What fun--119 great ideas and the thread is still going strong. Recent posters mentioned Reed and Wisconsin, very different schools. Does anyone know what their strengths and weaknesses are? Wisc. is so large, does it feel "personal" or like you are a number only? Are Reedies really so odd or is this a myth? Thanks!

Mzpossum, anytime. It's great being proud of your alma mater's campus. But it's even better when non-Sooners have commented to me how nice it is.

My favorites are Princeton, Point Loma Nazarene in San Diego, and University of San Diego.

Ducks, you asked a follow-up question a little while ago about Wisconsin and Reed. I was the poster who mentioned Reed. Yes, I went there. It was a long time ago, and it may have changed, but I somehow doubt it. As to Reedies being strange--there is, indeed, a hallowed tradition of irreverence and unconventional behavior there. (Considering the irrationality and often destructiveness of what passes for traditional college student behavior at the big party and football schools, I'd say Reedie behavior is, at worst, just different.) I would definitely describe the atmosphere as both freewheeling and intense. That is why, in my post, I mentioned that it is not a middle of the road type of place or for everyone and advised a campus visit and perhaps some reading of the student paper, the Quest. Doing a Web search, I find there is now perhaps an even better source for getting a feel of Reedies: www.reediejournals.com, a site for student blogs. The official site is www.reed.edu, which is quite extensive and gives much information, including (apropo the subject of this thread)that a national magazine named Reed one of the five most beautiful campuses in the country, and also that it was recently ranked third in the country in the percentage of its graduates who go on to earn Ph.D's.
It was your identification of your daughter as strong in academics, but not a high school club officer type, which made me especially think of Reed for her, both from an admissions standpoint and as a good fit for her. That description fits many Reedies. It is characteristic of Reed that no one judges what you like to do or be, as long as your academics are strong--but on the other hand, your academic skills and motivation have to be very strong. Two things that were true of Reed and my day and I expect still are, but I rarely saw stated explicitly: compared with other schools whose incoming freshmen have the upscale level of high school grades and test scores which Reed's have, Reed had a very high admissions acceptance rate--meaning that because the school is not really that well known, its admittees were relatively self-selected. If you had the grades and test scores to belong in the freshman class, your chances of being admitted were excellent. You were not competing with a large number of people with similarly high academic qualifications for every spot, with admissions decisions often hinging on gaudy extracurricular resumes. The other was that among schools with such strongly qualified freshman classes, the percentage who eventually graduated from Reed was markedly low (although the overwhelming majority of the rest transferred to other schools rather than dropping out of college entirely.) My observation was that quite a few of those who choose Reed were attracted by its reputation for student unconventionality and were expecting the academics to be similarly unconventional and directed towards their search for self. They were not prepared for the fact that the curriculum and syle of intellectual rigor was quite traditional--"an academic West Point," as I remember hearing one Reed professor approvingly describe it. So many who figure in the sometimes accurate description of student "weirdness" find the school not to be liking, leaving the more strongly academic to graduate and maintain the high level of achievement you will find documented on the official web site. I really only recommend Reed to those who are already strongly motivated towards an eventual doctoral degree. If your daughter is, she should give it strong consideration. As for me, as much as I loved the campus' beauty amd my experience there beyond price, I was not so motivated, and was one of the ones who transferred.

I'm glad to see that my alma mater, UVA, was mentioned. Thomas Jefferson did design the original University, when he was quite old. Mr Jefferson is quite the man about grounds in Charlottesville. The grounds (not campus for Wahoos) are in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and are, for the most part, lovely.

William & Mary
University of North Carolina Chapel-Hill
Duke
Harvard

some of my other faves.

Good luck to your daughter

Thanks to all of the posters and I want to extend special thanks to JohnCharles.
You are obviously very insightful! Yes, Reed does sound like a good fit and my daughter would thrive in a traditional academic environment. She is a very strong student in all academic areas but not the student leader type. I will definitely take a look at the school's paper.

Speaking of UVA...

I'm a big sports nut. One of my all-time favorite nicknames was the one the local sportswriters chose when Ronde and Tiki Barber (twins) went to UVA.

