<p>This is not my daughter. I am a friend of the family. She is taking first SAT, I believe today. In 95th percentile on PSAT test taken last September. British school education with A-levels. All A's (equivalent) in school career. American citizen with parents of different national backgrounds. She speaks Arabic, English, Greek, French, Spanish fluently. Her education has been in English. Has participated in sports all through school. Has wonderful social skills. Very high energy, upbeat personality, down to earth. She is as close to a star student that I can think of in my career with kids. She is interested in the long term in studying medicine but wants what I would describe as a liberal arts education as well. She loves politics.</p>
<p>She visited the east coast last summer and fell in love with Princeton. That is her "Ivy League" pick. She visited and will not apply to Harvard, Yale, Columbia. Didn't feel comfortable in NYC etc. She felt comfortable at Princeton. She also is interested in Stanford but will not be able to visit.</p>
<p>These are the factors that she considers important and in this order.
1. safety in the environment
2. Many languages on campus so that she can continue to use hers.
3. friendly environment
4. 4 seasons are fine!
5. diversity
6. vibrant social life on campus: museums, cafes
7. small city versus countryside</p>
<p>Prestige may be a factor with her parents. Not with her. When she finishes her A level exams in a few weeks, I told her to do some internet searches of the liberal arts colleges to round out her list. Her father doesn't understand the concept of LAC and studying other subjects besides pure sciences before medical school. :) She does.</p>
<p>In my way of thinking there are so many qualified schools for this young lady. I am just soliciting advice that I can pass on to her from this forum.</p>
<p>Princeton seems ideal, but given her list of desiderata--small city plus museums plus diversity plus many languages--it's too bad she's decided to eliminate both Yale and Harvard. It does not leave many other schools in the mix. Chicago is not exactly in a small city, Williams has great museums, languages, etc... but it's in the countryside; Dartmouth can fill many of the desiderata but I'm not sure about the museum part. Hanover is more of a small town than a small city.
She seems to want Oxford or Cambridge but in the US. If I were she, I would put Yale, Harvard and Chicago on her list.</p>
<p>Thanks Marite! I am not sure what happened when she visited Yale and Harvard.?. </p>
<p>I am meeting with her parents in a week with a friend (who also knows the family) who has done college counseling and also run a school. First school out of her mouth was Yale. She is an Atlanta native and mentioned Emory? My friend seemed to think that a tad bit larger school than a small LAC would offer her better room for choice.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My friend seemed to think that a tad bit larger school than a small LAC would offer her better room for choice.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>So do I. Williams is isolated, though it has great museums both on campus and nearby. I don't know Atlanta, so I cannot say if it would satisfy the student's interest in museum-going. I know Yale as a great museum of British art, among other offerings; Harvard has the Foog, the Sackler for fine arts, and in Boston there is the Museum of Fine Arts and the quirky Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.</p>
<p>Berkeley and UCLA would be good possibilities. San Francisco and LA do have great museums; but they are quite large campuses and LA does not qualify as a small city. UCSD is another possibility but I am not familiar with the museum scene there.</p>
<p>She should also look at Brown--Providence continues to develop as an attractive small city and is near Boston(for museums) as well as the coast, Newport etc.</p>
<p>For an LAC, perhaps look at Wellesley (Boston), or Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore (near Philadelphia and near enought to make day trip to NYC for museums. )</p>
<p>Wellesley felt right to me on most of her dimensions. Great on campus museum. Vibrant social life "on campus", I don't know. But vibrant Greater Boston scene wrt culture, restaurants, colleges.</p>
<p>Hopkins is in a nice part of Baltimore with a great cafe/museum scene nearby.</p>
<p>For "safety in the environment", I think she might want to consider Bowdoin. Maine almost always ranks at or near the lowest crime rate in the nation. Bowdoin is in a great college town with all the on-campus/nearby museums cafes etc. she could want. I'd suggest Colby, too, but too isolated for her. Bates is another good one, but Lewiston is not a vibrant city (LOL). </p>
<p>Personally, I get tripped up by a "safety" criterion. Every campus/city has its horror stories of a dramatic crime. Then people draw global conclusions from some recent incident. If she means crime rates overall in the general area, at least that is readily measurable.</p>
<p>What makes her a "star" student? PSAT in 95th percentile certainly does not. She will not be a NM finalist. All A grades? So what? Tons of kids with similar records are relegated to the WL every year.</p>
