Help! An interesting Situation

[arbiter213]

<p>Ok, please pardon the long post! </p>

<p>So one of my good friends is entering her senior year of high school, and feels somewhat lost at sea in the college search process (late in the game, I know, but keep reading! It’s an interesting case).</p>

<p>First I will outline what my friend is looking for, then profile her situation.
She is looking for a Suburban or Urban school, preferably with a cohesive campus (though the campus is not a deal breaker). She is from rural Connecticut, but national geography is also of little importance to her. </p>

<p>She would prefer a small or midsized school, ideally with smaller class sizes where she could get to know her professors well and have a more personal education. She doesn’t want a school where it’d be easy for someone who doesn’t know what they want to do to get lost. Personally, this makes me think a residential college system would be a plus for her.</p>

<p>She’s interested in Middle eastern studies, art history, art (practice), writings, wants to study abroad. She’d seriously like to be a professional artist.</p>

<p>Her stats, to start:
670R/670M/790W (2130 composite)
SAT II’s in Lit, Math 1, and German pending</p>

<p>89 Average (B+/A-) at the Hotchkiss School, an elite Northeastern private boarding school, with a somewhat rigorous course load. She spent her freshman year at her local public school, a terrible rural school where she was at the top of her class, before she transferred on full scholarship to Hotchkiss. This set her behind in placement in certain subjects. </p>

<p>She spent fall semester of her Junior year at City Term:

@City Term Website

What is Cityterm?
Using New York City as our classroom and laboratory, CITYterm brings together seven residential faculty and 30 intellectually adventuresome juniors and seniors in high school for a semester of intensive, experience-based learning. Our mission is To encourage students to engage fully in learning and thinking for themselves, about themselves and about who and what is beyond themselves. Our goal is for students to leave CITYterm with the intellectual tools they need to understand and express the complexity of New York City and the emotional and social tools to participate constructively in their community.

Where she excelled and had quite possibly the time of her academic life to that point. City Term apparently has a good reputation with schools on the coasts.</p>

<p>Her recommendations and essays wills be superb.</p>

<p>She has a complicated family situation, and her family income is very very low. She’s likely to qualify for a large amount of need based aid and will require it. She is a resident of NY and CT, holds dual citizenship with Germany and the United States, and most importantly, is first generation college in her family.</p>

<p>Here are her EC’s: (she wrote them up)
Freshmen/right before freshmen year
Poem read by actress Meryl Streep at a fundraiser for the Arts of Region 1.
Created the school yearbook cover
Attended 4 weeks at Bucks Rock Camp for the Arts on scholarship
Played guitar in the Housatonic Jazz Band
Involved in theater with a main role in the fall play
Housatonic Night Choir<br>
Sold $300 worth of Artwork for an Art Show
Worked as a counselor at a local arts camp for children</p>

<p>Sophomore
Joined Rock Climbing at Hotchkiss – later hired to belay at the rock climbing walls over the summer
Performed several times at Hotchkiss “Jamfest”<br>
Involved in theater with a major role in the spring play “Play On”
Sang and toured with the Hotchkiss Gospel Choir with several solos
Won a poster contest advertising the “Green Cup Challenge” for environmentalism at Hotchkiss ($100 prize)
Attended the AISNE race conference in Rhode Island with Hotchkiss’ Black and Hispanic Student Alliance
Won the 2007 Hotchkiss Prize for Best Non-Fiction work
Attended the Amalfi Coast Arts Festival in Italy for landscape painting in watercolor for 2 weeks w/ scholarship
Worked as a Hotchkiss summer tour guide (paid)</p>

<p>Junior Year:
Attended the City-term Semester Program for Fall of 2007
Was chosen by the Hotchkiss English department to attend the “New England Young Writers Conference” at Middlebury College
Joined the Hotchkiss Debate Team
Won 2nd place in Hotchkiss “Speak Offs” and chosen to attend the International Public speaking competition in Toronto
Hotchkiss Gospel Choir, solos
Cover art for the Hotchkiss “Writing Block”
Involved in Theater – Nominated a member of the Hotchkiss Dramatic Association board for Senior Year
Chosen to be a Teachers Assistant in Human Development for senior year
Attended the AATG German Dinner (you only attend if you score high enough on the AATG national tests or something…)
Special Project Painting spring of Junior year – Painted a collection of paintings which were sold (both originals and prints). Over $800 raised in order to attend a community service trip to Chile in summer of 07
Had an Art Piece Used as the cover of the School CD
Chosen as a board member for Hotchkiss “Jamfest” (student run music concerts)
Chosen to be a student counselor at the Hotchkiss “writing center”
Community service in Chile – 40+ hours rebuilding churches in rural Esquina w/ scholarship
Worked summer after junior year at an Italian Caf</p>

[gettinin]

<p>I’d recommend Sarah Lawrence. A colleague of mine went there on a full ride. Their application is writing-intensive, as they don’t use SAT scores. </p>

