If you’re in Schreyer, you live in the Honors dorm, not in the regular freshmen dorms out in the tundra (aka “East”). You’re right in the middle of campus, a 5mn walk to the library, tutors, labs, film hall, or CLA. Walk out, cross the street, and you’re in State College.
There’s a sound proof room for doing homework in the dorm (also one with a piano where people unwind just playing whatever). And if you want something antithetical to a party dorm, there’s a special wing within the Honors dorm called The Globe where you apply once you’ve been admitted to Schreyer: they organize events&activities +invite speakers about worldwide social issues (and word has it they’re the best rooms/areas).
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for Chicago and Vassar but it’d be good to have this in your back pocket just in case.
No, Pennsylvania. If I wasn’t I think Haverford college would be at the tippy top of my list since everything about it is great, and I’ve even gone to a few lectures there
Since folks here are offering suggestions, I’ll offer one too:
Connecticut College, a small (2000 students) liberal arts college on the Connecticut shore in New London, CT. They are a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference, often referred to as the “Little Ivies”.
I suggest it for a few reasons:
I love what they do with their curriculum & I think that it would be a good fit for you and provide good preparation for law school. Go to their website and read about their Connections Program with Integrative Pathways. It is their way of doing thematic inquiry. It enables you to develop an individualized path of study. When you declare a major, rather than having to choose between two, or even three, competing interests, their approach facilitates a process whereby you can include all of your interests rather than excluding some. They have excellent advising to help you with planning.
Nearby are two high security prisons, one a men’s prison 6 miles away and the other Connecticut’s only high security women’s prison 12 miles away. Having such access could provide a great opportunity for a senior capstone project, which is something that the vast majority of Conn College’s seniors do. Conn College also emphasizes community involvement and has strong connections to the New London schools in the event you wanted to study prevention programs to help young people avoid prison.
The campus itself is a registered arboretum, situated on a bluff with beautiful views overlooking the Thames River. It is located in touristy eastern Connecticut near the historic town of Mystic, near Mohegan Sun Casino which offers lots of live entertainment, and at New London’s transportation hub, which offers access by ferry, train, and bus to major destinations in southern New England & its off shore islands and to Long Island.
It is a perfect admissions target for you. The average high school gpa of this year’s freshman class is 3.81, and you are right in that neighborhood.
Pitt is great and you’ll get in. American, too, if you demonstrate interest. But like Vassar they are not
Also, counting grad students, U Chicago is large. Undergrad is nearly 8k and grad 10k it doesn’t fit at all your want small like Vassar. So do you prefer a mid/large like Pitt/Chicago or small like Vassar ?
Bard was an interesting suggestion. Bates too but will be hard RD.
Bucknell and Juniata are both Shepherd Schools - which have programs focused on poverty. Bucknell is a likely/target and Juniata safe. Macalester would be a worthy target as would Brandeis, which is rated a top school for kids caring about the community.
For law school, where you go won’t matter. It will matter in the sense of you having a great experience. But the top law schools - including Penn, Harvard, and UVA - have more than 100 colleges represented in their first year not large class. Penn more than 200 through the 3 years.
I definitely agree that I’m overshooting. I’ve been pushing hard for my parents to look at more targets/safeties but they just don’t want to hear it. I think they’re stuck in pre-pandemic ideas of college admissions. I’m definitely going to look into a lot of the universities suggested here. I also wanted to clarify, I like small schools, however the architecture and opportunities at Uchicago are things that really draw me in, as well as the traditions there. In short, I just never want to be in a lecture hall with 200 people. I prefer small, seminar style classes focused on discussion, because that’s where I do best. I’m really grateful for all the helpful feedback folks have provided
Please don’t make your decision based on architecture unless everything else fits.
College is NOT a destination. It is a bridge to the rest of your life. It is the rest of your life that is the destination. College is one means to shape the rest of your life to be as close to what you dream it can be as possible.
Oh it’s absolutely not based on architecture. It’s just an added bonus. I really loved the sort of off beat, competitive, rigorous academic vibe at Uchicago and I know I do well when I’m challenged.
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I know by the time I get to law school I’ll be ready for that, but at the moment it’s just not what I think I’d do well in. I’m fine with some necessary unpleasantness/discomfort for a job I know I’ll enjoy in the long run, but there’s no reason to make my undergrad experience one that I won’t enjoy if there’s a way to avoid that
I would add Kalamazoo as well. Their K-Plan curriculum is very cool, and they have a robust Philosophy program. Among other things, they offer different suggestions for courses depending on your post-college interests, including a Pre-Law selection:
Gettysburg would be another interesting choice in light of your stated interests. It has a strong public policy focus in general, and lots of ties to DC, including hosting the Eisenhower Institute. Again they have a robust Philosophy program, and they are big into interdisciplinary stuff, including the sorts of social and political stuff I think you might find particularly interesting:
Finally, I would suggest checking out The College of Wooster. Yet another robust Philosophy program with lots of interdisciplinary focus, and in their case a lot of Philosophy students do a double major–they design their Philosophy major to make that easily doable in four years with a wide variety of options:
As a final general thought–small colleges are typically only going to be able to have some many dedicated Philosophy faculty. But these colleges (among others) that really lean into the interdisciplinary possibilities with Philosophy are making use of faculty in other departments, and I think that is a great formula. Particularly if you are ultimately interested in something like law school, where a Philosophy major itself is usually good preparation, but even better if you can also get a strong foundational education in some other relevant disciplines.
This can be a real challenge, but at least one avenue to try is to pitch a school to them not as a Safety/Target per se, but as a place which is actually unusually suitable for you academically. Speaking as a parent, we don’t always feel great when we think that our kid is settling for a lesser version of something and that they could do better. But if we understand why our kids are really excited about something in particular, that can go a long way to reducing those concerns.
