My son is a sophmore this year and we are going to start looking at colleges this upcoming summer and hoping for some guidance!
His current plan is pre-med. He is a good student, current GPA is 3.76. Taking AP Bio this semester. He is involved in youth and government club, theater arts, and the school buddy program. He has plans to start volunteering and shadowing at the hospital this summer.
Cost of attendance is not an issue. My son is Native American and his tribe will give him a full-ride to any college (including, room and board).
So- with that said- he is a student who thrives with smaller class sizes and instructors that know his name.
He likely will be doing some sort of biology degree program.
We live in central PA and he wants to stay within driving distance of home to come back for some long weekends or holidays (so no more than 8 hours from Harrisburg,PA)
We are from AZ, so we need some school recommendations for places we should go see!
Wesleyan and Vassar both have strong theater programs/campus culture, good science programs, and the sort of small class environment you describe your son thriving in. He’ll need to keep his GPA up in the highest rigor courses available to have a chance of admission to these schools, although being a boy will help. Still, I think they are worth checking out at this point to get a sense of what he likes and wants to shoot for.
You might also look at Muhlenberg, Susquehanna, Dickinson, Gettysburg, Franklin and Marshall, and Allegheny. You can do pre-med almost anywhere – what matters most are grades and scores. And because most people who start pre-med end up doing something else, it’s important to find a college with well-rounded offerings in case your son decides to switch gears.
Lehigh would be a reach, but its College of Health includes an Institute for Indigenous Studies in case that would be of interest.
I agree that most people switch! Which is why I think a focus on a LAC would be more beneficial as I find they typically focus on a more well-rounded experience.
I love the idea of an indigenous studies program offering.
Totally agree about Allegheny. Very good choice for Bio and premed. Usually under 4.5 hours from Harrisburg.
Being in PA, you actually have a lot of other options well worth checking out. Franklin and Marshall is just over in Lancaster, so like less than an hour from Harrisburg. Ursinus is under 2 hours from Harrisburg east toward Philly, and then Juniata is also under 2 hours west. Washington and Jefferson is just past Pittsburgh, so call it like 3.5. There are many more, but these are ones I think of as particularly good for Bio/Chem/premed stuff.
A little farther, Oberlin might be worth checking out, particularly since you mentioned theater as an interest. Around 5.5 hours. The College of Wooster is a similar distance.
Finally, among universities, I would first point to William & Mary. Probably will be reachy OOS, but it is around 5 hours from Harrisburg, and such a cool school. Great for the sorts of sciences he is looking at, fun and quirky student culture, just seems like a great fit if admissions works out. Not an LAC, but I think visiting a school like this could confirm whether such a university might or might not work.
And if that went OK, then I would also suggest checking out Rochester. Around 4 hours in the exact opposite direction. Again, really good for these subjects, distinctive cooperative student culture, another solid fit it would seem to me.
Edit: Oh, and I want to add another vote for checking out Lehigh! Also a very good suggestion, only like 1.5 hours from Harrisburg. Really cool campus set on a dramatic hillside, and I actually quite like the Lehigh Valley–naturally pretty and historic, and easy to get to both NYC and Philly.
Thank you for all the suggestions!
He is a quirky kid. He is easy going and gets along with everyone. He is pretty eclectic in his interests- jumping from one thing to the next. But with that he doesn’t have that one or two things to look for in a college to help narrow things down. I am hoping we can find him a place to delve in to new experiences and unique opportunites!
I am unsure if this is important to you and/or your son, as Dartmouth college has a Native American Program and he may even qualify for their “fly in” program to visit.
That sounds like a kid who can get a lot out of the right college! And I think you have already been narrowing it down in the right sorts of ways. Colleges with flexible curriculums, lots of interaction with professors, lots of activities that are not necessarily overly packed . . . sounds like your kid would really thrive in such an environment.
That being said–kids sometimes surprise themselves (and their parents) with some of the colleges they like. And with a sophomore, you have time for some “experiments” that may not work out in terms of applying to that college, but can help your kid learn more about their options and what they really do and do not like.
So I am wondering if, say, you have tried visiting a college like Pitt yet? It is a public, but one with an interesting history, in the middle of the city, and very, very good for Bio and premeddy stuff. Again, might be a bust, but a visit could be clarifying anyway.
Or what about, say, Fordham? Jesuit colleges have a real commitment to undergrad education including broad learning, and of course it could be fun to be in NYC.
Just a couple thoughts, but with the luxury of time, I think you can be thinking broadly and experimentally at this point. Your kid definitely does not need to have figured it all out yet. My S24 was basically still doing it during post-offer visits, in fact, and it appears to have worked out great, meaning his ultimate choice has gone really well so far. And I think it was in part because he was still open to learning about what really made sense for him right through the end.
I’d definitely take a look at Juniata. It has a great bio program, a good med school acceptance rate, is within easy driving distance, and the alumni I know all seemed to have close relationships with at least one professor. Some are even still in contact with them 30 years later.
another vote for Lehigh. My son is a freshman there and has never been happier. He said the other day “My life is perfect. I live in a castle with all of my friends.” lol
This site includes a variety of LAC suggestions with strong biology programs and within eight hours of Harrisburg, such as Hamilton, Denison, Dickinson, Wheaton, Earlham and Juniata:
You don’t have to go to a small liberal arts college to get small class sizes. My favorite college to recommend for pre-med is technically a research university, but it has only 6500 undergrads, has a student:faculty ratio of 9:1, and has class size under 20 for 80% of its classes. Classes over 50 are almost non-existent. Its faculty is world class, but it is nowhere near as difficult to gain admissions as the Ivy+ schools. In fact, it has been test optional since long before Covid.
I am talking about the University of Rochester, which sits just 4 hours directly north of Harrisburg. Best kept secret around. There is no specific major for pre-med anywhere. The range of options is wide. Nonetheless UR has long excelled in the biological sciences. They have close ties with the nearby hospital which serves as the training ground for the students in their med school. Research is definitely an option for their undergrads. It really has everything you’re looking for in an LAC.
Because pre-med and biology majors are popular among incoming frosh at many colleges and universities, the class sizes for the courses needed by pre-med and biology majors are often significantly larger than the class sizes common elsewhere at the college.
Note also that a large lecture may be associated with numerous lab sections with sizes under 20. But the student still needs to sign up for the large lecture as well as one lab section.
Good point. Poor choice of words on my part. According to their Common Dara Set, only 11.8% of UR’s classes enroll over 50 students. And only 7 of 761 (0.9%) subsections (labs, discussion groups, etc.) have more than 50 students.
My larger point is that UR has a lot more in common with an LAC than it does with a typical large public research university. With your additional infirmation, this family can decide if they’re interested in putting UR on their list when the time comes and ask intelligent questions about class size and other aspects of student life when/if they visit.
However, this does not offer sufficient information for determining the enrollment of typical classes. For example, if a school were to enroll 20 students in 90% of its classes and 100 students in 10% of its classes, then 36% of a typical student’s classes would enroll 100 students. As an even more conservative example, if a school were to enroll 20 students in 90% of its classes and 50 students in 10% of its classes, then 22% of a typical student’s classes would enroll 50 students.