Probably a good fit for Lehigh
They have a biocomputational engineering major that might suit your needs
I was thinking about Lehigh too but their COA is $70K/year and Bethlehem isnât very urban.
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Bethlehem is not Boston or NYC or DC, however it is far from rural or suburban. Academically I feel its a fit, particularly in the fields of Study you say your interested in. They have a new school of Health if your interest in Biology is in preparing for a pre-health vocation. Its also relatively close to NY and Philadelphia.
Do online tours of schools that might interest you then filter out the ones that attract your attention and try to actually arrange a tour. Best of Luck !
Your daughter is a super strong candidate â not that it makes the process much less stressful.
My 2 cents: Iâd leave Vassar and Boston College on the fit list. The others are probably low reaches, even for someone with terrific credentials.
Bing is a safety and can stay where it is.
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Those schools are close to $80,000 a year, more than the OPâs budget.
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OP Is just starting to figure this out. She will need to run the net price calculator for them.
I suggest OP looks at merit options at schools not on the list which will help give a range to consider. U of SC will be interested and offer merit.
Your wonderful suggestions worked! Last night we sat down with a map and had the first real discussion we have had on the topic. It was great:
MAJORS
Hard science as premed
Math (would probably be her priority major)
Engineering
Therefore school with strong STEM
LOCATIONS
CA Bay Area
San Jose Area
LA area
San Diego area
Denver and surrounding
Austin and surrounding
Houston and surrounding
Arizona
North Carolina
Miami
Atlanta
DC
Boston
NYC (Columbia, Barnard, NYU only)
SUNY as safety- Bing, New Paltz, Albany)
Phila (Penn only)
Baltimore (JHU only)
Dartmouth at my suggestion because they have a known fly-in program for URM
Budget: Remains same- 60-65k. Would like lower if med school becomes a strong possibility. I would call it 50/50 right now.
UC schools I think are out because of their cost relative to value- Cal and UCLA might be exceptions.
Above is pretty specific and has rationale. She does not want to go to any of the conservative mostly white LACs in the northeast (think Wellesley). That was an eye opener to me, and makes things harder because they are probably the ones where she might have an edge.
So have at it. You have been great so far!
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Would love 4 reaches and 4 fits.
SUNYs will be safeties
Or 5-6 of each.
If engineering is on the table, cut Dartmouth.
Congrats on starting the deeper conversations.
Start running NPCs and cull the schools that arenât in budget. That should help narrow the list down.
Iâd also switch new paltz for Buffalo.
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momofboiler1: she was pretty specific how far she was willing to go upstate. She even nixed Cornell for that reason. So Buffalo is a no for her. I guess knowing what someone doesnât want is valuable too.
Dartmouth I put on there because it is the only Ivy she might have some sort of advantage at- and maybe the only ones that she has a shot at. They have a tougher time than the rest attracting people of color, and have an established fly-in program. The engineering is admittedly less hard core, but the shine of an Ivy does matter to some degree.
Dartmouth has very limited engineering offerings and I believe itâs a 3-2 program so youâd have an extra year of costs.
Similarly New Paltz only offers 3 engineering majors. If she doesnât want to go upstate, maybe look at Stony Brook as one of the safeties.
IMO, the academic/major offerings need to be the top priority and your D already has plenty of reaches on her list.
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I agree on the academic offering being a priority.
I hear you on Stony Brook. Kids from Long Island would rather die than go to school on Long Island.
Dartmouth although limited, is one we would figure out a way to pay for year 5. There arenât many that fit into the category, but there are the select few.
NP is very unlikely. In the event she were left with SUNYâs as only options, Bing would likely be the call.
Any preference in terms of size? How about campus feel? I know you put urban/suburban, but some urban schools have a discrete campus, others, like a BU, do not.
Great work going on here!
A really, really bad reason to choose Dartmouth. Dartmouth is a âfitâ school- it suits you or it doesnât. She should be really, really sure that the dominant campus culture suits her. I know students that it didnât fit who made it work (a lot of study abroad was involved) but they say that the âIvyâ label wasnât worth it.
Some schools really are âfitâ schools, others suit a broader range of students. JHU and Dartmouth are âfitâ schools- and polar opposites. A lot of possible pre-meds think JHU is a good option- and it can be! - but only if the environment suits you.
Ask her to think in terms of learning environments. When does she shine / when is it harder going? Does she want a tight âcampus communityâ, or a loose confederation? What does she imagine doing with her time outside of the classroom? who is she doing it with?
IRL, will she cry if it gets to April and her only choice is a SUNY?
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I grew up on LI ; )
Aside from cost, the issue with the 3-2 programs is that there is no guarantee of getting into the â2â school and most students opt not to leave because they want to stay with their cohort and theyâve built relationships with professors.
If engineering isnât necessarily the end goal, it may not matter for your student, but if it is, keep it in the back of your mind.
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I encourage you to closely look at Dartmouth engineering optionsâŠthere is a 4 year AB degree, not ABET accredited, and the majors are somewhat limited.
Dartmouth offers a BE that is accredited, but that degree requires 9 extra hours as compared to the AB and most students take a 5th year to complete that (the 2-1-1-1 or 3-2 program is for students at other LACs, where Dartmouth is the 2 year school).
Most importantly, the students who graduate with a BE in 5 years do not get better job outcomes than 4 year engineering grads from other schools. But, for a student who isnât sure they want engineering, Dartmouth could be a good option. Paying an extra $80K for that luxury may or may not make sense depending on oneâs situation.
What is her UW GPA?
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OK- I hear you all re Dartmouth. Points taken and understood. Ivy dreams die hard. More for me than her. She could care less about Dartmouth. And it is extremely expensive for many reasons. So off it goes.
Cry if SUNY is all that is open to her. Maybe for a day, and then will move on. The tears will be for all of the extra stuff she had to do to give herself a shot at some of the elite schools. If they donât come through, she will go to a school that will have required much less to get in (fewer APâs, internships, etc.). It will seem for naught, but she and I both know there is a gamble here.
really no preference in type of campus or size. She has been to a few to visit friends and seems OK with all, as long as they are located where she prefers most.
There is never a situation that effort, APs, Internships are for naught. Those experiences and classes will prepare her for success in college and beyond. Sheâll have a leg up in finding an internships right after freshman year, have the work ethic to stay focused on doing well in her classes, etcâŠ
The end game for hard work in HS shouldnât be âeliteâ college admission. It should be life preparation. That doesnât change whether sheâs at an Ivy or a SUNY.
If your child is going to stick with pre-med intentions, they have a very long road ahead of them. Her hard work in HS sets the foundation for that now.
Youâve gotten some good suggestions for match schools up thread in cities that stayed on your dâs list. Make sure sheâs applying to them too.
If Ivy is an important metric to have on the list, give Cornell another look. Super strong academically in all of your studentâs areas of interest and even though itâs âupstate,â itâs a city unto itself and Ithaca is a great college town. There is a lot more going on there than at Dartmouth and they do likely letters for URMs.
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