<p>NYU Tisch does not house the studio arts department for NYU–that’s the Steinhardt school, although I’m pretty sure she’d be able to take classes at Tisch, too. [NYU</a> Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development](<a href=“http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/]NYU”>http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/)</p>

[carolyn]

<p>What has her counselor at Hotchkiss recommended? </p>

<p>Some possibilities: Syracuse, Goucher, Bennington (may be too rural), Wesleyan, Vassar, Bard.</p>

[arbiter213]

<p>I reccomended Sarah Lawrence as well, but she said she wasn’t wild about it when she visited (one of the few she did). I’ll tell her to look again though. Thanks for that info about NYU, I really should have caught that- I’ll bring it to her attention.</p>

<p>Her counselor led her has pushed her to look at Skidmoore, as well as a few other schools (I don’t remember now, I’ll ask her), but she hasn’t been crazy about most he has been pointing her to. Ultimately he doesn’t know her as well as would be optimal- she has a pretty unique personality which is subtle, so I can imagine it would be hard to advise her without having known her a long time.</p>

<p>Thanks for that list, I’ll send it along to her (Bard and Vassar had ocurred to me too as good ideas). </p>

<p>Keep em’ coming!</p>

[Consolation]

<p>Possibly Williams. They have taken strong artists from our HS. She might capture their imagination and get in, and if she does they have strong FA. I also thought of Sarah Lawrence, Bard, and Skidmore. Bennington VT is a lovely town and a regional center, so I wouldn’t call it rural, exactly, although Carolyn is certainly correct that it may be more remote than she would like, as would Williams. I don’t know if many of the places we’ve mentioned have Middle Eastern Studies, though.</p>

[collegehelp]

<p>These have Middle Eastern Studies, Art History</p>

<p>Cornell University, NY
University of Arizona Tucson, AZ
University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA
University of California-Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA
George Washington University Washington, DC
Florida State University Tallahassee, FL
Emory University Atlanta, GA
Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD
Harvard University Cambridge, MA
Tufts University Medford, MA
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI
Washington University in St Louis Saint Louis, MO
Princeton University Princeton, NJ
Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ
Fordham University Bronx, NY
Brown University Providence, RI
The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX
Middlebury College Middlebury, VT</p>

[pointoforder]

<p>Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Macalester, Vassar</p>

[nocousin]

<p>I STRONGLY recommend Fordham University. They would snap her up in a heartbreak. She can visit anytime this summer or the fall. Either a self guided tour, or when students start rolling in, in late august early september, she can take a formal tour conducted by the Rose Hill Society (special students selected for their character and support for Fordham). </p>

<p>Fordham also teaches Arabic and has study abroad programs in Egypt and the Middle East for the very brave. </p>

<p>Gorgeous campus in the Bronx, right next to the famous Bronx Zoo and New York Botanical Gardens, where it shares professors and programs as well. </p>

<p>Otherwise, the schools listed by others above seem like a good fit. Add Connecticut College.</p>

[unalove]

<p>One of my favorite schools that might be a good fit and a better bet admissions-wise for your friend is the University of Rochester.</p>

[rcefn]

<p>Besides Columbia, she should really consider Barnard–she would be able to take classes at both campuses, and have the individual attention, mentorship, and counseling that is a hallmark of Barnard.</p>

[Duygu]

<p>Yes, I would second Barnard if she like Columbia.</p>

[integrity09]

<p>Smith College is definitely worth considering. Smith has a wonderful supportive, caring sense of community. Because Smith is not inundated with graduate students, students have a number of opportunities to get to know faculty well, and to do research projects with faculty or independently. Smith is known for academic excellence, small classes, terrific advising and mentoring, and available, committed professors. Your friend wouldn’t get ‘lost’ at Smith.</p>

<p>Also:

Smith is consistently recognized as a national leader in creating access for low-income and first-generation students. Over the past several years, stories in BusinessWeek, The New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education and The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education have lauded Smith for attracting and graduating students from low-income families. Sixty percent of Smith students receive need-based grant aid, a rate significantly higher than Smith’s peers.

</p>

<p>Smith is part of a 5-college consortium (with Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke and Univ Mass). You can take classes at any</p>

<p>Smith no longer requires SAT or ACT scores.</p>

<p>Here are some facts: <a href=“http://www.smith.edu/collegerelations/SpeakingofSmith-0414.pdf[/url]”>http://www.smith.edu/collegerelations/SpeakingofSmith-0414.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>BTW, the Smith College Museum of Art is phenomenal! [Smith</a> College Museum of Art - Home](<a href=“http://www.smith.edu/museum/]Smith”>http://www.smith.edu/museum/)</p>

[vonlost]

<p>Lewis & Clark in Portland, OR, might be a possibility, suburban, beautiful cohesive campus, small, smaller class sizes, strong in art, strong study abroad program.</p>