awwww . . . got it
On second thought are you sure that isn’t 50% COA? I ask because D’s scholarships (merit based) exceed 50% of the tuition.
Sorry - yes, you are correct 50% COA!
St. Olaf, again, for DD2.
How about Knox. Really good environmental science and merit money. To my mind much better than Gusty or Luther.
The chances of merit aid at Colorado College are very remote.
In the South, we liked Centre College, Hendrix, Guilford, and many like Rhodes. Also Southwestern U in TX. These are all “highly residential” colleges with excellent merit $.
Wooster and Denison both offered our D significant merit aid this year. Wooster’s bio building is outdated, but they are building a new one to be completed in 2 years. We, too, felt the Wooster program didn’t quite have the breadth D was looking for. But their senior thesis program is incredible.
Sewanee’s aid is somewhat less, but their tuition is lower than many comparable schools and they’ve been locking in the price for 4 years. Our D likes a crisp climate and initially didn’t want to look south. But the combination of academic opportunities in the sciences, a huge bio-diverse campus, beautiful facilities, and a community of really nice people all combined to sell her on it. During a campus visit she participated in a 3-hour field studies class with upperclassmen that really impressed her. They asked her to participate in the collection of samples. It’s the school she ended up choosing out of 20 that she looked at.
Some excellent videos on Youtube, “My Sewanee Story,” provide an accurate picture of the campus IMO. And if you are interested, call admissions and ask them for a copy of their very cool handbook to the Domain, one of the best–and most useful–pieces of college literature (out of hundreds) that D received! They have an Admissions 101 program in the summer that we thought was beneficial. And because they have several summer programs, and faculty live on campus, there is a lot of activity during summer visits.
I also really liked Earlham for sciences, but D said it felt smallish, even though it’s student body is not much smaller than Sewanee. Wish we had toured SLU, but we never made it quite that far north!
Late to this thread, but I have some ideas.
First, the suggestions for Rhodes, Denison, Wooster and Lawrence are great.
I think one thing that might help focus your search is this: Urban, Rural, or Suburban, or doesn’t care?
I will add Trinity University in San Antonio to the list of prospects.
Huge service mentality. Brand new (opened up 2 months ago) $230M integrated science building. Tons of merit aid, with a $1.2B endowment for a school 60% as large as St. Olaf, with 4 times the endowment, top 25 in the country for endowment per student.
Our S was looking for a very similar school as your second D, but looking for more CS than Env Science. He looked at almost all of the schools on your list, and ended up choosing Trinity over 9 other great offers. Denison was the runner up, St. Olaf was probably third (first for my wife, who wanted him close!)
Good luck!
We toured Sewanee. It’s remote which nixed it for our kid b/c of that and the Greek life wasn’t her thing. Rhodes was wonderful and very service oriented but also heavily Greek. Still, check out the Bonner Scholarship program and the colleges that offer it: . http://www.bonner.org/interestedstudents/ Many of the colleges recommended above have the Bonner program.
My DD2 is very service oriented and a bio major at a small LAC, Maryville College. MC may be too small for your D but environmental science opportunities are there: classes using the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as the lab, as well as Oak Ridge National Laboratory. No Greeks. Total enrollment is 1200+. Campus is 4-year residential. Take a look at the Scots Science Scholars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk1iOPGYfa4 and tropical ecology class in Bonaire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjRhf4F1Vpc. Also, http://www.maryvillecollege.edu/media/dsx/manager/Documents/Academics/OneSheets/MC-Biology.pdf