<p>D wants to major in classics. The only other requirement is financial--parental contribution is around $25,000. So she needs merit scholarship.</p>
<p>Other preferences: location urban or large suburban, good vegetarian food options, size between 3,000 and 15,000, artsy/quirky vibe. Nothing here is required, just trying to hit as many as possible.</p>
<p>Stats: 31 ACT, 4.0 W, 3.7 UW, all possible APs in history and english (6-7 maybe?). From a large competitive high school.</p>
<p>Other facts: started her own business as a freshman, leadership, varsity sports, in summer 2012 won a scholarship to study abroad, did research this summer with a Princeton prof.</p>
<p>My inexperienced opinion would be that she would have more success with getting $ if the application process was more holistic. </p>
<p>Please share any suggestions for colleges that might fit.</p>
<p>The problem with classics is that there’s only a few really good programs, and they’re pretty much all at either highly selective private universities or top public universities that don’t offer a lot of money to out-of-state students. Colleges that offer large amounts of merit aid are generally unlikely to have strong classics programs, although you can definitely find both good merit aid and an adequate classics program. </p>
<p>My questions:
[ul][li]Has she already taken some Greek and/or Latin? If she’s entering at the intermediate level, she needs to be more picky than if she’s starting both from scratch – many colleges offer limited seminars at the 3+ year level. A MA and/or PhD program typically indicates the presence of advanced courses. </p>[/li]
<p>[li]Which state are you in? Many flagship universities have extremely strong (Berkeley, Michigan, UNC, UT Austin, etc.), strong (Penn State, Ohio State, UVA, Illinois, Arizona, etc.), or good (CU Boulder, UGA, Kansas, etc.) programs. [/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>My suggestions:
[ul][li]Tulane - Sounds like a great fit. </p>[/li]
<p>[li]Fordham. LMU. Maybe other Jesuit colleges.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Cincinnati - If she’s willing to go larger. It’s very generous with merit scholarships, and its classics program is superb. On the downside, she may feel unchallenged in some of her other classes.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]College of Charleston - It’s been developing quite a good track record for itself recently.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]Case Western - It has a decent program, though I’d feel more comfortable recommending it to someone interested in ancient art than languages. </p>[/li]
<p>[li]GWU - It’s also significantly better at art/archaeology than languages, but it has some superstars and might be worth a look as well.[/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>In the meantime, run some financial aid calculators if you haven’t done so already. There is one on this site, and many colleges have their own. If she could get her need met through financial rather than merit aid, she would have many more options. </p>
<p>A willingness to consider liberal arts colleges would also expand her options, and she’d be more likely to find an artsy or quirky environment at a LAC. Rhodes, Oberlin, Trinity (TX), Kenyon, and Smith would be my top picks for merit aid and classics.</p>
<p>*My inexperienced opinion would be that she would have more success with getting $ if the application process was more holistic. </p>
<p>Please share any suggestions for colleges that might fit.*</p>
<p>I think you’re mixing up admissions with merit. Holistic views tend to help with admissions, but merit is usually awarded for TOP stats at the particular school…so stats would need to be well within the top 25% of the school. </p>
<p>Merit is usually given to get students with top test scores because the top scores help with a school’s ranking (improving the schools middle quartiles). Sometimes things like ethnic or regional diversity can help with getting merit awards, but ECs and similar don’t count much (or at all) because those things don’t help the school with its reporting data.</p>
<p>I agree that the Jesuit schools likely have good Classics programs. Don’t know if she’d get enough merit to bring costs down to $25k. Don’t think Fordham would work.</p>
<p>Since merit at some schools can be very iffy and may be inadequate, be sure to have your D apply to at least 2 schools where her stats would get ASSURED merit of the needed amounts. Those can be her safeties.</p>
<p>Here are some answers: @warblersrule
-she has not taken any Greek or Latin.<br>
-We are in Illinois.<br>
-she knows she needs to be flexible on size of school (both smaller and larger than target) so Cincinnati might work. </p>
<p>@ jtmoney</p>
<p>Her final destination may be classical archaeology. Advice from different professors during college visits is to make sure to have a solid grounding in classical languages. Grad school is likely hence the attention to finances at this point.</p>
<p>We will not qualify for need-based aid.</p>
<p>She is definitely willing to consider LAC.<br>
We have visited Case Western, Oberlin, College of Wooster. Also, while on the east coast, visited Clark, BU and Hampshire. I wanted her to see a variety of settings, educational philosophies, sizes, etc. The only one she eliminated completely was COW. For Clark, option for Greek and Latin at Holy Cross (according to the professor we met) as they have reciprocity. Same with Hampshire (thru the consortium). Really liked Oberlin but not location. Liked everything about CWRU. Liked BU. Lukewarm on Clark. And I realize these are all not likely to give merit money. The visits were to gain knowledge and perspective.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids-
I definitely was mixing up admissions and merit $. </p>
<p>So then what would some financial safety suggestions be? Maybe SLU, Xavier, Marquette? What about Loyola Marymount (is that LMU referred to by warblersrule?)</p>
<p>Also, location preference is not the snowy cold top tier of the US. Otherwise, she is open.</p>
<p>So then what would some financial safety suggestions be? Maybe SLU, Xavier, Marquette? What about Loyola Marymount (is that LMU referred to by warblersrule?)</p>
<p>None of those can be financial safeties unless their websites indicate assured merit that will bring down costs to what you’ll pay. What if she’s accepted, but gets little or no merit? See…that’s why they’re not safeties.</p>
<p>I can see her getting $6k-15k awards to those schools, but they cost more than $55k per year. So, there would be a shortfall.</p>
<p>She needs to apply to 2-3 schools where FOR SURE she’ll get enough merit for her stats.</p>
