Another sleeper list of LAC's w/ Merit

Parents Forum
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<p>I didn't think the Times did a very good job of finding any real sleepers in their article so I decided to make my own list . All of these schools are Ranked by USNews as Tier 3. All are very good colleges with something special going for them . </p>

<p>I think many parents would like their child to have options to large state schools but can't afford $45K a year , and more importantly their efc is unaffordable for whatever reason. Those folks are near and dear to my heart. As part of a failsafe plan I wanted to find some schools that fit the category of admissions safety and merit safe/match. Schools where the breadth of the program allowed some optimism about a merit award. (Nobody knows what will happen to their kid's app, though.)</p>

<p>My D and I found several schools outside of that Top 100 list that we thought deserved consideration. The list I present here is a result of that search.</p>

<p>1.) Wesleyan, Ga. <a href="http://www.wesleyancollege.edu"&gt;http://www.wesleyancollege.edu&lt;/a> SAT1230 Women's $20K Tuition, R+B, 37%, $13K average scholarship.</p>

<p>O.K. This is my form. Name/web/sat or ACT 75th%/T+R+B/% receiving merit aid/average merit aid award. </p>

<p>So, in this case 37% of the students going to Wesleyan , one of the most diverse campuses in America, for $7,000 a year. That's less than our junior college. </p>

<p>2.) Westminster, Mo. <a href="http://www.westminster-mo.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.westminster-mo.edu&lt;/a> 27ACT $20K , 42% $7,200 </p>

<p>This a great little school with a Churchill connection , treed campus, 3.) new science building, lots of OOS kids, 1/2 lib and 1/2 wrong. Slightly more guys than gals. My D could have been very happy here for less than a Texas state school. </p>

<p>3.) Cornell College, Iowa <a href="http://www.cornellcollege.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cornellcollege.edu&lt;/a> 29ACT $30K 27% $13,700</p>

<p>Was Top 100 for year. OCAAT (One course at a time, 90% OOS). Really friendly. Super school. Kindof mildly crunchy.</p>

<p>4.) Ripon, Wisconsin <a href="http://www.ripon.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ripon.edu&lt;/a> 27ACT $27K 18% $14,000 Only visited online but looks great.</p>

<p>5.) Albertson, Idaho <a href="http://www.albertson.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.albertson.edu&lt;/a> 27ACT $22K 55% $6,300 Only visited online but looks great.</p>

<p>6.) Lyon College , Arkansas 28ACT <a href="http://www.lyon.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.lyon.edu&lt;/a> $20K 26% $10,200 Really cute tiny school , high on a mountain at the end of a great motorcycle road ;) . And I mean tiny, but with a very good academic rep. Be sure your major is well represented.</p>

<p>7.) Oglethorpe , Ga. <a href="http://www.oglethorpe.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.oglethorpe.edu&lt;/a> 1280SAT $29,4K 31% $9, 200. Excellent Atlanta school. Some full rides, too. </p>

<p>8.) Susquehanna, Pa. <a href="http://www.susqu.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.susqu.edu&lt;/a> SAT 1250 $33,5K 28% $9,200 More generous than most in the area. Only visited online but looks great.</p>

<p>I'm positive there are plenty more. Someone searching for full rides would have different parameters. I was just trying to find nice private schools that my D liked that I could afford. These were among the most possible with their average merit awards.</p>

<p>You'll find that some are very small, some are isolated, some are both. LOL. But my D didn't really object . They were by and large safe and nurturing.</p>

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<p>Again, that's not a comprehensive list. Just a sample of great little LAC's that we felt would meet the needs of my D, regardless of her stats. Cornell College and Westminster are two of the best schools we visited as far as engaged students, happy students, professor involvment with the students, campus life, etc. Other's can run down these schools but check them out yourself. They may surprise you. Hunt some more up . They are out there if you look.;)</p>

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<p>thank you curmedgeon.</p>

<p>i don't recall if your child always was interested in a LAC. trying to get my last one to even consider a smaller school (like the HS) is like pulling teeth. and if i hear "I want to party" one more time I'm going to lose it. as if life is a party--more like an ongoing day to day struggle.</p>

