<p>In a few weeks I will be visiting east coast colleges with DD, currently a junior.
Our trip will start in NYC area and we will be travelling to Montreal to visit McGill - one of the schools she is really interested in. On our list so far is Wellesley, Yale and Amherst. What other colleges you suggest visiting in that area?</p>
<p>DD is one of top students in her class, IB program. ACT 35 (took once), 4.0, will be NMSF, many APs with a score of 5 &4, fluent in three languages, learning additional two, musician that might (might) minor in music but she is definitely not looking for a strong music program. Her passion are languages and foreign travel/relations. She likes science, by the time she graduates from HS will have AP in all major sciences, taking Calc BC now, senior year will take IB Math HL. At this point she is thinking about chemistry, biochemistry, maybe biotechnology as a major. She does not want to go into engineering. However, even though she is interested in science, her extracurriculars are in humanities: Mock Trial, DECA, Peer Court, NHS, violin (including state youth orchestra), cross country. Several leadership positions but no major awards.
At this point in the game she really does not know whether large or small, all woman or co-ed.
Your ideas will be greatly appreciated !</p>
<p>If you’re at Amherst, easy to see Smith. And good to see how the consortium works.<br>
Honestly, if you’re driving from Yale to Wellesley, may as well visit Brown.</p>
<p>If you are in Amherst, Smith and Mount Holyoke should be easy to visit. Both are excellent women’s colleges. Bowdoin in Maine maybe a good visit too.</p>
<p>There are so many great colleges in the area that it’s difficult to know which to choose…</p>
<p>My choices would be Williams, Smith and Wesleyan.</p>
<p>Williams and Wesleyan because of their excellent sciences and strong music communities. Smith because of excellent academics with special focus on women in sciences, access to consortium schools. Williams is about 2 hours from Amherst. Smith quite nearby. Wesleyan near Yale.</p>
<p>Some factors that might impact your decision would be 1) How much time do you have? 2) Are you looking for safeties? 3) Do you need financial aid?</p>
<p>I would take Vassar and Barnard off the list in terms of merit & fin aid. How about Northeastern and Boston U? Both of them have big merit for students with your D’s stats. We visited Northeastern and were quite impressed; their guaranteed merit for NMSF is $30K.
I would also second the suggestion to visit Brown but their finaid is need-based, not merit-based. The same goes for Yale. We just got a letter from them inviting my D to apply (and her stats are not as good as your D’s) It was the most detailed and serious letter I’ve seen out of the dozens and dozens I’ve read but what struck me most was the line that even families with incomes up to 200K could expect some finaid. Princeton is supposedly just as generous as Yale; it’s 1 1/2 hours southwest of NYC.
An excellent school in NYC that used to be 100% tuition free is Cooper Union, but their only majors are art, engineering and architecture. As of Sept 2014 students will get 50% tuition scholarships,</p>
<p>Harvard, Tufts, any “little Ivy” (Amherst, Middlebury, Tufts, Wesleyan, Williams, Bowdoin, Bates included). I would throw in Clark in Worcester, a really great school and one of the "Colleges that Change Lives (Have you seen that book and website? Check it out.) Clakr has merit aid.</p>
<p>It is kind of hard to answer without some parameters on location, size, coed or not, vibe etc. but with an interest in languages, science and music there are many choices. What kind of social vibe would fit?</p>
<p>As noted above, many of the colleges/universities in the Northeast, including the American schools on your initial visit list, only offer need based aid. If you qualify for it, you will find the most selective are sometimes the most generous. If you don’t qualify for enough need based aid to make it worthwhile, then you’ll need to recalibrate your list to include some merit schools. Some time spent with a net price calculator should show you where you stand.</p>
<p>In my opinion, Smith really excels in merit awards, particularly for women in the sciences. Rochester is another good one.</p>
<p>McGill is a terrific school, but I’m curious that it would be on the same list as Amherst and Wellesley. The size and atmosphere are so radically different. Maybe that’s the point of visiting – to experience different environments?</p>
<p>Many of the top colleges in the Northeast meet 100% of need but don’t give merit aid. </p>
<p>One college that seems well matched to your daughter’s interests in languages, foreign travel/study abroad, international relations and sciences is Middlebury. Meets 100% of need, but no merit aid. It’s about 2.5 hours south of Montreal, 3.5 hours northwest of Boston, pretty much smack between them. Tufts is also outstanding in IR.</p>
<p>A college that’s strong in IR/international studies and also in sciences and gives some substantial merit awards is Mount Holyoke. </p>
<p>Based on what you said you are looking for Univ of Rochester would seem pretty ideal, and you would have good chance at very substantial to possibly full ride merit aid. Total curriculum freedom…very strong in sciences, poly sci/IR, obviously music, etc.</p>