<p>look at the thread for automatic merit scholarships. At Alabama, which has a nice Classics dept, she’d get a 2/3 tuition scholarship…remaining costs would be about $20k per year for 1/3 tuition, room, board, etc.</p>
<p>In the past, U of Illinois at Urbana Champaign had a bang-up Classics Department. If UIUC is affordable for your family, and if your daughter’s guidance counselor thinks she’s likely to be admitted there, do stop by for a visit and see what things look like these days.</p>
<p>If you’re willing to consider women’s colleges, check out Bryn Mawr. It offers merit awards to a higher ratio of incoming students than Smith does. Still, it will be a challenge to get down from $50K+ to your $25K limit. Are you expecting no need-based aid at all? If not, then even if you toss in as much as $10K in “self help” aid (a stretch), you’ll probably need an above-average merit grant to afford pricey, selective private schools.</p>
<p>Try the net price calculators for rough estimates, the problem is most schools will gap you, and it is hard to predict how much. Three years ago D with similar stats as yours got about $25000 merit and grant from LMU, with about $20000 EFC,we were pleased and it was her best offer. This year S with slightly lower stats got $21000 with a much lower EFC, University of Portland (not quite as highly rated) was much more generous. The problem is you won’t know until next Spring, so you have to cast a wide net and hope to catch a big fish. Warblersrule has a great list to start with, good luck.</p>
<p>@jtmoney-
How wide of a net is reasonable? We are prepared to fish. And we will try the Net price calculators. </p>
<p>tk21769-
We have accepted the reality that pricey, selective, private schools are not affordable for D. She needs to look lower on the selectivity range.</p>
<p>D told me recently that her research churned up Bryn Mawr as desirable. I told her it was not in the budget after looking at the data. Merit range from the common data set looked like it was $10-$15,000. Not enough. My budget numbers are hard to achieve, as you correctly pointed out. </p>
<p>@sally305-
U of Chicago is not an option financially. They do not give money to kids like mine. And D is required to keep an open mind about location, even snowy ones.</p>
<p>Purely in terms of programs – if her interest is classical archaeology, I think Univ Cincinnati is top notch. Until my son took some classics courses, I had no idea that Cincinnati has such a strong Ph.D. program, but his prof (classical archaeology) is from there and he has fabulous research and a wonderful, inspiring teacher. I don’t know enough to know whether undergrad is as strong as doctoral program, but seems to be the hidden gem of the field.</p>
<p>I see we have yet another vote for U of Cincinnati. DS is at nearby Univ of Dayton. Definitely worth a look to have 2 kids near each other.</p>
<p>Side note about Univ of Cincinnati archaeology–a prof at CWRU told us that a student who does undergrad in archaeology at Cincinnati cannot stay for graduate program. Interesting, right?</p>
<p>How you fish depends on her enthusiasm and time constraints. First a guaranteed financial and admission safety, perhaps her favorite in-state public, usually easy to complete. Kind of like going by the grocery store for frozen fish after being skunked. Second, get the basic common app done for the schools that use it, and check the supplements for both match and reach schools. For ones that are not common app, gather their requirements also. This might be a daunting list, so thin it to a reasonable number, 8 to 10, focusing on matches. Prioritize, and don’t try to do so many that you don’t do them well. Essay topics will probably overlap enough.
With our children we encouraged them to do non-binding early action, it spreads it out and acceptances are motivating. D had a list of ten colleges, but she saved her less favorites for January, and then didn’t apply when her EA came through in December. Got lucky and only did five of those ten. You won’t know final financial aid, but her earlys gave scholarship amounts. In my opinion it’s a waste of time money and energy for big reaches, you seem realistic about her stats, focus on some schools where her stats are in the top end. In a way you are lucky her major interest isn’t common, it trims the list.</p>
<p>In general programs are disinclined to accept students from their own program for the PhD. Cross pollination is beneficial for the school and for the student, new faculty with different areas of expertise exposes you to new scholarship and a makes stronger resume for you.</p>
<p>Messing around with CC’s college search (which I think is a different tool than many search tools) spit out a quirky one, Evergreen State in Washington, relatively unique for a state public school. $35000 COA out of state, but your stats could possibly net some of their limited scholarship money. Not a prestigious name, but it matches some of your desired characteristics, including claiming a major in classical studies and archeology.</p>
<p>As long as you keep looking at schools where an ACT 31 is high in the top quartile, the merit awards should be bigger. </p>
<p>When you do the math, a $25k contribution goes further with OOS publics that give lots of merit with an ACT 31. As you’ve likely figured, to get a $60k+ private down to a $25k cost, you’d need almost a full tuition scholarship - not likely unless the private is lowish ranked.</p>
<p>If she retests, and gets an ACT 32, her options could broaden, since a 32 is often a benchmark for higher merit. </p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that if you’re dealing with “set amount” scholarships (like $15k per year), those do NOT increase as tuition, housing, and other costs increase. Plus, you’re looking at current COAs…not the higher COA’s for Fall 2014 and beyond. So, a school that costs $40k minus a $15k scholarship today, may be $46k by your child’s sophomore year, and may be $50k+ by her senior year.</p>
<p>Oh, mom2collegekids–
you have lots of good sense advice. I forgot that we were dealing with 2013-2014 COA. Good point. And another good reminder about set amount scholarships. I knew that already but that fact got lost in the college search process. I think my mind is blocking out the unpleasant data.</p>
<p>jtmoney–
thanks for taking the time to find Evergreen State. I read about them in one of our college compilation books. I will check into it again.</p>
<p>brownparent–
the idea that one should go elsewhere for further studies does make sense to me. I found it interesting because it is not standard across the board. As many things are that relate to higher education.</p>