Thank you! Does Macalester have a religious feel?
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No, not at all. Mac is liberal and activist.
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The issue here is COA is $80k
I’ve not read or seen $40k merit at Mac. Is it possible ?
Otherwise like Richmond and others on OP’s list - it’s fine for a why not app but it’s not in the bucket of likely acceptance and likely financially in the game.
We have to remember the family has no need but a $40k budget.
Maybe Kalamazoo or Depauw might meet but and correct me if I’m off base - I don’t see a Mac or Kenyon or Dennison type meeting. Know nothing about St Thomas.
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You are right that it might not be possible. Reading their website, it looks like they give merit awards up to 23K on a regular basis. But it looks like they also have special funds for National Merit Scholars (which OP’s daughter might be.) Not sure how much that would add though…
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This is very dated, but I was a National Merit semi-finalist and received a 1/2 tuition scholarship automatically at George Washington. Might still be the case.
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Each of these schools have multiple paths to offer enough aid to entice a student it targets.
Kenyon: IIRC, Kenyon stacks internal offers. A student might receive a 10K academic award and a 15K talent (writing, music, art, etc) award. If the student also receives the Newman award (which replaces the loan portion of Kenyon’s Financial Aid Package) that might make the school affordable for this family. Is it likely one student receives all three? I don’t know. What I do know is several schools that accepted my son offered a potpourri of scholarships+grants to make themselves affordable to me. The ones that targeted my son as a student they really wanted, put together a package of aid that made their school affordable. There’s no way to guess which school will, hence the many eggs. But there is a path for Kenyon to be affordable for this student. Kenyon took an interest in my son. In the end, he wasn’t admitted, but if he had been admitted I think he would have received an affordable package.
Denison: offers 10 named merit scholarships that range from 5K to full ride. Again, not likely but it is possible. As with other schools, there are no explicit descriptions of the amounts for each award. These schools can massage the aid for the student they target. A great essay and demonstrated interest are part of the answer to how to close the gap.
U of St Thomas: Several paths for underrepresented students. The Frey R&B covers full cost of Room and Board for selected minority applicants who are 1stGen … which wouldn’t fit this family, but I list it for others who may be interested. GHR Fellows covers full tuition and fees for Business majors entering with at least a 3.7GPA, which does fit this student for GPA. Schulze Innovation which is a full ride awarded to select Entrepreneurship majors entering with at least a 3.5 GPA. And many more. Some need-based, some not need-based.
There are many reasons a school may target a student for extra financial enticement. The OPs student can fill a lot of buckets for some of these schools, including geographical diversity which matters for some schools. For instance, Elon may not award much financial enticement to encourage a NC student to attend, but Marist (very similar in many ways, except location) might. Again, I offer the caveat of “no guarantee” but that’s the beauty of this path for me.
Schools that guarantee to meet need get a metric crap-ton of applicants seeking that magical lottery ticket for admission to a low-cost education. The type of schools we’re discussing in this thread usually have much fewer applicants in general and fewer seeking such aid, but these schools have the money to offer to students they really want. To me, that creates better odds than a 93% reject-rate school.
Yeah, a little more work than choosing eight top 60 schools and writing a full-pay check to whichever admits. And more work than choosing an in-state public and knowing for certain it’s affordable. And maybe even a couple of bruised ego moments of disappointment. But I never promised a rose garden. 
Just be upfront with the student about the journey, and the student should be able to manage expectations adequately.
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Macalester does NOT have a religious feel at all.
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If you go to see Macalester, go 45 minutes to Northfield and see St. Olaf. They offered my D23 incredible merit! It was a beautiful school and hands down, the best admissions experience we had.
It does have a historic religious background and there is a religion class requirement, but it felt open minded about religion.
It’s worth checking out. In the end, my D23 chose Elon over St. Olaf because she felt she connected better with the students, but St. Olaf was an amazing place.
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If you’re willing to consider schools as far as Minnesota, then some other possibilities might be:
Lawrence (WI), and perhaps Beloit (WI), too, both of which are part of Colleges That Change Lives.
