<p>Freshman Academic Profile, UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE, here are some numbers. </p>
<p>Admissions Selectivity Rating: 93 </p>
<p>SAT:
% Submitting Score: 98%
Critical Reading Middle 50%: 520 - 630
Math Middle 50%: 540 - 650
Writing Middle 50%: 520 - 640
ACT:
% Submitting Score: 23%
ACT Middle 50%: 24 - 28
Math Middle 50%: 23 - 29
English Middle 50%: 23 - 29
Writing Middle 50%: 23 - 28
Average High School GPA: 3.5
% with GPA 3.75 of higher: 35%
% with GPA 3.50 - 3.74: 23%
% with GPA 3.25 - 3.49: 19%
% with GPA 3.0 - 3.24: 13%
% with GPA 2.5 - 2.99: 9%
% with GPA 2.0 - 2.49: 0%
% with GPA 1.0 - 1.99: 0%
% with GPA 1.0 of lower: 0%
Students in Top Tenth of HS Class: 37%
Students in Top Quarter of HS Class: 74%
Freshman Student from Public School High Schools: 80%</p>
<p>Simpkin, like you, I think my dd will do best at a smaller school. We’re only looking at small schools where her SAT and ACT place her in the top 25% - she does better with her confidence when she feels she’s one of the top students. Even though we’re from Texas, we’re looking in the NE: Fairfield, Quinnipiac, Roger Williams, Bryant, Merrimack and Endicott.</p>
<p>I will give a plug for Alfred University (NY) established in 1836, a Regional University.</p>
<p>Small classes-know your professors, need-based aid, merit aid, 2,300 undergrads, Division III Athletics, shuttles go to Rochester airport at peak break times & buses go to NYC at peak break times. All students may have cars, housing for all 4 years, No Greek Life. AU wants more OOS students, so being from outside New York is a plus. Nice small village of Alfred, NY with friendly people & plenty of clubs & activities. </p>
<p>Fiske Best Buy
USNWR’s Great Schools Great Prices
Fiske Small schools strong in Art & Design
Fiske Small schools strong in Engineering
Princeton Review 300 Best Business Schools
Fiske Guide 2011
Princeton Review’s Best 373 </p>
<p>School of Art & Design
College of Liberal Arts
School of Engineering
School of Business </p>
<p>The COA for C.O.L.A. and School of Business is around $38,000/year.
Art & Design & Several Engineering majors are through the state of New York, so tuition is based on in-state and OOS for those programs. </p>
<p>A highly regarded school & not over $50,000/year, a great value. :)</p>
<p>I strongly suggest Flagler College in NE Fl for several reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>admittance is holistic & does not focus on just GPA or tests but looks at the potential of the individual as a scholar. </li>
<li>it’s a small LAC that fosters a community in which students rarely feel left out or like they’ve slipped through the cracks like they might have in a large university setting. </li>
<li>the academic climate is encouraging but laid back in that it does not cause frequent burn-outs or unhealthy competition.</li>
<li>there is an attendance policy that prevents the more apathetic students from flunking out over laziness or irresponsibility. These students tend to become more reliable & organized my graduation. </li>
</ul>
<p>Both Alfred and Delaware are on our list of schools to visit this summer.</p>
<p>Delaware is a reach, but our Naviance does seem to show students in the top end of this range getting in with SAT scores of about 1300 and above. It is a very popular choice here as well. </p>
<p>Alfred looks interesting, but not enough students from our school have applied to have it show on Naviance. </p>
<p>I am looking for a couple more schools somewhat near Alfred to visit as part of a western NY road trip.</p>
<p>My older D has a friend who is a very happy Flagler student, I believe she is an education major. The only complaint she seems to have is that she hates the food.</p>
<p>I’ve researched Alfred; it does look very nice. Western NY is really far away from eastern NY; Google says Alfred is six hours away but with traffic and stops, it’s got to be closer to seven if not eight. I guess I think that that there are enough possibilities within a three or four hour drive that I don’t need to extend the search that far. OTOH then I start thinking, what if something like Alfred is his “perfect fit” and we’ll never know because I can’t be bothered to drive that far? It’s stressful.</p>
<p>OTOH, simpkin, if your S could get some merit aid at AU, that would be nice too as the present COA is about $38,000/year. We drive about 6.5 hours to get to AU, it is worth the drive & our child has really thrived there. She has some very good relationships with the professors she has had. I can’t really say enough good things about Alfred University. </p>
<p>As for driving long distances, two of our kids were short drives to their schools (about 100 miles) and two of our kids were long drives (over 6 hours). For our long drive kids, we went 3 times: to drop off, to pick up and Family Weekend. At other break times, there were rides home from other kids in our geographical area where we had an arranged location to meet at a certain time. So for those meetups, maybe we drove about 100 miles to meet a child at Thanksgiving, Semester Break or Spring Break.</p>
<p>Forgive me if I’m one of the lame-o’s posting in the wrong thread, lol! My D1 will be graduating in 2013 and has a 3.0 (UW), 1800-ish SAT’s (based on PSAT). She does have ADD, and excels in Japanese and Art, so a school that is supportive as well as having both those programs would be ideal. An LAC would also be a much better fit for her --the more liberal, artsy/quirky, the better. We live in VA and she’s looking at:</p>
