White, female
Rural western Massachusetts, very small public charter school
No legacy to speak of- Both parents with degrees from UMASS, one parent with degree from SUNY Binghamton and Univ of Alabama.
Intended Major(s) environmental
Science/conservation biology/wildlife biology/possibly pure biology if school has focus on ecology and/or organismal bio. Not interested in cellular bio.
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 4.12 (school has tricky grading system. Not A-F scale. Can achieve higher than A by choosing more intensive assignments.
Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): school doesn’t use weighted GPAs
Class Rank: school does not rank
ACT/SAT Scores: awaiting SAT scores, guessing 1350-1450 range
Coursework
School does not offer AP classes.
Took honors Zoology and Animal
Behavior through a Virtual High School- received A-98%
Took visual design art class at local community college- received A
Attending summer conservation ecology intensive for 2 credits this summer
4 years of foreign language
Extracurriculars
Plays Double bass in audition-only regional youth symphony
Pit orchestra for high school musicals
Equestrian - non competitive. 13 years.
Attended Wildlife rehabilitation pre-college program
Accepted into (and attended) summer fellowship at Woods Hole Oceanographic Summer Institute (focus on promoting girls in STEM)
Junior internship through school with a river conservancy org
Attends year round weekend teen wilderness survival program for 2 years
Assistant/CIT in weekend school year wilderness survival/education program for young girls for 2 years
CIT summer camp wilderness survival/education
CIT art camp
Private art lessons 11 years.
Volunteer dog training institute- 9 years
Peer tutor
Student rep in teacher interviews
Cost constraints- approx. $50-60k/year do-able
She would like to be in a rural area to large town (not urban). Preferably northern climate- cold weather/snow is a plus. Access to natural areas for field study/research. Undergrad research opportunities in biology/env science. No preference on size of school- if the academics in her field are quality- she’s good with that.
Because she has an artistic/musical side - access to those disciplines are definitely a plus.
Your biggest problem might be that you will have too many good choices to choose from.
U.Mass Amherst comes to mind as a very good option.
UVM is another option. It sounds like a presidential merit scholarship might be likely, which would make UVM more reasonably priced that it otherwise would be (and it would get it into your budget range). For us the NPC did accurately predict merit aid (this was quite a while ago). While I think that UVM sounds like a good fit regardless, if your daughter has any interest in veterinary medicine UVM has a very good pre-vet program (the required classes are the same as premed classes, but there are other optional classes and options).
Both U. Mass and UVM have equestrian teams (and yes they do compete against each other, and UNH, and multiple other schools in the area).
A wild idea might be Acadia University in Nova Scotia. It is for example very good for both environmental sciences and biology. It also owns a small island off the south shore of Nova Scotia and has a two week intensive course in the late summer (just before regular classes start) where you go to the island and do some sort of biology field study. It also has a pretty good music program (as does U.Mass), although I do not know how much music resources are available to non-majors. Merit aid is possible but will not be needed to fit your budget (note the favorable exchange rate before checking prices).
It’s not as cold/northern as requested, but College of William & Mary could check a lot of boxes. They have a very strong marine sciences program in partnership with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS).
UMAINE-Orono is in a very small town with strong programs in marine science, forestry, biology and others. When we visited we stumbled upon an undergrad biology major who turned down BU and was enjoying research opportunities. Your kid may get an honors invite and a flagship match.
UNH (New Hampshire). College town close to Seacoast/Portsmouth. We toured with (I think) the chair of the biology program and were very impressed. UNH is expensive and may be stingier with merit, but I believe there is a chart that will give you an idea.
UMASS-Amherst. I have a kid there in Animal Science who loves it and has secured an undergrad research position.
UCONN-checks all the boxes. We did not visit, but I understand it’s a rural area. Check New England Tuition Break (likely no discount but worth checking as it’s very expensive.
UVM-likely the most “urban” of the lot. Strong in environmental conservation as well as biology/pre-vet. Medical School/hospital on the campus.
Thank you! Umass and UVM are definitely on her list. UVM in particular since we live very close to UMASS and she’d like to be a little farther from home. A possible scholarship is a plus, of course. Your suggestion of Acadia is perfect. It wasn’t on our radar but will look in to it. She would love to be in Canada and has looked at McGill (their rural Macdonald campus). Thanks again for your time!
Will definitely take a look, thank you. She hasn’t shown as much of an interest in marine science (the Woods Hole experience was invaluable but showed her that terrestrial ecology/biology is more her thing).
As @DadTwoGirls indicated, your daughter will have lots of options to consider! There are lots of non-urban schools in colder climates that are strong in her areas of interest and have access to the arts.
How far away would she like to be from home? How does she feel about Greek life? The importance of intercollegiate sports? What kind of vibe/people is she hoping to find?
Here is a fairly extensive list, sorted by my guesses as to what her chances for admission might be. I’d strongly suggest she have at least two that are extremely likely to admit her, be affordable, and that she would be happy to attend for four years.
