<p>Oberlin is very selective at this point and she needs sats over 1300.</p>
<p>Sly, I echo what Susan said about Smith: they'll take multiple applicants without prejudice from the same high school. One of the high schools in our area seems to have a regular pipeline and some years 2-3 get accepted.</p>
<p>Mommamia,</p>
<p>I certainly agree that over 1300 in the old-style SAT's would help for Oberlin, particularly for RD, but last year's mid-50th percentiles there were 1250 to 1440. They do accept kids with 1250's and lower in some cases. They are also pretty big on looking at other factors like grades, rigor of schedule, character/personality, volunteer work, essays, etc... </p>
<p>Given the OP's daughter's PSAT scores and the fact that she did not study at all for them, 1300+ is still a distinct possibility with a bit of work. Oberlin certainly would not be a safety, but I don't think it is an extreme reach either, and it did seem to be a fit in many other dimensions.</p>
<p>Thats from 2004; also, she says she wants urban, that is not Oberlin by a long shot.</p>
<p>"She wants a not-too-small, medium-sized school, preferably urban or in an active college town."</p>
<p>While Oberlin certainly is not urban, I believe it qualifies as an active college town. Of course, your definition and the OP's daughter's definition of "active" may differ from mine. A glance at the events calendar on the school web site would give her some feel for the school-sponsored events. A lot of student-run events also happen on or near campus and a check of other well-known blog sites (which will remain unnamed here to appease the moderators) would give her a feel for some of those.</p>
<p>The SAT numbers came from the College Board website. It is possible that they are a year behind; that site is not very clear about such things. On Oberlin's web site, I could only find the mean test scores (698 verbal, 663 math) listed for the class that entered in September 2005. With a combined mean of 1361, it is still very likely that between a quarter and a third of their students score under 1300.</p>
<p>Ask your daughter what she would rather have: the city, or a small community. Barnard was perfect for me because it was both, (and our admissions office is definately known for caring a lot more about essays than SATS), but if I hadn't gotten in I would have gone to NYU. Of the 10 schools that I applied to, only ONE was not directly in a city, because I knew that's what mattered most to me. I did not limit myself to New York at all, but BOY am I glad I didn't go the Carnegie Mellon now...you understand how picky I am. I was a terror-- I refused to even go SEE schools like Cornell. ("It's in the middle of NOWHERE," I said). Your daughter probably isn't anywhere near as bad as me, but if she is... she should apply to NYU, BU, GWU, etc. If she feels the opposite way, then she should apply to Oberlin, Smith, Skidmore, etc. My point is only that when someone says they want urban, "JUST TWO HOURS FROM THE CITY!" isn't going to cut it.</p>
<p>It can also depend on what an S/D is looking for in terms of "city" attributes. There are cities of 30,000 where the biggest entertainment is watching puddles of water dry up or going to Wal Mart. The size of Northampton was a major concern to D but it had sufficient theater, art, music, restaurants, book stores, etc. that it passed muster. She might outgrow it by the time she graduates though with any luck she'll have spent six months in D.C. and another four months in Budapest if things work out as part of the undergrad process.</p>
<p>Try Johns Hopkins and the University of Chicago. Also, Shimer College is becoming a part of, is going to be imbedded in, Illinois Institute of Technology starting next fall. It is a small great books college. Now it will be located in Chicago with real, traditional I mean, student services. The two schools will have cross-registration and the Shimer students will occupy a dormitory on the IIT campus. IIT already has some liberal arts and humanities courses. I suspect that the trend in all college and university admission offices is to pay less and less attention to the SAT scores. This should work to the advantage of your very interesting-sounding daughter.</p>
<p>If Oberlin is a match, but you would like a "safer" school in terms of SAT scores, I would strongly urge you to consider Kalamazoo College. Although the school is often overlooked on this forum, it seems to be very close to what your daughter wants. It tends to be "touchy feely", though not to an extreme. There are excellent study abroad and internship programs built into the schedule. Kalamazoo is a mid-size city that has won a number of awards. </p>
<p>I went from Kalamazoo undergrad to Brown grad, and, despite the huge geographic distance, I felt the two student bodies had many similarities.</p>
<p>Journalism in the city: Honors program at George Washington University, NYU, Barnard, Northwestern, Syracuse (is that a city? Sorry), Boston University. I work in journalism at a TV network and we get college grads applying all the time. We want people who have written for their newspapers, worked at tv stations , etc. They need work to show and an outgoing personality or they won't be able to get people to talk to them - without that, no story. They need to be able to write well and quickly. No one cares if the student went to an Ivy League school. We reject Ivy kids all the time if they haven't already proven themselves at doing journalismn or obviously don't have the personality for this field.</p>