Congrats on her strong academics!
Can you clarify what her “medium to large” size would be? Is she ok with 6K? or 30K students? They will be very different experiences. What did she like/not like about Duke, Vandy and G’town? If applying to Duke, there are some excellent merit scholarships to apply for. Never hurts to try!
I will echo others who have commented on the strong profile that your daughter has created during her high school years. In reading about her interests, it seems to be primarily biology and art, which makes me think of majors related to medical illustration/visualization.
I think that Case Western is a particularly good possibility, especially as it allows students to cross-register with the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA), among other programs. CIA is unique insofar as it offers a major in life sciences illustration. I’m not sure if your D could do a major through CIA, but taking some of the artistic coursework through them as a complement to science work at Case Western could be a very interesting combo for her. Case Western is a school that wants to see a lot of demonstrated interest from applicants. If Case thinks that a top applicant is using them as a safety, then the applicant will usually not receive an acceptance.
If medical illustration is something she thinks is a serious possibility, I’d also look into Rochester Institute of Technology (NY). It’s a strong school that has an interest mix of STEM and arts. One of the unique things about RIT is that it has a very strong co-op culture, so she could get lots of experience while still in college, which is probably extremely helpful in a field like this. Medical Illustration BFA | RIT. But there are also programs like Bioinformatics, Biomedical Sciences, Biotechnology & Molecular Bioscience, as well as plain old biology (not even getting into bioengineering or biochemistry).
If she is interested in medical illustration/visualization, she should also take a look at Rowan which would be an in-state safety. Its degree in Biomedical Art and Visualization might be away to combine your D’s interests as well and I’ve heard very positive things about students’ experiences at Rowan. As an in-state option it would also leave significantly more financial room for med school costs, should she go that route.
Obviously, your daughter may have no interest in any of those fields or may want to find a way to study them at a school with no formal program. I agree that Emory, WashU, Rice, and Rochester would make good options to consider.
Also, your daughter sounds like she will be a very strong applicant. That does not negate the need for her to have schools on her list that are extremely likely to admit her. There have been many stories of families who have top students who have ended up being deferred, waitlisted, or even rejected, from schools where their students’ stats would have indicated that the school was a likely admittance. So do not forget to look at a school’s overall admittance rate (and not just the school’s stats).
Make sure that every school that your D applies to, that she would be happy to enroll in and attend for four years. If your daughter feels that way about Rutgers, that’s terrific. If not, she needs to learn more about it to become enthusiastic about that as an option, and/or find additional sure things. Generally, I also recommend having at least 2 sure things on an application list to ensure that students get to make a choice as to where they will attend.
Another plug for Rowan as a solid safety for most of their undergrad programs is it also has 2 medical schools and is building a vet school. UofDE is a big school that many NJ students like the campus better than Rutgers NB. Rutgers likely will be a tougher admit now that they’re on the common app and the out of state tuition isn’t nearly as high as other flagships oos prices. I would definitely have a couple other more likely schools
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