I’ve mentioned it before, but DePauw (IN) might be of interest, too.
Going more into the mid-Atlantic states, has she thought about:
- Gettysburg (PA )
- Lincoln (PA ), HBCU
- Monmouth (NJ)
- St. Lawrence (NY)
- St. Mary’s College of Maryland (public, mentioned by @tsbna44)
- SUNY Geneseo (the premier public liberal arts college of NY)
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Several Midwest schools have been mentioned recently – Kenyon, Mac, St. Olaf, Lawrence, Beloit, DePauw, Kalamazoo. These are all quality schools that will show the money to the right kid.
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Creighton is another option along the lines of the schools already suggested.
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Just a reminder from OP - because we seem to be heading West…
“East coast, no Deep South, maybe a little into the Midwest (not too far from Charlotte)”
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Macalester doesn’t have a religious feel but merit does max out in mid 20’s which leaves the high 50’s as the COA.
Honestly, what you really need to do is get a feel for the merit for these schools via this site or Reddit. I had a S22 son and he got 22K from Macalester (or something around that) and when I was on the results pages everyone chiming in was in that ballpark or lower. I was pretty confident that was the going/close to max merit - at least based upon the dozens of parents or kids chiming in with their awards. But no one was getting 40K in merit which is what you would need to get your cost down to 40K.
I also think its great to shoot for the moon with schools that give 10 big merit awards but its such a long shot I would never expect it.
I also think it is ridiculously easy to find schools with a COA of 40K. You just have to find schools with higher acceptance rates. In fact a high stats kid can easily go to a good solid college for 20K or much less.
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Yes it is - but students need to accept the trade offs which also include what they might deem a lesser brand name. But that’s a self inflicted wound as these are wonderful schools putting out very successful grads.
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But name brands can also be a name brand for only a particular geographic area. For example, I am in Ky, and all my friends are college grads sending their kiddos to expensive private high schools (16-24K per year). But these people couldn’t even begin to tell you where Colby, Colgate, Bowdoin, Bates… are even located—obviously, crazy selective colleges but zero name-brand recognition here. Now something like Wake Forest or William and Mary, all the good publics, those are known but not the selective LAC’s.
Someone had a great point the other day about name brands. It’s really cool to put it on Instagram, and mom puts it on Facebook, but come August you head to Northwestern, and everyone else in your college classes also got accepted there so no one is impressed.
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100% agreed - a lot of “high profile” schools don’t have mainstream recognition. I assume but don’t know that they have with key employers because they do put out successful grads.
But OP’s husband is looking for a “name brand” and it’s in the eye of the beholder.
I’ve mentioned Christopher Newport several times - which seems like it’s everything the OP wants - but it’s not garnered any level of response whereas others have - and it’s an absolute winner - in regards to budget, location, size, etc. for the OP whereas other schools they are looking at are possible (Charleston) or nowhere near budget (many mentioned on this list). This is likely because it’s not a “recognizable” name for many.
Some will know local schools - like where I live - MTSU, Belmont, Lipscomb…by you Centre, etc. - but others outside the area won’t know. WKU is another - for your state - and Murray State for another KY school - great rep in the Nashville area. But do they have a great rep in Denver or NY? Likely not.
Brand is in the eye of the beholder but most schools do have strong brands - but to your point, it may be geographically.
But that doesn’t mean their students can’t be successful anywhere!!
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Brand is very regional. Unless a school plays nationally televised football or basketball, or is one of about 5-10 schools in the country, most Americans will not have heard of the school if it’s outside of their region. I agree about looking at outcomes, class sizes, and other issues of importance to the family to see if a school that was heretofore unknown to one’s family would be a good fit.
Christopher Newport is a great suggestion that I think is definitely worth additional consideration. I know it had been suggested by others (at least me)either earlier in this thread or on the other one.
I know that OP was asking for more info on Macalester, which is why I mentioned schools that were further away, but not as far as Minneapolis.
Also,colleges’ scholarship pages will generally list the maximum level of merit aid available. If the max available won’t bring the price within budget, then it’s an easy way to eliminate a school.
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