Alternatives (similar) to Richmond?

College Search & Selection
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Alternatives to Richmond? We toured several colleges this week (U Va, UMCP, American, GW, Richmond)…our daughter (despite our discussions about just researching and no guarantees she can be admitted/afford particular schools)- fell in love w/Richmond! We all did!

We are chasing merit/affordability and most likely not eligible for need based aid. Daughter has 3.8 UW/4.2 W, 7-8 APs, the rest honors, 34 ACT, good (not superstar) ECs, person of color.

Will apply to Richmond to see….:pray:t3:… but would so appreciate suggestions for other schools that are:
-Small/medium sized
-Pretty, walkable campus :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:
-Good match for daughters stats (perhaps if she’s above their average, that helps us)
-May give ample $$ to woo a student they want
-Take good care of the students (small classes, good advisement, some focus on wellness)
-East coast, no Deep South, maybe a little into the Midwest (not too far from Charlotte)

Thanks!!!

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How important is merit money and what is your budget? Richmond seems a good target, but merit aid may not happen there. You would likely need to drop a level or so.
I would guess your student would receive the presidential (20k) award at Elon.

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I know you said no deep south, but we found Furman to be very similar to Richmond. It’s an easier admit and they give a lot of merit. My S22 had similar stats and was awarded $35k a year.

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CT:
Fairfield

MA:
Clark

MD:
Loyola

NY:
Hobart & William Smith
St. Lawrence U
Skidmore

PA:
Dickinson
Franklin & Marshall
Lehigh
Lafayette
St. Joe’s
Washington & Jefferson

Ohio:
Oberlin
Wittenberg
Ohio Wesleyan
Denison

RI:
Providence

and a little further West than you wanted but worth a look:

Butler (IN)
Lake Forest (IL)
Creighton (NE)
Grinnell (IA)

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Add to the above list

TN : Rhodes

It would be helpful if you can put the target price point that you are trying to hit. You may get very different lists with 60/40/20 targets.

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Elon ticks most of the boxes you mentioned.

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Davidson would also probably tick a lot of boxes, but likely harder to get into than Richmond.

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If she would be competitive for the Johnson Scholarship at Washington and Lee, that’s a full ride plus $7,000 stipend. 10% of each class are Johnson Scholars (so, approximately 40 kids). W&L is more selective than Richmond.

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Did I see correctly that she’s a POC? Some others might know better if that helps with merit. That could change your list.

What is your budget exactly? What are your in-state options? Is it NC?

Apply to Honors programs. They can make larger schools smaller.

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The catholic schools, including the Jesuit schools (except BC and Georgetown) hit the sweet spot for many. Most are urban/suburban, have 6-10k students, contained campus, merit available.

Several have been listed above: Fairfield, Providence, Loyola of MD, St. Joe’s, Creighton. Also Dayton, Scranton, Catholic in DC (a little smaller undergrad, but has a bigger grad school enrollment ). If she’s willing to ‘do cold’, St. Bonaventure and Canisius in NY.

Denver University also fits your checklist, other than east coast (although their lacrosse teams play in The Big East conference, so some consider them ‘east coast’!): midsized, contained campus that is pretty and walkable, gives lots of merit and other awards, great rec/wellness center. Easy to get to from Charlotte (from anywhere really, as a major airport is about 25 miles away.

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No deep south but I’ll throw out UAH because you get auto-merit, it’s a progressive place, and it’d be dirt cheap. Also, it’s far more urban and yes, it’s south but loaded with northerners - she might do well at College of Charleston. Check out the Charleston Fellows which she could get with her stats and get great aid.

Miami of Ohio is far bigger than Richmond but you’d get merit and it has that LAC feel - although large.

I read good things on here about SUNY Geneseo - but not sure if that would work.

Lafayette?? Marist? Binghamton (too big)? Hofstra? Scranton? Ithaca?

There are smaller schools with great aid -but maybe too small - Kalamazoo, Beloit, Wooster, Allegheny, Gettysburg, Susquehanna, Dickinson, Juniata - but are these too small?

If you are chasing merit, you will crush it - potentially even close to free - but you will have to head South I’m afraid. You might try U of Tulsa - they have a wonderful NMSF deal but a 34 might work. Left Leaning city - and SMU and the Presidential Scholar. And no doubt Alabama would give you four years of tuition and a year of housing (if I have the URM scholarship right) - that’s deep south though so not what you’re looking for - but a fine deal.

Best of luck

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Not sure where you live, but William and Mary has a LAC feel although it’s larger (but not too large). In state COA is around $40k. To get good suggestions you need to share a budget so that suggestions are in line with what you want to spend.

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I think OP is from NC (said not too far from Charlotte).

Some nice UNC schools if so - and I know they’re not Richmond caliber but UNC Asheville for example

Butler. Pitt much bigger but has Cathedral of Learning for URM.

Salisbury. Case Western (harder admit), Rochester, U Dayton, Brandeis, Bryant, UNH.

A lot might depend on major…but Tulsa worth a look too as mentioned b4.

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Thank you so much everyone for your great suggestions! Yes, my daughter is a POC, biracial. She’s quite undecided, interests include anthropology, media, art, Spanish, and forensics. So a variety of curriculum/majors is important. We’d like to stay under 45K after merit.

