What is your daughter interested in studying?
I don’t think Plan II at UT would be a huge reach.
We’re from Austin and my son is at Northeastern in Boston and Boston was a big reason why it was his first choice. He doesn’t mind the cold and likes being in a walkable city with public transportation. There are so many good schools in Boston that surely she would like a few of them. In addition to Harvard and MIT there is Tufts, BU, and BC.
You are very kind in your reply. Thank you.
Yes, that ED acceptance changed quite a bit in her self-confidence. And allowed her to come back to things she really loves - quite a bonus.
A few more things based mostly on our school visits:
Occidental is very close to pretty SoCal spots but the campus felt in need of some TLC, which corresponds with publicly available information on their finances, donor base, etc. I’m afraid it may affect not only their FA but also teaching, infrastructure, etc.
Claremont - the layout is fantastic. When you take a walk through the whole area covering the colleges, it feels like one college, with highly eclectic architecture. Especially if you walk from Pomona, through CMC, to Scripps, and you are immersed in a conversation, you can miss the “border” - which, between Scripps and CMC, is a narrow lane. You can see some of it on Google Street View.
Warm vs. cold climate - Our friend, and experienced teen counselor, told us something that stroke us as obvious, although we never thought about it that way before: sometimes young women with body image issues declare love form cold-climate colleges because of the soothing thought of wrapping themselves in multiple layers of warm clothes. Obviously, I’m not implying anything personal - how could I.
Tests Our D’s ACT score went up from 29 to 34 within months, and her SAT jumped in a similar fashion. A good private tutor looking closely at what was blocking her was all she needed.
Business I know these Stanford-bound kids didn’t have anything huge, just starting and running a functioning business is what mattered, it seems.
@ultimom She’s not completely sure what she wants to study, which I think is what she doesn’t like about applying to big universities like UT that require you to apply for a very specific major in a certain school. She’s interested in business possibly but also has been researching urban planning or urban studies as a possibility. She likes when disciplines combine her interests, so she’s talked about how she wouldn’t want to major in marketing per se but sees how psychology, social psychology, sociology, and economics all come together for consumer decision making and marketing. She enjoys and reads in her free time books like Gastrophysics about the science of eating and books like Freakonomics, Blink, etc. She sees urban planning as a way maybe to combine some of the above as well as incorporate her interest in history and sustainability. So I think she’s currently trying to figure out what majors her interests translate to and what she wants to do. She sees college as a place to explore new subjects first before settling down so schools where you don’t have to declare a major right away definitely appeal to her.
Northeastern and Tufts are on her reach list but she knows both are very difficult acceptances. I just don’t know more about other schools in the Boston area or if there are any that would qualify as a match or target for her. We can look at BU and BC too but I think the acceptance rates are likely too low to be matches. Everything she’s read and seen about Boston certainly make it very alluring to her, she’s just never experienced the cold. I’m glad to hear your son is liking his experience at Northeastern! Seems like a great school, especially with the co-op experience if a student is interested in that.
It would be helpful to know why Barnard College is your daughter’s “dream school”.
Has she considered Boston College ?
P.S. Any barriers or preferences with respect to religious affiliated schools ?
I know a Texan who fits that description and is a Fullbright Scholar and graduated from Oberlin College. It’s not the NE, though. It’s 35 miles or so outside of Cleveland, OH. I sat in on zoom session with my daughter last summer and the AO’s were great. If I recall they told a story of showing up to an applicant’s workplace for lunch and to announce he’d been admitted 
If you dig around you will find Boba, Bubble tea and more.
Wow! What a great result for your daughter with re-testing! Maybe we need to look at taking that route to identify her trouble spots.
Great info about Occidental and Claremont areas. Thank you for those descriptions and your perspective. I’ll encourage her to use google street view. I’d forgotten how cool that feature can be.
Interesting insight about the climate. I’d never really considered that before. With our D it mainly about wanting what she doesn’t have here. I think she has a bit of a romantic view of the snow. My husband left NJ to come down to Rice for college because he hated the cold, and my daughter wanted to experience it. Go figure.
@Publisher She reaches that conclusion by watching the virtual tours and videos, reading about the school, and talking to her older sister who would have loved to have applied ED there but didn’t quite feel confident enough to do it. She had the high test scores but not the same grades as this D. This D is a more confident kid and if she thinks she has a chance then she’ll go for it, though I don’t know if she’s at the level of wanting to ED there without having visited any school.
But to more directly answer your question, I’ll tell you what appeals to her. The videos of the students talking about the environment for a female student and support they feel really resonated with her. I think she likes that it’s a small school with its own culture that’s adjacent to a large school where you can access classes and resources if desired. She likes that it has a defined campus–albeit very small–but if you step right outside or across the street then you can be on a bigger campus or in the city. She loves the idea of being in the city and using it as a lab or classroom. She’s a huge fan of the Tenement Museum and NYC’s history and sees herself exploring, trying to find cool vintage shops, etc. I think she just sees it as offering the best environment within a big city. The foundations curriculum makes sense and appeals to her, and the school offers the opportunity for an urban studies major so that’s potentially an added bonus based on her recent interest, though I know that could completely change by next year. Access to potential internships is also appealing, and if she wanted to continue her interest in fashion then that’s there as well. And I get it. It’s a unique place and seem like it would be a great fit for her. The task now is for her to figure out what’s most important of those factors and find other places that offer similar experiences and opportunities. That’s what she’s having a hard time with having not visited any schools. She needs to try to do more live info sessions. I think that might help her.
