I’m working on my apps for the following schools now, but I want to make sure I’m not leaving out any potential schools that fit the same bracket as the ones I’m currently looking at. I’m from New York, so my parents aren’t too keen on the idea of me going to a west coast school, but are open to Midwest. Also, I need a school that provides decent merit aid. These are the schools I’m applying to:
-Kenyon College(top school)
-Dickinson College
-Denison College
-Oberlin College
-ClarkUniversity
-Lafayette College
-Macalester College
-Grinnell College
-Union College
-Ursinus College
What are some other schools I should be looking at?
You might look at Rhodes College (Memphis, TN) and Centre College (Danville, KY). Also there might be some schools from the Colleges That Change Lives website that fit your criteria: http://www.ctcl.org/colleges/map
Great list. D visited Kenyon, Denison, Oberlin and Union last year. And we know students who have had great experiences at Dickinson, Ursinus and Macalester.
Have you visited most of the colleges? Demonstrated interest is really important at many LACs and will increase your chances of admission. Also, Kenyon particularly values leadership in its applicants so ECs are very important there. They also like to point to the high percentage of applicants who have taken Calculus, so that may give you a bit of a boost if you have done that. Nevertheless, Kenyon has become very highly competitive the past 3 years.
If aid is critical, I’d add a few more “aid safeties” which could include Beloit, Wooster and Earlham.
Since you liked Kenyon so much, you should check out Sewanee. Also an Episcopal School, great teaching and excellent undergraduate research opportunities. Has produced 26 Rhodes Scholars. Consistently rated one of the most beautiful campuses in the US. Very similar to Kenyon, but a higher likelihood of admission and a better chance for aid.
^ I concur about Sewanee; it also has a current policy of freezing tuition at the level from your freshman year. It seems to have a good number of kids from the northeast attending there; when I visited with my child, our tour guide was from New York.
Wooster-very unique Senior thesis program, Rhodes in Memphis, Centre and Hendrix all solid options.
If your parents/you would consider Texas, Trinity University in San Antonio is worth checking into also. Diverse student body, very large endowment for its size (25th in entire country), and very strong merit aid.
My D looked at a number of the same east coast LACs (she is at Lafayette now and loves it). Places we visited that are not on your list were: Franklin & Marshall (PA), Skidmore (NY), and Siena (NY), Muhlenberg (PA), and Trinity (CT). We did not visit Connecticut College but that might be a worth looking into at as well.
In terms of visiting ---- Union, Skidmore and Siena are all physically close to one another. Lafayette and Muhlenberg are near each other as well.
We all felt that each LAC had a distinct “vibe” so a school that is the best fit for one person may not be the best for another.
From what I gather I’d say Siena, and Muhlenberg might have particularly good merit aid. I think F&M meets 100% need (not positive on that so check).
If you are interested in Political Science, I would suggest Muhlenberg. They have the Muhlenberg Polling Institute and a very engaged faculty. They send a very high percentage of their students to graduate schools and law schools. Best of luck to you!
GPA: 97.8 (weighted, not sure about unweighted), SAT: 2300, National Merit Commended Scholar, ECs: president Science Olympiad, crisis director model UN, independent research 4 years