<p>Hello All experts and insiders,
Would you please give some suggestions which schools we should consider?
My son will be starting his junior year this September and he would like to start visiting colleges this summer. During the school year it is totally out of the question because of team sports. I have no idea where to go! We tried College Board and Naviance, but it is too impersonal. </p>
<p>About Son:
-Home state New York, white male.
-Average 98% in school (school does not provide rankings but he should be in the top 5%), strengths math and science
-SAT, PSAT, ACT not taken yet (currently sophomore)
-AP World history, Honors English, Advanced science program, National Honor Society Spanish, rigorous junior schedule
-National Spanish exam gold medal 2 times
-NYSSMA (musical instrument)-outstanding 5 times
-Varsity Sports - Three season athlete
-Jazz band
-Research internship in the summer
-Some community service in a hospital, fundraisers (St Baldricks, Make a wish, etc)
-possibly 1st generation? One parent is a foreign graduate, and another one did not finish college.
A lot of stats are missing, because it is early. </p>
<p>About desired college:
-looking to stay within driving distance from home but prefer out of state. At this point he will not consider fine universities in our state :(. Will go to CT, MA, PA, Delaware, GA, Washington DC, Maryland, etc.
-medium or large size college in the urban/suburban setting, coed
-looking to study premed/biology/neuroscience etc and continue to medical school.
-college should credit AP courses
- son would like to get a good GPA for medical school, so he is tempted to scratch the reach schools. But his feelings may change of course.
- financial part: we think that less selective school will also provide more scholarship/merit money. Prefer to finish undergrad without taking loans. His brother also has to go to college soon, and we cant spend all the funds on one student.
-would like to find a school with a friendly student body, professors that are interested in undergrads, and have opportunities for undergrad research, study abroad and work study. </p>
<p>Sorry for being wordy, just wanted to get a full picture. Where should we visit? Which schools are likely to be interested in this type of student (historic generocity)?</p>
<p>first, there are only opinions no such thing as an expert in college selection.</p>
<p>I would look at several schools that are strong in academics but not the type to make you pull your hair out! always check freshman retition rate, that will tell you how students who attend really feel. anything in the high 80’s on up I think is great!</p>
<p>in my opin.
muhlenberg college
depauw (if you do not mind frats) …different then depaul
hendrix college
vanderbilt again if frats are not an issue
and st olaf if cold weather is not a deal breaker.</p>
<p>LMP – Does your son attend a NYS public? If so, how has he done on the NYS REgents exams. These can (sometimes) help gauge the rigor of curriculum at a given school before other standardized tests are taken. </p>
<p>I know where you are coming from with a son who is intent on going to school out-of-state. Neither of my daughter’s applied to schools located in NYS. Fortunately, there are a lot of great choices in the adjoining states. Are you likely to be a full-pay family so that merit aid will reduce your out-of-pocket costs from say $55,000 to $35,000 per year (as an example). Or are you going to be looking for a combination of need-based aid and merit money? I ask because if your calculated need exceeds $20K or so a year your best bet might be a school that meets 100% of need. (Of course some colleges calculate “need” different than others).</p>
<p>Yes he got 97-100 on Regents last year and this year it is not available yet. I would like to find a school to cover 100% need without loans.There is not many generous scholarships in recognizable name colleges in our part of the country.
In most schools we will have a need with EFC of over 20K.</p>
<p>So far our thoughts are (in no particular order):</p>
<p>Tufts University
Boston University
American University
Northeastern University
Quinnipiac University
Johns Hopkins - probably a bad idea
???</p>
<p>You might want to look at schools such as Holy Cross, Lafayette, Middlebury, Colby, Bates and Gettysburg. Hamilton and Colgate in NYS (I know!) also profess to meet 100% of need. Of those on your university list Tufts claims to meet full need. The others do not, although I’ve known Northeastern to do very well by students with near-Ivy stats. BU will prbably not be competitive, although we don’t yet know how much in demand your son will be in 2 years. BU has almost always been a financial aid disapointment to the 3.9 and below students in our area (as has NYU).</p>
<p>I would try to get some college guide books (Princeton Review, Fiske, Barrons, Insider’s Guide) from your local library if possible or from any bookstore and prepare a list of colleges that seem to be good fits both academically, size-wise, and geographically. Without SAT scores yet, it is hard to know where the best fit will be. And while it is “impersonal”, Naviance can help you identify schools that make sense as well and then you can look at the school websites and decide if it is worth a visit. And I agree with zobroward, there are not “experts or insiders” here, just people willing to share their opinions and experiences. </p>
<p>Also, I would not go with first generation as a hook if one parent did graduate college overseas and the other attended for a while.</p>
<p>Some strong medium-large schools offhand: any Ivy, Tufts, BC, Georgetown, GW, NYU, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, URochester, Georgetown, Villanova, Lehigh. If you want a lot of merit money, maybe look at Fordham as well. I would try to avoid summer visits – you can see the buildings but you don’t get a sense of the students or the overall vibe of the school. Many HS vacations occur when colleges are in session that those could be possible visiting times.</p>
<p>You should look at the Net Price Calculators on the schools in which you are interested. While you may SAY you want to look at schools that meet full need, in reality they may not help you much. A FAFSA EFC usually comes out to be 25-33% of your annual income. Profile schools will also consider assets.</p>
<p>Thank you all! Unfortunately summer is the only time for us because varsity teams play during HS vacation breaks.
At this point I am trying to get to visit the schools that are the best fit and he may like. I did not get to work out finances this early except the general concept: either a public school that we can cover on full or a private school with equivalent end COA.</p>
<p>^ Holy Cross (like others mentioned above such as “Lafayette, Middlebury, Colby, Bates and Gettysburg” … “Hamilton and Colgate” … Muhlenberg, Hendrix, St. Olaf) is a small liberal arts college (< 3000 undergrads). Many of these schools are in rural or small town settings. So they do not fit the OP’s criteria (“medium or large size college in the urban/suburban setting”).</p>
<p>I question whether there really is any such thing as a “great pre-med program”. “Pre-med” is simply a collection of courses that med schools expect to see. The “program” may include advising (which may vary in quality, but which I doubt will make tremendous differences in your outcomes). GPA and MCAT scores seem to count for far more than anything else. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, few of these fit all your criteria very well. The closest fits include the Ivies, JHU, and Georgetown, but these are all reach schools. So, consider compromising on location or size.</p>