Hapless Hannah prepares new list

Parents Forum
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<p>As most of you know , my daughter and I are turning this college search into a Laurel and Hardy routine, maybe Keystone Cops is more like it. Well, anyway- this list is our latest episode. Let’s see if we have done any better, shall we? </p>

<p>As a refresher for some, and for the newbies, D is :female, Texas, public school, val, 4.7 on a 4.0, top 1% test scores, very rural, ranch-raised, liberal to moderate, pre-med, chemistry, math over verbal, D3 quality athlete, New Balance-jeans-tshirt-athletic shorts-pony tail, fit, active, attractive, non-quirky, non-edgy, traditional, substance free, reasonably popular,self-driven, self-starting, autonomous, opinionated, out-spoken, organized, very good to excellent EC’s -no national but some state level rec , all long standing and vary from 4 yr varsity sports and music, to math and science, community service, and career shadowing.</p>

<p>O.K. the new list is (very roughly increasing in admission and/or financial difficulty ): Hanover College, Hobart and Wm. Smith Colleges, Ursinus College , St. Mary’s College of Md, Centre College, Rhodes College,Scripps College, Hamilton College, Colby College, Bowdoin College, Middlebury College, and finally , D’s top school and Mini’s favorite alma mater with a big unsightly hole in the ground, ta dah- Williams College.(As a middle-class non-drinker needing a boat-load of financial aid, I’m sure she’ll fit right in. LOL.)</p>

<p>Did we do any better? Is there any consistency in the list ? I know that the Claremont campuses together are much larger and I know that Memphis ain’t rural but…D thinks she can put up with both because of the rest of the “picture”. Scripps and Rhodes are both tiny islands with as much insulation as you want from the larger world, or so we believe.Today.</p>

<p>I’d appreciate any thoughts, and we’re really O.K. because D really likes Hanover College (and her only D1 choice-Ole Miss-Barksdale).</p>

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<p>To quote jmmom from the “Fit” thread, the only question is: do these fit the current self, or prepare and grow the future self, or, ideally, both? Your D sounds wonderful. Do we call her curmudgette?

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<p>Have you looked at Juniata and St. Lawrence? St. Lawrence gives merit aid and is very outdoorsy. How do you think she’ll feel if she’s in the middle of very eastern-centric schools or schools with frats? Why not Bates (you’ve got Bowdoin & Colby)? Of your list, I’ve visited Hobart and William Smith, Hamilton, Bowdoin and Colby. While they might all be small LACs they seem to me to have very different ‘flavors’. Has your d. visited them? I’m of the belief that she’ll know what she likes when she sees (visits) it.</p>

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<p>Curmudgeon:</p>

<p>Your D seems very highly qualified, so she should be admissible (bar the crapshoot factor) in all of the colleges listed.
I will refrain from commenting on those colleges about which I know nothing. I do know that it is possible to graduate from Williams without having played sports or drunk one drop of alcohol. It has a first-rate math department and is also very strong on sciences; its music department is supposed to be wonderful, and it has plenty of funds for undergraduate (as someone told me, it’s no spare change, either).
Another well-endowed college that may attract your D is Swarthmore.
If she is willing to look in the Midwest, Carleton has a well-regarded math department. It’s also in a dry town, though I don’t know how much it stops undergraduates from drinking. Colby, too, has a good math department.
Evil Robot eventually chose Vandy over Yale because it gave him more financial aid and he is a com sci major, so I expect the math department there is good.</p>

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<p>Based on what you’ve told us about her in the past, I strongly suspect that your daughter might prefer Wellesley to Smith. Both great schools but your daughter sounds more like a Wellesley girl than a Smithie to me (No flames please Mini, TheDad and other Smith parents, just calling it like I see it from Cur’s description of what his daughter liked and didn’t like on their college visits.)</p>

<p>Otherwise, looks like a fine list to me. :)</p>

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<p>A fine list of safeties and matches to be sure. But with credentials as strong as hers, is there any thought to tossing in a few at high end too? Swat, Amherst, or Pomona? And (gulp) Princeton is known for it’s generous finaid.</p>

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<p>OH COME ON! I’ve held your hand, assuaged your fears, generally channeled you on more than one occasion - and she’s not going to look at Dartmouth!!! Our relationship is ended! </p>

<p>I’m confused, is Hanover = Ole/Miss Barksdale (Never mind I re-read your post I get it, where is Hanover?)? Actually Williams sounds like a perfect fit (she really didn’t seem like a Grinnell girl), we’ve conversed about our DDs before - there was one big turn-off for DD at Williams, the almost comical bent toward athletics, that may be a big draw for your girl, especially if she is recruited, etc. The drinking is worrisome, but you and she can assess that when she visits.
As Lefthand says, the list may contract or morph again when she does more visits, they will just walk on campus and say “Yep” or “No way” for the most incomprehensible reasons, which is OK her list is plenty long enough, even to compare aid offers - it just lacks one school - GO BIG GREEN!!
Thus begins the campaign to reunite the DDs of cangel and curmudge, separated at birth.</p>

