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“What do you mean by “top” colleges?” people often ask when they come to my book signings or college admissions talks. “Your college book’s subtitle is ‘272 Secrets for Getting Your Kid into the Top Schools.’ What constitutes a top school, and aren’t you only talking about the Ivies?”

No, I explain emphatically. A top school in my book is a college that offers the best opportunities for the student applying—according to that student’s interests and dreams.

If, for example, your child is interested in film animation, some top schools might include NYU, USC, UCLA, CalArts and RISD—none of them an Ivy. If your child is interested in robotics, top schools might include MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Harvey Mudd, Olin, Rensselaer Polytechnic, or Rose Hulman. Or for a student interested in Peace Studies, some top choices could include Swarthmore (Peace & Conflict), Wellesley (Peace & Justice), UC Colorado (Peace & Conflict), Brandeis (minor in Peace, Conflict & Coexistence), and Bryn Mawr (Peace & Conflict).

How about a college where the students travel around the world—Global College—gaining firsthand experiences? While some colleges may offer semesters abroad, or even entire years abroad, Global offers four solid years of travel. In the first year, students live in Costa Rica.

What I want high school seniors to know is that many, many wonderful programs exist outside the Ivies—an important concept in this most competitive year of college admissions—and new opportunities are opening up in various parts of the country.

Environmental Studies

One of the more exciting new options in environmental studies, for example, is offered as a collaboration between UC San Diego and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Located on some of the most spectacular beach area in the United States, the program offers a BS degree (and a BS/MS degree) in Earth Sciences, and a minor in Marine Science.

Another interesting option is offered by SUNY Stony Brook, which has opened a new campus on the beach on the East End of Long Island (in Southampton). “The curriculum is organized not into departments but around issues related to environmental sustainability, public policy, and natural resource management.” The small, intimate, public college is establishing itself as an honors program, and is ultimately expecting to have 2,000 students.

Yet another relatively new Environmental Studies option is offered by Lesley College in Cambridge, Mass. As part of the program, students can take a Biology of Fishes course that meets at the New England Aquarium, and an Audubon Expedition Institute’s semester on the bus, where students travel to the places they study.

And College of the Atlantic (in Bar Harbor, Maine) features an entirely environmentally friendly campus.

Brand New Colleges

For students who might enjoy pioneering brand-new colleges—being among the first sets of graduates—three new options are available. Founders College in South Boston, Virginia (opens 2008), Quest University in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada (opened 2007), and UC Merced (opened 2005).

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Elizabeth Wissner-Gross, What High Schools Don't Tell You, Penguin Books, college, film animation, admissions, high school, environmental studies, Ivy League, top tier, advice, counseling, university, students, books