<p>boysx3-that sounds promising! trying to increase the numbers may equate to more aid…</p>
<p>Hollie, I believe you are right–your D will be seen as as a URM adding diversity and increased aid is a well established recruiting tool in such situations.</p>
<p>Like Collage1 I have been following this thread and find it to be very helpful, mainly for my S2, who is now a rising h.s. freshman. (Plenty of time to worry about college, but I’ve gotten many great ideas. :)</p>
<p>I wanted to point out to whomever gets the national Parade magazine in their Sunday newspapers…there’s a great article on colleges…they mention College of Charleston, Elon, among others as colleges that offer great educations…worth looking at!</p>
<p>^^anyone know if that is online? we do not get Parade around here…</p>
<p>nm: found it: <a href=“http://www.parade.com%5B/url%5D”>www.parade.com</a></p>
<p>A note on Allegheny - my cousin graduated from there about 5 years ago. Overall a good experience. I think Jewish life has grown even more since he finished. His only reservation was that many/most of the kids were from western PA/eastern Ohio - and that even though he was from Buffalo - he felt a bit lost freshman year - as many kids seemed to already know each other from hs. This may have changed since he was there - but I would look at the current geographic breakdown.</p>
<p>Yabeyabe - my understanding is that the reason there are so many small colleges in Ohio and PA has to do with their roots as Lutheran schools for educating ministers back in the 1800s. Obviously they have undergone many changes in the past 150 years - but that is the origin for most of them.</p>
<p>chocchip - I haven’t looked at the newspaper yet - hunting down that Parade section right now!</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.parade.com/news/2010/08/22-parades-college-a-list.html[/url]”>http://www.parade.com/news/2010/08/22-parades-college-a-list.html</a></p>
<p>Rodney and I both posted links to the Parade article. The article is comprised of short lists of “outstanding” colleges that fly under the radar in various categories. For example, College of Charleston is listed in the small public school category and Elon is listed in the private school category.</p>
<p>^^funny, though, that Elon is listed in the “large private category”…not sure where their cutoff is but since when is 5,000 undergrads considered “large”?? haha…Vandy and Duke too (neither of which I consider “large”)</p>
<p>The on-line version is annoying - you have to keep hitting next and waiting for the page to re-load. In the print version - there is just one list for private schools - not by size - and it contains Centre College. College of Wooster, Elon, High Point (??), Marist, Stonehill and Whitman - all of which have under 5000 students.</p>
<p>Thanks for the links…the Sunday magazine just seems to have a small summary of each college catergory…the parade.com has much more in depth colleges listed…I also saw Gettysburg listed under “small privates”, I think…also Goucher, which has been mentioned in this thread…</p>
<p>Also listed was Franklin & Marshall…we have a pretty religious hebrew school teacher who went to F & M undergrad…don’t know what their Jewish population is or how active their Hilel is…does anyone else know about this school?</p>
<p>I don’t know if this Parade listing is helpful to anyone, but it’s good to look at, maybe to get ideas on schools that may not have been previously considered…</p>
<p>chocchip - I think the listing is very helpful - thanks for bringing it to our attention. And I think we can give ourselves a collective pat on the back since so many schools that WE have been discussing are on the Parade list! :)</p>
<p>I think Franklin & Marshall is a great liberal arts school - another one of these fabulous small schools in PA. I think it is a little reachy for a “B” student - I would align it more with Dickinson and Bucknell.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.fandm.edu/hillel/about-f-m-hillel[/url]”>http://www.fandm.edu/hillel/about-f-m-hillel</a></p>
<p>More Franklin & Marshall info:</p>
<p>Admission statistics for the class of 2013:
Applications received: 5,255
Students offered admission: 2547
SAT middle 50% of enrolled students*
Verbal: 600-690; Math: 630-700
ACT middle 50% of enrolled students*
Composite: 28-31
- Excluding the 31% test optional</p>
<p>I would suggest reading some of the threads on the F & M forum. I get a bit of an impression of it being a little more competitive - more kids aiming for grad school - a little more intellectual - than might appeal to what I consider to be a typical “B” student.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. re: Franklin & Marshall, rockvillemom. At the moment I am concentrating fully on S1 who is now a rising h.s. senior and who has started working on apps. and essays. </p>
