Please encourage her to look at Barnard. The “all girls” thing doesn’t really apply there, unless the kid is dead set on living in a co-ed dorm her first year. (Probably more appropriate to describe Barnard as a woman-focused liberal arts education that shares facilities with a large research university). Course registration and campus activities (clubs, etc.) are fully integrated with Columbia. Columbia men who want to meet women hang out in common areas on the Barnard campus, which is directly across the street from Columbia. My d. took roughly half of her coursework at Columbia her first two years. Her males friends from college attended Columbia, including the one she’s planning to marry next summer. An IR major is very likely to participate the sort of activities and events that involve both campuses; Barnard undergrads can also enroll in appropriate courses at SIPA – and there is a joint 5-year degree program with SIPA as well (albeit darn near impossible to get into). But basically a woman attending Barnard is essentially at Columbia in terms of their overall college milieu.
The examples given in this thread aren’t high/low – they are high / not-so-high.
A 28 on an ACT is not “low” – it’s something around 92% percentile. A 3.87 uw GPA is not “low” – it’s an A-.
I’d agree that a 490 on the SAT math is worrisome - but that looks test-specific because the 26 on the ACT would equate to a much higher SAT. (I don’t have time to check but I’m guessing around 600).
And a kid who is attending high school full time while at the same time attending a pre-professional ballet school is not lazy. She’s working twice as hard as her respective classmates in either setting. She might have wisely chosen to keep some balance in her life by foregoing some AP’s when she was committed to spending full days in the dance studio – but that doesn’t mean that she’s averse to a challenge. Just that she didn’t realistically have as much time to commit to studying as most others did.
Will do, calmom. I wasn’t sure how Barnard students interacted with Columbia. What is the social environment like?
ucb, the gpa included homeschool grades that I gave that took into consideration the disability. Had my son been in school, he would not have had some of those As unless he had a 504, possibly. For instance, he took two years of honors humanities (govt, us history, world history, political philosophy). He was not able to complete all the work assignments-he could not keep up-, but got As on the stuff he did complete. (He had/has a vision disability that was corrected by surgery, but is now needed again, as his eyes have moved out again; he could no read fast enough, and listened to as much as possible on CD)
His community college GPA was 3.56 or 3.59, something like that. Yes, he was full time his senior year at the college; yes, he’s intelligent and hard working, but Penn is a far cry from what he’s known so far.
Thus my pondering about these two different students-one with all As, no disabilities (maybe), but lower test scores vs. higher test score with disabilities and less than perfect gpa.
We had a good conversation. She’s open to LACs. I was wrong about her major; she wants to major in Poly Sci and a minor in environmental or soil science, or environmental studies.
I used College Board Big Future College search, plugged in schools that meet 100% need and Poly Sci majors, 28 ACT and lots of schools came up. Here’s what she said about what she’s looking for:
A little liberal is fine. She likes a variety of opinions. (Mentioned Wellsley twice because Clinton graduated from there)
School spirit would be nice, if possible, but not totally necessary.
A party reputation is fine; means it has a spirited campus.
Wants a school that has political/IR internship possibilities.
Would like to know that there are successful graduates in the fields of Poly Sci/IR (wants to major in Poly Sci, but to into IR/Sustainability)
Reaches:
Barnard is now on her list because of the accessibility to men. Yale stays. Boston College stays. UCB and UCLA. Possibly Cornell. (Soil science)
Matches:
UCSB, UCD, Wake Forest, Pepperdine (don’t ask me why, but she’s wants it on the list)
Safeties:
Villanova, Fordham, USF, Cal Poly Pomona (soil science)
Which LAC or two might fit this student from the following that came up in the search? Would love to find schools with 20-35% admit rate with mid-50 ACT 28-32, that meet 100% need with few loans, and that fit other criteria. (Barnard definitely seems to fit the bill; thank you for the suggestion!) Maybe looking for one or two more reaches and matches. Can shift the list around a bit (take out Cornell and replace with a LAC or two).
Bryn Mawr
Colby
Colorado College
Connecticut College
Davidson College
Macalester
Mount Holyoke
Oberlin
Scripps
Smith
Skidmore
Trinity College
Union College
Do you still need an answer to this question, now that you had the conversation? If so, I need clarification on what you are asking… definitely NOT a party school.
I do, yes. I think this student isn’t looking for a party school, per se, but one where the kids have spirited discussions. It doesn’t bother her if there is a party atmosphere. She loves talking politics with people who have different perspectives. I guess I am getting the sense she would like a lively campus where there is plenty of political debate/discussion, one where students aren’t apathetic and unwilling to engage. She doesn’t want everyone to be homogenous; she wants to go where kids are different from her. (I am presuming her high school is pretty homogenous)
Does that make sense?
I don’t know if it generalized through the college culture per se, but I don’t think Barnard & Columbia have any shortage of engaged students interested in discussing politic or political issues.
This girl sounds lovely and talented and you are certainly doing her a great service. But you really need to expand the safety/match pool. Adding colleges with 30% admit rates is not going to help much, because she will be a low match or reach.
