My daughter is going into her Senior Year of high school now. She spent her Junior Year in Zagreb through Rotary. None of her classes will transfer but she may get some elective credit for her Croatian language class. She took one AP in her freshman year but didn’t score very well on the test. She doubled up in science and English for her sophomore year in preparation for year abroad. She just returned mid-June and is taking the AP’s that are available but no science. She has a 3.75W GPA and a 30 ACT on her first try in sophomore year. She will be one week shy of 17 when she graduates and though she is young, she is pretty mature. They did not know about the Youth Exchange program in our area and she was able to get the local Rotary up to speed and has helped this year’s student as well. Her goal is to promote youth exchange throughout the high schools and middle schools and she has had quite a few speaking engagements already. She is working now and though I gave her the option of community college and then transferring, she wants to major in International Relations with a school that has Slavic Languages and Cultural Studies. She has not been involved in many EC’s but has volunteered for many years in children’s museums and science centers. She interviews and writes very well so we are looking at schools that have a more holistic approach to admissions.
Based on this info., are there any schools that she may have a chance at? She is Hispanic, if that makes a difference.
We have looked into Macalester, UNC Chapel Hill (we are in NC), Barnard, Colby, Kalamazoo, Juniata, Wooster, St, Olaf and American University.
Is it important to her to attend a school with a significant population of Hispanic students?
No, she is looking for a relatively diverse population. If it is a small school, she would like to be near a larger town/city. She is also looking for something with a more moderately liberal leaning student body.
Middlebury for languages, Georgetown for languages and IR, and William and Mary for International Relations.
@redbluegoldgreen Thank you! We will look into those! Had not looked into Middlebury at all.
William and Mary has a combined International Relations program with St. Andrews if she likes Europe. We visited both colleges last July. The IR programs at the two schools are complementary.
Most LACs will probably just offer Russian of the Slavic languages, with a few exceptions. What about Haverford or Mount Holyoke, with consortium partners where she could potentially take a few advanced language classes at a larger university?
Yes, we noticed that @intparent. If there is a solid study abroad program, she might have to do her language then. Barnard and UNC-CH have Serbo-Croatian. She doesn’t mind if it doesn’t have the language. She is more interested in the Balkan area, so politics, economics and history.
I’m a new fan of Macalester. All students are offered free bagpipe lessons acc to their website.
Sounds a little similar to my D who did a junior year Rotary in the Czech Republic. Our college experience was a few years ago, but will throw it out. Slavic Languages are a little tough, and not taught many places as I’m sure you know. One of her Czech speaking buddies majored in Slavic Languages at Ohio State, and I was impressed with their breadth of instruction in that language family. U of Wisconsin does teach a few different Slavic Languages. Thinking of cities and areas with Slavic immigrant populations, U of Chicago and U of Illinois do have departments with more diverse languages.
The elusive search for Slavic Languages aside, one of the better things she can do is get a really firm grasp of another language, dependent on her interests and many schools have majors and minors in various languages, Russian included.
My D ended up majoring in French, minoring in Spanish, has taught those languages and leads HS trips to France in the summer. Those two languages are good for job placement and teaching jobs. She and her linguistically oriented sister went to LACs. Beloit is one to look at as it has a scholarship for those who have done exchange programs in HS as well as a good Russian program.
As I had twins applying for colleges with similar stats and interests, I did find that the Rotary year gave her a leg up in admissions compared to the one who stayed home.
Looking at Middlebury, I am not sure she has the scores. She will be retaking both the SAT and ACT in early fall this year so we will see.
Thanks great lakes mom! I did mention Beloit but can’t sell her on where it is. Of course, her fellow exchange student who went to Croatia wants her to go there because it is close to her but so far she is saying no. I may be able to convince her with the scholarship. @redbluegoldgreen I LOVE bagpipes! Not so sure about my daughter but she does love the study abroad options.
I think u. Of Chicago has strong Slavic languages and meets the other criteria. While it’s very selective, your daughter’s year abroad could help her stand out.
University of Pittsburgh has a Slavic languages department & if she gets her test score up a few points she could qualify for the Honors College/scholarship money.
Have you looked at Dickinson? They are particularly committed to study abroad, and will work with a student who wants to do something out of the ordinary.
Have her look into this program for next summer for Russian language studies. All expenses paid.
http://www.nsliforyouth.org
Bryn Mawr College has an excellent Russian department. Bryn Mawr is in a bi-college program with Haverford (so she could apply to both although Bryn Mawr is easier to get into). The two schools are also in a Quaker Consortium with Swarthmore and Penn.
St. Andrews (mentioned above in conjunction w/William and Mary) has a very strong stand alone IR program that is worth looking at.
@doschicos She has decided she will try to study some Russian on her own but she is really interested in Eastern Europe, particularly Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro.
@intparent I have looked at Dickinson and will take another look. I think it is a bit competitive for merit aid and worry if it is out of reach financially.
IMO Big universities are the best places for students interested in the less-popular languages. Besides the obvious ivies, I would recommend checking out Boston University, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, UC Berkeley, and BYU. Obviously, the latter may not appeal to everyone, but the school has always been excellent in languages due to Mormon students’ mission experience. OP’s daughter’s experience and activism might make her an interesting candidate: a year abroad experience is sort of the ultimate EC, and she’s clearly taken the ball and run with it.