college - tell me about "the best kept secret" schools - anyone have one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

And to add onto a PP, Davidson, though in the "south" is an excellent, very liberal school with a northeast feeling. Worth checking out.

Actually this pp has an excellent point. I used to teach at a small liberal arts college in Virginia (which shall remain nameless because I don't think it is a hidden gem...for most women anyway) and most of my students were from the suburbs of the cities of the Middle Atlantic (Baltimore, DC, Richmond, Norfolk, etc.) and they didn't really have an identity as southerners per se. While there was one fraternity that was supposed to be into the whole "Southern" thing, the school as a whole didn't really have a southern feel to it anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, although your child may be selecting out whole portions of the country- perhaps it might be your role as the parent to put at least one of the more liberal "Southern" schools on the list just to "check out" as it were -whether a small liberal arts school - or one of the big State schools (University of Texas comes to mind as a HUGE school with a VERY liberal bent in some quarters - plus, the Honors program is a very good program and gives the small feel without being in what may be a more stifling small campus.) Obviously, the choice is the child's, but if s/he is making a decision based on Southern stereotypes, then she may need to inform herself further before rejecting a geographic location entirely.

OP - her decision was based on a visit to Washington & Lee and a good friend's recent visit to Roanoke College. Both girls deemed these schools too conservative, Greekbased, and dripping in Old South protocol. That said, I am *trying* to persuade her to look at least another school, before disregarding the south altogether.

FWIW, I found Lexington, VA to be a lovely and charming town. If I had seen it at 17 it would have been at the top of my list (tho I am pretty sure that I would not have made their list, as a high school student I was the antithesis of my DD )

[Anonymous]

Give the midwestern schools a good look. Someone has already mentioned Carlton and Macalaster. Also look at University of Chicago, Ripon, Washington University (St. Louis), Grinnell, Cornell College, Lawrenceville.... A different part of the country adds something intangible to the experience. And I am guessing that some geographic diversity might help your DC.

And don't rule it out for $$ reasons until you find out what aid--merit and need-based--becomes available.

U Michigan(Ann Arbor) has a "college within the college" for liberal arts that is very highly respected. Or was 20 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Weeeellll, Washington & Lee and Roanoke are VERY Southern, but there are others that may not be quite so much... Guilford is in North Carolina - it's Quaker, so generally, I think, very welcoming, and I've heard very good things about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Weeeellll, Washington & Lee and Roanoke are VERY Southern, but there are others that may not be quite so much... Guilford is in North Carolina - it's Quaker, so generally, I think, very welcoming, and I've heard very good things about it.

Yeah, I was thinking Guilford, too. And Warren Wilson, also in North Carolina.

[Anonymous]

Unless I'm unaware of another school with the same name, Lawrenceville is a prep school.

Also I think the OP wanted to know about schools that were less difficult to get into than the Ivys, but still offered a great education. As PPs have noted before, places such as Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Wesleyan have very competitive admissions (low double-digit acceptance rates).

What's most important is to find the school that will most benefit the type of student. Some students need to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond to really solidify their self-esteem. That route has worked for a number of people I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless I'm unaware of another school with the same name, Lawrenceville is a prep school.

Also I think the OP wanted to know about schools that were less difficult to get into than the Ivys, but still offered a great education. As PPs have noted before, places such as Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Wesleyan have very competitive admissions (low double-digit acceptance rates).

What's most important is to find the school that will most benefit the type of student. Some students need to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond to really solidify their self-esteem. That route has worked for a number of people I know.

Maybe they meant Lawrence (in WI), since they mentioned Carleton in the same sentence? Has anyone mentioned Bates or Bowdoin?

One related point on the "big fish/small pond" is that if you are interested in say, theater, you don't necessarily want to go to a school with a "good" theater program unless you are prepared to major in theater because your chances of being in a production are likely pretty small at a place that has a lot of theater majors (vs. a place that doesn't take theater as seriously as a department). Likewise, if you were on a high school sports team and want to keep playing (but aren't good enough to be actually recruited), sometimes it's better to go to a school that isn't known for being strong in that sport.

A friend who went to a small college was able to do a whole range of activities (theater plus sports for example) that can be harder to do at a large school.

[Anonymous]

Fairfield in CT...someone on another post called it "the Harvard of the Catholics"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fairfield in CT...someone on another post called it "the Harvard of the Catholics"

OP here - *PLEASE*, I beg of you, do not turn this thread into the pretentious dribble that is such commonplace in some of the other school forums.

[Anonymous]

Then go to church instead "holier than thou" above

[Anonymous]

Davidson still feels very southern. Less so than Washington and Lee, probably, but many of the same applicants.

[Anonymous]

Wash & Lee still has some confederate flags up. It is really southern...kind of a throw back.

[Anonymous]

Has any one mentioned Wooster College in NE Ohio? Or McDaniel in Maryland?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has any one mentioned Wooster College in NE Ohio? Or McDaniel in Maryland?

(OP) DD paid a visit to Wooster this past summer. She came away with a positive opinion of the school and is considering applying. She described the campus as small, pretty and friendly.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who went to Wooster and really liked it. She's done well here in DC...came out here on an internship and is still here 20 years later.