<p>Yes, knowing multiple languages will distinguish. An american with a brit education will be distinguishing. And, there may be other factors you don't list here. But she will also be handicapped, to some degree, by having a nontraditional background, unless a novelty factor applies.</p>
<p>IMHO, the parents need a reality check, or they are in for a real disappointment. You might want to begin by helping the family to realize that many colleges offer what the kid is looking for, not just Princeton and a few other elites.</p>
<p>methinks she needs to prioritize some of those items on the list, since some can be mutually exclusive. The list reads like a need for a small uni/large lac, to cover all the items. But, as marite notes, to cover all bases one needs to be in a city, but that possibly conflicts with "safe". I don't consider Cambridge or New Haven as small, and neither did my S when we visited since he refused to apply to either, (but he did kinda like Princeton). </p>
<p>How about Swat?</p>
<p>btw: concur with nmd....great background, but Commended students are a dime-a-dozen at highly selective schools.</p>
<p>The UC's have everything but are as un-LAC-like as you can get. :)</p>
<p>I have to agree with some of the others and say Georgetown. Not only because I go there, rather...:</p>
<p>
[quote]
1. safety in the environment
[/quote]
Georgetown is one of the safest neighborhoods in Washington D.C. You feel a blanket of security in the surrounding environment. Quite nice, actually. Although we are located in Washington D.C., Georgetown is... well, "separate but connected" to the District in that it retains its own unique properties and is a vibrant community within the District as a whole.</p>
<p>
[quote]
2. Many languages on campus so that she can continue to use hers.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I think this will make her an attractive candidate to Georgetown -- knowledge of Arabic is definitely a plus. The School of Foreign Service has a rather liberal-arts oriented curriculum, and if she's desiring to go into pre-med, can be a STIA (Science, Technology, and International Affairs) major. If she loves politics, what better place than the heart of domestic and international affairs in the United States?</p>
<p>With that, I also have to second Bowdoin College -- it's terrific, safe, Brunswick is a great town with all sorts of shops, cafes nearby. Academically challenging, and generally a fun place to be.</p>
<p>While these are wonderful scores, they are certainly not what this forum would usually consider as portending a Princeton admission.</p>
<p>This phrase from overseas makes me want to be very clear in stating that this child has a tough row to hoe with parents who expect great results and test scores that don't quite add up to Top College admissions. The rest of the profile looks good to me. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Prestige may be a factor with her parents. Not with her.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I see a storm on the horizon and overseas, maybe you can help educate the parents (and protect the kid).</p>
<p>EDIT: MY D's scores improved from a 98%tile PSAT to a 99%tile SAT, and I have heard of more dramatic results. (Her "improvement" or variance would calculate to 60 points on the CR+M+W, and 70 on the CR+M). Overseas if you have any sway, I'd try to lower expectations and suggest dialing up the Xiggi method to improve her scores. Again , she sounds wonderful and I hope she ends up at Rhodes!!! But let's help her find the right place, and knock the stars out of the parents' eyes.</p>
<p>Let me just add that personal qualities are wonderful and can make a difference, but my observation the past few years has been that the elite colleges are obsessed with numbers, and SAT scores are at the top of the list. It makes a huge difference in acceptance success if a kid is a NM finalist, and a huge difference if they (to use the old numbers) broke the 1500 threshold. From what we all know about SAT scores, this makes no sense, but there it is. I personally was quite surprised two years ago when I saw the results from my own D's class (who had about 30 kids off to elites, including a dozen to H, pretty good sample, no?) and who did, did not get in. SAT scores really matter.</p>
<p>I'm not a parent, but I just wanted to recommend she take a second look at Chicago. When I visited, I was surprised to find the University to be located in an area that felt like a little college town near the city--students riding bikes everywhere and things like that. Also, there's tons of diversity.</p>
<p>In terms of the personal preferences of the student, as expressed by the OP, my votes would go to Princeton, Harvard, Georgetown, & Brown. That is not making a comment as to admissions likelihood, merely that I see no problem with putting those on a list which will include reaches. I think the OP seems like a thoughtful person, not necessarily one with unrealistic expectations, so I politely dissent from some others here. I'll PM further if you have that capability.</p>