<p>If only I was young again. life is a party at 18.</p>

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<p>Yep. She was always interested in LAC's and small uni's. To start with she would only consider those in very small towns. Cities were out of the question. But as she grew older she realized that schools with a defined campus in a residential part of a city would be O.K. also. I think that had she gone to a summer program in a city (as we had planned to do) that she would have come to that realization sooner. For her to end up in Memphis surprised several folks . </p>

<p>She thought her perfect school would be a more politically and socially moderate Grinnell that offered full-tuition merit aid scholarships. We never actually found that school. LOL. </p>

<p>But as the search continued she really kept coming back to Rhodes (in her mind and literally) because of the possibilities presented by the U of Tn Medical school and St. Jude's blocks away. Rhodes has wonderful programs in place at both and opportunities for meaningful medical research experiences as an undergrad. </p>

<p>As a committed pre-med/pre-science Phd. research opps were critical. She felt LAC's gave her the best opportunity and she researched the bio and chem professors at each school we considered to find those that utilized undergrads in research in non-scut ways. LAC's scored very highly in that regard.</p>

<p>Her next column up was small uni's with med schools. She could have been quite happy there also.</p>

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<p>Curmudgeon,
I have to admit that I'm confused. If you both loved Westminster and Cornell College what made them fall of your D's list? Also, given your enthaustic WashU report, I was confused about that one being dropped, too.</p>

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<p>To be blunt, she outperformed expectations (her's and ours) on standardized tests and some competitions which made merit possibilities much greater at a higher strata of schools (primarily schools whose freshman profile was higher). Schools that were once her reaches on her preliminary list (Centre, Rhodes, Furman) became her merit matches and admissions good bets. </p>

<p>We kept a few other schools with profiles higher than Cornell and Westminster - like Hanover, Millsaps, Hendrix that served as merit good bets with Hanover being a guaranteed merit safety by virtue of her val/sal status, GPA, and test scores (auto schol of $15K off a $30K COA). Cornell and Westminster became Millsaps and Hendrix, so to speak.</p>

<p>WashU is an EXCELLENT school. I regret her not carrying through after her pre-app. I also regret her not applying to Emory or Vandy but it was her call. WashU lost out because she really didn't see that it was going to be financially affordable (didn't care for their merit process even though she was a Danforth nominee. She felt she would be limited to need based) and if she was going to take such a "flyer" on need based she'd take it on Amherst and Yale. So, IOW, WashU became Yale. (Probably not her best decision.)</p>

<p>We still have great fondest for many schools she didn't apply to (and all that she didn't accept). Cornell , Westminster, Furman, WashU, Emory, Vandy, Emory at Oxford, Davidson, Lake Forest, Williams , Dartmouth , Princeton, CalTech the list is VERY long. We visited a lot of schools and had established relationships with lots of adreps. It was tough to let them go. Some tougher than others.</p>

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<p>Thanks for sharing. We'll certainly be looking at these schools. When did your daughter begin getting to know the adcom. Was it when she applied or before?</p>

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<p>She casually met some adreps as early as sophomore year at CTCL events. Followed up by a casual campus visit later in the spring. Followed up by an additional on campus interview and an additional interview when they were in town (or as that phrase is interpreted in Texas- 110 miles away). Plus several very short e-mails , one before and one after each event touching base, and when there was a need.</p>

<p>Some she never met in person, only on the phone. Some only online. She never pestered anybody. Just did what seemed natural .</p>

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<p>I'd be interested to hear more of your thoughts on Lyon, just out of curousity. I'd looked into it informally.</p>

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<p>Tiny. Pretty. Did I say it was tiny? I don't know much about it other than what one can find on-line and in a drive-by visit but what I have heard back from folks who have visited in earnest- they like it.</p>

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<p>Another school I would add is York College in Pennsylvania. They are not highly competitive and the school is in a pretty isolated part of PA, but it is a nice LAC, has a nice option of programs and offers good merit aid. Also, the cost for a LAC is not all that high even without merit aid. It's worth a look.</p>

