College Search: Midwest/South Central, strong merit aid or public honors college

Parents Forum
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<p>Hi folks,</p>

<p>I've been lurking for several months, and have learned quite a bit from these forums. A tremendous resource!!!</p>

<p>My S. is now a junior, and we're beginning the college search in earnest. While he's still tentative about his intended field of study, he's definitely leaning towards bio/chem/physics, possibly pre-med.</p>

<p>We're looking for a good match in the lower Midwest (we're in southern MO). S will graduate from a boarding school in Indiana, 600 miles from home, and he and we would prefer that he's a little closer for his college years.</p>

<p>Stats: PSAT 740 CR / 700 M / 580 W
GPA: 3.75 / 4.0 with 2 APs so far</p>

<p>After funding the boarding school, we figure we can handle a budget of about $18k per year, and expect to qualify for 0 need-based aid.</p>

<p>We're specifically looking for either a private school with a good chance of merit-based aid to bring total cost into budget, or a public university with a really solid honors college.</p>

<p>So far, we're looking at Rhodes, Trinity (TX), U Tulsa, and Hendrix as the private schools. Maybe St. Louis U also.</p>

<p>We're looking at Truman State and Mizzou as the obvious public schools. I'm having trouble getting a good read on the quality of the honors colleges though, either for Missouri or anywhere else.</p>

<p>--- Does anyone know of a good review of public honors colleges, especially those in the midwest/south central region?</p>

<p>--- Are there any private schools in TX/OK/AR/MO that come to mind, other than the ones I've mentioned?</p>

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<p>Good time to start the search! There are several good colleges in Ohio that offer nice merit aid. I'm partial to Denison, but I'd also look at Case Western, Wooster, maybe Ohio Weslyan. There are also good honors programs at Ohio University and possibly Miami Ohio.</p>

<p>Denison info:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=159719%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=159719&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=273869%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=273869&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>canyoncreek,</p>

<p>in missouri............check out william and jewell in liberty, missouri.</p>

<p>state of texas - take a look at Southwestern Univ. in Texas, University of Houston, University of Texas at Dallas, Baylor University, Texas Tech, Texas A & M. Baylor and Southwestern may have merit aid calculators at their site.......they did last year.........but I haven't checked recently.</p>

<p>state of oklahoma ................check Oklahoma State and Univ. of Oklahoma</p>

<p>if you'd consider looking at a border state (kansas)...........</p>

<p>washburn university has the new Ritchey Scholarship to attract top students.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.wea.org/_FileLibrary/FileImage/Richey%20Gift%20Press%20Release.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.wea.org/_FileLibrary/FileImage/Richey%20Gift%20Press%20Release.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>..........and ..........wichita state university, ft. hays state university</p>

<p>i know you didn't mention iowa because of distance...........but ...........Grinnell is a real gem.</p>

<p>..............i'll give a thumbs up to weenie's suggestion of Case Western as well.........and....................you really, really should consider looking at Tulane as well......and their merit aid possibilities.</p>

<p>feel free to pm me as my d visited truman last spring.</p>

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<p>Take a look at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. It's an excellent LAC that is reputed to have a pretty good merit aid program. Whether your son will qualify for merit aid, I couldn't predict.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

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<p>UIllinois-Champaign has honors colleges - I'm not sure about aid, you'd have to apply to find out!</p>

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<p>You might want to check out the University of Pittsburgh. I understand that pre-med is very strong, with the medical center right there, and that the sciences are strong. My daughter had slightly better SATs than your son's PSAT, and she received a very generous scholarship (we're out of state) and an invitation to the Honors College.</p>

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<p>You have great little LAC with a brand new science center and great merit aid in your backyard. Westminster in Fulton , Mo. Is a very nice school. He will get merit there (unless they have changed). I really like this school a lot.</p>

<p>Then I'd look at Hanover at the southern tip of Indiana. It's not very far. I also like Knox and Hendrix. Lyon is very small but might be worth a look. I like Austin College in Sherman, Texas (fantastic pre-med. Look at the % attending allopathic med schools. Amazing.) Also Illinois College and Illinois Wesleyan. </p>

<p>Barksdale Honor's College at Ole Miss is first rate and the Dean is exceptional. Centenary in Shreveport is worth a look as is U of Evansville. Check out Coe and Drake in Iowa. </p>

<p>Tulsa merit is NOT GOOD for non-nmf's. </p>

<p>There are others but in my mind what you need to do is zero in and find that wondeful financial safety he loves. For D it was Hanover (but that particular scholasrhip had strict rules and it is not offered anymore). Good luck. He will have choices if he plays this right. The fun begins.</p>

