<p>I would also worry about Hopkins- very competitive nerdy atmosphere. When I visited, we asked a student what she does besides study. She told us nothing else, studying was her life. We then said that college students can usually find a balance between work and social life and she replied with, “well yeah, but they don’t go here.”</p>
<p>13 applications is all right, as long as she would be happy attending each school she is applying to. You will have time to make visits in the spring of her senior year, after she has acceptances and financial information. Make sure she gets started on all the supplements early, preferably in the summer. Without doing visits, she’ll need to do a lot of research to be able to write about why she wants to attend each college. If admissions reps visit your area, make sure she attends those sessions.</p>
<p>Your D’s list overlaps a lot with my D’s list from last year. I would encourage you to read the JHU forum threads regarding the intensity reputation before accepting any stereotypes about JHU. I think it is overblown. All selective schools will be filled with motivated and hard working students. However, my D loves JHU. She has many social, happy peers. She is very involved (a cappella, club sport, sorority, mentoring, and tour guide/host) and still made the Dean’s list. The Homewood campus sounds like exactly what your D is looking for. If she gets in, VISIT! Don’t base an important decision on what you hear second/third hand or based on one person’s opinion. Also, JHU has amazing humanities and international studies majors that are among the best in the country.</p>
<p>My previously slacker son is working much harder than I would have expected at Tufts - in a good way though. I don’t think it’s so bad that he has to knuckle down a bit and get focused. He could be taking an easier schedule and be working less hard too.</p>
<p>Just going to chime in and say if you daughter does decide to apply to CMU and gets in, you can use financial aid offers from their peer schools to get them to chip in a bit more. I wasn’t going to be able to afford there, but luckily they matched RPI’s offer which made it cheaper than my brother’s tuition at an in-state public just down the road.</p>
<p>Also, if she is a bit nerdy (on the tech side), CMU would probably be a great fit. Not all of the art students necessarily mingle with the “other half” of campus, but I had a few friends that did and they enjoyed the ability to have friends they could build a robot with or go to an art exhibition with. There’s also the school’s design program which is one of the best in the country.</p>
<p>*However, my D loves JHU. She has many social, happy peers. She is very involved (a cappella, club sport, sorority, mentoring, and tour guide/host) and still made the Dean’s list. The Homewood campus sounds like exactly what your D is looking for. If she gets in, VISIT! Don’t base an important decision on what you hear second/third hand or based on one person’s opinion. Also, JHU has amazing humanities and international studies majors that are among the best in the country. *</p>
<p>I’ve been lurking on this thread because I think these schools will all be on my D’s list as well. She’s a humanities kid, and also very interested in choir and a cappella. Does JHU offer much by way of pure merit aid?</p>
<p>I would encourage anyone interested to go to the JHU threads for more school specific info. Admissions Daniel is very helpful and will refer you to relevant information.<br>
If your D is really into voice, there is the Peabody program. If she is into humanities and likes to sing, there is the Arts and Sciences undergrad with multiple audition a cappella groups available. Good luck. </p>
<p>Haverford sounds like a reasonable school to look at outside of the size requirement. It has a supurb English department (one of the best in the country), easy access to downtown Philly and from there NYC and DC, a georgous campus, it’s academic but not competitive grade-wise, students are free to study at Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore and U Penn (although the later is logistically trickier), not an overly hot climate, they’re building two additional new dorm buildings, and best of all, they have a need blind admission no loan admission policy. </p>
<p>We looked at many of the schools you list, and found the “vibe” at Haverford to be very different from U Chicago, Tuft and Swarthmore - all of which my children found too competitive for their taste. JHU and Haverford stayed on their lists.</p>
<p>I wish I had more “recent knowledge” to offer you, but my son is not really looking hard at any of those schools. What I can tell you (take it for what its worth) that 30 years ago I attended JHU undergraduate, and then went to UC for med school. The environments were quite different. I really enjoyed JHU; it was for me a great mixture of academic intensity as well as multiple avenues to blow off steam. UC, was the opposite. Most of the undergrads I knew were miserable and the intensity level was at “11” (old spinal tap joke): I told my son flat out he was not even going to consider it. </p>
<p>The other thing for a parent to consider is that JHU is in a pretty nice neighborhood with a safe feel; UC is surrounded by areas that you would never want her to walk in. If you visited, I have no doubt you would feel much better about your daughter’s safety at JHU than UC.</p>
<p>Interesting that she’s not interested in Emory (that’s where I work now). Has a feel similar to JHU. Maybe its worth considering (the climate is much nicer than what you’ll find in either Chicago or Baltimore).</p>