<p>Hi all - I haven’t read the entire thread and hope I’m not duplicating but I can’t say enough good about Clark University in Worcester MA My son applied there as a safety school and was accepted with extremely generous financial aid. We attended accepted students day and loved it. It seemed like it would be a good match for my S academically. They seem to have good academics and we all were very comfortable with their philosophy of finding the best fit for yourself. My S ended up being accepted at his top choice and is going there but I would have felt very good if he’d decided on Clark. I think it’s a hidden treasure.</p>
<p>Sally - regional bashing is never appropriate, particularly when insults take on a more personal tone.</p>
<p>VMT - agree 100%. I’m from the south and now live in the northeast. I know good, smart people in both areas.</p>
<p>Clark is a great recommendation, BTMell. It does seem like a hidden gem, and I have heard good things about the faculty.</p>
<p>VMT: I agree. Personal insults about anything are unacceptable. </p>
<p>There are good and bad things about every part of the country. I am from the Northeast, live in the Midwest, and have a kid in college in the South. (If I had a dollar for every time someone invoked “Deliverance” when I mention where he is, I’d have my college costs covered.) There are open- and closed-minded people everywhere.</p>
<p>Sally - I think the same. Every place has its good and bad aspects. Other than being somewhat colder vs. New Orleans, we’ve been very happy living in NH. People are friendly, if a bit mystified at my accent. Most are not on to what “bless your heart” means which is handy!</p>
<p>
When my (very urbanized) son & I arrived early one a.m. for our tour of Hampshire, he looked at me crossly and asked, “Dad, why are we here?<br>
It’s a barn. In a field.” </p>
<p>After the tour, he matter-of-factly said, “I could see myself coming here.”</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>
Point well-taken.</p>
<p>This northeastern liberal would happily support his rabid liberal, late-blooming, B-/1830 son attending any school with an academic bent where he wouldn’t be
a fish out of water, politically speaking. And can study biology/environmental science and international relations.</p>
<p>Absent a visit, can folks speak to how one might assess the political leaning of a school’s student body ? From an educational perspective, I suppose that 50/50 might well be close to ideal, as cross-pollination of ideas is good. But as long as liberals don’t become an underrepresented minority, I suspect my boy would be fine. He’s tough.</p>
<p>"When my (very urbanized) son & I arrived early one a.m. for our tour of Hampshire, he looked at me crossly and asked, “Dad, why are we here?
It’s a barn. In a field.”</p>
<p>After the tour, he matter-of-factly said, “I could see myself coming here.”</p>
<p>My older son was adamant that he wanted a big school in the city. We visited Hampshire because I thought it might be a good fit for him. We arrived for our tour, etc. and parked next to the barn in a field and I thought “way to go Mom - he’ll hate this”. He starts his third year this fall and can’t imagine being anywhere else.</p>
<p>^That’s great–my son loved Hampshire too. We had a fantastic tour guide and loved the info session (in the barn:)). It ultimately fell off his radar but he still has fond memories of our visit and thought Western Mass was really pretty.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Look at the organizations represented on campus, the inclusiveness of the social life, and the tolerance of/support for LGBTQ groups. See what you can find out about the relationship between the administration and the students. Visit some of the student-review college sites and watch YouTube videos. In general–but certainly not always–schools with an intense sports/Greek culture seemed too “bro” or conservative for my son, but my also-liberal daughter wouldn’t see that as an impediment. As stated above, it’s possible to find like-minded people most anywhere.</p>
<p>I’ll throw my youngest son’s college out here as a New England hippiesih/ very geeky leaning LAC with no sports and no frats. Champlain College. </p>
<p>I am another one that really dislikes East Coast Colleges being painted with the same brush. We have THOUSANDS of colleges over here. The only thing they have in common is geography. I’ve been an active poster on this parents board for ten years (!) and there have been very, very few references of Southern schools as anything other then in the South, less expensive, more apt to be religious and having slightly more kids in Greek life. I’ve never even heard mid-western colleges referred to anything except a good value, “unknown” (only by new posters), and out in the middle of nowhere. While the latter isn’t always a positive, it’s not anywhere near cow-tipping or bible thumping.</p>
<p>And this is why I stick to the parents boards. We’re supposedly smart enough to realize that each college is unique, no matter where it’s located.</p>
<p>I used to live within walking distance of Hampshire College. It can look like it’s in the middle of nowhere, but don’t forget it’s part of the 5 college consortium. And hungry caterpillars, don’t miss the on campus Eric Carle museum.</p>
<p>The locals woukd ask: Why does Hampshire College have such a long driveway?</p>
<p>To remind the students of home. </p>
<p>My niece went to Clark, and stayed a fifth year for a masters. Now she’s entering a leading public health PhD program. Loved it. Played ultimate frisbee, too.</p>
