<p>My younger son was accepted at UMass/Amherst with a nice amount of merit aid with similar stats to your daughter’s - it made UMass far more affordable vs. our own instate flagship (University of NH). UMass is part of the five college consortium which includes Hampshire, Smith, Mt. Holyoke and Amherst College so between the five, there’s pretty much any program available. Amherst is also a wonderful college town. My younger S chose elsewhere but UMass was very compelling. My older son attends Hampshire College which has an excellent film department.</p>
<p>Has she thought about Industrial Design? Auburn University and the University of Cincinnati both have great programs and she would get merit aid at both schools. </p>
<p>South Carolina - she would probably be at the Mckisick level - which is in state tuition minus 2k a year so OOS tuition comes out to about 10k. </p>
<p>I would guess that OP is in profile 3 or 4 on this list for Rochester</p>
<p><a href=“http://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial/estimator/merit.aspx”>http://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial/estimator/merit.aspx</a></p>
<p>ACT score is in top 1/3 of attending students at Lafayette College. I think OP would be in the running for Marquis Scolarship($24,000) not Marquis Fellowship($40,000) depending on the rest of the application.</p>
<p>What about Rochester Institute of Technology? Its cost of attendance is way lower than most privates (room, board, tuition, fees around $46k) and it has majors and concentrations in just about everything your daughter is interested in. Very strong emphasis on outcomes. And her stats would get her a nice amount of merit money.</p>
<p>Drew University in NJ…wonderful FA packages making school very cheap. All students enter undeclared and declare their major later in the process.</p>
<p>My bad about the physics requirements – I was going off of what I’d been told, but of course I shouldn’t give advice without being sure of my facts.</p>
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<p>The kids I know who have gotten merit at Rochester–$7-10K per year, not enough for the OP as far as I can tell–had significantly higher scores. </p>
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<p>Not to my knowledge. My S was offered a $3K award as a Faculty Scholar (IIRC) to be used towards special study in the summer or at any other time. Which was very nice, but doesn’t take a bite out of the COA.</p>
<p>OP, I note that you have only given your D’s weighted GPA. I think that you should be aware that the more selective schools will be looking at the actual transcript, so if she has gotten a fair number of Bs they will see them.</p>
<p>Have you considered Smith or Mount Holyoke? Both do give merit, although I have no idea what kind of students get it. Seems to me that the consortium would fulfill her needs well.</p>
<p>I would think UNC-Chapel Hill and Wash U would be major reaches. UNC-Chapel Hill is a very difficult admit for out-of-state unless you bring something exceptional such as being a recruited athlete. My d is a Rochester alum and she had higher GPA and did receive merit of $8k however this was several years ago and the school has a much higher profile and is a much more difficult admit, at least for merit $.
What about a school like Pitt? I agree with the above poster that the women’s colleges such as Smith, Mt. Holyoke would be good options as would schools like U Mass Amherst and U Delaware. American is a good choice also. </p>
<p>Lia - your daughter has the same or maybe slightly better stats than my daughter (looking at weighted grades) with the same ACT score. You may want to find out her unweighted grades and search for schools based on that. We are looking a whole tier (or so) down from your schools. D’s weighted GPA is over 4.0 because like your daughter, she takes AP and honors courses but in reality, she is a B student (got to love that 1.0 point boost for AP classes).</p>
<p>For the schools you listed and I actually kind of/sort of thought about for D:
Bowdoin- No
UVA - No
UNC-CH - No The state limits OOS students to 18% of enrolled students.
WUSTL - No. We threw away the brochures and mailings because it wasn’t realistic with D’s stats.</p>
<p>I would aim a bit lower in the rankings, if you want merit. Because D wants smaller schools, we are looking at the CTCL (Colleges that change lives) schools. For those schools, D’s unweighted grades match up pretty well while the ACT score gives a nice boost. </p>
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<p>Not sure about Rochester, but I don’t think those stats will earn any merit money at Lafayette, not these days, unless you’re from a relatively under-represented state. My son had an SAT score of 1500 (CR/M), a similar GPA from a very competitive private school, and visited Lafayette on numerous occasions to “demonstrate interest.” He not only didn’t receive one of their scholarships, he got wait listed! His best friend, who only applied because my son encouraged him to, was accepted with similar SATs. He never got anything less than an A in his public high school and was offered nothing but a small loan. Both boys had two years of calculus under their belts as well.</p>
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<p>PA resident here: Truer words were never spoken!</p>
<p>I would look at well rounded programs at LAC’s. Several people mentioned “Colleges that Change Lives”, it would be a good place to start. Many LAC’s offer good merit packages. I can speak of Eckerd College. It is one of the CTCL, offers great merit aid and would appeal to your daughter’s creative side. They have a film studies major and a local theater company now calls Eckerd its home. Eckerd is well known for its environmental studies programs and is listed in Fiske guide for this area. The professors are evaluated on how they involve all of their students in their research. It is very “hands on”. The students are required to have at least one internship during the four years. The professor/mentor and peer/mentor program is outstanding. It is very easy to switch majors and they want their students to graduate in 4 years. The community service programs and trips as well as study abroad programs are numerous.</p>
<p>Thank you for the lively feedback and good advice to consider.</p>
<p>Good point about the physics with the math. She actually does quite well in physics, but we don’t know how tough it will get with the more advanced physics and math, which is why she has put it aside for now. </p>
<p>“Most geoscience programs will require at least Calc 1 and Calc 2, many a third semester of math” Good to know.</p>
<p>I don’t think she will want to place out of math. I think she will be fine with some math in college but not a career where math is key. </p>