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<p>^ Awesome suggestions cur.</p>

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<p>Hey, I couldn't let you and condor30 have all the fun with y'alls great lists. Stealing my thunder. ;)</p>

<p>(Psst. That whole "close to southern Missouri" thing is messing with my "process" though. ;) But the OP is a noob. We'll get him to broaden his search a little later. We'll break it to him r e a l slow. LOL.)</p>

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<p>Yeah, but c'mon. Asking curmudgeon a question about good schools with merit aid in the south central US is like throwing a hanging curveball to Albert Pujols. :)</p>

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<p>:);););););););) Rotflmao.</p>

<p>Hey, if they keep throwing me taters, I'm going to keep writin' my name on the lineup card.</p>

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<p>If you're open to Texas schools, I'd add Trinity University in San Antonio and Southwestern near Austin to the list. Both can be very generous with merit, and are relatively inexpensive to begin with. Both also have very strong science programs. And, I'd suggest you at least take a look at Grinnell, as well as St. Olaf, Gustavus Adolphus (Minn), Lawrence, Ripon and Beloit (Wisconsin), and Augustana, Knox and Lake Forest (IL). And, I know you said Indiana was too far, but Earlham has very strong science programs, and can be good with merit money as well.</p>

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<p>Aw, c'mon. Finding a great school with lots of merit aid in southern MO should be easy...</p>

<p>But seriously, it would be nice to have him close to home after having been away at boarding school for 4 years. </p>

<p>But we're willing to be flexible, up to a point... We're looking at Xavier in Cincinnati, and he's been contacted by Case Western and Vandy. Maybe something will happen there...</p>

<p>And thanks for the note on Pitt, LurkNess. Pitt was one of my own kinda-wannas back in the day, but I had ruled it out for S because of expense. So I'll look again into their scholarships.</p>

<p>If we can find that great fit within 500 or 600 miles, without having to spend a fortune, we'd be very happy campers. But we're willing to cast a wide net at this point if necessary.</p>

<p>Does anyone know of any reviews of the various honors colleges? I don't know what else to do other than to just visit each college website individually, and I'm having trouble figuring out what's real.</p>

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<p>Does anyone know if the OP's S's PSAT score would be NMSF material in Mo? That could color the strategy of looking for schools........................</p>

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<p>Adding WashU (kind of iffy on aid, but possible) and DePauw. LOVE Hendrix & Rhodes! Grinnell is very cool, but look at that one carefully ... if your son goes to the school I think he does, he might find Grinnell a bit too liberal. </p>

<p>OP's son is at a boarding school in IN. Don't they use the PSAT cutoff for that state? Not sure, but that can be found on this website somewhere!</p>

<p>By the way, I went to school less than an hour from my home & only went home for holidays. You might not see him even if he goes to school in the next town! Think about the possibility of having him within a decent driving distance, or in an area with easy, inexpensive air service (trains & buses work, too). Just a suggestion.</p>

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<p>I'm surprised no one has mentioned William Jewell College (about 45 minutes north of Kansas City). Good academics, good financial aid. They also offer an Oxbridge program (study one year at Oxford or Cambridge).</p>

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<p>Unfortunately for us, we're in a boarding school pool for the PSAT, and it looks like he's about 8 pts below the <em>average</em> nmf score in the pool from last year. (I'm not sure whether his counselor meant the average for nmf <em>finalists</em> or what -- son had a brief meeting before coming home for Christmas break, and has an "assignment" to go back and clarify that.)</p>

<p>kelsmom .. WashU goes on and off our list. I guess it's just gonna depend on how well he does on the real tests -- we're still hopeful that the W proxy on the PSAT was an anomoly -- he's considered to be a very good writer by his teachers. And yes, he's at a pretty conservative school, lol. I suspect Grinnell would be a bit of a shock. </p>

<p>I think he's looking for a school at least the size of a Rice (to take an example we all know), but with a more laid-back atmosphere, ideally in a city, urban environment.</p>

<p>William Jewel is on my list -- I'm gonna do a little checking on it. So many schools I've never even heard of... and my wife is a college professor!! The oxford connection is certainly cool -- worth checking out..</p>

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<p>fireflyscout -- Took a look at the William Jewell site -- the school <em>might</em> be a little small for s, but his mom sure wants to go!</p>

<p>Is this tendency for parents to want to go back and do college over normal? Is it a good thing? Should we see a doctor?</p>

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<p>
[quote]
Is this tendency for parents to want to go back and do college over normal?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Don't get me started! The short answer is YES.</p>

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<p>Just wait until you attend a Parents Weekend - you know you're sunk when you start checking out the local real estate.</p>