<p>Keeping this thread alive, why not … although the “new” 3.3-3.6 thread is excellent (thank you PaperChaserPop).</p>
<p>No news on NHS yet, but she was excellent at getting her paperwork done, and I think had a very nice package. In all of these things we’re seeing a much more mature approach from her, and that’s all that counts for me.</p>
<p>I’d love to get suggestions on schools for my daughter. </p>
<p>My daughter is quite bright and is ADHD (which affected her grades until this year). She’s anxious and wants to do really well but her anxiety gets in the way – it seems like she’ll sometimes not put her all into things so that if she doesn’t do well, it is OK. But, she is figuring out how to handle things better each year. She’s a HS junior at a difficult-to-get-into private HS which we’ve been told has a forced curve with a B- median. Apparently, the colleges that they deal with know about the grading (and even that some teachers haven’t given an A in the last X years). Not all schools will know this, I’d guess. She got a 2.98 GPA freshman year, 3.10 sophomore year (3.35 weighted) and 3.64 (4.18 weighted) first semester this year. She’s not a great standardized test-taker. She took a practice ACT without studying and it came out to approximately 28. With practice, I’d guess it would go up to 30, though she might surprise me.</p>
<p>She likes biology and statistics and art/art history/artsy subjects. Does not like history or English and thinks she doesn’t like physics. I can see her going into medicine (she loves helping people) or biology, but really don’t know.</p>
<p>Keeping up in this school has been a lot of work for her so, while she’s got some EC’s, but they are probably light. She’s co-head of the school’s social action club (and done a few social service projects) and started a yoga club (she’s been doing yoga since she was three and is so flexible and strong it is scary). She’s very good at dance and will join the school’s very serious dance company (led by an ex-Twyla Tharp dancer). She was a junior counselor at a yoga camp at an ashram (she was a camper there for a few years). Last summer, she worked in a university bio lab and this summer has applied for an internship at an MIT bio lab. If not, she’ll do the dance company and work at the other university lab.</p>
<p>She’ll do better in an environment that seems non-competitive and friendly. She doesn’t like stress from a very competitive environment. She does like intellectual challenge, particularly in areas like biology. She’s isn’t interested a school with frats/sororities or defines as a negative that a school would take varsity sports seriously. She’s tall, thin and pretty and spends half an hour doing make-up every morning but was repulsed by the thought of a school where a meaningful number of girls wear pearls and pink to class (College *******'s description of the “Holly Dollies” of Hollins College). She’s more alternative-y. She’s a dual Canadian/US citizen living in the Northeast. My guess is that small is better than big for her and that supportive environment is very important (this could be honors college inside big school). She doesn’t want a girl’s school or a school where the female/male ratio exceeds 60/40.</p>
<p>So far, we’ve picked out the following schools as possibilities</p>
<p>US:
New College of Florida
Goucher
Hamilton
St. Mary’s of Maryland </p>
<p>possibly
Colby, Bowdoin, Bates (but everyone in her school probably applies to these)
Colorado College (may be good for ADHD but probably block system may not work well for science)
University of Vermont (honors college has been suggested)</p>
<p>Canada:
McGill (where lots of her relatives have gone/go and we have a summer/ski house an hour away)
Mount Allison </p>
<p>We’d love suggestions.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Shawbridge - how about Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, or Clark University in Worcester, MA?</p>
<p>Bowdoin hardly accepts anyone from our public high school in the suburbs of Boston, not even the tippy top students with perfect SATs and GPAs.</p>
<p>^^The level of detail is very useful but you may get more suggestions if you make a separate thread. That said, my input: McGill has been known as a sink-or-swim atmosphere, but you probably know better than me. Is she open to geographic distance? I think a school like Carleton or Grinnell, quirky and supportive but not quite as alternative as Oberlin, would fit her well.</p>
<p>Both of my kids were invited to do NHS, both refused. Doesn’t seem to have hurt them.</p>
<p>Shawbridge, Consider Muhlenberg–it is said to be very strong in both dance and pre-med, is pretty, friendly and small, but may test your 60/40.</p>
<p>Although technically all-female, Bryn Mawr shares so much with Haverford that they are virtually one school and the visit reports feature many girls saying they thought it was a nonstarter as all-girls, but found they loved it.</p>
<p>Goucher is a good idea–but may not be 60/40. Look at Juniata; Franklin & Marshall; Ursinus; Drew; Vassar; Sarah Lawrence; American (said to have excellent LD support); Colgate; NYU; Connecticut College.</p>
