lot like my husband, who is a Rice alum, and his friends from college, & the environment my husband describes as his college experience is basically what your son wants. And much to the disappointment of my husband, although it’s a Division I school, the football team doesn’t have a ton of student support so it’s not a big focus on campus. But I’ll say that his experience was from 25+ years ago so hopefully someone else can speak to its current vibe. From what I’ve observed, the student body likely does not lean as far left politically as Vassar does, though I would think progressive ideas would be tolerated and accepted. It’s a wonderful school with a very pretty campus, and my husband (Econ & Sociology double major before going on to law school) cherishes his friendships and his educational experiences there. I encourage you to visit the Rice forum on here where you can hopefully get some current student or parent input.
Best of luck to your son!
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@MIP750 At the risk of overwhelming you with Haverford posts, I think your son would be interested in the Tri-Co Philly Program, a semester-long, non-residential program that provides students both curricular and co-curricular activities in Philly. Students will enroll in urban-focused courses from different academic disciplines taught by Tri-College (Haverford, Bryan Mars, and Swarthmore) faculty in Philadelphia.
https://www.haverford.edu/philly-program/courses
Back when I was a student in the Stone Age, philosophy was one of the most popular majors. I don’t think that’s still true, but it remains a strong department.
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If he wants in/near a city: Macalester, Haverford, Brown, Reed
If he’s willing to be about 45 minutes from a city: Carleton, Oberlin
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If he’s not 100% set on attending college in a city, some of the midwestern LACs could be good matches, particularly Kalamazoo, Earlham, and Beloit.
Lewis & Clark is a good urban LAC that hasn’t been mentioned yet. If memory serves, it has produced more Peace Corps graduates over the decades than any other LAC except Carleton.
I second Blossom’s suggestion of Brandeis, and Tufts is another great option in the Boston area to consider.
Regarding Northeastern LACs, a professor who has taught at several of them, including some at which participatory sports are popular, offered this perspective on the variety of students he has encountered:
https://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/faculty-jason-cieply-russian-studies
One more wild-card suggestion. Occidental College in Los Angeles. Barak Obama’s alma mater. We visited over the summer and did a self-guided tour since the campus was technically closed. It was by far the top choice of all the CA private schools we DIY toured together over a week in August for D21. Could be a good choice for a political pre-law type as they do things like let students do internships on political campaigns and are very active in the LA area. They have all kinds of social justice programs going on in LA.
Plus Occidental is very easy to reach from the east coast as you just fly into LAX and get an uber to campus. I thought the Eagle Rock neighborhood around the campus was very nice with lots of interesting restaurants, cafes, and pubs. D21 was way more impressed with the Occidental campus and location than Pomona which is way way out in the very eastern edge of the LA metro area and more like a suburban country club on the edge of the desert. Occidental isn’t in the same conversation as Pomona in terms of selectivity, but it is a decently selective school and gorgeous campus. And a great location in a pretty LA neighborhood.
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Totally agree. Out of date by about 10 years.
@merci81 What a great interview link. It captures a vibe I think many highly selective NESCACs have. All sorts of vibes.
Oh, my! So many wonderful, detailed descriptions! SO appreciative of all these suggestions. We have some work to do this weekend!! I told him he could do 12 schools if he was willing to do the writing (bc wow a lot of writing). So we will do a checklist of his priorities (sometimes they change! LOL) and go from there to some virtual visits online. It really is SO hard to get the feel for a school when you can’t visit.
I think the preppy stereotype is probably outdated, too. But when my older son toured NESCAC schools, they were considerably “preppier” than he liked (and he went to a prep school). I went to a New England LAC and had an amazing experience! I tried hard to persuade him, but it was just a no go. Other son would be an even harder sell.
Sometimes, our impressions are really just from a particular tour guide. There was one who (as DH put it, I wasn’t there,) dressed preppy down to the pink and green belt, and asked the visitors, “Where do you prep?” Rather limited, if you ask me. But 2009. And a school I’d bet never shows up on your list.
I think all the schools named so far are excellent ideas. Try to dig for the more casual videos- there might be a flash mob, some performance, or just kids recording aspects of life, aside from the marketing pieces. Bear in mind that so many schools are actively building broad communities, today.
Btw, one of the most impressive videos I’ve seen was where Carleton interviewed scores of seniors on their post graduate plans. Jobs, internships/grants, grad school, vol work, travel, and just hanging while they decided. Great spark.
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Interested at the Brandeis suggestions. We didn’t find it seemed particularly cerebral/intellectual when we visited - as someone mentioned possibly due to the tour guide. My daughter felt it was “just like high school”.
Very definitely has a strong crunchy/outdoors/sustainability vibe - it’s a lot more L. L. Bean than J. Crew. There are many athletes, as is true for most LACs, so there are a good number of jocks as well. I wouldn’t say that it was especially preppy, though, despite its reputation in the 2000s. Not that there aren’t preppy kids there, but they do not seem as visible as athletes and outdoorsy types.
Piling on for Haverford. Another vote for Tufts. Not a LAC but still small. And for Grinnell. And for Vassar. How about Wesleyan?
I agree that none of the New England LACs are as preppy as they once were and that many - quite intentionally - feel significantly less so than they did 5-10 years ago. With that said, they have more of that feel than schools that never were that, so I get where OP is coming from. But don’t be put off if one appeals to him – there are tons of kids from backgrounds that bear no resemblance to that and so many things to do that it’s very difficult not to be engaged with the community.
