I’ve been looking on my own and I’ve found a few schools that look like a good fit for me, but I just feel as though I need a little outside help.
I want to go to a school that’s different, academically. I go to a college prep high school where it’s competitive as all hell, and while I don’t want to go to a school where they completely don’t care about the whole school aspect (that’s the point of university, right? ), I really would love to go to someplace that’s a lot more lax.
I’m also looking for a place that offers great classes in the liberal arts, particularly in social sciences and music. I like art and I’d love to take some small classes in illustration and such, but it would be really great to find a place that wasn’t pretentious or aloof about it.
Also, has to have at least a decent travel abroad program.
Preferably not too expensive? Not just for finances, but also because I’m tired of going to school with preppy people. Don’t get me wrong, they’re nice for the most part, but I just can’t really relate to them.
To boil it down, I’m looking for a good liberal-arts-ish school that is pretty relaxed and down-to-earth, where the people are diverse and creative without being in your face about it. If you can think of anything that fits this, please let me know
Just for context, I’ve been told Reed would be a good fit for me, but when I went I just got a very intense vibe and it was sort of off-putting. It’s a beautiful campus and the people in the admin office were super friendly and cool, but schools like that aren’t exactly what I’m looking for.
Sorry if this is sort of a rambling mess of a post - I just finished an essay and I am very burnt out.
Take a look at the Claremont colleges, like Pomona! I loved the vibes I got from Pomona when I visited, and they have a lot of cool amenities. Like big dorms and free music lessons!
I don’t know. The Claremonts are highly highly academic, not at all lax. If Reed was intense, I think Pomona would be up there as well. I would take a look at some of the colleges on the Colleges that Change Lives website. They have a variety there.
Also it is hard to name schools without some kind of grade/test score context. http://www.ctcl.org/
Pitzer would be the more laid back Claremont College, not Pomona, although all you do is dorm with the kids from your college, classes are taken across the consortium.
Look at Knox College - it would probably be a safety for you but I think you’ll be very impressed with the level of intellect, creativity, interest, and enthusiasm that is there. Their statistics in so many of the important areas is impressive and the attitude is non-competitive.
Will you need FA or merit aid? Any geographic areas off limits? Can you give us an idea of your GPA and scores so we have a ball park idea of admissions possibilities?
In the meantime you might want to check out the block plan at Colorado College. Awesome academic environment- immersive and fast paced (1 block lasts 3.5 week) but broken up by a 4.5 day block break between blocks where you have complete freedom to explore the rocky Mountains or hang out on campus if you don’t want to go anywhere. CC students tend to be laid back, and most enjoy access to the many outdoor opportunities Colorado has to offer. The social sciences are fantastic at CC though its music department is not as strong as some of the other LACs like Oberlin. Travel and study abroad opportunities are endless. CC has struggled in the diversity department but has recently partnered with the Questbridge match program and has definitely made strides attracting a wider range of talented students. Price wise CC is expensive but it does give need based financial aid and merit aid for (very) high stats kids.
Other thoughts: Macalaster, Bard, Vassar, Skidmore, Grinnel
Sorry, forgot about the grades/scores:
4.14 UW, 3.9 W
I’ve only taken the SAT once and got a 1980, but I’ll be retaking it in the fall after being tutored. Also need to take the ACT, but when I took a practice test I got a 26. I’ve since been studying, though, so I’m guessing when I take the actual test it’ll be better.
We’re not desperate for aid, but my dad will be retiring in a few years so we’re trying to make the tuition as light as possible.
I live in SoCal so I’d rather not stay around here, although it’s not that big of a deal. I’d like to go somewhere that has a fun college town, or anywhere embedded in culture, be it a big city or somewhere like Ann Arbor. At the same time, I wouldn’t mind being somewhere that’s beautiful and natural. Just really hope it’s not a suburb, haha.
Thanks for all the help, btw
For slightly lax (but still pretty rigorous IMO), look at Bard, Kenyon, Connecticut College, and Skidmore. For very lax, look at Clark, Hampshire, Goucher, and Bennington.
Curious about what you mean by that in regards to Goucher, @lalalemma … I’ve looked at Goucher and my sense is that it’s very structured. Although to be honest, I can’t quite decode what is really meant by its “Liberal Education Requirements,” so I could be wrong.
We’re looking for what I guess could be described by some people as “slightly to very lax,” though I wouldn’t put it that way – basically I’d say flexible, creative/down-to-earth and “quirky-friendly.” So that’s in OP’s ballpark. Been looking for places with less Gen Ed structure, because S has a rather offbeat mix of intense creative and academic interests (which, to make it more challenging, schools also have to match LOL), along with some major weaknesses, particularly severe dyscalculia … so we don’t see any point in ticking off “distribution” boxes in his case.
Looked briefly at Goucher, but it seems to have a LOT of requirements. Eleven categories, in fact! It also gets a “B” on the site “What Will They Learn?,” which to me is an alarm bell; it’s a site I use to find out quickly what schools have rigid Gen Ed requirements. It gives high grades to place with a high number of requirements and limited flexibility in course content, so I tend to feel good about schools that get Ds and Fs on that site. Clark, Bennington, Kenyon and of course Hampshire all get an “F” there (along with Brown); Skidmore and Connecticut College get a D (along with Harvard!) Bard gets a B, and we’d knocked that off the list (sadly) because of the intense math requirements anyway. (Knocked off St John’s for the math, too; it’s super rigid in a lot of ways but Great Books is appealing, at least to S.)
However, as I said, I could be interpreting that wrong about Goucher. It may be more flexible than it appears. Would be interested to hear.
Let’s see, this site gave my daughter’s college, Brown, an F compared to a B for instance at Univ of Texas-Brownsville which came up in the same search. They must have some sort of agenda. Ah, I see they don’t like that it doesn’t require foreign language, although she took Mandarin and Russian. It doesn’t like that it doesn’t require writing (well it does so the site is out of date and other sites list it as one of the leading colleges that require writing across the curriculum, plus she took classes in writing analysis and fiction), it doesn’t like that Brown doesn’t require math although she did take MV calc, linear alg, probability, prob theory, discrete math, graph theory, set theory and on. It doesn’t like that Brown doesn’t require science although she took chem and several physics. Well, you get the idea. You want lax and this site gives colleges it considers lax an F, you should look for a low grade from this site, not a high grade.
Maybe you should mention the colleges that you do like so we ‘get it’. I myself don’t really get any idea of what you are looking for.
@MomOnALaptop I thought OP was just referring to a less academically intense atmosphere with a lighter work load, which doesn’t go hand-in-hand with amount of course requirements. In that sense, Goucher is very lax and definitely has a quirky/liberal artsy atmosphere. Don’t know anything about their course requirements, but you’re probably right.
New College of Florida might be perfect. It has a flexible curriculum, with written evaluations in lieu of grades, but is still fairly demanding and intellectual. Its “vibe” is decidedly laid-back, given the waterfront location, but - unlike many of the liberal arts colleges mentioned above - it is generally ranked one of the “best buys” among all US colleges. It is not especially prestigious in fine arts, but you can create your own program and it is adjacent to the Ringling Museum (a wonderful, small museum) for internship opportunities. There is quite an active arts and cultural scene in Sarasota.
NCF sounds like a perfect safety for OP.
IF OP has the grades, research experience, since it’s instate it’s also a nobrainer: CCS at UCSB would be terrific too.
URedlands, Hampshire, Pitzer?
), I really would love to go to someplace that’s a lot more lax.