<p>-Virginia Commonwealth U. Arts college (the exception to her list of LAC’s)
-Earlham
-Warren Wilson
-Goucher
-Guilford
-SUNY Purchase (would appreciate more info. on this school, looks hard to get in OOS)
-Hiram
-Ohio Wesleyan (reach and maybe not supportive to her ADD)
-Whittier
-Humbolt State
-Evergreen </p>
<p>*Safety is northern VA community college “pathways program” (two years, then guaranteed admission into 4-year VA State School). Will read through all the thread for ideas and welcome any other suggestions!</p>
<p>Also want to give a plug to Hiram College in OH. I haven’t visited yet, so keep that in mind, but they do offer merit awards to students with a 2.5 and above during the economy slump. 3.0 is worth $10,000 off tuition! Art major? $8,000 potential scholarship in addition! Nice deal for a private LAC. Whittier (CA) offers an art scholarship also, up to $12,000.</p>
<p>I’m one of these kids, and i think one of the causes was that i’d always did good in middle school without too much effort so when i entered my freshmen year i had the mentality that i’d do just as good with minimum effort. By my sophomore year i discovered that i had to work harder but i really disliked my classes and so i was really unmotivated. Now I’m finishing up my junior year and i feel like i accomplished much more even though i got 2 C’s. </p>
<p>From this I can pretty much conclude that whats holding me back are classes that I just feel are uninteresting or a waste of time (as in just book work or a bad teacher), and so i slack. </p>
<p>I have a kid a lot like you, narrow. I found he did better taking the hardest classes he could take - he tended not to slack off then. And the AP classes tended to have the best teachers. He just finished his first year in college, and the trend continued. Great grades in his major courses; not as good in the core courses he had to take. Good news is that he’s about done with his core courses, because he placed out of so many due to AP credit!! So, hang in there!</p>
<p>EdieNJ- good to hear! I actually like the food, & in Flagler’s defense, the company that provides it, Aramark, supplies for many schools all over. I’ve eaten at Princeton & it was only marginally better than Flagler’s. U of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was verging on inedible when I was there summer of '07!</p>
<p>Simpkin, not sure what degree of urbanization you are used to but, I live in a smallish town, about 10K people. One of my neighbors is at Alfred and says there is nothing to do there. Make sure you check out the town and downtime while you are there. It could be that my neighbor hasn’t joined a group and that’s why he is bored. </p>
<p>My S might consider applying to York college of PA and this is one thing that I will be looking at when I go down that way. It looks like “in the middle of not much” compared to where I am at. </p>
<p>Alfred is about 7 hrs from the Rockland/orange county border. You might be better off looking further North towards Oswego, Rochester. There are some LACs within a 2hr radius from Albany but you mentioned you weren’t interested. Is there a reason why?</p>
<p>Alfred University (NY) publishes a monthly booklet with all the actvities going on for that entire month. I have seen several of them over the past couple of years and it is pretty impressive for such a small student body. If a student is bored it is certainly not the college’s fault. College is pretty much what a student is willing to make out of his/her experience. All students may own cars as well, there are no restrictions on that. </p>
<p>My child is a rising Junior & has never called me to tell me she is bored & has nothing to do. She has gone to Concerts in Syracuse, hiking in PA, a trip to visit Watkins Glen, concerts & various entertainments on campus, swimming in one of the Finger Lakes etc & belongs to several clubs/organizations. She doesn’t even own a car.</p>
<p>I went to York college of PA. I’d highly suggest you consider it for your kids. If you have any questions you can PM me. We had quite a few students from the NY area. It is kind of in the middle of not much however we never were bored… there are tons of clubs and activities on campus, Baltimore is an hour away, Philly is about two hours, etc. Like slumom said, if the student is bored it’s not the colleges fault.</p>
<p>Hi t00curious, it’s not that I’m not interested in NY schools; it’s more an issue of distance and S saying that he wants to go to college “near a city.” Most of the NY LACs are in very rural areas. I don’t know that “near a city” is going to work out, but I think he would be much more amenable to a suburban area than somewhere very rural. I know we really need to visit some colleges to try to clarify what he really wants – if that is possible. :)</p>
<p>From Long Island, western NY seems really far away. Philadelphia is closer and I have family there so that’s why I’m sort of focused on the Philly/Eastern Pa. area. But absolutely nothing is settled at this point! I kind of feel like I’m floundering around, with no useful input from DS. However, I was thrilled yesterday to learn that he actually asked a teacher for a recommendation. He still has to ask one more teacher, but at least he made a start.</p>
<p>I’m thinking about York College too; please post impressions if you visit! I don’t have a great impression of that area; I think the city of York has seen better days, but that’s from passing through many years ago, and perhaps things have improved.</p>
<p>ETA: thanks fendergirl, I just saw your post. I’m glad to hear you were happy at York.</p>