My child is a decent student but not 4.0. Challenging coursework. Decent EC’s. Interested in psychology and maybe nursing. Coming from a well known and competitive prep school, which in previous decades helps but no idea impact now. Looking for a smallish school but really wants that large school football on Saturday vibe. Recommendations?
Boston College, Duke, Georgetown, Villanova, Wake?
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Both SMU and TCU would seem to fit, with TCU being especially good for nursing. Is there a cost restriction? Does geographic location/weather matter?
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Lafayette, Lehigh, Bucknell, Colgate all are smaller schools with D1 football. You could check their schedules to see who else is in their league. All have a pretty robust social/party scene.
Holy Cross comes to mind as,well.
Check out the Ohio schools.
One other idea is to look at smaller schools with good basketball programs. Or hockey. Some have insane spirit around those.
Nursing might be a bigger determinant as I’m not sure how many of those offer that. With the need for clinical hours, it’s often easier to do that near a city. If you hadn’t said small, I’d recommended Pitt in a heartbeat.
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I’ll second TCU. Around 10,000 undergrads with a lively sports culture. My D21 loves it there.
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Duquesne in Pittsburgh is D1 in football. Not sure how rah-rah it is, but they opened the season against Florida State last year, and made the first round of the FCS playoffs this year. They also have a great nursing program. They play Pitt at basketball and that gets pretty wild.
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It occurs to me that a lot of the midsize Catholic schools have strong nursing programs and nationally recognized basketball programs. No football on Saturdays, but lots of school spirit — at Gonzaga, for example.
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How small?
NESCAC is a good league for LACs big into football (and sports in general). The Patriot League is another good place to look. I’d finally mention the MIAC–not as well-known nationally but they definitely have their fun.
Definitely TCU!
I know I sound like a broken record….but I second Pitt. Sure, it’s not small, but if you are in Sutherland - the honors dorm - it feels a lot smaller. Very rah-rah. Excellent nursing.
The other thing to consider on psych. Are they interested in clinical psych and a grad degree? If so, there is another recent thread on CC discussing that there are a number of things you need to do as an undergrad, and there are feeder schools. Start at post 46
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While NESCAC schools have really strong, competitive sports programs, they don’t have super strong spirit around attending sports, especially football. Bowdoin and Colby go pretty nuts over hockey, though.
For a student looking for “football Saturdays”, not the league I’d choose.
Thanks all! I think my kid would prefer warm. While I like NESCAC size, kid wants larger. Nursing not a must for now. Not sure catholic schools are for us but will check them out.
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Wake Forest, Miami, Wofford, App State, Furman, James Madison or Richmond.
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Richmond.
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Useful document in this link! Clinical psych is murder to get into (most schools <5% admission; less predictable than Med School since most programs accept only 5-10 people/yr, and besides high GPA, stellar letters, research, publications, need a lab with an opening that finds your previous experience useful.) Luckily, there are other paths for people interested in psychology and hoping to become a therapist (Counseling Psych, Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy, School Psych, PsyD etc.) that this document helpfully points out. These have more reasonable admission rates, and do not require a match to a lab.
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Villanova
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How about test scores/class rank? Lots of great recs here but schools like Villanova and Wake are a pipe dream, even with prefect grades and near perfect scores.
Since you said warmer, what about Coastal Carolina or Elon?
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Seconding App State and Miami-OH
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Many great ideas here, and I will add that Tulane has become a football school too.
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I think that’s generally true, however, Wesleyan University (~3,000) plays all of its home games right in the middle of campus - in plain sight of the main reading room of the library where games against Amherst and/or Williams tend to attract packed crowds:
The problem, of course, is that lately they’ve been averaging a 15% admit rate.