They were dubbed "the Barbers of
C-Ville."

Desquane in Pittsburg Pa. Its is set atop of hills/ mts overlooking pittsburg and the rivers. I have only been on this campus once, but its charm really impressed me (as did its 26K price tag, which is why i never returned)

this is a very fun thread to follow. I'm a big ten gal with U of Iowa as my alma mater. Pretty campus with the Iowa River running thru the middle. great academics too. I also lived in Madison for 13 years and would have to agree with UW being both a great school and a nice campus. Very big though with brutal winters!

If you had a child interested in any of the health sciences, business or communications, Iowa is a great bet for the money. Same feel as UW but half the size. It is the second smallest school in the Big Ten with only Northwestern being smaller. Graduate students make up over half the student body so undergrad enrollment is about 10,000.

A few other nice Midwestern campuses are KU in Lawrence, ISU in Ames, K Sate in Manhattan, Northwestern, UW Whitewater( fabulous business school) UW LaCrosse and Grinnel in Iowa. Not too pretty but you can't beat it for academics.

As follow ups to the last 2 notes, the U of Iowa is twice as large as suggested above (with just under 20,000 undergrads and a total enrollment of 29,000 as of last year).
And the university in Pittsburgh is "Duquesne".

Mahalo to mathteacher from this mom of a Williams-bound student ! Our son was accepted as an early decision candidate at Williams, and that was our early christmas present.

He's worked hard and has an academic bent much like ducks' daughter, and is also quite athletic. Williams is described as boot camp for smart jocks.

NTL, we had looked at many options, and he too wanted a beautiful campus. Reed was among them since his dad was a Reedie (and he's not that weird). He also considered Pomona/Claremont, UC San Diego, CAL and Yale. I was a proponent of a mid-west campus like KU (Rock Chalk Jayhawks) but I couldn't quite persuade him to go that route.

So we are pleased for him that he got his first choice, and look forward to our trip to Williamstown next summer to settle him in. :-)

Ducks: has your daughter narrowed down her choices? Best of luck in the process!

Has anyone mentioned Bennington? I don't believe there is anything on any other campus as beautiful as the End of the Word, adjacent to the student housing and overlooking the mountains from Vermont to New York. And the student housing wins hands-down over any of the other campuses we visited when my daughter was making her decision. She chose Bennington for its individualized, student-driven programs, its amzing faculty and its unique field-work term. She just completed her B.A. and is home now, applying to grad schools. Just when you think it's all over...

ttt so ducks can catch up...

meant massteacher, not mathteacher, and
thanks heretoday, best to your daughter.

kalena:

Williams is just down the street from Bennington, but so far away from Hawaii! Much aloha to your son. I hope he doesn't get home sick. As my daughter found, there isn't much beach up there!

The University of Florida is the most beautiful college campus.

Tandoori Girl, Class of 75.

Hi heretoday! We're planning on internet videoconferencing to span the distance. I figure, if a cosmonaut can get married while in space....But I can already tell that mom's going to be the one with the worst case of separation trauma.

The Northeast will be a totally new experience for our T, and there's always Christmas.... Luckily, there's a Hawaii Club on campus, and we'll be sending care packages. One plus is that he loves snowboarding!

USC......inner beauty and a great football team. Academics are improving all the time. Not all students are "trust fund babies"

ducks53
What has your daughter decided to check into further? I just found this site and link and we are trying to go through the same process. Only I have a 17 year old son(high school junior) who has no idea where he wants to go or what he wants to study!!! Since I am the type to plan and search for months ahead for anything we do, he is starting to drive me crazy. Any advise out there on how to get him interested in looking for a school?
If Cassandra is still shecking in, I would love to hear from you.
Thanks for any help.

ANother vote for Washington Univ. in St. Louis. Ivy league campus, with huge proportion of high school valedictorians because it provides more aid than the ivy leagues do. Close proximity to St. Louis but in the beautiful suburb of Clayton. Draws students from around the world and is strong in most departments.

Just curious, what qualifies a school to have an "Ivy League Campus"?

No disrespect to Washington U, but if I had a choice to go there or Harvard,Yale,UPenn etc., I would choose the obvious.