Two other LACs that meet your criteria with excellent STEM are Wesleyan and Reed - both matches I would guess
If you’re open to women’s colleges you should definitely look into Wellesley and Bryn Mawr. An added advantage of Wellesley is that you can tell your father you can take classes at MIT. I loved my time there. It’s a quiet, safe suburb but it’s really easy to get into Boston, and the lake is lovely.
The idea behind a reach school is that you’re going to apply, and the odds are good that you’re going to be rejected. Do you really want that to happen 5 times?? It can be brutal to the ego.
You have 1 match and 1 safety. So the odds are that, after those 5 rejections, you’ll have 1 or 2 acceptances from which to choose.
It wouldn’t be my choice. I would pull some of those reaches and substitute another safety or two, and another match or 2. That way, late next winter when you’re deciding where to go to school, you’ll have some real choices.
If financial aid is important, you may want to cross off many of the LACs because they are expensive and don’t provide aid to international students. Your dad’s suggestion of Georgia Tech is not a bad idea. While it is a state school, there are less than 15,000 undergraduate students and you are just paying out of state rates and not costs of a private university. While they are strong on the tech side, there are students pursuing other concentrations. It’s a great school and costs $20K less per year than private universities. It’s not worth dismissing out of hand, even if your dad brought it up. Also, if there is auto admit to Texas (Austin), that’s pretty good too, although not sure if cost is for out of state since you are not a US citizen.
I second CWRU; also Washington University in St. Louis.
Goodness - there are lots of small LACs that would fit your criteria. Do you have a certain area of the country in mind? Haverford College, Bryn Mawr, Wesleyan, Vassar, Wellsley, the Claremont schools …
And someone else mentioned Skidmore - definitely take a look there.
When I read your post, I immediately thought “oh, she would love Tufts”. The campus is in a nice area, easily accessible to Boston, and they have an engineering school as well as a strong art program, and they seem to have very interesting kids. They also have a medical school. They put a lot of emphasis on demonstrated interest, so if at all possible it would be great if you could visit. Tufts is not a safety school by any means, but is on the same tier as Rice. BTW, the “Welcome to Michigan” comment was humorous, but I noticed when results came out this year that there were multiple high stats kids who got rejected by the Ivys, and rejected by the next tier down (who probably thought the kids wouldn’t come and rejected them to protect their yield), but got into Michigan. Since you can apply to Michigan EA and not have a problem with ED or SCEA, I’d consider applying if you would consider going there over UT. And @bjkmom has an excellent point that if you apply to all reach schools (top 50 schools), it can be brutal to get rejection after rejection. Don’t take any rejection personally because you’re obviously a great applicant and will do fabulously wherever you end up.
I agree that your post is a spot-on description of Tufts. With regard to demonstrated interest, http://admissions.tufts.edu/blogs/inside-admissions/post/demonstrated-interest-a-late-in-the-game-how-to-guide/ . While I agree with the suggestion to visit, I would suggest that if you’re going to make the trip all the way from Texas (which does seem worthwhile since you could also visit not only Harvard/MIT, but also Boston College and Brandeis which also have potential in the “mid-sized and well-balanced between STEM and humanities/social sciences” category, and Wellesley which, as @ninakatarina pointed out, could give you the LAC experience while enticing your dad with MIT cross-registration), do everything you can to arrange something more personalized than the standard info session & tour. I don’t know what Tufts Admissions is thinking, exactly, but their info session was the least-inspiring one I attended in two fairly-extensive rounds of college visiting, and the tour was a weird combination of generic and way-too-much-taxidermy-lore. I have since gotten a fantastic impression of the school through actual kids who are having a terrific experience there. If we’d had a regular person show us around it would have been so much better. CC is teeming with people who have been underwhelmed by their Tufts visits, which is weird considering that the school has so much going for it. Obviously plenty of people are still applying, so I guess they just don’t need to market any better than they do! Downside is that they offer no merit and on the need-based side, only “a limited amount of funding for talented international students.”
URochester is another, because of the flexible curriculum, balance between STEM and humanities/social sciences, pervasiveness of the arts, and suburban-feeling but urban-adjacent campus, plus good merit aid and relatively large international student population, seems like a great place to consider. Maybe Vanderbilt as well?
The point about looking at public U’s with a lower sticker price (though not that much lower with some, as you point out re: UC’s) is also a good one. William & Mary could be terrific for you if an engineering program isn’t a must. And yes, UMichigan. For a safety with a public sticker price and merit potential as well, look at Pitt. It’s larger and more urban than you have in mind, but neither the size nor the urban-ness is overwhelming, and you would be in the Honors College which would provide a smaller sub-community. Pittsburgh is a nice, manageable city, and there’s a lot of beauty in the Pitt/CMU area - the river, Phipps Conservatory, etc. - and the campus is green and oasis-y.
Finally, don’t overlook the fact that your 36ACT and 4.0+ GPA qualify you for the Presidential Elite scholarship at Alabama. “International students are evaluated the same as out-of-state students as long as the student has an ACT or SAT score and meets all requirements by the December 15th deadline.” This is the ultimate financial safety, and the Honors College is full of very bright, high-stats kids who know a good value when they see one. UA is majority-OOS now, and the incentives are being dialed back now that they’ve established a reputation as the go-to affordable alternative to the super-elites.
Presidential Elite:
A student with a 4.0 GPA and a 36 ACT or 1600 SAT will be selected as a Presidential Elite Scholar and will receive:
Value of tuition for up to four years for degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate or law studies
One year of on-campus housing at regular room rate
$1,000 per year stipend for four years
$2,000 one-time allowance for use in summer research or international study
$2,000 book scholarship ($500 per year for four years)
@melvin123 once I read her profile it was the first school that popped into my head. Just seems like a great fit. Plus a little bias with my son going there…ha
On a aside at the Michigan parent orientation last year at our table like everyone of the kids was rejected by Cornell, Washu, Northwestern, U of Texas Austin, Vanderbilt. Even kids that were from these states but accepted to Michigan. But I also know many that were accepted to these schools and didn’t get into Michigan also… The whole process is kinda nuts :-&