Finding safeties

[Anonymous]

My DS is building his application list and is having trouble finding safeties he likes. So far he has visited Wooster and Muhlenberg and didn’t really like either of them. This was after researching both and thinking he would like them. He does like what he he’s read about Lawrence and St. Olaf but they be too far and too cold.

Other ideas?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS is building his application list and is having trouble finding safeties he likes. So far he has visited Wooster and Muhlenberg and didn’t really like either of them. This was after researching both and thinking he would like them. He does like what he he’s read about Lawrence and St. Olaf but they be too far and too cold.

Other ideas?

It's called a safety, not a dream school. What about something closer to home, like a VA or MD state school? The idea is an affordable school you can get into and live with.

[Anonymous]

We are in MD and he is going to apply to UMD but isn’t sure that a large school is a good fit.

[Anonymous]

What is he looking for in a school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in MD and he is going to apply to UMD but isn’t sure that a large school is a good fit.

I've been haunting college discussion boards for longer than I care to admit and the most painful LAC threads are:
1. Are there any urban LACs?
2. Are there any warm weather LACs?

They're painful not because there are NO answers - Macalester is urban ,Eckerd is warm - but because the question betrays a fundamental naievete about the LAC game. Basically, if you aren't prepared for cold weather in the boondocks, you shouldn't be playing it. You may find onsies twinsies that aren't cold and rural, but you'll never put together an optional portfolio of schools to apply to and be happy with it.

So, brace for St. Olaf or go for even lower ranked schools down South. That's your son's choice. Or, make the easy call and apply to Towson to get the safety out of the way and move into other decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in MD and he is going to apply to UMD but isn’t sure that a large school is a good fit.

I've been haunting college discussion boards for longer than I care to admit and the most painful LAC threads are:
1. Are there any urban LACs?
2. Are there any warm weather LACs?

They're painful not because there are NO answers - Macalester is urban ,Eckerd is warm - but because the question betrays a fundamental naievete about the LAC game. Basically, if you aren't prepared for cold weather in the boondocks, you shouldn't be playing it. You may find onsies twinsies that aren't cold and rural, but you'll never put together an optional portfolio of schools to apply to and be happy with it.

So, brace for St. Olaf or go for even lower ranked schools down South. That's your son's choice. Or, make the easy call and apply to Towson to get the safety out of the way and move into other decisions.

Towson or St. Mary's if he wants smaller.

[Anonymous]

I have a kid at Oberlin. Who looked at St. Olaf and Wooster. IMO, it doesn’t get worse than Lake Effect weather. The ice is unreal at the Ohio schools. MN is nice. Easy to get. Direct 2-3 hours flight out of the DMV. Very convenient to the MSP airport. Your kid moves in, gets summer storage and it’s almost faster to fl home than drive.

I wouldn’t discount St. Olaf based on trance or weather. And it is a pretty great school. Ss the parent not sending a kid there.

Closer? Juanita. Susquehanna. Dickinson. Maybe Clark or Emerson. UMW. Depends on stats and what he wants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at Oberlin. Who looked at St. Olaf and Wooster. IMO, it doesn’t get worse than Lake Effect weather. The ice is unreal at the Ohio schools. MN is nice. Easy to get. Direct 2-3 hours flight out of the DMV. Very convenient to the MSP airport. Your kid moves in, gets summer storage and it’s almost faster to fl home than drive.

I wouldn’t discount St. Olaf based on trance or weather. And it is a pretty great school. Ss the parent not sending a kid there.

Closer? Juanita. Susquehanna. Dickinson. Maybe Clark or Emerson. UMW. Depends on stats and what he wants.

Are you saying that the lake effect is worse in OH than the weather in MN?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in MD and he is going to apply to UMD but isn’t sure that a large school is a good fit.

I've been haunting college discussion boards for longer than I care to admit and the most painful LAC threads are:
1. Are there any urban LACs?
2. Are there any warm weather LACs?

They're painful not because there are NO answers - Macalester is urban ,Eckerd is warm - but because the question betrays a fundamental naievete about the LAC game. Basically, if you aren't prepared for cold weather in the boondocks, you shouldn't be playing it. You may find onsies twinsies that aren't cold and rural, but you'll never put together an optional portfolio of schools to apply to and be happy with it.

So, brace for St. Olaf or go for even lower ranked schools down South. That's your son's choice. Or, make the easy call and apply to Towson to get the safety out of the way and move into other decisions.

He doesn’t want urban but is considering Macalester (which is a target, not a safety).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at Oberlin. Who looked at St. Olaf and Wooster. IMO, it doesn’t get worse than Lake Effect weather. The ice is unreal at the Ohio schools. MN is nice. Easy to get. Direct 2-3 hours flight out of the DMV. Very convenient to the MSP airport. Your kid moves in, gets summer storage and it’s almost faster to fl home than drive.

I wouldn’t discount St. Olaf based on trance or weather. And it is a pretty great school. Ss the parent not sending a kid there.

Closer? Juanita. Susquehanna. Dickinson. Maybe Clark or Emerson. UMW. Depends on stats and what he wants.

Are you saying that the lake effect is worse in OH than the weather in MN?

I’m saying I lived in Cleveland for 6 years as a kid and now have a kid at Oberlin. And did a late January blizzard visit of the MN schools. And IMO, the Lake Effect weather is worse. It’s not the MN Blizzards are fun, and the snow accumulation is almost certainly more. But the wind off the Lake is miserable and there is so much more ice in OH. YMMV. But to me it’s weird to be fine with Ohio weather and worried about MN. On clear days, MN is lovely. Whereas, Ohio is iced over for months at a time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in MD and he is going to apply to UMD but isn’t sure that a large school is a good fit.

I've been haunting college discussion boards for longer than I care to admit and the most painful LAC threads are:
1. Are there any urban LACs?
2. Are there any warm weather LACs?

They're painful not because there are NO answers - Macalester is urban ,Eckerd is warm - but because the question betrays a fundamental naievete about the LAC game. Basically, if you aren't prepared for cold weather in the boondocks, you shouldn't be playing it. You may find onsies twinsies that aren't cold and rural, but you'll never put together an optional portfolio of schools to apply to and be happy with it.

So, brace for St. Olaf or go for even lower ranked schools down South. That's your son's choice. Or, make the easy call and apply to Towson to get the safety out of the way and move into other decisions.

He doesn’t want urban but is considering Macalester (which is a target, not a safety).

Okay. Then, the South it is. The schools are often conservative, very white and much more Greek/alcohol centric. Lower academic standards, besides Davidson. But, the weather’s nice.

[Anonymous]

To be clear, DS isn’t focused on warm weather schools and likes places like Kenyon and Oberlin. Sorry if my post was misleading. But he is concerned that Appleton (Lawrence) and St. Olaf (MN) are far away and colder. Maybe they aren’t colder. I don’t really know. I don’t have much experience in those places. But they are further from the DC area than the schools in OH. The point is he is not focused on the south and is not looking at schools there. He would just like to add some additional options. He hasn’t even ruled out Lawrence and St. Olaf.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is he looking for in a school?

Intellectually challenging but not a stress culture, small to medium size with plenty of small and discussion based classes taught by profs and not TAs. Strong sense of community. Nice campus/setting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is he looking for in a school?

Intellectually challenging but not a stress culture, small to medium size with plenty of small and discussion based classes taught by profs and not TAs. Strong sense of community. Nice campus/setting.

That’s pretty generic. And includes a lot of SLACs. To study what? What type of social science. Is he into Sports? Fine arts?

[Anonymous]

There is Occidental College for nice weather and not in the back of beyond. I know some really smart and succesful people who went there.