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<p>LHOD, we have seen Hanover,Centre, Rhodes, Bowdoin , and Williams.
And Bates appeared to be getting dinged for Lewiston and we have to cut somewhere. LOL. 12 still seems like too too many for actual application purposes. I still expect this list to morph again. For those familiar, which ones don’t seem to fit with the majority of the others? </p>

<p>For a little more data on D, Grinnell ,much to my chagrin is presently off the list as D felt more quirky-counterculture than she was immediately comfortable with.As for me, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.</p>

<p>Oh, and cangel-if we can pry the darn basketball out of her hands , D1 Dartmouth will ascend back to it’s usual number 1 slot. These are all D3’s. Hanover is a tiny Indiana LAC ranked 8-something with auto-merit of $15k on a $30k COA a year for D. A wonderful school on 650 beautiful acres overlooking the Ohio River.</p>

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<p>Grinnell ,much to my chagrin is presently off the list as D felt more quirky-counterculture than she was immediately comfortable with>></p>

<p>Exactly the reason I suggested she might strongly prefer Wellesley (or perhaps Bryn Mawr) to Smith.</p>

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<p>Curmudgeon - Williams is very generous with financial aid - please visit to see for yourselves if it is a fit!</p>

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<p>Oops - just read your last post and see you’ve already visited.</p>

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<p>Curmudgeon,
With a couple of exceptions, your descriptive paragraph on your D could have easily been about mine. Take out Texas and valedictorian. Everything else is the same. She loves Williams. Math is extraordinary there, and the sciences benefit from that, but are excellent in their own rights (especially physics). </p>

<p>From your list, she was also admitted to Midd and Hamilton. She loved Midd, and made her final choice from among Williams, Middlebury , and Dartmouth. From what I know, Marite is right about generous fin-aid at Williams. There are about a dozen Texans (just for your general information) in my daughter’s class at Williams ('07). I’m not sure what the general thrust of your question is, but if you’re asking about admissions prospects, you seem to me to be on the conservative side (not a bad thing)…maybe throw in a few more reaches?</p>

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<p>driver , please compare Mid and Hamilton socially to Williams. Williams is not far from my D’s Aunt’s farm in Washington, Mass. and we are at least passingly familiar with the campus and town.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the tip about Hanover, DS is still a few years down the road, but his search will be much different than DD’s, in some ways more angst ridden. I’m keeping a running list for him and some gauge of his interests/abilities - right now community college is looking like a waste of resources!</p>

<p>What about Sewanee? Too remote, too conservative?</p>

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<p>IMO, Williams and Middlebury are about as similar as you can get. Some high-ranking Williams folks accuse Middlebury of “trying to BE Williams.” They each have their own academic niches, but socially—virtually identical. Hamilton is similar, but more politically active, more overtly liberal, and sans mountains. There is also an emphasis on the written word (not just creative) at Hamilton, a little bit like Amherst. Not that the others are slouches in that area.</p>

<p>I would say that Middlebury has a more “sprawling” campus than Williams, which can be good and bad. They seem to be constantly expanding (in fact, they are planning to up the enrollment to around 3000). I commented favorably on the sprawling athletic facility when we visited, but my D pointed out “it’s like a space station that they keep adding things to…there’s no order to it.” She preferred the well-knit but effective Williams athletic facilities. Middlebury’s science building is absolutely stunning, as are the other recent additions to campus architecture, which were designed with the world-class scenery in mind. Their library was already underway when we visited in '03, so that would be one less hole in the ground to worry about.</p>

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<p>cangel, from what she has read and the two girls she knows who attend-my traditional kid thinks Sewanee might be too traditional. Remoteness doesn’t bother her in the least. She finds it preferable if that means a vibrant campus oriented life. The description of the young men all in blue blazers, white sneakers, white shirts, with khakis and a old ball cap pretty much “did her in”. She wouldn’t let me stop, and we drove to Rhodes for a second visit instead. Go figure.</p>

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<p>

Come on, C-Mudge, no one could be THAT perfect.</p>

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<p>O.K.dig, You ought to see her room, or her driving :eek:, or the fact that she can be impatient with “fools” ( for which category I often qualify), or her perfectionism which can grow tiring, or her free throw shots, or her sarcasm which can be biting, or the way that anything happening in her life is more important than anything happening in mine because-“well, did you hear the part Dad, where it’s happening to ME”. Oh, and the biggy-she’s too darn serious about things. Blow it off every once in a while,sheesh. …O.K. other than that she’s a pretty cool kid.</p>

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<p>C-Mudge - she may have to add at least 1 skirt to her wardrobe - she certainly sounds like quite a gal - and the world is going to be her oyster for sure.</p>

<p>I bet her penmanship is perfect - or close to it too lol whew - sounds like a whirl wind kinda kiddo.</p>

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<p>Yeah, DD felt the same way about Sewanee, too much of what she is trying to shake-off. Re-read what I said about son - I meant I’m not sure he will go to college, on this forum, horrors!</p>