I agree with @jym626; the Arizona schools would fit: U of A and Arizona State. They are warm!
Re. Fordham, BU, Northeastern, they may have been doable for a 24 ACT 5-10 years ago but they’ve become quite competitive lately. Northeastern especially–it now has a 32% acceptance rate and the average ACT score is 31. Fordham’s is 27 and BU is 28.
This website is good for quickly finding schools according to SAT/ACT matches: http://www.collegesimply.com/
However I would take their “The Best Colleges” ranking with a big grain of salt–I don’t know what their methodology is, but the rank order seems quirky and many good schools are not on the list at all especially LACs. For example their NY list doesn’t include Union, St Lawrence, Sarah Lawrence, Bard or Manhattan, and their MA list omits Smith and Mt Holyoke.
Eckerd, in St. Petersburg, FL has an East Asian Studies major or minor. St. Pete is not NYC, but there’s a lot going on in the area, and a lively, walkable, downtown neighborhood. As presented, I suspect your daughter might not have a very strong chance for admission to Tulane. You could also try Guilford, in Greensboro, NC. It’s a growing city with a great artistic and cultural community. I second the suggestions for DePaul and Temple, and would add Evergreen State.
There are a few colleges in the Midwest - small LACs that are not hard to get into, I understand - that have East Asian Studies or Japanese Studies - Wittenberg in Ohio, Earlham College in Indiana, and Knox College in IL.
Maybe Coe College in Iowa - but maybe it’s just Chinese they offer? Worth checking, maybe, if Iowa is not too far, or too cold…
I think ACT scores may even be optional at these schools, although she may need to submit them for merit aid.
It’s already been mentioned, but I’m going to second/third BU. I say this because I was in a situation very similar to your daughter back in 2001/2002 when I was applying to school. I spent my junior year of high school in Germany, and the process of converting my pass/fail (no grades) into grades back in my home county was a PITA, and I ended up going from a 4.0 UW GPA to like a 3.5, b/c the county converted all my “passes” to Bs. I am still so effing annoyed at them 
What I did was I wrote an addendum for my college applications (now the section where they ask for any additional information) and explained my year abroad, the arbitrary process for converting my “grades” from Germany, and respectfully asked if they would consider my actual GPA, not including the made-up grades from junior year (I’m sure I said it in a far less cheeky way XD).
I also ended up with mediocre SATs. A year away from in-language school took its toll–my math scores sucked, and even my CR wasn’t great, and I was a total language NERD. I took the test w/o really studying (no time between coming home and then having to make up a bunch of junior credits as a senior), and my score was way below my personal standards. Point is: BU took me, mediocre SATs and all, and I believe they actually read and paid attention to my addendum, because I got in AND got a full tuition grant. My essay, of course, was about being an exchange student which likely set me apart. Once at BU, I ended up in German class with another guy who had done the same HS exchange program as I did, which convinced me that that aspect of my application was a real plus for me at BU. Someone upthread mentioning someone living in Belgium for a year then getting into BU just supports my pet theory.
So I think it would be worth a shot for your daughter, especially if she writes an amazing essay about studying in Japan. You may also find that BU will really like that she speaks some Japanese–another pet theory of mine is that putting down a German minor on my application helped b/c once I got to BU I discovered they were DESPERATE for German majors (and happy to take as many minors as they could get). The Japanese department may similarly be recruiting, if she wants to major or minor in it. BU also has a good marine biology program.
Goucher?
What is your state school?
If she is interested in pursuing Japanese, she will need to consider some universities.
I was thinking Goucher as well! Cross registration possible at Johns Hopkins, and possibly U of Maryland. Supportive. Could do theater performance and still major in sciences. Free bus into Baltimore. Walk to cute downtown Towson.
@proudterrier thank you for your encouraging post. Sounds like your experience coming back was similar to what my daughter has been going through.
@mstee it was a really difficult transition! My school/county honestly kind of sucked–first they didn’t want me to graduate on time, then we worked it out and they tanked my GPA (they actually wanted to convert all my passes to Cs but my mom threw a fit). And your first year back is just stressful in general (reverse culture shock, etc.), so I totally sympathize with your daughter. But there are definitely schools who will appreciate the awesome adventure she went on, and how it makes her an ideal college candidate even if her GPA/scores aren’t perfect. She’s likely more independent and open minded than a lot of her peers!
Take a look at Oxford College in Emory University. It’s a two-year LAC within Emory, and it’s easier to get into than Emory. Every Oxford student automatically continues on to Emory in junior year (no need to reapply). They have an East Asian language program including Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. It’s in a city (Atlanta). And it’s warm.
How about Furman University, right next to Greenville, SC?
Furman has a sterling reputation locally and it’s ranked in the 50s in US News among LACs, but it basically has “open enrollment”, meaning that if you self-select yourself and apply, you’ll get in.
That’s if you’re interested in paying private school tuition. For someone who’s not headed towards the US News top 20, I’d just go to the local state school.
