<p>Before we had any test scores back and were just guessing on how D would do, we visited Bucknell, Lafayette, and Gettysburg. D liked Bucknell best of the bunch. She liked Lafayette OK, but thought it felt kind of small. The Lafayette equestrian club team was quite strong, and I think won their region.</p>
<p>Clemson was suggested to D by her GC. It isn’t one that I would have thought of before, but seems worth a look. D is completely uninterested in watching sports - is that a problem for Clemson? Does the school feel Southern?</p>
<p>Clemson’s also not terribly easy to get to - either fly to Atlanta and drive 2 hours, fly to Charlotte and drive 3 hours, or change planes and fly to Spartanburg and drive 45 minutes. But its a lovely campus with a great sense of spirit and belonging.</p>
<p>OTOH, Elon students joke that no one really watches/supports their sports teams, and it doesn’t feel Southern at all because a majority of students are from the Mid-Atlantic & Northeast. My daughter says she has to go off-campus to hear accents that remind her where she is. (That’s NOT intended as a put-down of southerners or accents - D has spent significant time in the south and loves it because most of my relatives live in SC. Her beloved grandparents have southern accents. She knows what “southern” culture feels like, and she doesn’t necessarily feel that at Elon - except for the weather and the warm sense of community).</p>
<p>My D had similar stats (1860 total with writing the highest) and did get into Elon but not Richmond. I think SAT is important there. She was deferred ED and then waitlisted. Hard because it was her first choice though she knew it would be a reach.
On the one hand it might have been easier if we had never seen it, but on the other hand she knows that she did reach high enough. Planning to attend American, a last-minute submission.
Also have a S who tests well and so looked at different schools. It’s hard sometimes for the younger sibling not to compare herself with her older brother.</p>
<p>A word of warning on Elon though - it’s one of the most unpredictable colleges I’ve ever seen for admissions, and a good friend who is a college counselor at a private school confirms this impression. Elon is a very obvious example of “holistic” admissions and their results often don’t seem to make sense. For example, D has a friend at Elon whose brother got into Bucknell but was wait listed at Elon. D had a hs friend who had slightly better grades and similar test scores to D, but was wait listed while D was accepted. Stories of bewildered kids who got WL’d at Elon while getting into supposedly more selective schools frequently pop up on the Elon thread. The one thing that does clearly help at Elon is applying ED. Their ED admit rate has topped 75%, while their EA and RD admit rates are more like 50%. And don’t let a WL there fool you - Elon WL’s nearly a third of their applicants. (I think they just hate to reject people). Historically they do admit about 10% of the kids who choose to stay on their WL.</p>
<p>My two suggestions are Arcadia College in Glenside PA and Roanoke College in Salem, VA. My oldest son graduated from Roanoke in 2010 and we thought he got a good education. A lot of students from the mid-atlantic states go there. I found this link that may be helpful [Campus</a> Equestrian: Zone 4, Region 2 Home Page](<a href=“http://www.campusequestrian.com/zone/4zone/4z2r/4z2r-index.html]Campus”>Campus Equestrian: Zone 4, Region 2 Home Page) while I was looking for info about Roanoke. Beautiful campus, great weather and very good merit aid for B students.</p>
<p>Live 7 miles from Arcadia, and it IS a suitcase school…few area HS students attend, and it is not a very selective school,not that means it is a bad school,but it is what it is</p>
<p>I’ll suggest Roanoke as well. They have a great Athletic Training department, which could be great for a future in physical therapy. I don’t know anything about the equestrian angle. She’s likely to receive merit aid. PM me if you want to know about the area - I’m a local.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions, which include a fair number that I hadn’t considered before. </p>
<p>Regarding the reach schools, if my D does end up with a favorite school, we’re willing to take advantage of ED, which combined with full-pay may help give an admissions boost.</p>
<p>Goucher has an equestrian team. My DD looked at it and it was on the short list for awhile. Used to be a women’s college years ago, and seems they are still trying to attract men, I think it was 70W/30M. Beautiful campus though!</p>
<p>Does Roanoke have many out-of-state students? Does it feel Southern?
I wonder if it might be worth a drive-by while we are somewhat in the area, between Elon and Richmond.</p>
<p>re: Roanoke -
47% are out of state, 53% Virginia. Specifically, 23% are mid-Atlantic, 14% New England.</p>
<p>It is Southern in the best sense of the word. There is a distinct Virginia flavor, but not stereotypical Deep South. You’ll find friendly, helpful people. The weather is four distinct seasons - beautiful fall and spring, there can be good snow (or none at all), and hot humid summers. The area has wonderful biking trails (and lots of horses on the same trails). Google Carvins Cove for more information. Salem, the town Roanoke College is in, has a cute little Main Street. Roanoke, the bigger city, has great festivals and a fun downtown. Virginia Tech is 30 minutes down the road. It’s a very safe town. There’s an airport and major highway for transportation. Academically, RC has a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. The med school acceptance rate is fantastic. My neighbor’s kid just graduated last year (valedictorian) and got a full ride to med school. She’s the smartest kid I’ve ever met, and she said she felt quite challenged at RC - but she probably went out and actively sought challenges.</p>
<p>The town of Salem is a block from campus, and it’s a great little town with coffee shops, pizza shops, some bars and the town library. The city of Roanoke is also very close and it has an airport, malls and a really cool downtown. We lived there for a year when we had our first child and I would have liked to have stayed if we could have. The drive of 7 hours from our house was pretty nice - we go west across PA and then South on 81.</p>
<p>One thing we learned during the tour is that D really wants a midsize school, in the ~3k - 10k size range. She thought the smaller school (Susquehanna, ~2300 students) seemed too small and the bigger school (Delaware, ~16000 students) seemed too big. She generally liked all of the schools though. </p>
<p>Seems like she will have to relax some of her criteria in order to get a wide enough range of schools to apply to - geography/weather seems to be the most likely one. </p>
<p>Another search is turning up in that size range - Salisbury, Christopher Newport, and Mary Washington. Does anyone know anything about any of those schools?</p>
<p>Ithaca is a school that we had considered, but cold weather was a concern. I think it is worth reconsideration, given the size. Plus, she could use more low match/safety schools.</p>
<p>“Salisbury, Christopher Newport, and Mary Washington. Does anyone know anything about any of those schools?”</p>
<p>Mary Washington came up in our D’s college search. ACT 24-28 for the middle 50%. A friend of hers attended there … D wanted a larger school and ended up at UDelaware.</p>