<p>I have started to form a list for S2 for when the time is right, down the road. I also have two boys like you. S1 is more academic oriented (almost entirely straight A’s except for AP Physics!) and S2 is more of the B+ range. However, since he will just be starting h.s., lots will happen in the next two years or so. S2 sees how much effort we are putting into the college “fit” for S1 and has informed me that he is “only 14” and doesn’t know what he wants to study in college yet. Of course I tease him and ask, “why not??!”</p>
<p>Since I’ve signed on to CC in the last few months I have learned lots of valuable information that I have passed on to S1. Let’s hope it helps when acceptances come in! I have been very happy with this thread in particular as we will begin to eventually look at colleges for the Jewish “B” student in the next year or so.</p>
<p>chocchip - I find that to be one of the most interesting aspects of having kids - particularly when you have 2 or more of the same sex - yet they are so different - I always wonder about nature vs. nurture and how the first-born being the higher achiever does seem to hold true quite a bit. My older son, like yours, is an amazing student and has known exactly what he wants to do career-wise since the age of 10. He is like a laser beam - zeroing in on his goals. Younger son - is so much more laidback and has no idea whatsoever what he wants to study or what career he might pursue. We have put a possible business major or sports mgmt on the table for now - but I know it could end up being something totally different. I do like that we have started the process earlier for S2 and that we are investigating schools in a more leisurely fashion - rather than a manic spring break week. I think we are having more fun and maintaining a fairly mellow attitude - in keeping with S2’s personna.</p>
<p>As you no doubt already know, and most of the parents in this forum will agree, each child is different, even though raised in the same environment! Of course a lot has to do with how we respond to them…it seems to be a pattern that first children are “usually” the most intellectual…not always, but why is that? Maybe we have more time to spend with them when they are toddlers? Before more children come into the family and we have the time to devote to just one?</p>
<p>My older sister was always more intellectual, Fullbright scholar, academically at the top of the class…but I always tease her that I was more social and more practical, with more common sense. (that’s actually true!) :)</p>
<p>Now that I’ve been reading your thread all summer I can’t wait to find out which school your S2 ends up going to and hope he loves! Then our jobs as mothers will be all worth it. Sometimes kids just fall into things at college. That’s their time to explore and take classes not offered in h.s. </p>
<p>My S1 hates science. He did well in all sciences (except for the physics I mentioned earlier). S2 seems to be gravitating toward science. Either Computer Science or Engineering. S1 would never dream of studying that. So, yeah, that’s what keep parenting interesting. I guess it would be boring if both kids wanted the same careers!</p>
<p>Franklin and Marshall:
When my sisters and I were applying to colleges, my mother encouraged all of us to apply to F and M. When my daughters starting applying, she once again pushed the school. I finally asked her what was so special about F and M and she replied: “There are a lot of nice Jewish boys there”.</p>
<p>Now here I am following this thread. I guess things haven’t changed that much in 30 years.</p>
<p>That’s funny, momjr!</p>
<p>I’ll put that school on my list to “research” down the road.</p>
<p>article from The Forward about small colleges reaching out to expand their Jewish communities – [Small</a> Colleges Reach Out To Expand Their Jewish Student Communities ? Forward.com](<a href=“http://forward.com/articles/130140/]Small”>Small Colleges Reach Out To Expand Their Jewish Student Communities – The Forward)</p>
<p>mentions Washington and Lee, and Franklin and Marshall.</p>
<p>…and Elon…thanks for posting…</p>
<p>on Franklin and Marshall: know a number of kids around here starting there in the fall; please note: they take 75-80% of their class ED…not sure it’s as selective as the numbers suggest…it’s a SAT/ACT optional school as well and I don’t think they require submission after acceptance (so their numbers are inflated)…</p>
<p>The kids I know that are attending are definitely “B” students…but we have been advised that F&M is a work hard kinda school; even though a “B” student may be accepted, it may be very rigorous for them to achieve…</p>
<p>My daughter had it on her preliminary list and her college counselor told her that she would probably be accepted ED, but that she didn’t think it was an academic fit…</p>
<p>momjr: that’s very funny…I had been accepted to F&M back in the 70’s and was choosing between there and another school…didn’t know it had that rep; I attended the other school…lots of nice Jewish boys there too (including my husband haha)</p>
<p>Great article - thanks so much for sharing it. I love reading about the efforts colleges are making to attract Jewish students to their campuses.</p>
<p>Sort of off topic, but does anyone know how the Jewish life is at USC?</p>