Has she done any campus visits so far? Her impressions (favorable and unfavorable) can also help posters in suggesting additions or deletions of possibilities.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
Delaware Valley (PA ): About 1800 undergrads
Juniata (PA ): About 1200 undergrads
Michigan State: About 39k undergrads
North Dakota State: About 10k undergrads
SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry: About 1600 undergrads and can cross-register at adjacent Syracuse
SUNY Oswego: About 6k undergrads
Susquehanna (PA ): About 2200 undergrads
U. of Idaho: About 8800 undergrads
U. of Maine: About 10k undergrads
U. of Montana: About 7200 undergrads
U. of New Hampshire: About 12k undergrads
U. of Rhode Island: About 15k undergrads
U. of Wisconsin – River Falls: About 4800 undergrads
U. of Wisconsin – Stevens Point: About 7300 undergrads
U. of Wyoming: About 8500 undergrads
Likely (60-79%)
Gustavus Adolphus (MN): About 2100 undergrads
Hobart William Smith (NY): About 1600 undergrads
Ohio Wesleyan: About 1400 undergrads
St. Lawrence (NY): About 2100 undergrads
U. of Connecticut: About 19k undergrads
U. of Massachusetts: About 24k undergrads
U. of Vermont: About 12k undergrads
Toss-Up (40-59%)
Connecticut College: About 1900 undergrads
Purdue (IN): About 39k undergrads
St. Olaf (MN): About 3k undergrads
Lower Probability (20-39%)
Colorado College: About 2200 undergrads
Mount Holyoke (MA): Women’s college of about 2200 undergrads
Some of the big flagships have been on our radar but we’ve been touring LAC’s that have decent STEM. From the responses here maybe we need to focus more on the state universities.
Shes not a partier, wouldn’t be involved in Greek life or athletics, so wasn’t sure about the bigger schools. But she doesn’t seem worried about finding her people and professors wherever she goes.
If she’d prefer a smaller school, those are definitely possible. At nearly all of the state schools being mentioned, a minority of students participate in Greek life, meaning the majority don’t. For many of the schools, she would probably also stand a good chance of being invited to the honors college. (Some colleges will require a secondary app for that, so she should keep her eyes open for it.)
I agree that she can find great professors anywhere. One thing she may not be able to find anywhere are small classes. How does she feel about those? Usually honors colleges will provide smaller classes, but I have heard that some (UMass especially) can be quite challenging to get entry into.
Even if she wants to be further from home than UMass, I still think that visiting the campus and seeing what a bigger school is like would be helpful to see what kinds of opportunities might be available but also how comfortable she’d feel at a campus of that size.
Super helpful.
Would prefer campus with minimal Greek life. Not into sports- as spectator or participant.
She is on the nerdy, quirky side- introvert- prefers a few deeper relationships than a big social network. Very curious, big reader, engaged. Vibe would be toward the accepting of those outside the mainstream sort of campus. Shes motivated and will work to find what she needs/wants.
Tours:
She loved McGill’s rural campus and wildlife conservation program- and that it’s in Canada (we were a bit concerned about their new requirement to be proficient in French by graduation, but she was actually excited by that)…
UVM wasnt super exciting to her- but I think that could change. I believe she sees this as a safety school.
We just toured Skidmore- she appreciated their location and Env Sci program and opportunity for undergrad research. Also the campus vibe.
Wesleyan- I think this would be a great match socially/culturally for her but not so strong in STEM it seems.
I’m struggling with where to focus our tours this summer/fall. More selective/less selective /LAC’s/or the larger public universities.
So we were going to look at Colby/Bates/Bowdoin this summer. Hopefully Colgate, swing by SUNY ESF.
Her dream is Cornell but we know that’s very unlikely.
Given her quirky, small high school I just don’t know what her chances are for more selective schools.
Her father and I were just talking to her about touring UMASS for exactly the reason you mention. I think if we were from anywhere else she’d probably love it!
She has mentioned she’d like to be within a days drive of home. We had considered going to see Colorado State University and U Mich, but she seems to not want to be quite that far.
We are from Central MA and S23 is at Colorado State. He is a Wildlife Biology and Conservation / Human Dimensions of Natural Resources double major with a Geospatial Information Systems minor. He absolutely loves it and is living his best life in Colorado.
Being in Colorado has given him so many opportunities for hiking, camping and mountain biking and meeting “his people”. He’s also had a great experience in their Honors program. Just the right amount of challenge without being stressful.
Warner (College of Natural Resources) is incredible and makes a big school seem smaller, but it seems like your daughter might be more bio-focused than natrual resources focused. I call CSU a Pick Your Own Adventure school. You can really make it anything you want it to be. But, I do consider Warner to be its strongest school so check which school would house her intended major.
Has your family run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) at these schools? If so, that should be the next step, as none of them offer merit aid and all of them have sticker prices well above budget. If the NPC comes back with an affordable price, great. If not, they should be eliminated.
I believe it to be quite strong in STEM fields as well. It even offers a doctorate in math! But like the other schools mentioned above, it does not offer merit-based aid, so running the NPC will be key.
With that, a number of schools just got eliminated off the earliesr list I created.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
Delaware Valley (PA ): About 1800 undergrads
Juniata (PA ): About 1200 undergrads
SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry: About 1600 undergrads and can cross-register at adjacent Syracuse
I’m not great with the campus vibes, but I suspect that all the ones in the toss-up and lower probability categories would probably work well for your D. Hobart & St. Lawrence are two that I think it would be important to take a closer look at to see if the vibe is a fit.