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<p>thumper1, what about Lycoming in Williamsport? It looked pretty good online and had a wonderful valedictorian scholarship.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the valuable post, I'll be looking at Westminster seriously. To add to your list, there is tiny, very affordable Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. Similar to St. John's College. Another affordable and excellent school is Berea College, although they look to serve primarily regional kids.</p>

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<p>Slippery Rock is another great school.</p>

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<p>Cur, we used to live just outside of Williamsport, so I have passing familiarity with Lycoming College. I can't say anything about their programs (we lived in PA 18 years ago), but I did always like the campus. As I recall, it was quite self-contained, lots of trees, and drew heavily from the region. Williamsport itself isn't exactly a happening place, and it's quite rural once you're out of the city. We used to watch the deer and the bears walk by our house; a bit of culture shock for this Chicago girl! </p>

<p>It's funny to me now that Lycoming never made our radar, since it bears so many similarities to Otterbein, where my daughter is going. Both are United Methodist schools that tend to have a strong regional draw. I doubt my daughter would have liked Lycoming though, because she definitely wanted a city nearby. Williamsport wouldn't have made the cut; Columbus did.</p>

<p>Speaking of Otterbein, we've been more than pleased with their merit aid. I don't have the numbers at hand to follow your format, but they do have automatic scholarships based on GPA and SAT/ACT scores. An applicant can get up to $7000 without any additional effort; to qualify for the $11,000 scholarship, an additional essay must be submitted. We also found them to be exceptionally generous with their talent awards, and my daughter found out just last week that she was being given an additional $1000 scholarship based on her senior year grades and community/school activities. In addition, Otterbein is a United Methodist school, so my daughter (also a United Methodist) was able to apply for church scholarships. When the final numbers all came in, our total bill for this year will be less than $5K...far less than we had ever dreamed possible. Of course, it does help that Otterbein's total cost (T+R+B) is only about $32,000.</p>

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<p>Check out Drew University in Madison, NJ. Ranked 63 on USNWR. My D got a great combo of merit and need-based aid. Gorgeous campus, on commuter line to NYC. Going through some big changes right now, including dramatic increase in diversity.</p>

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<p>Not on the CTCL list, but nice LAC's in the mid-atlantic; I have visited all of them, and they all offer significant merit aid. Each seems to have its own signature programs--</p>

<p>Washington College, Chestertown, MD (creative writing, eco/biology stuff)
Lebanon Valley College, PA (math and music, along with some pre-professional)
Elizabethtown College PA (tons of majors-lots of pre-professional)
Mount St. Mary's, Emmitsburg, Md (good business program)</p>

<p>My son has applied and been accepted to two of them, got 13-15K merit from each one. (SAT 2040, 3.9 UW GPA) I would have expected about the same package from the others as well.</p>

<p>Note that the beginning price on these schools is also NOT the 45,000 that many higher-ranked schools are--that means a final price of 20-25000 for us after merit aid.</p>

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<p>Transylvania University in Lexington, KY is a Tier 3 school offers full tuition and fees scholarships (worth $22,300 per year at present) to 25 incoming students annually). They also offer a range of other scholarships based on GPA and test scores running from $7,000 to $10,000 per year for up to four years. </p>

<p>The middle 50% ACT at Transylvania is 23-29. </p>

<p>"Transy" costs $29,430 per year for tuition, fees, room & board. Cost of attendance averages $32,500.</p>

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<p>For my daughter, whose stats were not quite as high as Cur's D, the three schools that gave her the most merit aid were Kalamazoo, Wooster and Pacific Lutheran. I believe the bill for Pacific Lutheran would have been less than $15,000 after merit aid, (a little bit less than the cost of going to one of the California State schools). She ended up at Wooster, however. </p>

<p>A couple of small affordable schools that are generous with scholarships that my nephews and nieces are attending in the midwest -- Northwestern in Iowa, and Concordia in Moorhead, MN.</p>

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<p>Jaybee: Washington College also caught my daughter's and my attention. Their merit aid program sounds very generous (merit aid for accepted students who are Natl. Honor Society members). Plus they have a Writer's House on campus(D plans to major in English). It looks like the college's location is somewhat isolated, but it's in a pleasant community on Maryland's eastern shore.</p>