Wow! I am blown away by your very thorough and thoughtful response. Thank you so much! There is so much to consider, and so much uncertainty. Our list is evolving—the visits we have done so far have been helpful, as is the wonderful advice I am receiving on this forum. It’s such a challenge. My daughter is smart and strong, but also a sensitive kid, and I wanna make sure we find a place where she can feel comfortable and not overwhelmed. We’re trying to be reasonable about finances, but hubby is also of the mindset that prestige/name recognition are important. I don’t know if we are going to find a small liberal arts school that is “high in the rankings,” and we will be able to afford to attend.
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It is a balancing act for most families… trying to find the right fit academically, environmentally and financially.
Have you run any NPCs? You may be surprised at the generous need-aid at selective LACs. I know my D’s school covers full tuition for families earning $125k or less… and generous aid for family’s earning more but not enough to afford $85k per year.
Based on what you learn, you may have more options than just schools offering merit aid. Best of luck!
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I think my husband did the general EFC and ours was super high. He hasn’t done any school specific NPC’s… Our salary/ies are not high, but assets are high (investment accounts, that we are planning to live on for the next few decades), which may make us out of luck?…
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Do the school specific NPCs… they are different than the FAFSA and incorporate the individual school aid policies. Most privates use the CSS Profile to determine aid rather than FAFSA.
But you are correct, if your “retirement” savings are not in protected retirement accounts, that will negatively impact need-aid calculations. You may have mentioned that upthread, but I’d forgotten.
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I was going to suggest Elon, too. People from elsewhere seem to think it’s lovely. The campus doesn’t do much for me — just a lot of red brick like so many NC campuses — so I don’t know if it will do that much for you since it’s in Alamance Co, but a lot of people sure gush about how beautiful the campus is. I think it’s a slightly easier admit than Richmond and if you can deal with the surroundings and lack of amenities (Burlington is certainly no Richmond) then it might be worth a look. I think they take good care of their students and offer them a lot of opportunities.
I like Guilford’s campus better. It would be a likely/sure thing. Check their finances, though, before you commit. And Greensboro is a fun town. Not Richmond level of fun, but it’s a bit of a sleeper like Richmond and has more going on than you might think.
Have you looked at Wake?
For a couple more likelies you could check out Roanoke College in Salem VA (right next door to Roanoke) and if she’s open to a women’s college Hollins University in Roanoke.
Agnes Scott, also a women’s school, is a gorgeous campus right in Decatur. I know it’s South, but might be worth a look. It is super diverse with something like 45% white population. Consistently gets great rankings (look up US News, etc) and they guarantee everybody gets at least $21k merit. Sticker price should be around $32k.
If she’s in state definitely have her apply to UNC-CH, State, maybe AppState, UNC-A, UNC-C if it’s not too close to home, UNC-W.
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It’s hard to say if these schools would meet all the criteria but based on having merit based scholarships, geography, liberal arts and reputation
- Lafayette ¶
- Bucknell ¶
- Bryn Mawr ¶ - women’s college
- Denison University (OH)
If you want to expand out to medium sized schools that aren’t strictly liberal arts
- Case Western Reserve University (OH)
- University of Dayton (OH)
Since getting enough merit can be hit or miss, we included University of Delaware (smaller than our flagship and OOS cost plus likely merit had it within budget) and two in-state colleges one target and one likely (applied to honors for the likely)
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Thank you!!
Two ideas that may merit further research (which I don’t believe have been mentioned) would be Wooster (in Ohio) and James Madison (Virginia, maybe you ruled this one out?).
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Gettysburg might have both the feel and merit you’re look for.
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Starting to hone in on the list-where we’ll apply. Thanks for your input! I just need to get my daughter to read up with me—any tips on that? I think she’s daunted/stressed by thinking about all of this, the thought of leaving home, and studying for finals!
Anyway, I love all of these and want to go back to college myself (what cool areas of study there are)!!