<p>Shawbridge, you are a very bright guy, so you probably don’t need to be told this, but be very careful with schools that have renowned dance departments. Some of those schools allow only dance majors and minors to take dance classes. We looked at one school and even the “PE Class” type of dance classes were only open to dance majors and minors.</p>
<p>shawbridge–I’m not sure how strict your daughter is about that 60/40 M/F ratio, but Skidmore (61/39) sounds like it might be a very good fit otherwise.</p>
<p>Many good suggestions:</p>
<p>I think Bowdoin is pretty reachy – from our suburban Boston HS, her brother (who had high grades, high board scores and is exceedingly bright, but seriously dsylexic) got in as did one of his friends who seemed OK but not stellar. mathmom, ShawSon also declined NHS and got in to lots of good schools.</p>
<p>I will investigate Trinity of Texas (Trinity of Conn does not appeal to her), Carleton and Grinnell. I think McGill is sink-or-swim but admits a broad range of kids so swimming may not be as hard as it seems. I don’t think it would be the best place for her, but she would have some comfort there – a couple of older cousins are now there. </p>
<p>keilexandra, I think she is open to travel but would probably prefer a min of 1.5 hours away from her mother and one plane flight with no changes. Mount Allison requires a plane change – but from the descriptions she’s received, it feels really good to her (smallish, supportive, flexible curriculum (forgot to mention that), not frat/sorority oriented, well-regarded in Canada (though unknown in the US), meets 60/40 I believe, students seem to be very happy, etc.). I can’t imagine the weather is a big plus. </p>
<p>yabe, interesting suggestions. Time for more research on Muhlenberg, Juniata (I don’t think I know it at all), Ursinus (I remember reading good things about it), F&M (one of her friend’s girlfriends is going to go there), Drew, American, and Connecticut College. Sarah Lawrence is 70/30 so I think she’d rule that out. Vassar is a good school and is artsy but I’d guess would be pretty reachy for her. Is it supportive in feel? I think she’d probably want to stay away from NYU but I’ll ask. In my stereotype, Colgate is a frat/sorority sort of school. Is that wrong?</p>
<p>missypie, I hadn’t thought about dance departments so a good thought. I doubt she’d major in dance, she just loves it for exercise and self-expression, and I’m no judge, but apparently, she’s very good at it and has been holding off requests to bump to the next level because she wanted to be confident of her academics, but has agreed to bump up next year. The teacher uses her as an assistant to teach kids in lower classes. Given that, I’m sure it would be good if she could take classes even if she’s a bio major.</p>
<p>nightchef, one more for the researcher (me). I’ve heard of Skidmore but like a number of the schools, know nothing specific about it. On the 60/40, I think she senses that schools with unbalanced gender ratios cause girls to be competitive (catty?) and also to feel like they have to “put out” well before they are ready. She has a very comfortable relationship with both girls (really nice friends) and guys and wants to be in an environment that doesn’t undercut that. I don’t know where/how she draws the line (though she did say 60/40).</p>
<p>^^I’d agree with Colgate being more of a frat/sorority sort of school. It gets a lot of cross-admits with Williams and Dartmouth. Williams has no Greek system BUT it definitely takes varsity sports seriously. Grinnell is kind of a pain to get to from the East Coast, but Carleton should be a direct flight to MSP, and if you visit, do check out Macalester along the way (slightly less selective, urban location).</p>
<p>I’m also going to toss out Scripps even though it’s a women’s college. The all-women’s community is very small, just under 1000, but literally across the street from four other coed LACs. Of those four, one is lopsided-female and hippie-ish (Pitzer), one is 50/50 by design (extremely selective Pomona), and the other two are slightly lopsided-*male<a href=“leadership-focused%20Claremont%20McKenna%20and%20math/science/engg%20LAC%20Harvey%20Mudd”>/i</a>. I think the overall ratio works out to around 61/39. Scripps girls often date HMC guys, and IMHO the gender relationship is qualitatively different from Bryn Mawr and Haverford’s Bi-Co because Haverford is 55% female. The Bi-Co’s ratio works out to around 70/30, discounting Swarthmore which is farther away and involves less interaction. Five-College Consortium is even worse gender-ratio-wise, so I wouldn’t recommend for someone who really does not want a women’s college atmosphere.</p>
<p>Um. So that was a long-winded way of saying that I considered women’s colleges but wanted non-competitive males within a 10-minute radius and only Scripps made my list. Barnard would have as well, but I’m not a city girl.</p>