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You asked about Rice earlier… my DD is a sophomore studying engineering there (her father is an alum as well). Very collaborative and cerebral environment. No Greek system - the residential colleges assignments are random. Beautiful campus right in Houston. Very diverse student body - no majority race or religion.
Bonus - they have handled COVID very well; they have been very transparent and communicative!
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Be aware that Wesleyan is somewhat bigger - by about a third - than most of its NESCAC competitors (Tufts, the sole university, is obviously larger.) This means the athletic roster is diluted by quirkier kids. It hasn’t had a preppy vibe for as long as anyone can remember. I also like the way the campus is designed; everything pours into a big, picturesque, field just outside the main dining hall. There’s literally something for everyone to see and do there, from enjoying a grab-and-go meal to watching a baseball game. No wonder Wesleyan has one of the most diverse celeb alumni rosters of any small college in the country.
@MIP750 I am a parent of a current Brown student, so I don’t have any particular insights to their admissions decisions process, but I do know the type of kid my D and her friends are and what my kid says about Brown. Your description of what your S is looking for immediately struck me as everything my D says Brown is. It is a very supportive, encouraging, and collaborative environment. They have an extensive advising and tutoring system, and there is a lot of connectivity built into their system. For example, my D is a peer advisor to 3 kids in the class below her, and is a TA in a class she took last year. She said it was clear that the school gave a lot of thought as to who they should pair her with for peer advising. From a student’s perspective, kids will have several other advisors - both peer advisors, faculty advisors and administration advisors. Likewise, besides peer TAs, there are tutors and the faculty are overall very approachable so kids can go directly to a prof with questions rather than TAs if they choose. TAs usually run extra study sessions for classes. Also, every year Brown sends out requests to parents and alumni to see if they have any internship, research or shadowing possibilities for current students, and although my D didn’t take advantage of this, I am friends with an alum who has been involved with this program for years and has helped launch kids into her field. Many schools send out similar requests to their alum and parents, but I feel like Brown is more engaged with this than most schools. So, I feel like Brown really emphasizes connectivity, and building off of one another in a positive way, to help each student achieve their best. Going back to your admissions question, I think that my D’s extensive involvement with peer tutoring in HS, both academically and socially, helped her get in.
But here’s the thing. I’m sure if you talked to another parent, they would talk about another aspect of Brown, and how Brown has really taken a trait their child possesses and has built off of that trait to the benefit of both their child and other kids at Brown.
An example: one of her friends was involved with an esoteric sport in HS, and has made extensive use of Brown’s maker-space to design equipment for that sport, and has used what they are learning in their physics classes to help improve the designs. Other kids are getting involved with that kid’s projects, and things are building off one another. I know that kid. They never made anything in HS, so how would Brown’s admission’s office know what that kid would contribute? I think the answer is, they didn’t know. But they did know from recommendations that the kid was intellectually curious, and wasn’t afraid to do things outside of the norm.
OP, your son’s scores and grades obviously make him competitive enough to go anywhere. He shouldn’t be intimidated (ha, easy for a parent to say, right?). I think his best chance of getting in anywhere is to dig deep and try to figure out what makes him HIM. What are his traits? What is important to him? And then try to use the essays to convey this to the colleges. Of course your S will only have the time to write so many applications, so your S should try to figure out what schools are a good match for him. But in the end the school will decide if your S fits in with their needs, and that can change from year to year depending on who else is applying and how their class-building is going. For me as a parent, it was really tough to see my kid dig so deep and then put her essence out there, and almost wait in judgement to see whether she was “enough”. I let my kid know that even though she put everything on the table, we didn’t know how her whole application looked (her recommendation letters could have been weak, not because her recommenders didn’t think she was great, but because maybe they weren’t the strongest writers or didn’t know how to play the game that great). Admissions was not judging HER, but the application as a whole. And, you just don’t really know the institutional needs at any particular time. So even though what you have to offer may be extremely valuable, maybe this one school needed something else this year because they were short on the other quality. (maybe they needed the tuba player from South Dakota more than they needed a slightly better tuba player from NY, etc).
Best of luck to you and your S as you go through this difficult process. Wherever he ends up, he can make his experience great and get a fabulous education.
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@melvin123 You get the “it” in the fullest sense, down to doing your best, but waiting to hear back.
Granted, some of what you know about Brown is based on her experiences there. But so many parents/kids could stand to try to get that fuller impression. If Brown, eg, emphasizes “connectivity” in campus life, by all means show your connectedness to-others, to-date, in your application and supp. I’ve firmly believed, for years, that you can find the hints in info a college puts out, the sorts of things they mention, the ancillary support, or the kids they tout
About Wesleyan, lots to love. Superb writing program. It was that visit that turned around D1’s ideas about what she wanted. We walked into the library on a Sat and it was packed. It turned out that was a key vibe to her. I don’t know if it was mid-term time, but after that, she realized how much she wanted “work hard,” in addition to “party hard.” Lol. Fond memories.
But as far as a few threads are concerned, people seem to feel Wes is the antithesis of preppy.
If Brown has been appreciated by your son for its general attributes, he should consider adding the similar Wesleyan and, for a somewhat less difficult admit, Connecticut College. If he likes Brown partly because of its notably flexible curriculum, then Amherst, Hamilton and Grinnell should be researched.
I’m glad to hear Vassar is on your son’s list as it really seems to fit what you said he is looking for in a college. My D has had an excellent experience there.
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