Religion arose later in the thread.
Another vote for Muhlenberg. Large Jewish population, which serves in some respects as a hub for non-jewish students as well. Also , theater is very big there. It would be a safety though, and likely give good merit aid to your son.
Many have mentioned Skidmore already; I just want to point out that they have an exceptionally beautiful music performance space with a huge window behind the stage that looks out at a forest. Vassar is a great choice and probably not so much of a reach for a talented boy. Both my anti-Greek kids applied to Lafayette, so apparently that side of the school did not seem consequential to either of them. If it’s otherwise a good fit, I wouldn’t be too concerned about the frats there.
Came here to say Muhlenberg for sure, but I see that’s been covered. So just add my vote 
I know this is a reach, but since you may eliminate some of your original list when you update, I’m going to throw Wesleyan into the mix–tiny Greek presence, not bro-y, and great music for non-majors. My D joined the gamelon group there, though not a music major. I think there’d be a lot of possibilities for someone like your S there. It’s lefty for sure, but most are not “radical” left. Even though she was an activist, the majority of her friends were not. Which was fine. And large Jewish presence–half her best friends from there are Jewish (and she’s not, so that was not because she was looking for them.)
Update: So we saw his guidance counselor. We found out he is #10 in his class of about 400 as of now. I think Skidmore will be his safety. F&M crossed off the list. She said he can try for Yale if he wants and if he doesn’t get in he can do ED2 at Tufts.
Question for this crowd: He will not have any science or math APs. Although he is in the Science League (it’s an inter-school competition). Will that have an impact on his applications to any of the highly competitive schools?
Don’t worry about the AP courses. There isn’t anything you can do about that!
If the high school doesn’t offer them then no APs isn’t a big deal.
What’s the rest of his list look like if the ED apps don’t go as hoped? Any other schools other than Skidmore?
Does his HS offer APs in those subjects? If so, do most of the other students in the top 10% take them? Does he plan to major in a STEM area?
HS offers plenty of APs in every discipline. I have no idea what the rest of the top 10% take. I think that the STEM-heavy students tend not to be in the top 10% since AP Bio and Chem are so hard in his school and the GPAs suffer. The GPAs in the top two deciles are closely clustered. In my daughter’s graduating class I was surprised to see how many students in the second decile were NM semis and finalists and were attending top-10 colleges. He is not a STEM person and will major in some sort of social science or humanity.
See my original post. But the safety has changed to Skidmore.
He should find two safeties though. Not sure Skidmore can be considered a safety due to acceptance rate, I’d say low match rather than safety for that reason + the fact they consider interest, but it may well be “close to safe” due to his being a boy (which is an advantage at LACs in general and Skidmore in particular, as long as he starts expressing interest right now, filling out the request info form, clicking on emails they send, etc.)
Thanks. Yeah, we’ll visit and he’ll do everything he can to demonstrate interest. He’s also submitting an arts supplement in the form of a music performance recording.
But, to my question … lack of STEM APs.
The only way it might hurt for they tippy top schools is if many others are taking more APs and the high school counselor can’t check off the “most rigorous” box.
GPA and rigor have to be considered hand in hand.
Hmm. He’ll have 7 or 8 APs. The most anyone in his HS ever has is about 10-11.
Is this a “normal” no stem AP, as in, “stopped at precalculus and didn’t take AP stats nor anything else”, or a “CC” no AP, ie., “buuuuut he’s taken Dual Enrollment Statistics/College Algebra/ AICE Math 1+2/Honors Calculus”?
Just another word about Oberlin. It doesn’t have problems other schools won’t have. Just read the student newspapers at Connecticut college or Columbia and you can see the debates. Yale had the halloween incident a year or so ago. Our friends and family at Oberlin, some of whom are jewish, are very happy. We have told our children they will run into issue politics wherever they go and need to be able to adress it. But also remember that russian bots are inflaming many of these situations. I know, it sounds wacky, but its true. See articles in inside higher ed.
Also a drummer might be very happy at a public university where they are in high demand. Consider some state universities too, its great to get those early acceptances. And read up on Tufts Syndrome, which is still real even if its not necessarily true at tufts.
Looks like he took AP Calc (maybe AB?$. I consider that stem. I think it’s fine to not have taken science stem considering his desire to major in the humanities. We have a friend who got into Tufts ED this year with math and science APs but no AP English or History classes, in fact those classes for her weren’t even honors.
@MYOS1634 @homerdog He will be taking honors calculus next year. He was going to try to get into AP Calc for next year but changed his mind. All other classes, including STEM, are honors but no AP. We don’t have anything like dual enrollment here.
Honors calc is fine.
What are/will be his 7-8 APs?