My child has always been intellectually curious and a self-starter. Prefers classical music over contemporary and has zero interest in partying, as well as sports. Loved zoom learning. Friendships are often with adults rather than people his own age. Wants a school where there are activities related to music, politics, debate, maybe math club as well as theatre etc…Rare person with both a math and english brain. At a required college event re: drugs and drinking, and was very turned off when the same young people warning about drugs and drinking afterward sent texts to the group where people could party. Is there a school for him? Would prefer to not be in the South (likes colder climates)
Your student will be able to find those who don’t party and drink at just about any college. And even at the most conservative colleges, there will be those who party and drink to some degree.
Is your student still looking for a high probability of a single room? Any cost limitations?
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Really…a LOT of colleges have these things. Here are my suggestions…without knowing whether your student has the stats to be accepted at any of these:
Vassar
Brandeis
Ithaca
My two cents is your kid might want to consider colleges in or near cities with significant classical music scenes, and any other “adult” activities of interest.
I am confident at a wide range of colleges in such a setting, your kid would find other students also interested in making use of such amenities–possibly including getting season tickets for the symphony, memberships at art museums, and so on.
But if your college is, say, in an isolated rural town, well it does tend to push those students to make their own fun. And that can work out well for some kids, but is maybe not the best bet for your kid. Of course many of those colleges will have their own student-driven performing arts scenes, for example, but it sounds to me like your kid might prefer really getting out of the college scene entirely for such activities.
The other thing you might look for is colleges with substance-free dorms. That is not going to mean the whole campus is substance free, and in fact I know there are kids who actually do like to go to not-substance-free parties and such sometimes that still prefer their dorm be substance free. But in any event, something like that could give your kid a sort of home base of at least relatively like-minded students.
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Not sure if I’m clueing in correctly here or not, but my first thought on reading the original post was St. John’s College and its Great Books curriculum, which attracts intellectually-serious, “both sides of the brain” type students of both traditional and non-traditional age. There are two campuses, in Maryland and New Mexico - sounds like this student would prefer the physical climate in Annapolis.
What year is he in high school - is he applying this year, or are you looking ahead? St. John’s has a summer program for high school students, if there’s still time to “test drive” it in that way.
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Case Western or Rochester come to mind.
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I love this program at Kings in Halifax. One of my best friends went on to become a Classics professor after starting with this Foundation year program.
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In fact a lot of the colleges which some people DON’T like because of strong core curriculums might actually work for this kid. Like, if they are interested in suggestions, I would start with a whole bunch of Jesuit colleges with more traditional shared core curriculums and also good locations in or near major cities with strong traditional performing arts scenes. You can sometimes build a whole list of Likelies, Targets, and Reaches just out of those.
Sometimes Honors programs also have something like that, a core set of Honors classes that serve a similar function.
But even if not, usually you can choose to do that sort of curriculum even if it is not required. Like, usually you could in fact fill your distributional requirements with a lot of just solid foundational science and humanities classes, maybe some core social sciences too.
Edit: Oh, and there are some Humanities fields particularly known to appeal to people who are strong readers and writers and qualitative thinkers, but also into orderly, logical thinking. Philosophy is the usual top suggestion, particularly Anglo-American analytic philosophy. But something like, say, Classics is also usually a very solid choice. You don’t have to do it as a primary major, but something like that could make an appealing choice for a secondary major, minor, or just a lot of electives.
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Might like Swarthmore. DS had friends who liked it because “if I want to study on a Friday night, everyone won’t be partying.”
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Your kid sounds great! He sounds like he would have gotten along well with my friend group in college. We attended a midwestern flagship with a party reputation, but there were still lots of other people who did not meet the stereotype at all. In fact, your subject heading of a monastic life completely threw me for a loop because I was expecting someone who was interested in leading a contemplative life with minimal physical possessions.
If you tell us more about your kid (like size of school, classes, academic background) and budget, we can definitely help provide better suggestions.