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<p>It’s often one of those questions that you just have to come out and ask. I can’t imagine that any school would put on their web site that non-majors can’t take certain arts classes. Often when you look it up in the course catalog there will be a notation like “with faculty approval” but even then you can’t tell if faculty has to determine if you’re good enough to be in the class or if they won’t approve no matter what, if you’re a non-major.</p>
<p>That might be a good topic for a future thread - What valuable piece of information did you find out about a school only by asking the question directly?</p>
<p>My older daughter is a dancer, and it is true that it is hard to find a school with good dance classes for the non dance major.</p>
<p>Of the schools on your list, Skidmore and Goucher would fit the bill. Connecticut College also has a reasonably strong dance program.</p>
<p>Vassar has good dance but I would consider it a high reach for your d (again, Vassar accepts very few of even the students with virtually perfect stats from our suburb-of-Boston high school).</p>
<p>Muhlenberg has dance but I would not say it is of a high enough quality to choose it over some of the schools on your list without much in the way of dance.</p>
<p>My D has done pretty much only dance related ECs all the way through school. She claims that she is going to stop dancing after high school. I’d like her to go to a school that offers a few dance classes, just in case she misses it (or even more likely, needs PE credits and doesn’t want to take swimming or weightlifting).</p>
<p>I can certainly recommend University of South Carolina for the availability of quality dance classes to non-majors (definitely accepts B+ students as well).</p>
<p>Consistent with your impression, fendrock, one of my daughter’s dance teachers went to Vassar and was an alumni interviewer when my son applied. </p>
<p>I don’t know what constitutes a good dance program. ShawDaughter is likely to want to do something, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t take a backseat to academics. But, I think dancing really helps keep her fit, settled, and happy, so the option to participate would be good. She has really enjoyed fabric arts courses and painting as well. She has inherited talent from her mom and not me.</p>
<p>It’s like ShawSon, who loves economics and constitutional law, is strong at math, but is a good 2-D artist and enjoyed talking a drawing class this fall, even if the class wasn’t really up to his level. He’ll take Drawing II next year. In contrast, his mother wishes he took it more seriously, but he does it for self-expression, relaxation, fun, and a break from reading.</p>
<p>ShawDaughter knows a couple of kids at Macalester. Don’t know about Carleton. Are they pretty reachy for her as well? Scripps is a long way off, but I’ll read about it and suggest it as well. Are you waiting to hear from schools, keilexandra?</p>
<p>A friend’s daughter liked Skidmore. I have heard varying things about how preppy Colgate is in comparison to Hamilton. Union or Marist might be worth a look. In general, the smaller schools tend to be mostly female unless they have engineering (Lafayette) or business schools (Susquehanna). And, given her reference to dating issues, the stereotype would be that the artsy schools have fewer straight male students than other schools.</p>
<p>If you are hoping for merit aid, aiming below reach level will yield more aid.</p>
<p>^^I was accepted EDII to Swarthmore. I think it may be too “intense” for your D, though.</p>
<p>Naviance shows very few students from our high school have applied to Carleton in the last three years. Sample stats - 1320/1600 with a 3.64 uw was denied. 1400 with a 3.4 was accepted. 1560 with 3.76 was waitlisted.</p>
<p>Macalester also had few applicants but appears to be an easier admit. 1390 with a 3.35 was admitted for example, 1320 with a 3.64 was waitlisted.</p>
<p>Neither Macalester nor Carleton has any significant dance as far as I know.</p>
<p>A very smart friend of my d’s visited Swarthmore recently and reported the students as “very studious.” Swarthmore is another one of those schools which admits virtually no applicants from our high school (ie, I would DEFINITELY not include it on a list of colleges for B+ students, just as I would NOT include Bowdoin, Vassar or Williams).</p>
<p>
Interesting question. I went to Hamilton 30 years ago, and back then it was apples and oranges, because Hamilton had Kirkland, the coordinate women’s college, across the street, and although Kirkland had its preppy side it was relatively hippie/feminist in flavor. This created an interesting dialectic that dominated campus social/cultural life.</p>
<p>Colgate was much more straightforward. Walking onto the campus as a lower-middle-class, public-school kid, you knew instantly you had trespassed upon Olympus. I mean, it was preppy.</p>
<p>But since Hamilton absorbed Kirkland and went coed my senior year, I imagine it’s grown a lot more like Colgate over the years.</p>