We are willing to pay private school tuition if it seems worth it. By worth it, I mean, does it seem like a place where odds of thriving are stacked in D’s favor. And, I guess, have to add, if nothing drastic happens to tank the economy, which would affect us financially. We have had some unexpected twists and turns in the last year, and so don’t like counting on anything. I don’t have a problem at all with D going to the local state school, or community college for that matter, but want to have options. I haven’t been paying attention to the US News top 20 lately. Maybe I should take a look at that. I used to pay more attention to that.
I’ve been mentioning all of the suggestions that have been made to DD. In particular, schools that had never been on the radar before that look interesting at the moment are Willamette and Oxford (Emory) and Manhattan. Well, maybe at present Manhattan looks more interesting to me than to her, but I think it might be worth visiting. But am looking at all of the suggestions. DD even thinks she might know someone from Japan going to Willamette. I had never heard of Oxford before, or Manhattan College. She is not writing off Tulane – still interested in possibly applying, but realize it is iffy. Also, Loyola is there in New Orleans too, which might be a possibility. That’s another school I wasn’t aware of until very recently. Great suggestion from a CC’er via private message.
I’m very glad I started this thread. All of the input has been very helpful.
Re the ACT scores. I found out from talking to DD this morning that she actually did take the ACT last spring right after returning from Japan and got a 23. Probably seems weird that I didn’t realize that she had already taken the ACT at school last spring, but I guess I thought it was a pre test? Senior moment? At any rate, she says that she took the PLAN as a sophomore and got 30. That is more in line with the kinds of scores she would typically get on these standardized things – before she went abroad. So, maybe you can see why I don’t really know where to direct her? Or maybe the PLAN is not a very good predictor? She retook the ACT last weekend, and she feels better about it this time around. But we shall see. I am liking the ACT 23 options that have been suggested on this thread more and more, so if that is what the final result is, it is A Okay.
She is taking the SAT next weekend. Trying my darnedest to get her to do a practice run today. I know, I know, should have done that earlier . . .
One side effect of being gone Junior year and DD not having taken the SAT yet is that we are not getting the flood of college brochures in the mail box that we have in the past. I guess that is okay, but it is kind of weird.
@mstee It would be helpful if you described her personality. Is she very social, does she like or play sports, is she outdoorsy, does she have a large group of friends? Is she liberal or conservative? Is she a preppy dresser? Are her Friday and Saturday nights planned a week in advance? What are her EC’s? Is she taking any AP or Honors classes?
If she took the test last weekend the scores should be up by the middle of this week.
Liberal. Loves to perform. Not preppy. Creative. Taught herself how to sew from You Tube Videos. She’s taking IB classes this year, no AP’s. She has perfect pitch. Her EC’s usually center around choir and theatre. Right now she is taking a short break from theatre (you can be in play after play these days, continuously, so many people doing theatre at school, church and in the community). She joined swim team a few weeks ago at school after not swimming for about five years. She is not competitive, but wanted to add a physical activity to the mix. She likes cats . . . She likes babies . . . She has friends, but not a social butterfly. She is not a planner by nature, and can be what we used to call an airhead about things, but when motivated, she can do it. She did pretty much everything needed by herself to get everything in for the study abroad program.
You are looking at some expensive schools. If you don’t need financial aid of any kind, look a some of the test optional schools. There should be something in that mix that will look at her application more holistically.
Perfect pitch + year in Japan + likes science = St Olaf (but cold and will require an ACT 27+)
Year in Japan + Science + test optional = Dickinson
Goucher is another strong option.
She sounding less and less like an underachiever to me. What were her freshman and sophomore year grades like anyway?
ACT 24 is very different than ACT 28.
Hypothetical, if she has a 28 and a 3.3 GPA, there’s a lot of states where she could go to the state flagship. In other states there is still a pretty good school in state that she could go to, for instance in Michigan she wouldn’t get into Michigan, but she’d get into Michigan State. If you live in one of the states where there’s only one good public school and she’s unlikely to get in there (only one I can think of is Illinois but there might be a few others) then you should consider the community college transfer route.
Are you in the Midwest, @mstee?
A couple of state schools my own daughter likes also have Japanese majors - Ball State in Indiana, and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
Ohio University in southern Ohio offers a minor.
And, of course, there is Indiana University, which is a great school for languages and international studies.
The U of Denver has Asian studies, International Relations, and a top music school (although I think it is mostly classical? not sure). It is on the light rail line so 10 minutes to downtown (sports, theaters, restaurants) 24 hours a day. It has a very nice pool (but really cold) and a rec center with skating, gymnastics, and rock climbing. While it does snow in Denver, it is not the same cold as MN (I’ve lived in both, very different).
I think for the smaller schools she’s looking for, the essay will be a big part of admissions. Why did she go away for a year? Why Japan? Would she do it again? The smaller schools like to see what influenced the applicant and I think would rather have someone with a different experience than one more student from Connecticut with a 31 ACT and 100 community service hours working at the library.
If she’s really interested in Musical Theater or music, look on the Theater or MT pages here. Many schools require auditions and it’s an entirely different process for the college application. It also can be very difficult for a non-major to be involved in theater at those schools because there aren’t enough parts for the majors, never mind the non-majors.