But these Princeton Review lists may also help provide some schools that could be of interest. The lists were garnered by student survey responses, so take it for what you think it is worth.
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I second this!
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Is he a high school senior? Already at college and thinking of transferring?
What you’re describing is an intellectually serious introvert who doesn’t drink or drug. He can find his people almost anywhere, but especially at schools that have a “substance free” dorm. I would say that his choice of college should be based upon academics, assuming that he avoids frank party schools, and then he sees whether or not they have an honors or substance-free dorm.
Otherwise, honestly, he’s only looking at places like BYU and Liberty and Bob Jones, and I doubt that’s what he wants.
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OP- there are kids like your son at every college.
I think the fastest way to develop an appropriate list is to focus on what he DOES want, and not what he doesn’t. Even at the colleges which are reputed to be party central Thursday night through Monday morning, there are kids rehearsing with their chamber music group on Friday night, going to a poetry slam on Saturday night, and going with a gang of friends to a museum exhibit on Sunday afternoon. Punctuated by sleeping, eating, doing laundry, and studying.
What else is he looking for? And stats? budget?
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Yeah, substance-free housing is a perfectly reasonable preference in my mind, which lots of kids are finding works well for them.
An entirely substance-free college (not just in the nominal “we acknowledge the law” way, but actually almost no student is doing any sort of drinking, smoking, or so on) is going to be way, way more limiting in terms of choice.
And of course if the kid really wants that, OK then. But hopefully a substance-free dorm plus a lot of available not-party activities is enough, because that is far less limiting.
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There are kids and groups like that at most colleges. My S22 is at Haverford, probably in part due to Nerd House - they have weekly substance free, nerdy events.
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Be aware that substance free dorms can be complicated ecosystems (I lived in one the year I had a terrible lottery number).
It has many students who have robust interests- and substances are not among them. It also has many students who are in recovery, and their deal with their parents for being allowed to “go away” to college, is living in a sub-free dorm. I am a champion of anyone who is struggling with addiction-- but the likelihood that every single resident of a sub-free dorm is going to stay sober all year is low. You concentrate all the “I used to party but now I don’t” kids in one building— you do the math.
As I posted before- picking what you DO want is likely to be more productive than screening out what you don’t.
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Agree. My sister was in a substance-free dorm and found that it was not as advertised. There were a lot of kids whose parents forced them to choose it for housing, both for recovery reasons and also just controlling parent reasons.
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Below are some schools that your son might want to investigate. I can’t speak with certainty that they all have the right vibe, but I sense that many of them may. Although a number of colleges in the U.S. have a religious affiliation, many of them don’t have it as a strong component of campus life. For the schools on this list where its religious affiliation is more apparent in everyday life, I made a comment to that effect.
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Wheaton (IL): About 2200 undergrads. Has more religious practices than many religiously affiliated schools.
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U. of Rochester (NY): About 6800 undergrads
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St. Olaf (MN): About 3k undergrads
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U. of Chicago (IL): About 7600 undergrads
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Gustavus Adolphus (MN): About 2100 undergrads
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U. of St. Thomas (MN):A bout 5900 undergrads
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Brandeis (MA): About 3700 undergrads
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Lawrence (WI): About 1400 undergrads
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College of Wooster (OH): About 2k undergrads
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Fordham (NY): About 10k undergrads
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Loyola Chicago (IL): About 12k undergrads
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Binghamton (NY): About 14k undergrads
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Macalester (MN): About 2200 undergrads
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Grove City (PA ): About 2300 undergrads. Has more religious practices than many religiously affiliated schools.
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U. of Maryland – Baltimore County: About 11k undergrads
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Calvin (MI): About 3k undergrads. Has more religious practices than many religiously affiliated schools.
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Yes, and at some schools substance free means within the dorm only…residents may choose to partake elsewhere (and come home under the influence).
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Case Western Reserve or American University
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