<p>We are all likely to be more attuned to perceived slights against places we have an attachment to (I, for instance, have never observed east coast schools painted with a single broad brush). I do go beyond the parents’ board so perhaps some of what I have experienced is from other parts of the site–I don’t pay much attention to what section I am reading. I am also speaking from real-life experience, too.</p>
<p>Champlain College is also an excellent addition to the “safety” list and is a school that gets very little attention on this site.</p>
<p>I feel sad to see that our society is so polarized that our kids’ experiences have to parsed through a political lens. </p>
<p>A larger percentage of faculty are liberal, so it stands to reason that many schools will provide a liberal education regardless of the bent of the student body.</p>
<p>This is true for schools like Union and Gettysburg that don’t seem particularly conservative to me, even with frats as part of their culture. Hey, Wesleyan and Amherst both have frats.</p>
<p>My S’s LAC, Williams, is often painted as having an athlete culture, and statistics are given to support this, but my son, who never met a ball he liked, was very comfortable in a culture that was extremely supportive of the arts.</p>
<p>I am sorry my examples are East Coast – not snobbery just familiarity. I don’t want to opine about schools I am less familiar with.</p>
<p>With Stanford the equal of Harvard in selectivity (and yield? I’m not sure) and Vanderbilt in the single digits I think the East Coast no longer has a stranglehold on prestige or desirability in our country. Just random examples – no dis to anyone. Pomona may be the most selective LAC.</p>
<p>LAC’s just get less respect, period. People have often been shocked that my S chose Williams over U of Chicago. No geographic prejudice, just big name research u over LAC. U of C now has an acceptance rate of Ivies too.</p>
<p>So many ideas of prestige/respect are from the past with LAC’s still trailing. (I suspect this will continue. Only a very small fraction of our students in the US are educated in the liberal arts and community colleges actually have the most students in the US. My school has 22,000 day students which around 10,000 evening students, all frosh and sophomores. The community college one county over has similar stats I think, though I am not as familiar with them (though I do teach courses there too.)</p>
<p>I agree - we tend to be more sensitive to the issues/places that pertain to us. Though I cringe just as much when I see a reference to “bible thumper”. I don’t know if it’s the anonymity of message boards, or perhaps I am very sensitive. But, I find some posters very willing to offend and attack, when sometimes a parent is just looking for advice and compassion.</p>
<p>I too find the polarization sad. I live in a state that has become INCREDIBLY polarized over the past two years. The tension is palpable. It is tearing away at the social fabric and turning people against each other, even within families. Many of us are wondering whether we will feel comfortable staying here once our kids are grown, and questioning where we could go that is more balanced and tolerant. </p>
<p>I think it’s important for kids to seek out colleges where they feel that they will “fit in,” but there’s a lot to be said for going outside one’s comfort zone at least a little bit. Perspective is a good thing.</p>
<p>I completely agree that provincialism and preconceived notions prevent students (and their parents) from considering many wonderful colleges. I regret that my own earlier comments about my son’s closed-mindedness to the midwest and south led this thread in another direction. Let’s just help our kids find safeties they can feel excited about. When it comes to a safety, we want to minimize the sense of sacrifice and disappointment, and if that means ruling out certain schools by geography, religious affiliation, greek life, or whatever matters to our kid, that’s what we need to do.</p>
<p>I have a kid who has been a fish out of water all his life. He is an intellectual nerd in a Southern Calif beach community, where USC reigns supreme. I just want to find him a place where he will be intellectually challenged and socially comfortable. He has found a “dream school” that meets all of his criteria, and his chances of getting in are decent. This thread has given us some fantastic alternatives to consider if it doesn’t work out. College Confidential at its best!!! Now, off to the “Chances” forum… (just kidding).</p>
<p>Evergreen state college seems to have more of a Reedie vibe than L & C.imo
D applied to both, didn’t apply to L & C.
Attended Reed.</p>
<p>Just wanted to pop back in to add that GC extolled the virtues of Kalamazoo at our meeting this week, and DS put it on his list. Along with Carleton, which obviously is not a safety.</p>
<p>I haven’t read the entire thread, but I am in the process of finding safeties (and matches) for my son who I think really needs a small school. He wants to visit Furman, which was not familiar to me, but we drove by it and the campus is lovely. When H heard it was near Bob Jones University, he looked at me like I had lost my mind. I told him we need to visit the school and be open to whether or not it was a good fit for S. I don’t believe any school should be excluded just because of an assumption that it’s too conservative or too liberal. If it’s the right school for my son to learn and grow, then it should be on his list.</p>
<p>I’m also going to check out Champlain College. Thanks sally305.</p>
<p>yes, the CTCL colleges tend to fit the OP 's bill. I know firsthand that LU in Wi is such a one. THis is CTCL author Loren Pope’s idea - he saw high performance and outcomes from students from these colleges w/ lower selectivity.</p>