Among the schools where my D has been accepted, she has narrowed her choices to three: Macalester College, William & Mary, and the University of Illinois (in state). She plans to major in political science/government.
She also got into GW, BU and Kenyon, among other safer choices, but has generally narrowed it down to the before-mentioned three.
In terms of cost, the University of Illinois is the value choice. She received a significant merit scholarship from Macalester, making it a little less expensive than paying OOS at William & Mary, where she received no merit aid.
She likes all three of her finalists: The LAC benefits of Macalester, as well as its emphasis on study abroad and internationalism; W&M’s history and rich traditions; and even though the U. of Illinois is much different from the other two, it is highly rated overall, and my D likes the campus and town.
She visited U. of Illinois recently, Macalester in August, and W&M in October 2018. Because of the pandemic, she will not be able to do any follow up visits, so that’s making it harder. She is in the process of setting up video discussions with administrators and current students at the schools, which should be helpful.
Any additional insights forum members can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Mac is known to be strong in your daughter’s intended major. Really though, if UIUC is much cheaper, and she likes it… why not?
S1 had to choose between Carleton and a big, urban school. Even though he really liked Carleton, he ultimately elected for the bigger school, in the exciting urban environs. Couldn’t see himself going to a school that was smaller than his HS.
Mac at least has the city going for it, with St. Thomas just down the road, and a few other colleges within a couple of miles such as Hamline, St Catherine, and Concordia, adding up to quite a student population in the area.
We visited all three with S19. Of the three, he only ended up applying to W&M and was accepted. He thought Mac was a good location but the students were pretty intellectual and “nerdy”. I know IR and political science are strong majors there but I would make sure your D feels like she fits there. Seems like a specific type of student body and the experience would be WAY different that U of I. Small classes and a tight community versus large classes until maybe junior year. At Mac, she will learn from professors and not from TAs.
S19 applied to almost all LACs. William and Mary was the biggest school he applied to but we really got the LAC feel there. When he went to class, the professor was warm and interested in him, welcoming him to class and chatting with him afterwards. S19 thought the kids were friendly and smart and, because it’s bigger, there’s a wide range of types of kids. In the end, I think S19 really wanted a true smaller school experience with kids from all over the US. W&M is obviously a VA state school and he was concerned that kids might know each other. But we all really loved W&M.
U of I is completely different than the other two schools. I get the cost though. Can’t beat it. We prepaid Illinois tuition when S19 was a baby so it was a bummer to not have the school be a good match for him. If the small, personal experience of a LAC is not a priority for your D and she liked Illinois, maybe U of I makes the most sense. Hard for me to say that because I’m a big LAC fan but I also know kids liking their U of I experience!
How much more would Mac cost than UIUC? If not much more, I may spring for the small class sizes and more faculty attention.
But she’s kind of picked one each from each category:
Small/mid-sized/huge
Urban metro/smallish (tourist) town/college town (surrounded by corn)
Private/public but with some characteristics of a private/public
Very good comments. Thank you. The philosophy was to visit and apply to all types of schools to determine what would be the best fit. Turns out she likes elements of a lot of them, thus the dilemma, lol.
She recognizes the advantages of LACs. Macalester is a good fit overall, and they seemed to agree by offering a significant merit scholarship. Kenyon offered no merit, and Richmond waitlisted her. Her primary concern with Macalester is whether she is indeed a good fit with the student body. She is not into partying, but isn’t nerdy either.
UIUC is the only large state school still under consideration. There is a lot to like about the school — well regarded, attractive campus, good college town. It would be a comfortable choice, which to my daughter is both the biggest plus and minus. There will be dozens of kids there from her large high school, so mixed feelings.
She really liked W&M during her tour fall of junior year, but almost didn’t apply because it seemed like a big reach for her. She was stunned when she was accepted as an OOS. The downsides are cost because no merit aid (but not a dealbreaker), and Williamsburg, while quaint, is a lot sleepier than Minneapolis/St. Paul and even Urbana/Champaign.
We told her these are three great options. She has demonstrated herself to be very adaptable for her age, so we believe she can be successful anywhere. We are letting her drive toward her own decision, but are trying inject enough to help her along the way.
Some of them will be among her closest friends. Not a bad thing, but concerned about having to force herself to branch out. (there are dozens just from her graduating class going there, usually 70-90 kids in a given year).
If COA was the same at all schools, then which school would your daughter pick ?
P.S. Were you aware of the dual degree program at the College of William & Mary with St. Andrew’s University in Scotland.
Macalester certainly has the most liberal student body among the three schools.
The Fiske Guide To Colleges awards its top rating for Academics to Wm & Mary as well as to the Univ. of Illnois. Macalester College is ranked slightly lower for academics, but has the highest rating among the three schools for quality of life.
Kids change a lot at that age. None of the people I hung out with freshman year in college were the people I hung out with senior year in college. And I don’t understand the concern about maintaining friendships. I think maintaining friendships is a good thing (unless you think they are a bad influence).
I don’t see how this is a concern in general. She’ll branch out if she wants to and she won’t if she doesn’t want to.
You’ve got one very large, one medium-sized, and one small school. That will probably make the decision easier based on what your kid feels comfortable with. They also vary in distance as well.
My undergraduate university was in a small city and graduate degree was in a large city. I enjoyed both and found that what really made the social experience was friendships, not the location.
I’m a 2019 grad from Macalester and I just wanted to speak to the “fitting in” portion of things about your daughter not being a big partyer, but not being a nerd either. I was super worried before I went to Mac that everyone would be too “nerdy” or perhaps introverted. I didn’t want a school with Greek life, but I did want to know that I could party if I wanted to and be around like-minded people that care about school but…not tooooooo much haha.
All I can say is that I had an incredible experience at Mac, made friends that had just the right amount of nerd and fun, and got to have some wild experiences while keeping it all in check
I think Mac is a great place, and it does give really incredible financial aid (that, by the way, can increase throughout your time at Mac if you really need it to)
Also, no better place to study poli sci/government: we’re a 20 minute bike ride from the capital, and the legislative politics class basically guarantees an internship on the hill!