I think she’s looked at BC but I don’t know much about it at all. We aren’t Catholic and I don’t know how she feels about attending a religious affiliated school. Definitely something we need to discuss and she needs to consider. Thanks for asking about that.
Thanks @purplemama ! We looked at Oberlin for D20 but it ultimately fell off the list because we never made the visit. I hadn’t thought about its proximity to Cleveland. Will suggest it to D and have her take a look! I know it’s a great school, though still may not quite be in the match zone.
I have a few suggestions that are not at all alike!
What about Swarthmore? Or Haverford? Both in nice locations. And terrific schools.
I am very partial to Santa Clara University. Undergrad enrollment is only about 4500 students. It’s a Jesuit School but very ecumenical. In my opinion, the Jesuits have higher education well honed. SCU has a core course requirement across multiple disciplines. This requires students to take courses in fields they might not consider. While there is a religion requirement, there are also 150 or so courses to fulfill this. My kid is a grad, and she loved those courses…she took things like Women in Religion, and ethics. The campus is gorgeous, and it’s close to San Jose. The town of Santa Clara has all the nice shops and eateries college students like.
Here is a little bit more about George Washington University and what makes it different than most other campuses. First, it is really ingrained into the city. It is hard to tell if you actually are on campus or not. This is very different than Georgetown or Fordham where you know that you definitely are on a college campus. I don’t know how many times I was in DC near the campus and didn’t even know it was there. The other big thing is the dining. They don’t have traditional dining halls. They give you “money” to spend at local restaurants.
If Ohio is an option - look at Kenyon, College of Wooster and Denison too. These should fall as a match and guessing Wooster would be a safety. Each have a different feel with community and all were doing nice online student presentations. The way you describe your daughter and her teacher interaction seems to map with the students that pick these schools. If she wants snow and bigger vs the above mentioned schools - University of Vermont would be another match and is lovely.
Barnard should run a week long summer open house virtually - they did last summer and highly recommend your daughter attend at least a session a day for the week plus set up her interview over the summer. Both the open house sessions and interview spots filled up fast once released. Their application has a pull down menu asking about how you have experienced Barnard (not the right words) with up to 10 spaces.
I know 5 girls admitted ED this year and all submitted scores 32 ACT - above/SAT equivalent. I know 2 that were waitlisted and both went test optional and were from strong private schools with a track record. All 7 interviewed. Not a valid sampling - but Barnard’s profile continues to climb, they are more open about their ties to Columbia.
Not really sure if you can call downtown Grambier urban.
not at all - but it has really good coffee 
Maybe Northeastern, BU, BC, NYU, etc. Northeastern has a great co-op program!
St. Olaf is a beautiful campus but not urban or near urban and not sure she could pick up bubble tea if that’s really a criteria that holds. The town of Northfield is cute but tiny and between there and Minneapolis is open land. It’s a special school with a strong community of quirky people. Shares the town with Carlton and I have heard differing things about whether/how much the student’s from respective schools interacted pre-covid. St. Olaf is in the top 3 of DS21 who was also looking for urban with small classes. But it would be a sacrifice on the urban part.
Yes I don’t think St. Olaf is a contender for this D at all. It was my D20 who visited and applied but chose a different school. This D was just along for the trip on that visit. We talked about it last night and she just remembers that she thought it was freezing when the wind blew as we walked around. It was only November.
So glad I stumbled across this post! My D was admitted to Mac ED and is very excited. Unfortunately she hasn’t been to the campus and very likely won’t make the trip this spring. We are in seattle. Any insight you can add about campus vibe is much appreciated.
I didn’t see many safeties in the posts above. An Honors College at a state flagship could be a possibility (and would offer small classes), especially at places with merit. For example my D loves Utah, which would also tick the urban box. They have some particularly interesting project based classes dealing with urban and environmental challenges (Praxis Labs – Honors College)
I’d definitely encourage a look at Penn, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr (not in that order.)
She may want to see if Pitt or CMU (both quite different from Barnard) are of interest. They both are in a great part of Pittsburgh and make it very easy to enjoy what the city offers, whether it’s between classes or on a weekend.
We also visited Mac, St Olaf and Carleton in the summer of 2019 with my D20. Carleton fell off the list then (it didn’t feel artsy enough for my daughter and also we needed merit, which Carleton doesn’t really give). She (and we all) fell in love with Macalester. A small campus, but a wonderful area around it–a nice residential neighborhood with galleries, little shops, and restaurants. Students whom we encountered during the panel meeting/campus tour seemed sophisticated and articulate but also relaxed. A bus stop right on the corner which can take you to the airport/both cities (I believe). It was her top choice until all the offers came in, and she ended up at Kenyon (which seems like a complete opposite of Macalester locationwise, but it gave her a little more money and in the end is a better fit for her interests; plus its isolated location during the pandemic wasn’t a downside anymore; she loves it there but Mac seems like a great place, too). Hope this helps. Congratulations to your daughter!