DD is just starting to think about college, and wants to be sure she has some higher-odds schools to love before she starts thinking about reachier ones. She gave me her criteria, and asked me to use some Excel wizardry to come up with a preliminary list. All of the schools below meet all of her criteria on paper, and are likely to be affordable. My personal guess is that she will end up at a women's college, but she doesn't want to rule out co-ed options yet. High stats kid, so the reachier end is really reachy.
The goal is to make the list shorter, not longer - I'm well aware that there are many fine schools that have been semi-arbitrarily omitted! Assuming she'll pick 2-5 higher-odds schools to apply to, which schools would you cut from the list first, and why?
University of Puget Sound (accepts 84% of female applicants)
Willamette University (accepts 81% of female applicants)
University of Denver (accepts 75% of female applicants)
Lawrence University (accepts 73% of female applicants)
Mills College (accepts 72% of female applicants)
Knox College (accepts 67% of female applicants)
Hofstra University (accepts 64% of female applicants)
Agnes Scott College (accepts 62% of female applicants)
The College of Wooster (accepts 57% of female applicants)
Mount Holyoke College (accepts 50% of female applicants)
Occidental College (accepts 46% of female applicants)
Whitman College (accepts 42% of female applicants)
Macalester College (accepts 41% of female applicants)
University of Tulsa (accepts 41% of female applicants)
Bryn Mawr College (accepts 39% of female applicants)
Smith College (accepts 38% of female applicants)
American University (accepts 37% of female applicants)
Case Western Reserve University (accepts 37% of female applicants)
Replies to: Which of these schools is not like the others?
If not affordable, and no large enough automatic for stats merit, then reclassify as a reach if there is competitive merit available. Or drop from the list.
I think Case Western and Macalester are the most reachy on the list. Case is not an lac
There's probably a way to group them by similar characteristics such as midwestern lacs, larger schools in more urban areas and then pick favorites out of groups and not apply to all the ones that are the most similar.
2) Not a huge geographic preference. At one point, she was leaning towards California, but she doesn't want to give up seasons.
3) She wants at least some town that's walkable from campus. As long as she doesn't need a car to be able to do some minimal amount of eating and (window) shopping off campus, she's happy.
4) No preference
5) No ECs requiring other people or specific facilities
Grouping is a good plan. She's said she wants to visit all(!!!!) the schools she applies to, and grouping would be a good way to get that down to something manageable.
The biggest schools on the list are:
American (7,000 undergrads / 13,000 total)
U Denver (6,000 undergrads / 12,000 total)
CWRU (5,000 undergrads / 12,000 total)
On the reachier end are:
Carnegie Mellon (6,000 undergrads / 14,000 total)
University of Rochester (6,000 undergrads / 11,000 total)
Tufts (5,000 undergrads / 11,000 total)
Emory (7,000 undergrads / 15,000 total)
Any of those particularly impersonally bureaucratic, or particularly flexible and accomodating?
I'm very familiar with Case Western and am a fan, but, as noted, it is much more of a science and engineering school than the others on your list and very much has that vibe. Cleveland, though, is an underrated city, and the school is in a nice area with a fair number of places to go on Euclid Ave., which splits the campus, and Little Italy a few blocks away.
Are you familiar with the Five College Consortium? Smith and Mount Holyoke (both on your list) are members with Amherst, U Mass Amherst (state flagship campus), and Hampshire College. Students can take some classes at the other schools, and there are some other collaborations. Smith is immediately adjacent to downtown Northampton, a nice Western Mass college/tourist town. Skiing and other nice spots in the Berkshires are drivable (Stratton Mountain Resort 1.5 hours; Lenox and Stockbridge 1 hour). Smith probably has more of an activist political culture than MH, if that is a positive or negative.
https://www.fivecolleges.edu
Macalester is strong in the social sciences and has a notable international focus. It is one of the top urban LACs. Whitman on the other hand is pretty small town (we loved the campus and academics are outstanding).
AU is in an inner suburban area of DC with some pretty big commuter roads right around the campus (we drive by fairly regularly). I think you can walk to a few things but must Metro or Uber to most things to do in DC, which can add to cost (Metro is an expensive subway system). I'd think daily transportation costs would be much less at Smith, for example. It does provide good DC opportunities for a government, economics, etc. major.
I have a soft place in my heart for Macalester, because when I was looking at colleges a billion years ago, the Macalester rep at the college fair was awesome (and also literally the first professional, adult, African-American person I had ever met).
We looked pretty closely at Emory, William and Mary, Rochester, and Tufts. I think they do a good job combining the advantages of an LAC and those of a national university. (Carnegie Mellon seems more STEM to me, though the school is strong in many areas.) The latter three really struck me as VA, NY, and MA versions of the same school. Emory just shouted GA less at me. All these schools provide the same close access as an LAC. Rochester as a nice riverfront campus. Tufts is in a sort of working class, close-in Boston suburb. Davis Square is the Boston T stop for the school. It's a few blocks from campus and is not too many stops to downtown Boston. Davis Square has a lot of restaurants, etc. itself.