<p>Oh, and morrowly, a thing about Oberlin:</p>
<p>It is a gorgeous campus. Well worth a visit. You could do what we did: Get caught in a snowstorm on the way back from a trip east and just happen to need to pull off I80/90 when you near their exit.</p>
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<p>Actually two “lakes.” More like big ponds. And not exactly “in the middle.”</p>
<p>One is across Raymond Avenue near the ball fields and the other is sort of in the back of the school between a parking lot and the field house.</p>
<p>But yes, agree, a very nice campus.</p>
<p>It also has its own short nine-hole golf course. At least it used to years ago.</p>
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Such schools want to keep their graduation rates high; they tend to have more unique cultures, and favor applicants who have done their homework, and know what they’re getting into.</p>
<p>I can vouch for Pomona, but I did not chime in until I saw you mention it because I would not describe it as “quirky-cool”. I’m not totally sure what you mean by that, but Pitzer might be more quirky-cool than Pomona. But I love Pomona and DS has had a great experience. The kids are very bright and very friendly (according to my youngest who did an overnight recently).</p>
<p>I would add Bates to the list. Not as quirky as some, but has that Quaker founded all accepting vibe. Very strong arts. A little less of a reach than some on the list, and another school that emphasizes interest.</p>
<p>The other quirky Quaker LAC would be Swarthmore - but definitely a reach for everyone.</p>
<p>I’d love to see my daughter at most of these schools, but can’t afford them without generous merit aid, which many don’t give, and certainly not if the school is a close reach. Which schools might have it? I think Beloit and Whitman have some. Are there others, also intellectual, quirky, but lesser known?</p>
<p>PS: So many kids from one of my kid’s NYC private are going to Kenyon now, many ED. It’s hot here.</p>
<p>Yes - the golf course at Vassar is still there and extremely inexpensive for students to play. The pond near the field house has a nice hill for sledding and a brook and the nature walk right next to it. I think the parking lot is near the field house. The observatory is up on the hill also. For a campus on the edge of a small city, it is very peaceful and serene. </p>
<p>I agree with Swarthmore as being quirky and intellectual- a good friend loves it there. Swarthmore is another school with a gorgeous campus in a suburban area. Bates is another school with a nice lake. We have a friend there who loves it. Not quite as quirky.</p>
<p>Redpoint, this is how we approached the high cost problem this year for our daughter. She applied to some reach schools like Swarthmore/Haverford but they have pretty good need basedfinancial aid according to their Net Price Calculators. There are a couple merit opportunities there, but I don’t think my dd is such a stand out that she will get them. </p>
<p>She also applied to schools where her stats stand out much more and there is more merit aid available: Goucher, Ursinus, muhlenberg, Gettysburg. So far she has heard from Ursinus which offered her a 30k merit scholarship, but we are still waiting on the rest.</p>
<p>Our first job with our daughter was to convince her to be open minded about “prestige” so she could accept the idea of applying to schools that weren’t reaches. She is now ready to attend a variety of schools and wants to graduate with low/no debt.</p>
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<p>Which schools give good merit aid? There’s a useful sticky thread on the parents forum that attempts to answer this very question: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52133-schools-known-good-merit-aid.html</a></p>
<p>The thread is long and has been under way for a while. I read it cover to cover! You will be rewarded with good ideas if you peruse it. Our “strategy” was to make sure there were schools in my D’s list where she was in the top 25 percent of applicants (but where there would be enough kids with higher stats to make it interesting!). I also spent a fair amount of time reading the tea leaves on sites like the one that has the words “College” and “Data” in its name; this is a site that aggregates schools’ common data sets, and where you can get the 411 on how a given school distributes its aid.</p>
<p>@TheGFG-Check out Goucher College in Baltimore and Simmons College in Boston.</p>
<p>Olin in Needham Ma is among the quirkiest and coolest colleges, if you are engineering oriented too.</p>
<p>Not to be too picky, but I believe that Bates was founded in 1855 by Free Will Baptists (many of whom were active abolitionists), not by the Quakers. It has admitted women and minority students from the start (proud Bates grad here!), but I can’t really speak to its “quirky-cool” vibe now since I graduated a number of years ago ;).</p>
<p>Another public LAC–and a bargain, financially–is St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Nice campus, although they did have to rent a cruise ship as a temporary dorm when they found mold in some of the regular dorms.</p>
<p>^^ Cruise ship for a dorm? How cool…</p>
<p>Son went to Grinnell. It was the right school for him on all accounts- quirky enough, intellectual enough, fun enough. It is a school with a fantastic endowment which translates in a great college experience. He loved his professors, had small classes and great challenge throughout his time there. I would have liked more direction for employment/internships etc… But, it all worked out great for him in the end and he has GREAT friends from his college days (he graduated a few years ago). He also liked/was interested in: Lawrence, Oberlin, Hamilton, Goucher, Middlebury. He got into all and was offered big $ at Lawrence and Goucher. But, of all the schools he looked at, Grinnell was the only one he was sure he would love!</p>
<p>The cruise ship at St. Mary’s is gone, but it’s still a cool school.</p>
<p>[Cruise</a> ship dorm leaves St. Mary’s College - Baltimore Sun](<a href=“Cruise ship dorm leaves St. Mary's College”>Cruise ship dorm leaves St. Mary's College)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t mind living on a cruise ship for a college dorm room!</p>
<p>I’ll put in another plug for Oberlin where D is a very happy sophomore. She’s had fabulous January term experiences, and loves the ExCo, which are student led courses. Now considering joining a coop, which is also a big deal at Oberlin. She also is taking music lessons from a Con student and loving that. Finally, she had a history class where she was struggling and the teacher set up weekly meetings with her. So far her experience has been small classes and very approachable faculty.</p>
<p>I don’t have any direct experience, but one college in my obsessive research that I have been impressed with and that you don’t hear much about is College of Wooster in Ohio. It seems to attract intellectual types and everyone does a 2 year research-oriented thesis to graduate.</p>
<p>Of the LACS, ds1 applied to, Grinnell and Macalester gave the best merit aid offers. Carleton only has one merit award of $2,000 to NMSF, NA and NHRP winners, but their their merit/FA package was the best of the three. Grinnell was close.</p>