<p>Colorado College?</p>
<p>Yes, Northland is very small but it’s great for enviornmental majors. Fit definitely would have to be a major component of choosing this school due to the student body size and the narrow focus of majors, however, people that I know who have attended love the school.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how long they have had the access guarantee but I think it’s a great perk for low to middle income families.</p>
<p>These are some awesome suggestions, and we will look into each one. Cornell College in Mt Vernon, IA is planned for Tuesday. We know a couple of kids there that like the one course at a time schedule. Will look at Truman State, as per your suggestion, later in the week. Northern Michigan sounds very interesting. I’m pretty sure Grinnell and Colorado College will both be too big a reach. Beloit has come up as a possibility, as has Earlham… So nice to get this input!</p>
<p>University of Minnesota - Morris is a ~2,000 student public LAC with relatively low costs (about $23,000 per year, with no out of state surcharge) and a location in a rural area.</p>
<p>Some more public LACs are listed here:
<a href=“http://www.coplac.org/students/admissions.html[/url]”>http://www.coplac.org/students/admissions.html</a></p>
<p>Not the midwest, but both Whitman (WA) and Lewis and Clark (OR) have fabulous outdoor programs. Oberlin also has good environmental studies; a lot of kids use the January term for outdoor related projects as well.</p>
<p>My suggestion is Denison U in Ohio. We were very impressed with the school when older son was shopping back in 2008. Without knowing SAT scores, there is a possibility for some decent merit money. Ultimately my son chose Oberlin and passed on $24,000 per year in merit money (OUCH). Denison has an interesting and I believe unique living option called the Homestead [The</a> Homestead at Denison University](<a href=“http://homestead.denison.edu/]The”>http://homestead.denison.edu/)</p>
<p>It’s not far from the Columbus OH airport and I’m pretty sure I remember there was transportation provided on all the major holidays.</p>
<p>Not enough detail to suggest any schools yet, probably because the OP’s S himself hasn’t developed enough insight into what he might like.</p>
<p>I suggest a preliminary trip to sample a few different kinds of schools near you. One possibility: visit ISU (large state school in small city), Drake (medium-sized private school in larger city), and Grinnell (small LAC in a small town). The aim would not be to evaluate these schools so much as educate him (and you) about his likes and dislikes while exposing him to a spectrum of schools. </p>
<p>BTW, other than variety, there’s nothing magical about this set of schools. I suggested them because they are relatively close to one another (all within an hour’s drive of each other) and in the middle of the state, so probably no more than 2-3 hours from you where ever you might live in IA. You can substitute freely into each category if another school is more convenient for you. I would suggest not seeing more than two in any one day. Try to get him to see both likes and dislikes when he is on campus and. Of course it would be better to see the schools when students are present, but schedules don’t always allow for this.</p>
<p>IMO that would be a good start for the summer before junior year. As has been suggested some discussion of financial parameters would be highly recommended, too. Certainly it is essential before next summer. If you are seeking advice on this board, some sense of his/your “range” (how close a school has to be to home) would be helpful.</p>
<p>If his IA assessments translate to SAT/ACT, and there is usually a good correlation between these types of tests, he could score in the range of 2000/30+. If so, there is some likelihood he might become a NM Commended scholar, if not an NMSF.</p>
<p>There are some good suggestions on this thread about upper midwest schools that might fit, but it isn’t clear to me whether an interest in biology translates to lab research, field observation, environmental orientation, or outdoor resource management. If this could be sharpened over the next year-and-a-half it could help, and, if not, you might want to pick a school where all these possibilities remain in play.</p>
<p>^Nice post. I thought taking my younger son to a couple of school types (too urban, too rural, too smalll) also helped him refine his sense of what he was looking for and why. My older son OTOH had a completely different reaction to school visits. They all looked fine to him. He really truly didn’t care about large or small or location as long as they offered the courses he was looking for. </p>
<p>He was willing to visit schools once he was accepted and did, I think, choose not only the best academic fit, but also the one with the biggest concentration of kids most like him. It was nice to see how well he fit in and made friends - an experience he really hadn’t had in high school.</p>
<p>^^^That’s a possible reaction, too, and one that is just as informative.</p>
<p>BTW, francie12, did your S take the PLAN test last fall as a soph? Most IA HS’s administer it. That would give some sense of how he might score in the coming year. Add four or five points to the score on this test to get a ballpark projection for an ACT score.</p>