<p>Hey everyone, I'm a junior in HS and was wondering if anyone could help me determine a list of possible colleges. I know this is for parents but I thought I might be able to just join in on this discussion and not start another thread. </p>
<p>I think I'll graduate with a 3.5 GPA. I have a 3.4 right now but I feel like I can definitely raise it. I am a full IB diploma candidate. (I hope that doesn't kick me out of this discussion.) I'm looking at a 1800-1900 SAT score. I don't know my class rank. </p>
<p>I think I'd like a LAC. I have looked at schools like Beloit and Kalamazoo, but both seem too expensive. I'd really need substantial financial aid to attend schools like those two. I'd prefer a city setting over a rural one, but I know that there aren't many LAC's in cities. </p>
<p>I've done several internships, and am working with a non profit right now. I will soon do a pretty big community service project where I create a program that benefits my area. I'm not saying this to brag at all, just in case those EC's affect where I could go. I'm also a part of one club at my school. Thanks in advance for all of your help, I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>Ahm, are you going to be applying for aid? Both Beloit and Kalamazoo are generous with merit aid; my son didn't apply for financial aid, but got big merit $$$ from both Beloit and Kalamazoo. I don't think very many students actually pay full price at either of those schools. Especially Kalamazoo; as far as I could tell, everyone on CC who applied Early Action to Kalamazoo got big merit aid.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply, Cardinal Fang. That's really good to hear. I knew they gave out aid, just wasn't sure how many people got a lot of big aid packages. Do you know of any schools kinda like Kalamazoo in not so cold climates? I really like K a lot. I love their study abroad program, and they seem to have the type of education I'm interested in. I just don't know if I could survive four years of freezing weather. I know that's being picky, but I'm just hoping for a college in a warmer climate. Also, do you think I'd have a shot at getting into a school like K?</p>
<p>Check out University of Redlands. D got a huge scholarship offered because of community service projects along with merit scholarships and grants. Was kind of hard to pass up. Southern Cal so the weather won't be an issue.</p>
<p>Leslie, thanks for pointing me to the University of Redlands. It seems like a great college, definitely one I want to look into further. If you don't mind me asking, how does your D like it so far?</p>
<p>You're right Fang, just 3 years of freezing weather, haha. I overlooked that detail. New College in Florida is one I've looked at and I like it, but 800 students almost seems just a little too small for me. I really don't know though. Thanks for letting me know about Austin College too. It seems like a great school, at least from the little I've read about it so far.</p>
<p>Santa Clara, Loyola Marymount, Occidental , San Diego University, are all CA schools that I know kids have liked. Also Butler U in Indiana, De Pauw, U of Dallas, SMU, Trinity in TX, U of Denver. Some outliers here that I know kids have liked.</p>
<p>I'm a middle-aged mom, but I wanted to offer my $0.02. I was an average student in HS, had avg SAT scores, and didn't want to go to college. Ended up applying to only 2 schools: the local Jr college, and a 4-yr state school 2 hrs from home (a SUNY college). Was waitlisted at the SUNY school but got in and finished in 4 years. Four yrs after graduation, went to grad school (UT Austin), got a masters. Two years after that, got into a PhD program at UW-Madison and finished in 5 years. Then did a 2-yr postdoc and never looked back. IMHO, success depends more on a willingness to work hard than on what school you got into. I never would have gotten into an Ivy, but I consider myself successful-- I've got a great career and make 6 figures. Having said all that, I'm dismayed at how competitive the whole college scene has gotten since I was in it...</p>
<p>Son has pretty much nixed Austin College because the town of Sherman, Texas is just dead....and he's not looking for nightlife, just a few signs of normal civilization. But it appears to be a great school; Jan Term sound great. Look at St. Edwards in Austin, Southwestern in Georgetown, Tx and Oklahoma City University.</p>
<p>D isn't at Redlands. Decided it was too close to home (10 hours by car) and would not push her out of her comfort zone. Redlands site isn't too active on CC but there may be a parent group from the school. Be sure to check out the Johnston Center for Integrative Studies University</a> of Redlands - Johnston Center for Integrative Studies. BTW, it is the University of San Diego that was referred to in post 587, I believe, not San Diego University (no such school).</p>
