<p>Hi all! Newcomer here. I have a daughter who follows the beat of her own drum and would love some direction from a parent’s perspective.</p>
<p>Leads classroom discussions, eight AP classes, chummy enough with her teachers to house-sit and eat lunch with them on Saturdays, fantastic test-taker and wonderful writer, but daughter is not one to play the game. She rarely does busywork and refuses to participate in the alleged “inflexibility and false sincerity” of the school’s extracurricular offerings.</p>
<p>This leaves us with a 2390, two 800 subject tests, 3.5 UW, around 300 hours of peer tutoring and volunteering at the animal shelter, and a 15hr/wk part-time job. She will be spending the summer in France working at an organic farm and teaching English, funded entirely through the fundraisers she and two friends executed; grows her own massive organic garden and cans and sells her produce at the farmer’s market; fluent in ASL and privately tutors a friend’s deaf child. No clubs.</p>
<p>D is an intellectual and a voracious reader. Quick wit, loves concerts, activist, gets along with everyone but introverted, shy at first, and prone to bouts of depression. Quite passionate, but has yet to find her passion. Laid back, loves to collaborate and challenge herself. Doesn’t fuss over grades, but very concerned about learning.</p>
<p>I think she would do best in an LAC, and I know she likes rural - she loves camping, rafting, hiking, etc. Where do kids like her go?</p>
<p>Can you narrow down an area of the country? The first schools that come to my mind are places like Kenyon, Oberlin, Reed, maybe St. John’s (MD). You’ll get lots of other great suggestions here.</p>
<p>She should look into Hampshire and Marlboro.</p>
<p>Clark University.</p>
<p>And then there are the usual suspects like Middlebury, Carleton and Smith (I know Smith does not have distribution requirements, not sure about the others).</p>
<p>What about Warren Wilson and Earlham? If she doesn’t “play the game”, maybe a prestigious college is not her idea of fun, but both are excellent schools with real individuals.</p>
<p>The description of your D fits my D2 to a T. Check out UW-Madison for something completely different–it’s the perfect environment for D2. Phenomenal ag school, extremely strong in so many other majors it would take too long to list. Rural enough (outside campus anyway) to suffice. Best Farmer’s Market in the Midwest. The 3.5 UW GPA is a little low but she has high test scores and enough hooks that she should be OK.</p>
<p>While students with middling GPAs and high scores may come off as slackers, there are plenty of colleges out there that will take a bit of a risk to accept the diamond in the rough student. My son (with lower scores) was accepted at Tufts, Vassar and U of Chicago. In all three cases the application supplements allowed him to show his true colors better than his GPA had. He’s a happy camper at Tufts now, working much, much harder than he ever did in high school, because he now knows exactly what he’s working for.</p>
<p>My slackerish nephew is a happy student at the other branch of St. Johns in New Mexico. He’s very much an outdoor kid. However you have to buy into their idea about education.</p>
<p>Bard might be worth a look. My son ran away from all those trees, but they have a serious approach to education that I like very much.</p>
<p>Some of the colleges suggested are HIGHLY selective, so just be sure to consider those as reaches, especially with a 3.5 GPA – acceptance rates for this year are 8.7% at Brown, 15.6% at Bowdoin, 17.1% at Williams, 17.7% at Middlebury, for example.</p>
<p>From your description, your d sounds like a really interesting kid with a lot of options! I love this board because you have people contributing ideas of schools that so many aren’t familiar with. </p>
<p>Two schools that are more prominent on CC and come immediately to my mind based on your daughter’s interests and personality: UVA and William and Mary. UVA in particular is near the mountains of the Blue Ridge Parkway and offers quite a bit in terms of the outdoors. Both would offer her the academic environment she seems to prefer and would be lucky to get her! :)</p>
<p>I would like to think with the holistic admissions approach offered by both schools, her GPA would be offset by her ECs and background. Best wishes to you both as you start your search.</p>
<p>At a big university she can find a niche of kids she likes. At an LAC, it’s important to know the dominant culture. Some of the schools named above are great, but might not feel like a good fit.</p>
<p>Reed, Oberlin, Earlham, Carleton, St. Lawrence, Hampshire, Oberlin and Colorado College are pretty well known for attracting students who are different drummers. Others have more of a preppy vibe. There may be others that are good fit as well, but she should visit if at all possible to make sure.</p>
<p>Agree that the GPA may be a factor for some of the more selective places, but your D sounds like a very interesting person.</p>
<p>She should apply to Dartmouth anyway, since I had to read the OP four times before I picked up on why that wasn’t the obvious answer. Cornell, too – the Ag School is a fabulous place for an intellectual farmer, and Ithaca has a wonderful balance between civilization and wilderness (or sort of wilderness) – much more to my taste than Hanover or Williamstown. In a sense, it may be easier to march to a really different drummer at a larger school than a very small one.</p>
<p>But . . . back on the small tip, I would add Bard to the list of different-drummer rural LACs that intellectual kids like, and Bates, too (it’s not so rural, but rural isn’t far away).</p>
<p>I’ll debate some of the suggestions offered. I think that someone as bright and curious as your daughter might be stifled by a place like Bard or Sarah Lawrence where there are many students who take their work seriously but many who do not, at least in my experience.</p>
<p>I have a friend who reminds me of your daughter pretty exactly and she is currently a really happy first-year at Swarthmore. She finds it intellectually satisfying and her peers very friendly. I think Reed is also a good choice.</p>
I love this board because you have people contributing ideas of schools that so many aren’t familiar with. </p>