<p>I am definitely going show her some of the school recommendations and ask her to take a look. We do know some of the schools on our list are reaches, such as WUSTL but the school seems to be a good fit, friendly and flexible. However, we remain aware it is a high reach and we will not visit unless she applies and is accepted and financially doable. Temple keeps coming up but we are a little afraid of the location in a high crime area. I am most hesitant about UVA. I really think that is the highest reach on the list and we have taken it off a couple of times. It has some interesting programs that she likes but yes it is highly competitive and not sure if it is a good fit. Bowdoin, we are going to be in the area and thought it might be interesting to take a look. I really do not have high expectations of merit from them and it might be too small for her liking.</p>
<p>Her sister recently graduated from UNC and she had just slightly higher stats. Same ACT but a bit higher GPA admitted to Honors college but no merit. It’s OOS and depending on what bucket they need to fill, she might get in or might not. We know it’s a crapshoot and probably even more competitive these days but having experienced the school first hand, she loves everything about it.</p>
<p>Her GC actually recommended UMass Amherst for her as well as Ithaca. She really liked Umass and the five college consortium is a plus. I think this is a good option. </p>
<p>We have some SUNYs as our safeties. Oneanta and New Paltz We visited Binghampton but she just didn’t like it. We considered Stony Brook but it seems to be more of a science focused school and it seems many students go home on weekends. </p>
<p>CTCL schools. Excellent idea. Will explore those as well though she would prefer a mid size to larger school but you never know. </p>
<p>With regards to finances, I really did not want to get too much into it on this post. It is important and we will do tweaking there as well. She is aware of this. I am not expecting full merit. Though that would be a dream come true! Good partial merit from privates would be helpful. I do not expect merit from the state schools as I know, they are not as generous. There are some state schools reaching the levels of privates for OOS and those may get tossed out.</p>
<p>Yes, she did retake the ACT. I know she did not do her full potential when she took it the first time. There were too many things going on.</p>
<p>Not trying to pick a specific career or a school with specific majors. Quite the opposite, we are looking for schools that have the majors she is interested in with a bunch of other options for flexibility. We have gone away from specialty schools that she liked such as, Emerson, Florida Institute of Technology. This environmental documentary film maker is something that she thought would be ideal. I don’t even know if it is possible. Yes she is only 17. At the end of it all, she might like something completely different and I want her to have the flexibility to change so that she would not have transfer schools unnecessarily. We saw this first hand with her cousin who went to school to be a teacher with so so grades, graduated magna cum laude and has now gone on to med school. I could not have seen that coming.</p>
<p>I thought it would be easier the second time around but it has proven not to be.</p>
<p>ECmotherX2, Eckerd college sounds like something she would be interested in. She definitely is a hands on person. Ahsmuch, South Carolina is a recent entry. I read good things about them on Fiske. We are actually planning on visiting them and making a nice long weekend out of it in the fall.</p>
<p>Seconding Ithaca College. My older son applied and was accepted there and received a decent FA package. Your daughter’s grades and scores are better than his were. Ithaca’s another wonderful college town and there’s a lot going on there with Ithaca College and Cornell. Bowdoin doesn’t give merit money at all I don’t believe but understand they are generous with need-based money. Since you’re in the neighborhood, consider checking out Bates. My younger son ended up there and loves it. </p>
<p>I could have sworn my younger daughter would pick a large state school far from home. Instead, she focused on LACs and picked one nearby. As for my older daughter, we expected her to major in art or design at an urban college. Instead, she is a nursing student at a state university that is suburban bordering on rural… </p>
<p>As you visit and research colleges, identify the level of guidance provided. It varies greatly. Given your daughter has a wide range of interests, a college with a strong guidance program will make a huge difference for her in class selection, internships, work study options, and study abroad opportunities all leading to a well defined and supported major. </p>
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<p>The OP posted this. If the family needs some aid, and doesn’t qualify for need based aid, Bowdoin and Bates would not be good additions to the list. They give only need based aid.</p>
<p>Thanks Thumper - I missed that along the way. True - they both give need based aid.</p>
<p>Just checked this thread and apparently earlier I had missed that you were from NYS. In that case I would recommend both Geneseo as well as New Paltz, Buffalo another possibility. Definitely look at Ithaca, nice school, good college town. I would also look at Skidmore. Lovely campus, Saratoga Springs is a nice place. They have become a much hotter school in the past few years and have a lot to offer. Older d applied there with higher stats than your d but it was quite a long time ago, and she was accepted to elite honors program with zero merit money.</p>
<p>So regarding thinking about majors, here is an approach to this:
- Get a copy of the Collegeboard Book of Majors.
- Sit your kid down with two packs of post-its – yellow and green. Have her flag any major in the book that sounds interesting. Green for “Would LOVE to do this” and yellow for “maybe…”.
- Go through the majors and see what patterns emerge, things might become obvious that weren’t before.
- Go through her college list and see which ones are offered. If she has a true outlier or two (major not offered many places), ask her how important it is that her college offer that one.
- Pick a college strong in a few of the majors she is interested in.
- Her first few semesters she should try classes in her top 3 choices of majors. Two classes is good (one can be misleading, good/bad prof etc.).
- Have her visit the college career center to discuss the top majors she is interested in. What jobs are grads with those majors getting, what internships might she apply for, etc. If she visits freshman year, she might even be lucky to wrangle a summer opportunity related to one of her possibly majors.
- By 2nd semester of soph year when she has to declare a major, she hopefully will have a better idea of her direction.</p>
<p>Others have mentioned it in passing but I’d suggest looking more closely at Mt. Holyoke. Strong in the sciences, supportive environment, equestrian program, and fairly generous with merit aid. The farthest away of the five colleges in the consortium, but still with access to UMass which has a huge range of departments for someone who wants to explore different areas. If she’s open to a women’s college, which some girls are not, visit it seriously while you are at UMass.</p>