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Not knowing how important the city/urban part is what your D liked, these are all small to medium -sized schools (mainly small) that are likely to be very supportive and I think most of these would fall within budget, after merit. Also, an image search on the ‘net made me consider these pretty campuses. :blush:

  • Centre College (KY)

  • Christopher Newport (VA)

  • College of Wooster (OH)

  • DePauw (IN)

  • Drew (NJ)

  • Furman (SC)

  • John Caroll (OH)

  • Knox (IL)

  • Lake Forest (IL)

  • Moravian (PA )

  • Nazareth (NY)

  • North Central (IL)

  • Ohio Wesleyan

  • Rhodes (TN)

  • Susquehanna (PA )

  • Ursinus (PA )

  • Washington College (MD)

  • Washington & Jefferson (PA )

  • Westminster (PA )

  • Wheaton (MA)

  • Wofford (SC)

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First of all, congrats for your daughter’s accomplishments @jrskaratz ! I will say that it’s going to be tough to find a campus as well-groomed as Richmond. Sakes alive, you could almost eat off the ground in most spots there - amazing lake right off the dorms, too.

I have a suggestion for your kid based on your metrics, really a safety school but one that I think you should consider in your search.

Ohio University is the hidden gem of the state. The main green is beautiful, and the campus is extremely walkable. Related to your other points:

-Small/medium sized? Well, it’s 18,000 students but it really doesn’t feel that way at all. After spending a fair amount of time on campus (weekends, week nights, summers, winters) there’s hardly a sense of this being a place with over 10k kids.

-Pretty, walkable campus? As I mentioned above, one of the most walkable grounds of the 35-40 schools that we’ve visited over the past four years

-Good match for daughters stats (perhaps if she’s above their average, that helps us)? Your daughter is well above-average for OU. It’s an absolute safety and there could be strong merit here.

-May give ample $$ to woo a student they want? Again, we’ve experienced this ourselves. Our DC received a nice package here (not attending), but again, this is about the process and we made sure we had a safety on her list that could provide a fun, delightful 4-year experience.

-Take good care of the students (small classes, good advisement, some focus on wellness)? Eh, some intro classes are large but the major-specific courses can be 3-7 kids if you drill down enough. Cannot speak to the advisement/wellness.

-East coast, no Deep South, maybe a little into the Midwest (not too far from Charlotte)? Southern Ohio, about 2 1/2 hours from Cincinnati, maybe an hour or so from Columbus.

-interests include anthropology, media, art, Spanish, and forensics? The Scripps College for Communication at O.U. is one of the best in the country, with legitimate pipelines to media outlets, comparable to top Ten media schools. Your child’s interest in media is one of the main reasons that I’m suggesting you take a look at O.U.

An aspect of Richmond that we didn’t love was the lack of mobility. You probably need access to a car to do much off-campus there. OU’s campus is basically the town, with a main strip filled with local restaurants, Buffalo Wild Wings, Insomnia Cookies, CVS, college bookstores.

I like to say that while the college admissions process used to evolve in 5-10 year intervals decades ago, it’s seemingly evolving now on an annual basis. No one can guarantee any kid’s success at reach schools (or even match schools in some cases) in this admissions environment. Just read the Clemson thread. People are blown away at some of the results coming out of there.

All that said, it sounds like your family is taking a very sober approach to this insane process. It is an exciting time, and half the fun for your kid is imagining themself at a particular school and what vision looks like. Again, she should have amazing options. Our DC is writing their regrets to a couple of schools this weekend, but we made sure to have these schools (yes, safeties) as part of our process.

Right now, Ohio University is a hidden gem safety school for high-stats kids, especially those interested in media.

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Based upon her interests, I would take a hard look at Beloit College. It has some resources in Anthropology that is going to be hard to find in a smaller school.

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Our son went to Richmond. We felt that Bucknell was the closest peer school in terms of enrollment, and both are more small universities than LACs. Almost 40% of the students major in business at Richmond, and engineering and business are among Bucknell’s most popular majors, making both stand out from most LACs. Busknell would be tough to get merit.

As already suggested earlier as an alternative to Richmond, our son really liked Elon, and it’s also a beautiful campus. He received a fair amount of merit and an invitation to the scholars’ program with similar stats as your daughter. In addition, Elon’s starting price is a good deal lower than Richmond’s.

I understand the strategy of looking at comparable schools to Richmond that are less competitive academically to get merit and reduce costs. However, you may also want to consider a larger state school where you would have a lower price and depending on the school being the honors college. Delaware, for example, would be a school where your daughter would likely qualify for merit and acceptance into the honors program especially based on her academic interests.

I’m probably a little bit in the minority on here, but my issue with the other strategy of seeking merit at less competitive LACs is a small peer group of students who are as academically rigorous and interested. When you are at a school with 2000 kids in the top 5%, it’s a hundred kids; at Delaware, it’s close to a thousand.

I also agree with the Ohio University suggestion; we have a good friend who is a veteran college counselor; she has her hidden gems, and Ohio U is one of them. Miami U and even possibly Pitt could as be worth considering.

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I hear the same about Elon, coming from NC, you should be able to some additional insights on the school. OU & Miami have been rival schools for the longest time, though in recent years, Miami U has kind of moved higher in “status,” it’s another school to research. Pitt was on my kid’s long list but ultimately didn’t apply. Pitt is rolling admissions, too, fyi.

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As some others have said, Loyola Maryland could be a good choice. I have heard they are generous with merit. My D is happy at Elon but she does note its lack of diversity, after attending a very diverse high school.

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