<p>Look at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. Great school with small classes and a beautiful campus. Many opportunities to get to know professors. The school is well ranked nationally and has a small student body of about 4800 undergrad. Wake has an excellent MBA, law and med school also. School emphasizes community service and has Div 1 sports. Greek life is strong but with a 50% participation rate you don’t have to feel like you need to join if that is not your thing. Kids go from all over the US and international although alot of students come from the South and Northeast. It is an SAT optional school so if standardized test scores are not as strong as you would like they won’t hurt you in the application process. The school seems to use a wholistic approach to college admissions and an interview is strongly suggested (doesn’t have to be in person, online interviews are options). It is expensive and I don’t think they give the best aid but I am really not sure about that. Worth a look.</p>
<p>Much gratitude to all, thank you for taking time to suggest schools. Thank you, Longhaul, for the book suggestion, we will be picking one up later this afternoon.</p>
<p>The high school our daughter is presently attending is a Catholic high school, but she is very open to all schools that would fit her well. Her high school has done a very good job presenting Catholic Universities/Colleges, and many larger non-catholic schools have come to visit and meet with students. Our daughter feels she has a pretty clear vision of what opportunities are available should she choose to continue the path of Catholic higher education. Since it is the smaller schools she has come to realize she is interested in, this after some college visits, she is in a bit of a panic due to not having any non-catholic schools on her list.</p>
<p>Personality wise, she is very mature, works well with peers and adults. Again, thank you for any and all suggestions!</p>
<p>Whitman (WA)
Willamette (OR)
Puget Sound (WA)
Lewis and Clark (OR)</p>
<p>I agree with much of what Longhaul suggested. If her SATs are in line with her PSAT–and why on earth did she wait so long to take it, but that’s water under the bridge now–the most selective schools she will be able to get into will <em>probably</em> be test-optional. That is even more the case if she also has not taken any SATIIs. I’d suggest looking at Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby in Maine, Smith and Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts. There are a number of good LACs in the midwest on the list, including Earlham, Denison, and College of Wooster. On the west coast, there’s Lewis and Clark, Whitman, et al.</p>
<p>If she wants a Catholic LAC there’s Holy Cross in Massachusetts.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if she hits the SAT out of the park, her LAC chances might well expand to include reachier schools such as Pomona, Carleton, Amherst, Williams, Wellesley, Barnard…</p>
<p>Franklin & Marshall College in Pa</p>