<p>OK, This is the deal. Our son is a hippie, left wing, crunchy granola, vegan, These are schools to which he applied ad was accepted - Bard, Evergreen, Hampshire and Marlboro. He chose Marlboro and they chose him. A perfect fit. </p>
<p>With reference to daughter, it get trickier. We are not originally from the Midwest. She is turned off by all the attention that football, frat houses and marching bands get out here. It’s culture shock to her. We know that Marlboro, Evergreen are out. Too far out. She is looking for a college somewhat in the middle. And it’s proven hard to find.</p>
<p>A generation ago my wife turned down Bard and Hampshire, because they were too hippie-ish. She also turned down Skidmore and Syracuse because they were too middle-of -the-road. She also turned down Vassar even though she was a legacy, because it still had a huge gender imbalance, as did Skidmore. Clark, at the time, was solidly politically and socially liberal, but somewhat traditional. Is that still accurate? Our daughter has her own views of what she wants in a school and we are looking to fulfill them. It isn’t easy.</p>
<p>She does NOT want a woman’s college. We suggested MHC, she thought about it and rejected the idea. When we showed her the postings about MHC and the milk and cookies parties, as well as the tradition of naming classes after mythological creatures, she thought it was silly, and quaint. But not her thing. Her cousin goes to Wellesley and she told her that they roll hula hoops into the lake, she also found that bizarre. It may be fine fine for some students, but she’s not buying into it. ALL woman colleges are out. She wants to major in Political Science at a politically liberal college. She wants a socially accepting atmosphere, but not a completely counter culture atmosphere.</p>
<p>Wesleyan seems like a good fit, and it is in a city, which she prefers. We are well aware that it’s a reach.
Oberlin stays because it seems as though she would like it and as a minority, we think that she has a shot. </p>
<p>My wife read that Trinity is becoming less preppy. The article actually said “Wesleyanized” and that they are actively seeking students who are not from prep schools, as well as looking to add to geographic diversity.</p>
<p>She prefers New England and Upstate NY. Her two years in PA, soured her on the state. The Lutheran Colleges and there because she is Lutheran, and will receive special consideration. We do not think Muhlenburg is out of reach and there are many Jewish students. My wife is Lutheran and I am Jewish. Generally, Jews tend to be liberal. ELCA Lutherans are also fairly liberal, but less so outside of NY and NJ. </p>
<p>I am new to this forum. So if my terminology is off, please cut me some slack.I think it’s presumptuous to call any college a “match” before she gets a letter of acceptance. My wife’s sister was active on this forum several years ago and bought into the idea of colleges being a “match” despite the fact that we begged her to include some safety schools. She was only accepted to two all women’s colleges and SUNY Geneseo. To be fair, she had few ECs and her GPA was never as high as our daughter’s is now. She is a mediocre writer and not very verbal. We don’t think that four hours of homework, and eschewing ECs helped her either. GPA was 3.85, we are told. If she was a national Merit Scholar, you can be assured we would have been told. I think her EC Junior and Senior year was private SAT tutoring. </p>
<p>I’d love to narrow down the list - or add to it. That’s why I came to this forum. We are open to ideas. We also admit that it isn’t easy to match her with a college that she will love - and will love her back. </p>
<p>We will be visiting our son at Marlboro in October for Family weekend and we will visit many schools at that time. The main problem is her first two years of HS. We think she will do better on the SATs and colleges will be able to see the disparity of her scores. </p>
). </p>