<p>William & Mary fits perfectly except it isnt a huge school like Virginia, Maryland or North Carolina. Georgetown, Duke and Davidson might be good also if medium size is ok.</p>
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<p>“Diversity” may mean different things to different people.</p>
<p>[UC</a> Riverside](<a href=“http://www.ucr.edu/about/facts.html]UC”>Rankings and Facts | University of California, Riverside) has some ethnic diversity, but in a very different way from the ethnic diversity that UAB has.</p>
<p>Again, thanks for even more help. Just a bit more about dd…
-Our home state is NC. She would prefer to go north rather than south.
-She has two younger brother and elderly (one over 90) grandparents with whom she is very close and would want to be able to get home for some special occassions or emergency, therefore her thought is no further than PA or NYC, with Va and MD being her preference.
-She does NOT like the very conservative, preppy, non diverse (ethnically, financially, etc.) high school she is in, but she manages.
-No idea what she wants to be, career wise. Strong student with great math and science grades and is pushed a lot toward engineering and medicine, but not clicking with either ides.
-Chapel Hill and NC State seem logical, but wants more choices.
-Would like a large school…loves marching band and sports and wants to continue to march and be able to do intram. sports (does basketball and track now but no belief that she is good enough to play in college).
-Good kid, puts too much pressure on herself and for that reason my husband and I would prefer a good school to a great one…she needs to breathe a bit!</p>
<p>T</p>
<p>An African-American female with great math/science grades and great ECs could be very attractive to a lot of schools, especially if her test scores are competitive.</p>
<p>I think Chapel Hill is going to be hard to beat, given her criteria. UVA is arguably a slightly better school and similar in many ways, but definitely tending more conservative, less diverse, more upscale than UNC-CH. Only about 1/3 of the undergrads at UVA get any need-based FA at all, as opposed to 41% at UNC-CH. As for racial diversity, Chapel Hill is actually a bit whiter (66.0% v. 60.2% at UVA) but also a little blacker (9.2% African-American v. 7.9% at UVA). The different is UVA has a lot more Asians (11.5% v. 5.8% at Chapel Hill) while Chapel Hill has a lot more Hispanics (10.7% v. 4.8% at UVA) Different ethnic mixes, but a fair degree of diversity at both.</p>
<p>From Maryland south to North Carolina, the strongest universities academically would be Duke, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, UVA, UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, William & Mary, George Washington, U Maryland, Va Tech, American, and NC State, in roughly that order. Of those schools, Johns Hopkins, William & Mary, George Washington, and American are not going to have the kind of rah-rah/marching band/big-time college sports scene that she seems to want. Duke, Georgetown, and Wake are much more basketball-oriented; the marching band doesn’t do much marching for basketball, I imagine. Plus these schools are on the smaller side, Wake Forest is not very diverse at all, Georgetown is a Catholic school which might be too similar to her HS, and Duke is . . . well, Duke. William & Mary is also small. </p>
<p>So that sort of leaves Chapel Hill and UVA, with UMD a distant third, followed by VaTech and NC State.</p>
<p>Just for the academics, I’d have her take a close look at Johns Hopkins, but I don’t think she’ll find the kind of “school spirit” atmosphere she’s looking for.</p>
<p>Going as far north as NYC/eastern PA adds 3 Ivies (Princeton, Columbia, Penn), 1 very good public (Penn State, but it’s in a pretty remote location, no easy access to NC or public transportation), 2 pretty good publics (Rutgers, but out-of-staters don’t generally choose Rutgers, and UDel, smaller school but pretty big sports scene), and a smattering of other privates including NYU (giant, expensive, and no sports/rah-rah scene) and Fordham (Catholic school in the Bronx, again possibly too similar to her HS).</p>
<p>If I were her I’d consider a mix of schools: Chapel Hill, NC State, UVA, VaTech, Johns Hopkins, UMD, UDel, and maybe Penn. Then I’d choose Chapel Hill because it seems to fit her criteria almost perfectly.</p>
<p>I believe in planning but isn’t it a little early to be worried about specific colleges for a student just starting 10th grade? So far there is only one year of grades and ECs.</p>
<p>I think Duke would be a great choice. People may be surprised to learn that it’s 45% minority (AA, Asian, Hispanic, etc.); 66% of freshmen from public, not private, schools. Admissions are need-blind - they promise to meet 100% of your need. About half of the students get need based aid (42%), or merit aid (7%, includes athletic scholarships).</p>
<p>It’s exceedingly diverse geographically too - all states and over 50 foreign countries. It’s not Catholic and not far from home. It’s reasonably large (over 6000 undergrads and a large graduate population). I would not characterize it politically but it’s large enough to have all stripes and would probably be considered liberal by many (common with most large elite schools). </p>
<p>UNC and UVA are larger and meet most of your other criteria as well. There may be some summer programs your kids could attend at these schools which would help them get a feel for what they like. I don’t see a problem looking when still relatively young - there are so many good choices out there, every little bit of experience and info helps in the process, even if it just gives you a campus vibe.</p>
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<p>Maybe math for a major if she really likes math? (Pre-med courses can be taken alongside if she wants to keep that option open.)</p>
<p>Wow…GREAT helpful threads on here! THANK YOU!
Erin’s Dad …yes, it is early to be planning. However two things are driving this to some degree:
- We are not a wealthy family. So we want to see a few school when we can, on family vacations. That lives only a handful of times to get out and about this year and next.
- My husband had NO help for college (first generation, no school help in his big inner city school). He took the first full ride that came along and it was a terrible fit for him academically. He transfered to a school that had great academics but eventually not the major he needed. He ended up at a third school and did fine. BUT his college experience was not great because of the stress of the aforementioned. He wants our kids to get a feel for places…not to CHOOSE a school, but to choose the TYPE of place they might feel comfortable so that when the time comes it will be easier, ideally, to narrow things down.
- DD is a strong student. I don’t forsee a drastic drop nor lower SATS and ACT scores than she had in 7th and 9th (when she had to take them for a gifted program) and they were solid then. Our boys? Another story. I suspect we will not know what they are capable of or willing to work for until senior year…if then! Ugh. </p>
<p>Still, I get your point. Don’t stress or plan too much just yet.</p>
<p>T</p>
<p>If you’re looking for research schools, look at the ARWU list.</p>