As a reminder, my daughters info:
-Resident of North Carolina, biracial, legacy at Chapel Hill (I believe that doesn’t help us, since we are in state)
-3.9 UW/4.3 W GPA (roughly, waiting on final grades)
-9 or 10 AP courses by the end of senior year, all others are honors
-34 ACT (no SAT yet)
-Based on predicted numbers, will likely be a national merit finalist
-part-time job 4 years, stage crew three years, tutors adults in ESL, face painting business, a few clubs
-undecided, but interested in anthropology, Spanish, biology and media arts
-Looking for a nice campus, good housing availability, potential for smaller class sizes and good advisement to help her determine her studies
-we’d like to come in under 40 K after merit
-She says she doesn’t want to be too far from home, but I’d like to have some great options for her, and if it’s affordable enough, we can spend more money on travel to get her back-and-forth
-UNC Chapel Hill (in state)
-UNC Asheville
-Elon
-Richmond
-William and Mary
-American University
-SUNY Binghamton
-Denison
-College of Wooster
-Miami U. of Ohio
I feel really good about our list, but we need to cut off a few, and make sure we have a good balance of true likelies (including cost), and matches, not sure if we need to reaches)— I have to see if my daughter still wants to apply to Penn (which I’m sure it won’t come in as affordable, but if she wants to see what happens, I’m fine with that).
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The list looks good. As for getting your child to read up with you …my kids didn’t like to read up on the colleges. They would go to college fairs and talk to the admission people, they signed up when a college on their list came to the school and would go on the college tours.
There is also advice I read to agree on specific times to talk about college with your kids. I would say that was also helpful so they didn’t feel like it was college talk 24-7 and get overwhelmed.
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This looks like a good, balanced list! I wouldn’t necessarily cut unless it feels overwhelming. This guarantees options next spring.
While it can be nice to have options if thrre are disappointments, it also leaves room for growth/evolution during senior year. It’s not unusual for kids to change their mind about what they want as the process goes on. Some who start feeling like a smaller school feels more comfortable and safe may start feeling more confident about larger schools whereas others may realize through touring that they want a more intentional community and engagement. Your list has room for all of that.
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Homemade cookies fresh out of the oven and some college campus Youtube videos are always enticing. 
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S24 has similar stat and a similar list. We have been searching for schools that provide merit and you have picked a lot of them. Did anyone mention U Tulsa as a free option if she NMF?
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If you have no need, I don’t think AU would come in at budget. But nothing wrong with trying.
Your list is 10. Why do you need to cut a few ?
Conversely if you need to hit $40k, you need to add unless UNCA will work for you.
Schools like Richmond and W&M will have near zero (not zero) chance of $40k, etc.
You need an assured admit that will get there.
So personally I don’t love the list…again unless she’ll be ok at UNCA.
You have acceptances. But I’m looking at the $40k # as I make that comment.
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I’m with @tsbna44. I don’t love this list. If you’re not getting FA it’s going to be tough to get COA down to $40k.
Denison, Richmond and American are pushing $80k. W&M OOS is over $60. Look at the scholarship pages for each school. You might get $20-30k. There are a few larger, named scholarships but those are hyper-competitive.
SUNY Bing is probably 10 hours from Charlotte. If that’s ok maybe expand your search area? Fordham offers merit for NMF.
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I really appreciate your input. What would your general advice be? I guess we should keep the list at a decent size, giving ourselves more chances at good merit… Maybe we should look harder at other state schools, outside of NC? I think it would be tough to sell both my husband and daughter on some other private schools that we haven’t heard of— some, even a slight degree, of name recognition are factors for them. Not so much for prestige/bragging rights, but they are concerned about what happens after college if they’ve attended school with little name recognition, and potentially much smaller networking resources. But I know we can’t get everything we want….
Thank you, where do you think you would be looking if you were us, knowing our priorities?
Did you look at the thread of the NMF schools? There are a bunch that I didnt know about. Fordham would get down to about 40K with the NMF scholarship and the Rose Hill Campus probably fits a lot of your needs. I don’t know much about the other schools other than Tulsa which will go on my S24s list if he is a NMF.
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This is the rub of no FA but shopping for merit. Are you willing to trade prestige for merit? Are you willing to expand your geographic preferences for merit? There’s no wrong answer. Staying closer to home isn’t a bad thing. She has to be comfortable.
Your daughter is probably a NMF. She’ll get acceptances and merit but will it be enough? For example, she’ll have to be one of 25 Richmond Scholars at Richmond for it to be affordable. Could she win? Absolutely but not likely.
It seems like the list has a few safeties and the rest long shots.
SUNY Bing is nice but OOS COA is over $40k. She probably could go to UGA or South Carolina for half that. FSU for even less. She would also probably get into some very good honors programs.
Maybe schools like Wofford or Charleston? Dickinson?
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