@twogirls, that’s great that your daughter is making it work at a big school. There are definitely advantages to them.
Is she in an Honors program?
I was too immature at the time to make a University work for me. I could have benefited from the smaller classes, and the more personal attention. I wasn’t the type to seek it out.
@intparent, thanks for the tips on test prepping. I like the idea of flashcards.
I had a similar experience at a large university, which is why I’m looking at LACs.
The advising was really bad at my school. My adviser couldn’t have made it any
clearer that he had zero interest in my course selection, and that he was solely
focused on his grad students.
@uesmomof2, Wesleyan definitely sounds like an interesting place. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s realistic for us financially. I’d like to visit the campus, though. It’s pretty close to home.
@Aspieration, St. John’s sounds like a very unique place. I didn’t know about the campus in Santa Fe.
I’ve never looked at it very closely, because I thought the campus in Annapolis was urban, but I just looked at the Common Data Sets for the two campuses.
One thing that jumped out at me was the unusual split between SAT scores and class rank. 32% of the enrolled freshman at the Santa Fe campus were in the top 10% of their HS class. The average CR score was 677, the average Math was 644. They don’t list HS GPA, but that split makes me think that there are a lot of smart kids there, who just weren’t at the top of their class. Smart, but maybe not as driven to get perfect grades in High School. That’s right in my third kid’s wheelhouse 
For comparison, Kenyon has very similar SAT scores (CR: 670, Math: 650), but 65% in the top 10% of their class.
Reed seems similar to St. John’s - unusual split between SAT scores and class rank. CR: 710, Math 680, and 52% in the top 10% of their HS class.
A couple more for comparison:
Hamilton - CR: 688. Math: 693, 75% in top 10% of HS class
Davidson - CR: 663. Math: 668, 74% in top 10% of HS class
Reed and St, John’s seem to stand out.
@mathmom, it’s good to hear that CMU has a collaborative environment. I would have guessed it would be cut throat.
I think it’s going to be beyond reach, both financially and academically, but it’s a great school. I’ve worked with some people who went there, and they were some smart cookies.
Funny. I remember not liking that show the first few times I saw it, because I thought it was over the top, but I found myself chuckling recently when one of my kids had it on. I haven’t seen it that many times, but I’m guessing he’s the whole deal - nerdy, intellectual, driven…
WalkingOnEggShells she is not in an honors program mostly because this school uses the honors program primarily to keep its top in-state kids in the state. Most of the applications (25,000 OOS, 10,000 in state) come from out of state but it is one of those schools with an OOS cap (you can probably guess the school lol). Some OOS kids are in the honors program, but these kids are the ones who typically do something very special besides academics, like writing a text book :-S
There are 16,000 undergrads and 10,000 grads. This semester 4 of her classes are small (under 30) and she only has one lecture hall of 209 students. She sits front and center. The lectures are interactive so there are discussions going on. So far she has successfully managed to get to know her professors and they all know her name. I think it could be very easy for some kids to get lost in the crowd at a big school, but she is not having that experience- possibly because of what she does to give herself the experience she wants.
Interesting analysis @WalknOnEggShells. I’m always a bit bothered by the “top X%” thing at some schools, because it means SUCH different things at different schools. Depending on the district, one school’s top 50% might be on a par academically with another school’s top 5%. Hopefully adcomms are generally clear on that, because the idea of the kids in the first school clawing having to fight it out for the top percentiles is … unappetizing. (Though I know it happens.)
The kid with the straight As does not have to fight it out with anybody and it is the beauty of being a hard worker who always puts the best effort in everything that they do, including all ECs and even socially by treating people around them in the best way possible. They do not struggle with anything, I cannot even call them type A or super-achievers. They perform at the highest level possible for them even when they hate the class. It is basically just a matter of habit that was formed way back when they started the school and other activities at the tender age of 5 - 6.
In regard to all these percentiles, I believe that colleges are somewhat familiar with the schools as some schools do not rank graduates at all. D’s HS did not rank and did not provide weighted GPA’s either. When I asked this question, college adcom said that they re-calculate the weighted GPAs, they strip down the weight GPA and do their own calculation. Adcoms also determine the kid’s rank based on the kid’s GPA and the HS class profile that all HS are required to provide.
