<p>Any thoughts on colleges for a kid interested in music(rock), the sciences and humanities with a 2000 SAT, top 20%?</p>
<p>The Evergreen State College in Washington sounds perfect.</p>
<p>[The</a> Evergreen State College - a public, liberal arts & sciences college in the Pacific Northwest](<a href=“http://www.evergreen.edu/]The”>http://www.evergreen.edu/)</p>
<p>Course are quite intriguing, for example:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.evergreen.edu/catalog/2009-10/programs/transcendingtimeandspaceintheperformingarts[/url]”>http://www.evergreen.edu/catalog/2009-10/programs/transcendingtimeandspaceintheperformingarts</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.evergreen.edu/catalog/2009-10/programs/musicandtheenvironment[/url]”>http://www.evergreen.edu/catalog/2009-10/programs/musicandtheenvironment</a></p>
<p>U. of Rochester? I don’t know how strictly you’re defining an open curriculum, but they have a pretty simple and flexible gen ed requirement, and the stats sound about right.</p>
<p>Vassar? Bard?</p>
<p>Adding Sarah Lawrence.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to limit it to schools on the Brown plan, just schools that don’t have a lot of requirements and will allow him to delve into various areas of interest. The student’s alternative is a UC with lots of requirements.</p>
<p>Merit aid a big plus. Any chance for this student to see merit money from Vassar, Bard, Rochester or SLU?</p>
<p>More: </p>
<p>Beloit
Bennington
Hampshire
Wheaton (MA)
Colgate
Grinnell
Wesleyan (CT)
Hamilton
Oberlin
Eugene Lang
Pitzer
NYU’s Gallatin School
Whitman</p>
<p>(in addition to the already mentioned Bard, Vassar, U of Rochester, Sarah Lawrence, Reed, and Evergreen State College)</p>
<p>PS…this won’t do for this guy but for any lurkers…Smith College.</p>
<p>One more PS…if he is looking in CA…there is University of Redlands (besides Pitzer)</p>
<p>Beloit, Bennington, Hampshire, Eugene Lang and Whitman are all in your range. Grinnell is a reach and I really see you only in if applying ED.</p>
<p>We know very little about the student and I think everyone should have reaches, matches, and safeties and so I included reaches as long as they are not impossibly out of reach.</p>
<p>My D took a History of Rock class at U of Rochester. Good stuff – she recycled the book to me which was read cover to cover…</p>
<p>Very helpful. Any more thoughts?</p>
<p>^Stats + ^interests + merit = CTCL schools</p>
<p>^ But research them carefully. Many CTCL schools have strict GE requirements.</p>
<p>Consider Knox, too. Their distribution requirements are relatively flexible.</p>
<p>I know this got a plug, but SMITH!!!</p>
<p>Vassar does not give merit money but they are generous with financial aid.</p>
<p>Bennington can be good w/merit aid.</p>
<p>Vassar is not particularly generous with FA compared to its peer schools; I believe it has a smaller endowment. It does meet full need, but offers NO merit aid. I don’t think SLC offers merit aid either?</p>
<p>Haven’t done real research, but I vaguely recall curmudgeon’s merit vs. need comparison years ago stating that Bennington awarded merit aid to 1% of its students (applicants or enrolled?).</p>
<p>^ I totally disagree. Vassar is one of the few need blind LACs and is extremely generous with financial aid. I have a child there and the financial aid office has been wonderful to us. In fact, they were much more generous than Oberlin and gave us about 3x as much as Wesleyan and Brandeis. True, as I stated earlier, Vassar does not give merit aid.</p>
<p>Is Vassar need-blind now? I know it was not just a few years ago. That indicates a borderline endowment, although they seem committed to remaining need-blind even after the crash, which is admirable. I know they have a no-loans commitment, but only to <60k income. (Oberlin and Wesleyan do as well. Of course, they may calculate EFC differently.) I have heard mixed things about the FA at most second-tier LACs that can’t afford to be need-blind and loan-free.</p>
<p>Add Macalester if you’re o.k. with the Twin Cities (urban, cold). It would be a reach (like Grinnell). Mac does give merit aid but not super generously (not as well endowed as Grinnell). Ditto Colorado College. All these ACM schools (Mac, Colorado, Grinnell, Oberlin) give merit scholarships but at Mac & Colorado at least (not sure about Grinnell or Oberlin) probably not more than about $5K for a kid who is not at the top of the range or a recruited athlete. </p>
<p>One of my kids applied to (and was accepted by) two of them. 1490 M+CR; ~3.5uw with very high rigor; $5K merit offer from both schools.</p>
<p>They are all similar in selectivity (Princeton Review 95-97; less selective than the top eastern LACs but not an easy match for 2000 SAT, top 20%). All are liberal/crunchy in atmosphere. Grinnell and Oberlin are rural; Mac is big city; Colorado is small city but with the mountains almost at your doorstep. AFAIK none of them have stiff core/distro requirements (though Colorado has the unusual one-course-at-a-time block plan). My impression is that Grinnell and Colorado are the strongest of the four in the sciences; Oberlin in the arts; Mac in the social sciences. But they all are selling pretty much the same liberal arts & sciences package.</p>
<p>USNWR # … School … 75%M+CR … Distinctive Feature
14… Grinnell … 1460 … big endowment, intellectual a la Reed/Swat
22 … Oberlin … 1460 … music conservatory
24 … Colorado C … 1390 … block plan, outdoorsy
29 … Macalester … 1440 … big city, higher % of international students</p>
<p>SATs are from stateuniversity.com and may be 1 or 2 years old. Colorado probably is less selective than the others but not by as much as the scores may suggest. About a quarter of their admits this year were in the top 1% (one percent) of HS class; 1/3 of matriculating students were captains of at least 1 varsity sport. Some new students reported gee-whiz achievements/activities like summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro, crossing the Pacific in a sailboat, studying Quechua or Nepali, building a hovercraft machine. In other words, as admission to the Ivies and New England LACs has become more and more of a crap-shoot, the bar seems to be rising at these schools too. Though 2000/20% can be good enough to get in to any of them if the essays are good and the stars are aligned.</p>