Villanova for example is not a safety. They are a very ‘score’ driven school and your girl falls at the very low end of the mid 50%. They do not superscore. To be considered a safety she needs to be at the top or higher than the mid 50 - so for Villanova a 32. If she could get her ACT up to a 30 it would help tremendously. Schools report data in the Common Data Set in buckets, and for the ACT it is 30 and above. So there is a bigger perceived difference between a score of 30 and 29, then there is between a score of 30 and 31. Same is true for the SAT buckets.
From your new list, Skidmore seems like a good match for her based on both scores and curriculum. Trinity is a great school with the prestige factor she is looking for and she has a good shot there. Conn College is a good fit for her curriculum wise, but would be a low reach. Davidson, Colby, Oberlin - all very reachy
Given that she is open to LACs, I think that Dickinson (Carlisle, PA) would be a great fit for her! They emphasize global citizenship and sustainability and offer good programs in both environmental science and political science. They have relatively good access to Philadelphia, Baltimore and DC (2-3 hours), and are very good about placing their students in summer internships. Their dance program is very good AND they have an affiliation with Central PA Youth Ballet, which is right in town. You can get certification from CPYB as part of your Dickinson degree, should you desire it. I think they are test optional but I would submit her ACT (and forget about the SAT). It’s not so low that a failure to submit would be a better choice IMO. I believe that their deadline for consideration for merit scholarships is sometime in early November. I can’t remember the stats from the Common Data Set, so I’m not sure how competitive she’d be for a scholarship, but you don’t know if you don’t try!
I don’t work for them, btw! It’s on my dancer daughter’s radar and our regional admissions rep had studied dance there. My daughter also wants to continue dancing but not at her current level and not as a major. The time commitment makes for an unbalanced life. That said, a college or university that has higher level ballet classes that are open to non-majors is not that easy to find; most emphasize contemporary dance.
We have also bookmarked Muhlenberg as a possibility and I think your friend might be in range for merit money there, too. Just check the deadlines carefully because they are often earlier for scholarship consideration.
Good luck!
p.s. if she wants to be closer to home, USC and U of Washington also have fine dance programs and might be within her range. The latter doesn’t offer a lot of aid for OOS students, though.
Reed might fit the bill of a lively campus with engaged students and spirited discussions. It also has a dance department. Acceptance rate for women is 37%. Mid 50% ACT range is 29-33.
Thanks for correction on Villanova. I looked at admit rate only (from 2014) and saw that it was 49%. At close to 50%, I begin to think of schools as “almost safeties”, but based on that they are stats driven, sounds like that’s wrong thinking.
Will share both Skidmore and Dickinson with her, and possibly Muhlenberg, as well. And she wants to continue in contemporary dance rather than ballet. so that should present more opportunities.
Admit rate often does not tell the full story. For example, University of Texas at Austin has an admit rate in the 40s percent. However, it is either a safety or a reach for most applicants, depending on whether they are in the automatic admission category (top 7% rank of Texas high school, which fills about 3/4 of the class).
Muhlenberg has a very strong dance program in contemporary. She would be a strong match for that school. Pretty campus, not too far from nyc.
Conn College also very very strong in dance (and science) but harder to get into
Looks like students at Conn College are more politically apathetic? Or am I wrong?
I wouldn’t describe Conn College as politically apathetic. But more of an artsy/intellectual feel perhaps. It attracts smart and engaged kids-definitely not pre-professional or frat types.
One consideration as you continue to balance out her list, is to be sure that she’s close enough to a metro-area, so that she can be exposed to the arts in general, in addition to dance. At the more rural schools, she would have plenty of opportunity to participate even as a non-major within the smaller dance departments, but the offerings tend to be shallow since it’s harder to attract top instructors. The more serious dancers (her technical peers) will tend to be at schools with sophisticated departments.
On the list you mentioned above, I would encourage Bryn Mawr (tri-co program with co-ed Haverford/Swarthmore) and Macalester, since they are both have very strong PolySci and are near major cities, which could supplement her dance needs should they change again. Has Goucher (suburban Baltimore) come up on her radar?
I know a family friend that was flat out rejected from NYU Stern with 4.0 plus rigor and strong school with less than stellar (but good) SATs that got major merit from GW, U of Miami, and others (20,000 year merit), excellent summer experiences, but very weak EC’s. It seems that GW and U of Miami value high GPA students! So, really try to get this student to focus in on schools that will value her strengths- High GPA, interesting EC’s, life experiences. I wouldn’t want my child to waste a minute on a Yale application until I felt sure applications for plenty of safety’s and matches were completed. Of course, this isn’t your kid. It is kind of you to offer help to friends!
Looking at the new list, Union looks like the only safety. With the low math score, this applicant is sort of a “wildcard” in that predictions could be way off. But I would really want to see many more safeties.
GW? George Washington University?
I’m fine with her having four safeties as long as she’d be fine attending, and she said she would be. Nonetheless, we’ll keep refining. Looking at U of Miami right now, as she did mention Florida as a location of interest, though she mentioned she’d heard Univ. of Florida was a good school.
There is a good ballet company in Miami. 
NYCB spin-off, sort of.