@porcupine98, that’s very true about the “top X%” meaning different things at different schools. Do you think some schools like Reed and St. John’s go deeper into a smaller number of top high schools, and that might explain their lower number of kids in the top 10 % of their HS numbers? That would make sense.
I wonder if some colleges even target the kids at top HS schools who are below the top 10%, like the kids in the 10% -20% decile.
@twogirls, that’s awesome. Your daughter is getting the best of both worlds. That’s amazing that she has that many small classes at a school that big.
@“great lakes mom”, Beloit is on my list. It sounds like a very interesting place. I think it will be a place we’ll check
out if she thinks she can handle the cold. The merit aid looks very good there.
@cubsfan95, I’m a big fan of Wooster. It’s way up on my list. I have a good friend who went there, and highly recommends it. We still haven’t visited, but I’m hoping to get there this Spring.
I saw in another thread that you’re studying Economics there. How do you like the department?
@2muchquan, I like what I’ve read about Hendrix. If I can convince any of my kids to go south, it’s going to be on our tour.
My third guy probably falls into category 2. His grades are very good so far, but he’ll have slip ups where he gets much lower grades than the older two ever got. But he’s the one who will ask me questions over the weekend, and spend hours asking follow up questions. The older two never do that.
You’re right about lack of available merit aid eliminating a lot of options. I’m still hoping things could change by the time we have to actually pay tuition, but at this point, it’s looking like we’re going to have to eliminate a lot of great schools.
If literature knowledge is a requirement for intellectualism, I’m in big trouble 
Literature is an area that I want to be more interested in, but I’ve never had the stamina and perseverance to get through many of the books on my lists. I admire people who read all the great fiction out there, but I never seem to get to it. I read a lot for my job, and there’s so much non-fiction that I have on my lists, that I never get around to the fiction. Maybe in retirement
I’ve actually been looking for novels to listen to in my car, and I’ve been asking all of my friends for ideas. My friends who I consider the most intellectual have been the most useless. They’ve each been good for around 2 or 3 books But I think that’s just because the type of intellectual people I come across in my normal life are nerdy science types.
I would love to have friends who were into literature and all the humanities subjects, but I just don’t know many people like that. Probably because I was a STEM major, and I work in a STEM field, and I live in a suburban area where there are people who think Donald Trump’s speeches should be regarded as great literature:-) Just kidding. let’s not start a political war
I’ve been lurking on some of the Book threads on CC, but haven’t posted yet. Thanks to the feedback of @Aspieration and @mathmom on this thread, I checked out the reading list at St. John’s college. I’m thinking about cherry picking my way through that. I’ll probably get stalled a third of the way through the first book
That’s about as concise and complete definition as you could come up with for intellectual, at least in my opinion.
@PragmaticMom, I loved the Philosophy courses I took. I thought about minoring in it. There was a thread a while back about the mid career earning of different majors, and Philosophy was way up there.
This is an interesting point. My kids know very little about politics and current events. I knew very little at their age, too, and I didn’t really have much interest until after college. Actually, a Political Science course in college sparked my interest.
I don’t think our schools do a very good job of getting our kids interested. I know some kids develop an interest despite the schools, but I think they need to devote more time to current politics and current world events. My 6th grader knows everything about the Babylonians, and nothing about ISIS or the way current governments work.
I realize that the earlier cultures were the building blocks of our modern ones, and that knowledge of History is important, but I feel like our kids get out of school knowing all kinds of things about the past, and almost nothing about the present world.
I try to fill in the gaps, but there are a lot of gaps.
I agree. There are plenty of intellectual people who are arrogant snobs. They’re no fun to be around. I love people who are bright, but humble.
I forget which scientist it was, but I remember reading a quote where the basic idea was that the guy was happy if he came up with one good idea per day, even if he had 10 ideas that were idiotic. The freedom of thought and humility that allowed him to risk appearing stupid, where what enabled him to eventually come up with groundbreaking ideas.