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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our twins were looking for schools in this same general pocket (though leaning a bit more towards medium sized schools), with Yale as their SCEA (not admitted), and then several other schools that have been mentioned in this thread already as other schools they liked a lot. They approached the search independently, with one going for science (non-premed bio), one for humanities (history). Priorities were a top tier of undergraduate teaching, a warm and friendly student body, and strong relationships with professors. At the end of the day they were both deciding between Carleton and W&M (OOS), and they'll be heading to W&M in the fall and are really excited about it.

(OP, you also asked about more likely schools; we were all pleasantly surprised by St. Olaf when we visited; their admit rate is 48%. W&M has an OOS rate of ~28% and in-state of 34% or something similar, so it's also on the more likely end compared with most of the schools mentioned so far.[/quote]

Good thoughts and results.

There are many great choices, you need to explore. We can list schools but your kid will be best served by figuring out where they want to be and what type of environment suits them beyond what you mentioned which does feel pretty "LAC" in general. What range of acceptances are you looking for? There are great schools with rates above 50% in the SLAC world. The format is really conducive to learning and kids can really thrive in many programs.[/quote]

OP, here. I completely agree with the sentiment that DC needs to narrow based on preferences and that will help. They have expressed what appeals to them. What I do not believe I did a particularly good job articulating was that one (of many) criteria is a studious/intellectual vibe (“pursuit of engagement in ideas”). It seems more accessible to parse by aspects like geographic preference, arts, rural/urban, % Greek life, division I sports, etc. But we are having a harder time determining a culture of engagement with ideas in the abstract without a visit — and there are only so many resources (of time and money) to make visits. So, I guess I was trying to see how other families may have sussed this out when they approached it with an open mind setting aside prestige and rankings. Maybe this is just something omnipresent at LACs? (Spouse and I were OOS at a state flagship).

I appreciate all the suggestions of specific schools and maybe this clarification will help with where we are with process?[/quote]

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