<p>Well we'd certainly appreciate any financial help we can come by, but we will not make that a deciding factor in the choice of school (may just be a deciding factor in when I retire).</p>
<p>No specific recommendations, but he may want to look for girl heavy LACs. They may give him more wiggle room on numbers.</p>
<p>Why the ED on Colorado College? If he knows that's where he wants to be, and it's a match, then you can eliminate all the stress related to reach admissions. You would give up financial aid negotiation though.</p>
<p>He thinks Colorado College (CC) will be his ED choice. He'll do a seond visit with overnight dorm stay and attend class later this month. Which should help confirm.</p>
<p>We think his stats are a good fit to CC, but of course no sure thing. Additionally, CC gets many applicants from Colorado, so we have a concern that the numbers that might get you in as an applicant from say Maine or Georgia, might not work for a Colorado resident.</p>
<p>Looks good to me. Same question as Momofour about Colorado College. If he gets in there, I guess he does not have to worry about many other schools. Just get the UCol app in quickly if school is rolling so it is a true safety for you.</p>
<p>Other schools to consider would be Westminster in Missouri, Albertson in Idaho, Coe in Iowa, Cornell College in Iowa, St. John's/College of St. Benedict in Minnesota, St. Olaf in Minnesota, Beloit in Wisconsin, Ripon in Wisconsin, and Lake Forest in the Chicago area, and Knox a little further south and West in Illinois. Generally speaking, I like your list a lot ( great schools) but some of these schools may better meet your geography and may have a little cash to boot. I have especially good feelings about Westminster and Cornell. They may have the environment that he is seeking. Good luck.</p>
<p>(Edit: some are more like safeties, some are more like matches, but all are doable for a male.)</p>
<p>Girl heavy LACs sounds like solid advice to me. His stats aren't stratospheric, but they are solid enough that I think he might be someone who will get a boost from his gender. </p>
<p>I don't knowe much about CC, but my guess would be that he would get admitted with an ED application.</p>
<p>If he is not DEAD SET on Colorado College as his far and away first choice, I would not have him go ED. JMO, of course, but as the parent of a kid who was suprised with merit offers, you would be giving up the opportunity to see what might come his way. And he would have choices in April, which is a nice thing, especially as we have seen kids change their preferences and criteria between October and April.</p>
<p>Now, just to be even-handed ;), I see that their acceptance rate is 38%, so I can see that the possible ED advantage is one that might be tempting. His SAT scores put him in the mid-50% range for that school (Verbal: 610 - 710<br>
Math: 610 - 690) rather than in the top 25%. But it is a 56%female/44%male school, so he has quite an advantage there.</p>
<p>All in all, I'm not sure he needs any ED boost and he could be foregoing options and $$ if he goes binding ED. They do appear to have non-binding EA.</p>
<p>Macalester is becoming more difficult to be accepted. I second St. Johns in Minnesota, especially if visiting Macalester. They have some merit aid. Whittman might be an option. </p>
<p>What sort of environment is he looking for? City, rural, rural with access to city?</p>
<p>There many of students from Colorado at Knox college. I believe there is some scholarship some Colorado alum has established for kids from this geopraphical location. All in all as curmudgeon mentioned midwest colleges like Knox , Beloit, Lawrence, St.Olaf have a lot to offer and geopraphical difference might be very attractive with benefit of some merit money coming your way.</p>
<p>I had heard about Colorado College, and felt that it would be great for my boys with the one course at a time approach. Did not realize it was so selective.</p>