<p>ahm, what do you think you want in a school? I'm pretty familiar with Kalamazoo, because Fang Jr will be a freshman there next year, and with Santa Clara, because I live very close to it. Both are good schools, but in my opinion, they're not that similar in atmosphere. Oddly, Kalamazoo, I think, is more liberal, and also nerdier. Santa Clara is more religious, of course, since it's a Catholic school, and also more trendy.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help Fang. I would like a school where I have a lot of control over what I study. I would enjoy a school where the professors and the students really know each other and work together. I'm more interested in the humanities side of things than the sciences and math. I'm liberal, but it's not like I need to go to a super liberal school. I would like to go to a school close to a city/town where there are things to do. However, I don't need crazy nightlife, because I'm not much of a party person. </p>
<p>I'm not really considering Santa Clara because I'm not religious, but what did you think of Kalamazoo when you visited?</p>
<p>I've got two kids. We're in the throes of it with the A+, 2320 super-ambitious, dyslexic kid who is strong at math, science, art, history, literature, and social science among other things but whose truly distinctive intellectual strengths are synthetic and strategic. He went to the local, very good, public high school. He's completing interviews and waiting to hear so that he can visit schools. All East Coast schools because of health problems. He's distracted from the college scene because of surgery he just had to deal with the health problems. </p>
<p>Our daughter is a sophomore at a an academically challenging, prestigious private high school in our town. She's also quite bright (so say the IQ tests) but is a detail person rather than a big picture person like our son. She's been diagnosed with ADD and we've taken a bunch of steps to help her and her work is improving, but she's a solid B to B+ student -- though the school grades very hard. Our son follows his own drummer. Our daughter tends to be strongly influenced by her friends, so she doesn't have an EC about which she is passionate. She's charming and enthusiastic. Without some work on her part, she'll just be another upper middle class white girl applying to college. I fear that it will be incredibly hard for her to get in and don't know where to look. She's been in academically demanding but soft touch schools since 6th grade and probably would be happiest at a small touchy-feely school. However, she's a joint Canadian/American citizen and all of our bright Canadian cousins go to McGill. She speaks French pretty well and we have a house in the Montreal area. I've heard that there are some pretty good Canadian LACs also but I don't know them yet (though research Dad will arrive on the scene to solve that problem).</p>
<p>shawbridge, take a look at U of Alberta-Augustana. There are a few other LAC-like Canadian schools, that I can't recall at the moment but are definitely buried in CC's archives. However, I wouldn't say that any of them are really "soft touch" like the small private LACs in the U.S.--just smaller than Canada's huge research universities.</p>
<p>I will take a look Keilexandra. There is a Mt. Something in the Maritimes, I think. I'll have to ask the Canadian relatives. For us, the cost of sending a kid to McGill (and I assume other Canadian schools) is very low. If I had a choice, I might try to go to UBC, but I like mountains and water and think Vancouver is very pretty. One of my wife's cousins is a professor at Simon Fraser in Vancouver but I actually don't know anything about SFU.</p>
<p>I liked Kalamazoo College when we visited. The campus is small but gorgeous . I was particularly taken by the architecture of the newly renovated library and newly renovated student center: those cozy, inviting, bright, welcoming indoor public spaces are important in a cold climate where students will be stuck indoors a lot of the year. </p>
<p>We were only in Kalamazoo for an overnight, so I barely got to see the city, but it seemed nice. Because Kalamazoo College is just next to huge Western Michigan University, the city no doubt provides lots of the kinds of businesses that college students like.</p>
<p>Fang Jr loved K and instantly decided to apply early, though the deadline was only ten days away at the time. He's interested in history and political science, so he visited two classes and had a long chat with the history department chair. I saw the syllabi she showed him for several history classes, which made it obvious that K is academically demanding: many pages of reading and writing per class per week. All students write senior theses, too.</p>
<p>Someone described Kalamazoo as "academics like Carleton, social atmosphere like Beloit." From what I know, that seems right. </p>
<p>For the right kid, Kalamazoo is a little gem.</p>
<p>Thanks for the insight. Yes, we have several nearby colleges and a comm college where D wants to start taking a DE class this summer. Maybe by sticking her toes in nthe water she'll be more ready to take a big swim? Hubby and I are hoping that she will feel more comfortable in a comm college setting with (mature) adults who have jobs, as opposed to a Greek-type school of party-animals. </p>
<p>I guess in this case we take it day by day, hour by hour.</p>
<p>Canadian LACs: Mount Allison and St. Francis Xavier are the best. Possibly Simon Fraser, Acadia, Bishops. I'm a Canadian citizen (U.S. permanent resident) and I did look hard at the Canadian schools because they are SO affordable for citizens... but I really want small LAC + double major, the latter of which is almost impossible with the strict GEs.</p>