My daughter is a high school junior interested who would love to study at a liberal arts college. She will probably major in something related to the humanities --she loves literature right now, but we suspect she will also love sociology, philosophy, gender studies, etc. She will likely minor or double major in something like public policy. She likes to think about big questions and systems and is interested in careers with a positive social impact (but she isn’t at all militant, just people-focused).
She thinks she will either go to law school or maybe grad school in public policy. She wants to learn to think critically and write really well. Her dad went to a T3 law school, so she wants to have the option of a top law school. If that is the direction she ends up choosing, there has to be decent amount of rigor at whatever undergrad school she attends.
She has high stats and good ECs - 1580 SAT, very likely NMSF, 4.4+ WGPA, 4.0 UWGPA. She will attend our state flagship school duel enrollment during her senior year because she has completed all the math (through calc BC) and English her high school offers. They offer more science, but she just isn’t that into it. 4 year varsity letter in two sports, likely captain in both sports next year and a member of the school athletic leadership board. Year-round club in both sports when she isn’t playing for her high school. Summer volunteering throughout high school as her sport schedule allows. Doesn’t plan to play sports in college.
She doesn’t have many school clubs because of her sport schedule, but created a substantial community service project that is close to her heart and focuses on diversity and political activism. She will probably have a public policy internship through the college she will be attending next fall and may do some political volunteering this summer.
Other relevant information: Our EFC is likely to exclude need-based aid. Our daughter identifies as a lesbian and is also biracial (Asian/white). She has grown up in a place where both of these things are fairly unnoteworthy and we would like that to be the case wherever she goes to college.
We are looking for LACs or small/mid-sized schools where the merit awards could put her total cost of attendence around $30k a year. We are familiar with most of the schools where NMF status would give her substantive aid, but most of them aren’t liberal arts focused or as small as she would prefer. She is not applying to any ivys or T20s because we can’t afford the tuition. (She can go there for grad school when she is paying her own way!)
This is the list of schools we have put together so far. There some financial reaches unless she gets full-tuition scholarships, but she wants to roll the dice anyway.
Oberlin
Macalester
Denison
New College Florida
Bryn Mawr
Smith
Mount Holyoke
Scripps
State Flagship school
At least one of the full-ride NMF schools (Florida state school or Arizona)
Schools she is considering because they sound impressively rigorous but still have merit (even though they don’t meet her general dream LAC criteria)
Washington University
Tulane
University of Southern California
Schools with programs she likes, but has concerns about rigor/reputation for law school
Kalamazoo
Agnes Scott
What other LACs offer big merit awards that would put cost of attendence around $30k? Competitive scholarships are ok.