There have been students from our kids' high school with a similar profile to OP's daughter who have gone on to Kenyon and Grinnell, so those might be possibilities. Macalester's another school I'd put in that group. These might be reasonable reaches.

Parent of four recent college applicants here again.

Based on my experience, at smaller LACs and selective colleges high grades in rigorous courses will trump high SATs every time. Extracurriculars are critically important to small school admissions as well, because small schools think they need a disproportionate number of involved students to keep the campus active. The OP's student has the exact opposite profile, so he/she is right for thinking that a medium sized school is a better fit.

Might also be worth noting (although not really on topic) that we had two kids go to U-Va from Arlington Public Schools who were both admitted with SATs considerably below U-Va's average. The youngest barely made the 25th percentile of the reported range. And we are not in any way "disadvantaged." Both kids had 8 or 9 AP classes, though, and both were reasonably active. There is no doubt in my mind that U-Va means what they say when they say grades/courses are more important to them than really high SATs.

In fact, my general observation from lurking on these boards is that many, many parents attach much more weight to the SAT than most selective colleges actually give it. I'm not saying you can bomb the test without consequence, but it's clearly the case with most selective colleges that high grades in demanding courses are more likely to cancel out less than stellar SATs than vice-versa.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Carnegie Mellon
Grinnell
Oberlin
Kenyon
De Paul (for theater)
Sarah Lawrence

Grinnell, Oberlin, Kenyon out of reach for student fitting this profile.

CMU also.

Anonymous wrote:I've seen four kids of varying accomplishment off to college, and I can tell you right now that many of the colleges appearing on the last two posts are not only not "medium sized" -- they are very small -- but are real reaches for a kid with this profile.

Well part of the problem is that "LAC" and "medium sized" are almost mutually exclusive terms.

Most of 23:50 colleges are filled with kids like OP's. Lawrence, Otterbein, Skidmore seem more like reaches.

Anonymous wrote:Carnegie Mellon
Grinnell
Oberlin
Kenyon
De Paul (for theater)
Sarah Lawrence

Grinnell, Oberlin, Kenyon out of reach for student fitting this profile.

I've seen four kids of varying accomplishment off to college, and I can tell you right now that many of the colleges appearing on the last two posts are not only not "medium sized" -- they are very small -- but are real reaches for a kid with this profile.

Carnegie Mellon
Grinnell
Oberlin
Kenyon
De Paul (for theater)
Sarah Lawrence

Beloit
Centre
Drew
Ithaca
Lawrence
Muhlenberg
Occidental
Otterbein
Rollins
Sarah Lawrence
Skidmore
Whitman
Wittenberg

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your original post sounded very Brandeis.

not a good fit if not Jewish

There are plenty of non-Jews at Brandeis who fit in fine. The school is artsy, the right size, and has smart (but not over-achiever-y) kids and lots of theater opportunities.

Sometimes I wonder if this forum has some anti-semites on it. This is not the only time I've seen someone try to warn people away from a school for being "too Jewish".

Anonymous wrote:Your original post sounded very Brandeis.

not a good fit if not Jewish

All of these suggestions would be great in 1998 or 2000. Look at CTCL and talk to her college advisor if s/he is any good.

Drew in NJ is worth a look. She would qualify for the Baldwin Honors program. Manhattanville. Schools along those lines. Sarah Lawrence, Skidmore, Muhlenberg, Vassar, Elon, are WAY beyond up and coming. In Virginia she would be a CNU or Longwood student. She might pull of Mary Washington.

All of these suggestions would be great in 1998 or 2000. Look at CTCL and talk to her college advisor if s/he is any good.

Drew in NJ is worth a look. She would qualify for the Baldwin Honors program. Manhattanville. Schools along those lines. Sarah Lawrence, Skidmore, Muhlenberg, Vassar, Elon, are WAY beyond up and coming. In Virginia she would be a CNU or Longwood student. She might pull of Mary Washington.

Sarah lawrence!

Anonymous wrote:High scores sought after by some very good universities trying to climb up the USNWR rankings, if at the NMSF level these schools could care less about ECs and number of APs etc. Tulane is a mid-sized university that has really improved following Katrina-much less Southern, less of a party school. Big enough that I am sure the theater scene is active there.

Vasser is another obvious choice, very artsy, lots of smart kids. May be on the small side but wasn't completely clear how you defined midsize LAC. Wesleyan probably a reach but may be worth looking at. Also University of Rochester-very strong theater and theater tech programs, academically excellent, but with great scores probably a reasonable target

Pitt is quite a broad mid-sized university, and Pittsburgh is actually a great city to be in these days. With high scores probably a safety school for your DD.

Syracuse is very strong in the arts and communication, but not sure a motivated/smart kid not actually majoring in film or communications or theater would be happy there, my mother taught there for years and was the dean, outside the arts/communication and maybe business programs, for undergraduates not that stimulating a place (and boy is Syracuse cold and grey)

Many of these may be good suggestions, but Vassar and Wesleyan would be real reaches for this type of student. The kids I know at those schools have much stronger transcripts, scores and activities.

Your original post sounded very Brandeis.