<p>The women's schools are a great admissions deal these days. The facilities, and infrastracture of those schools is outstanding. There are no lack of safeties in same sex colleges. Notre Dame in MD, Chatham in Pittsburgh, Simmons in Boston, Wells in NY (now coed), Mills in SF/Oakland, are just a few schools that would be safeties for the OP's daughter. Marymount Fordham also a good possibility. St Mary's near Notre Dame in Indy, another great school, Agnes something (gotta look it up), Mary Baldwin, oh so many. </p>
<p>Those schools that have recently gone coed sometimes have a large amount of funds dedicated to recruiting males, so they may not be as generous with females. </p>
<p>Case is not a problem for everyone. I know a few kids who have gone there in the humanities and really enjoyed it. Those in the sciences seem to have a tough time, as it is an IT. Manhattanville in Purchase, NY is a school that is very generous with scholarship and has a gorgeous campus, and might be a good one to check as a financial and admissions safety.</p>
<p>ZM, your D's grades/scores are about the same as mine. I think your D has a very good shot at Smith, Mount Holyoke, Bryn Mawr, Barnard and Wellesley, especially if she shows enough interest. Mine attended every single alumni reception, dog-and-pony road show, etc. and diligently filled out their reply cards. She was genuinely interested in attending a women's college. In the end, she chose to apply to Wellesley only from this list, and was admitted. I think adcoms did not even read her file, because they were so familiar with her name :). However, if merit aid is really important, it is not that easy to come by at the Sisters who give merit scholarships. I would call all of the Sisters colleges a match/low reach for your D. However, I'm not that familiar with college options on the East Coast to suggest safeties for your D, so I'll leave it up to the posters who know more.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse, I think you mean Agnes Scott, a women's college in GA that does have merit aid.</p>
<p>Absolutely. Smaller schools tend to like interest. They really demand it. With so many kids applying to multiple schools, it is hard to tell who are phantom applicants, who is just throwing the app in there, and who really wants to go there.</p>
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This is all reall good information. Thank you. So is it generally true that the women's colleges like interest?
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ALL selective colleges like a true show of interest!
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Personally, I agree with the first quote but not with the second. I particularly think the women's colleges like the interest as they often lose "yield" to great female applicants whom they accept but who choose Ivies, top coed LACs over them etc. I'm a 7 Sisters alum but from the Dark Ages before women could go to a lot of the now-coed, formerly all-male, schools.</p>
<p>I don't think "all" selective schools consider <em>interest</em> important in that the very most selective -HYPSMC- know that they will get wonderful yield and that virtually every applicant is seriously interested. Other very selective schools, who lose out more than they might like to HYPSMC when it comes to yield - there I agree with menloparkmom completely.</p>