I think she could get some good merit at Dickinson. Does she plan to test again? You said the 30 was from sophomore year.
If she lands somewhere with a large enough Serb population to have a Serbian Eastern Orthodox Church, there will be people in the area to practice her language skills with.
Is your D a National Hispanic Scholar? (PSAT score based recognition)
If she likes the smaller schools, I do think the recommendations for the MA ones (Smith/Holyoke), Barnard, and Haverford/Bryn Mawr and good ones. Since she is looking for something that is a little out of the ordinary, you could check the consortiums’ larger universities (Penn, Columbia, UMass) and see if they have classes she might enjoy. Otherwise I would just choose a larger U that offers them.
Seconding Dickinson, Bryn Mawr, and Mount Holyoke.
Adding Tufts (she should show interest), perhaps Indiana University (good merit).
Agree Tufts should be looked at. Definitely looks at the student holistically. They are very big on global citizenship no matter what the major is. My kid was a high scoring B+ student. They only offer Russian however.
She did not qualify for any of these because she did not take her tests in Junior Year when they count it. We knew that was a risk. We were hoping the work she continues to do with Rotary, plus the work experience and the year studying abroad would make up for it somehow. We don’t regret it at all but it does make things more hectic because we didn’t really have that Junior Year to explore. We looked at some local schools in Sophomore year but, of course, she is looking for different thing now! The year abroad changed her plans.
FWIW, I know someone with similar interests who started at a selective LAC figuring she could make it work through travel abroad, independent study, etc. They had sounded accomodating, but her needs outstripped their resources relatively quickly. She transferred to a school that offers a major in Slavic languages and literature. (She continued there through her doctorate.)
I know that some schools, including 1 mentioned above, are difficult to impossible when it comes to giving credit for study abroad that is "out of network ". If this is truly a passion, do your research carefully to make sure that the course offerings are sufficient to meet your needs. It sounds like you’re doing that – don’t compromise!
@gardenstategal Thanks! Do you mind letting me know which school mentioned made it difficult to give credit for study abroad? That was one reason why she was interested in Macalester because they have a study abroad program in Belgrade with courses that she was really interested in.
I’m guessing Tufts might be one. They have several programs of their own, but since my son was studying Arabic, he wanted something in the Middle East. Tufts offered nothing. He was only able to get credit for his language classes, nothing for any of the history classes he took. Since he spent a whole year in Jordan, it meant he had to really plan his schedule to make sure he covered all the requirements. Tufts is great if your language lines up with one of their programs, not so much if you have to use another program, especially if you spent a whole year and not just a semester away.
I PM’d you but mentioned Tufts as one. Dickinson makes a big deal of how they run all their own study abroad programs (rather than partnering), so alignment there is important.
My nephew applied and was accepted to the joint William and Mary/ St Andrews program that @redbluegoldgreen noted. He applied through St Andrews. He ended up at St Andrews and has been very happy. The joint program is more expensive.
My kid did “out of network” study abroad at Dickinson. She did direct enrollment in a university in a country where there were few study abroad programs. Dickinson approved it and took the credits. It was a lot of work for her (and me) to get everything arranged, though, so there are pros & cons to it. But Dickinson will work with you. PM me if you want more info.
Barnard is definitely a possibility. My D (who graduated in 2010) spent a semester of her high school junior year in Russia and was admitted to Barnard RD. GPA was higher than your daughter’s, but test scores lower. Similarly lopsided high school transcript. Barnard these days is reachy for everyone, but I think your DD’s profile has the types of strengths they look for in their students. Barnard/Columbia has tremendous language offerings - much better than you would find in a smaller college/lac. So definitely something to keep on the list. My D. was also a poli sci/IR major… and obviously plenty of opportunities in NYC, plus the Barnard faculty is very strong in that area.
I’d add that my DD was also admitted to U. of Chicago, but the admissions environment was quite different in those days.
My D also studied abroad while at Barnard and my impression was that they were very flexible. They certainly had a wide array of offerings. They did require that the student have significant grounding in the language of the host country.
@calmom Thanks so much for the info. That makes me feel a little better. I think it would be a good fit, particularly because all of our family (except us) live in NY and because she will just turn 17 when she starts, I feel better knowing family is close by in the big city. We are all from there but my kids were raised here in NC.
Just keep an open mind and encourage your DD to apply to a broad range of colleges, including some absolute safeties. My DD went abroad knowing full well that it could negatively impact college admissions – and she had some odd results. (For example, waitlisted at colleges her high school adviser consisted a “match” while being accepted to all her reaches). It does make admissions much harder to predict - you are right to be concerned.
One thing I did for my DD was to take a look at the strength of college Russian/slavic language departments and look for schools that had strong but under-enrolled departments. In other words: what did my Russian-studying daughter have to offer a campus? That helped shaped the college lists (or at least my predictions for success).
@calmom Good points! We are looking at what makes her stand out and I can see the ones that are reaches being some of the ones that accept based on that. Thanks so much!
Take a look at Boston University, perhaps as a backup/extra option the excellent schools people have mentioned that actually have Slavic studies. While it doesn’t have Slavic languages other than Russian, BU does have a School of Global Studies and an A+ study abroad department. It also offers a European Studies major or minor, which has some courses that relate to Russian and Soviet history & politics. Specifically I recommend it because BU will likely give your daughter bonus points for being a high school foreign exchange student. I was one, as well (CBYX), and I’m positive it gave me a nice boost to get in and get scholarship money. Once on campus, I met other CBYX students, so clearly BU was trying to collect some of us haha. Meaning: some schools won’t overlook a lower GPA or SAT, or missing ticks on the transcript because of the disruption from a year abroad. Others don’t care because they see someone who is independent, adventurous and open-minded & they want them on campus. BU is one of those schools.
Thanks @proudterrier! Will definitely look into that.
Just a note: BU waitlisted my daughter when Barnard & Chicago accepted her. Could be many reasons for that … it’s just an illustration of “standard rules don’t apply” for a lopsided applicant.