If you have definable academic interests, stating them here may result in further suggestions.
It sounds like you are looking for schools that will be academically challenging but perhaps slightly less selective than Yale, and also have some of the qualities that you admire in Yale. I think the term “back ups” is not quite right, and maybe “great alternatives” might be better.
So what is it that appeals to you about Yale? Is it the residential college system and sense of community? Rice certainly has this. Both the Rice and Yale college systems are based on the Oxford/Cambridge model and have a lot of similarities in how they function and how they impact and influence life on campus. I am not quite as familiar with ND but I have read that their housing has a residence hall system that blends the residential college system and the house system.
Other schools you might consider are Dartmouth, which is supposedly reintroducing the house system this fall to create a better community feel; Bowdoin, which has a house system; Williams, which has an entry system for freshman year that is supposed to create a great bonding experience and a small community within a community.
I am mainly interested in Biology/Biochemistry; however, I am also considering an English major. So I don’t know if the small New England LAC’s would work for my science needs. I liked Yale, and Rice subsequently, because of their excellence in both areas. They also give me the opportunity to double major if that is a route I decide to take. I’m trending towards the pre-med track, but I’m not 100% sure. The house systems also really appealed to me
[Is it possible to change the name of this discussion to Great Alternatives as @Faulkner1897 suggested?]
I also liked the Political Union at Yale, I’m pretty politically involved, on the Conservative side, and the artsy scene at Yale, I play and compose music.
What about Pomona? It is also a reach, but SLIGHTLY less selective than Yale. You get the whole of the Claremont consortium for classes. I would not recommend Mudd for a pre-med student (grade deflation is serious there), but you could take a few classes there from Pomona, too.
Thanks, I just briefly looked at their website and it seems interesting. I’ll give it a close look
Doesn’t Wash U have a 14% acceptance rate? Maybe a match or safety for Malia Obama, but not for anyone else.
As Faulkner said, I’m looking for colleges similar in academic quality to Yale but even just slightly less competitive. Wash U’s is at 17% Still a reach, but not super super super high reach
NW is one of the few top schools that track interest so take that in mind.
I wouldn’t let LAC designation stop you for Bio/Biochem or premed. LACs do great jobs there.
Assuming you have no financial restraints:
You could look at Pomona though they have low admit rates.
edit: ok strike Mudd due to grade deflation
Don’t apply to a school if you would not attend there.
Also, UT Austin is a great school.
A well-resourced LAC will offer 40+ courses in biology and perhaps 700+ courses overall. In either case, this would be many more courses than you would ever have the opportunity to take. Esotoric majors such as chemical physics and geoarchaeology may also compose part of their curricula.
For pre-med options, this online list can prove handy: “The Experts’ Choice: Colleges with Great Pre-med Programs.”
Are there good opportunities for research at these LAC’s? That’s something that would factor into my decision to apply
Yes, there are definitely on campus research opportunities. They are also feeders to REU programs at other colleges as well. One thing about universities is that there are grad students in a lot of the research positions and directing a lot of the research. At an LAC, you have no grad students, and work directly with the researching professor.
For the reasons stated above, I’d say that research opportunities may be generally greater at LACs in comparison to universities. However, cross-school comparisons may be more relevant than cross-category comparisons. That is, the opportunities at particular LACs and universities may vary substantially from one another.
My D just graduated from a LAC and was involved in 4 research projects, 2 of which she was the lead student researcher for. She spent two summers on campus as a full time paid researcher. One study yielded results that she expects will be published in an academic journal in the not too distant future. I think this helped her a great deal in terms of her grad school applications.
I’d say the two advantages of LACs when it comes to undergrad research are 1) classes are smaller and are all taught by professors so students have ample opportunity to develop relationships with professors and find out about the research they are doing and 2) as noted before there are no grad students to compete with for research positions.
I would also consider
Univ of Michigan Ann Arbor
John Hopkins University
Cornell as well though it focuses on interest and
passion so is always a high reach.
Thanks guys,
so do you think a college like this is a good idea?
Very High Reach: Yale, Princeton, MIT
Mid - High Reach: Rice, Washu, Amherst, Pomona, Northwestern
Match - UT Austin honors colleges
Safety - UT Austin, UTD
This looks like an excellent list (what happened to Notre Dame?). You may want to add Stanford as a possibility for the very high reach group (sounds like it may fit a lot of what you are looking for), and Williams to the mid-high reach group. Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT’s applications have unique and time consuming supplements (and I believe MIT is not on the common app), so you may not decide to apply to all four.
If you are going to visit Yale and Amherst, Williams is a natural addition to the trip. My daughter and I toured Williams and Amherst on the same day (Williams info session and tour in the morning, Amherst tour in the afternoon) then drove down to New Haven, spent the night, and saw Yale the next day. After seeing more than a dozen schools, my daughter’s favorites were Williams and Yale.
It might be good to ask yourself if you would attend UT Austin over each of these schools, for financial, location, or fit reasons. If the answer is yes, then strike that school from the list. You may get a better sense for this if/when you visit these schools.
As long as you are truly happy with UT Austin and UTD, that is fine.
Oops… forgot Notre Dame. Thank you all for your advice! It has been a great help to me!