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My D is currently in 10th grade, and in a bit of an unusual situation. I am looking for suggestions as to colleges and universities that might be open to "unique" situations while still offering strong academics.

She is spending grades 9-11 in a German Gymnasium, and will return to the states for her senior year. (Due to my husband's job, which is not military, and therefore we are not eligible for DOD schools. There are no IB school nearby.) She started in the school without knowing any German, and after a year, is pretty fluent. In two more years, I think she will be completely fluent.

We expect her courses to be roughly equivalent to the point where she gets transfer credit or can get credit through testing like they do with home-schooled students. Her courses here in school are algebra, geometry, physics, biology, chemistry, social studies (history, geography, politics), consumer science, art, religion, PE, German, English. She will pretty much have the same courses every year; they are cumulative. We have augmented the courses with an on-line Language Arts class to be sure she meets her English requirements. We will also add at some point US history and government. We expect her to graduate on time, but we don't know if she will be eligible for any higher level courses. (The US HS has college prep, honors and gifted tracks. She was in gifted prior to our move, but will probably not be eligible when we return.)

So assume a normal high school honors curriculum, with 4 years of math, 3 or 4 science, 4 English, 3 Social Studies, etc.
We expect she will be able to take AP German, or even take the test without taking the class. Depending on how they transfer credits, and if she needs to make anything up, we expect her to take AP English, and perhaps another AP or so.

She will not be able to take the PSAT, and will not take the SAT until we return. Prior to moving here, her highest abilities were in language arts, but we expect her verbal score to drop some because she is not using English as much. (Her on-line course is very easy.) Prior to moving here, she was an A student (has had 2 B's in her life; both times in math.) Assume SAT in the 1200-1300 range.

Her ECs are:
violin (from age 6; she is quite good), also plays some piano, and sings well; likes drama, too, and has done some at school
German tutoring (2 hours per day)
softball (community team -- There are no sports in schools here)
church activities (Live Nativity at Christmas, starting our own in-home English church with a few other Americans and English-speaking Germans)
and, of course, lots of travel

I have been through the college-search process twice, with my 2 S. One is a senior at Penn, the other a freshman at Juilliard. They had strong grades, SATs, ECs, and talents. We had lots of time for college visits, were on many mailing lists, had help from school GC, etc. This is such a different situation that I don't even know where to begin. She won't even have the PSAT to trigger the flood of brochures in the mail! The boys both also knew early on exactly what they wanted to do, and where they wanted to go. D does not.

Things we are looking for in the school:

liberal arts major, with many choices available
strong academics
conservative school fine, but also not absolutely necessary
flexible as to background, SATs, etc.
might appreciate her cross-cultural experiences
we prefer a "campus" (as opposed to buildings intermingled with city)
east coast would be easier (since that is where the boys are) but not critical

I also probably need to mention that she (not we!) would prefer a "name" school. With her brothers, we looked for the school where we felt they best fit. The fact that they both coincidentally ended up at well-known institutions has made her feel some pressure to "keep up". We have a couple years to help her get over that, but I'm afraid it will be a factor to her. In other words, she will not even entertain the idea of a community college, and is likely to turn her nose up at some state schools, as well. I am thinking a school like Rice would be about what she'd like, but have no idea if they have the flexibility to even consider her.

All ideas and comments welcome. Thanks in advance.

By Cangel (Cangel) on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 09:11 am: Edit

Robrym may have some good suggestions for you, she's in a similar position, although her son's school is evidently well versed in American college admisssions, so they aren't quite "doing it on their own".
One suggestion, your situation might be a good one for a college counselor, in fact schools might even overlook the use of one, because you basically don't have the typical "free" one that a student in the states would have.
Another suggestion, ask some adcoms, either by E-mail or letter, perhaps late next spring or early summer, in their slow season, how she would sell at their school. What type of documentation would be important, since hers will be different thatn most kids', what would be absolutely required.

As far as specific schools, I could give a list of the usual suspects with an "international flavor" - Tufts, Macalester, Georgetown - but I would suggest going to visit Davidson in NC if you get a chance, for these reasons - Dav. has a very high percentage of kids doing study abroad, so they are interested in the international experience (your daughter may or may not be interested in the school), but if you make a reservation, they do these odd little non-evaluative interviews, where your child talks to the admissions counselor (who is a student) then they call the parent in for a joint session. This is all very informal and homey - but it will give you a good opportunity to ask all your questions, my guess would be, particularly if you outline your circumstances ahead of time, that they would get one of the "real" adcoms to speak with you, too.
Swarthmore would probably do the same, given enough notice, and they're right there in Philly.

I guess my point is that even though she wants a "name" school, a prestigious LAC (which she may have never heard of) will be more flexible and more interested in her, especially in the info gathering stage. Yale, just for example, might love to have her (I think she will be quite a candidate for many schools "diversity-wise", actually), but it could be hard to get the info you need from the larger institution

By Cangel (Cangel) on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 02:34 pm: Edit

Also Binx, you might want to repost on Parents Forum, you'll get more pertinent answers to your question there.

By Binx (Binx) on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 10:24 am: Edit

Thanks Cangel for your suggestions. I have posted a shorter version of my question on the parents forum.

Curious - what do you mean by "schools might overlook the use of one" -- Do schools not normally like you to use a private counselor? How do they know if you do?

By Cangel (Cangel) on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 10:39 am: Edit

The party line is that colleges don't like them, although many people use them. Certainly, you wouldn't want the counselor to write a rec (I've heard of it, but just imagine, paying someone to write your child a rec?). Counselors are thought to overpackage, write essays for their counselees, etc.. We hired a counselor for some specific services after our school's GC (who is great) developed some major health problems, and it looked as if she would not be able to continue work.
One of the best things the outside counselor can do is ride herd on the process when the child needs some prodding and supervision, and efforts from the parents cause too much tension - neutral 3rd party. We used ours mostly to get our daughter started on the process of searching, which she was reluctant to do.
I would think having someone well versed in what admissions are like in 2005 or whenever you start active application, to help you with the USA end of it might be good. Also we are careful not to mention the outside person's existence, not even to the school counselor - it's all kind of silly, the OC is really just another voice, she forced my DD to focus on the process, and dshe has read her essay. But, DD is a child of high integrity and hardheadness - she would never ever submit someone else's work, and it is hard for her to evaluate the criticism, and see if there is legitimate reasons to change a sentence or word or 2. Lord, I'll be glad when this is over!