<p>I second snorky's suggestion of Kalamazoo - a Loren Pope college that changes lives. Excellent academics in a nice town. Particularly good if she wants to do foreign study.</p>
<p>"a Loren Pope college"</p>
<p>Excuse my ignorance. What does this mean?</p>
<p>Sorry for the criptic reference momwaitingfornew</p>
<p>"Loren Pope is a nationally renowned college advisor with several national publications on colleges and universities in the United States. His best-seller publication, Colleges That Change Lives (Penguin, 2000), profiles his top 40 choicesschools that "he claims will do as much as, and perhaps even more than, any name-brand schools to fully educate students and to give them rich, full lives".</p>
<p>Hobart and William Smith is out in the sticks - very rural.</p>
<p>consider colorado college -- more southwest than midwest, but I think it fits your criteria. </p>
<p>an hour from Denver, in Colorado springs (neat, funky town). smaller LAC, good rating. Block schedule is unique -- and kids really enjoy it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.coloradocollege.edu%5B/url%5D">www.coloradocollege.edu</a></p>
<p>Tossing in a different area of the country, but take a look at Rhodes College in Memphis and Trinity U in Texas. Her GPA is a little low fro Rhodes, but if she comes from a strong private - which it sounds like she does - they may see beyond it. Rhodes has a great city location, good languages and study abroad.</p>
<p>Agree with Cangel that Rhodes is a jewel of a LAC with Memphis to offer which is a unique plus. Again, her West Coast roots might be a plus in admissions. I would definitely visit Rhodes and see if it "fit" for her. I know four Rhodes graduates: one doc, one Presbyt. minister, one social worker and one artist/writer/yoga instructor. All four of them are very interesting adults and what I would call "lifetime learners" plus I think the religious atmosphere at Rhodes, while likely Protestant in feeling, is eclectic.</p>
<p>sushi: As weenie suggests -please consider carefully the costs of the schools suggested. If you are able to pay, it may not be a problem; but all of these private LACS or LAC-like schools may admit your daughter, but not have much $$ to offer. Very carefully look at their aid or merit schol. process.
Drew is a lovely school, but is very exp.!</p>
<p>i wouldn't be too quick make too many assumptions about where she can and can't get in and i would encourage her to reach for the stars. why not? (there's so much variation in grades that maybe a gpa of 3.3 at her school is as good as a 3.9 somewhere else. Schools also look for geographic diversity, so that may be a factor too.)</p>
<p>That said, I'll add what i suspect you already know: Make sure her list includes schools that she would love that aren't reaches. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I agree with mchs. Just make sure that she has financial safeties that are safeties for admission too. My son did not get any merit aid or financial grants at one of his safeties. At a match school, where he was told that he would not get any merit money, he was awarded an 11,000 merit scholarship! Nobody knows what will happen. Also, one school that did not offer merit aid to my son, made it up 100% with a very nice financial aid package (this was the only private that offered him a nice financial aid package, although he was offered very nice merit aid at several schools).</p>
<p>Thank you for all the thoughtful responses! DD indeed is scheduled to take the SAT again (still awaiting results of the SATIIs) and will also be taking the ACT in June. I've read that some kids tend to do better on the ACT rather than the SAT depending on what kind of learners/test takers they are, and vice versa. </p>
<p>I'm willing and fairly able to pay the full cost of tuition if its a school she loves, but I'm sure hoping for some help (and she'd actually feel better taking a student loan to pay for part of her education - we'll have to figure out what a reasonable amount of debt for her to take on would be). When a school offers acceptance, they let you know of any merit/financial help offers at the same time, correct? How do you determine a financial safety, besides just the cost of basic tuition and room and board?</p>
<p>Yes, scholarship and financial aid offers generally come more-or-less at the same time of the admissions offer. (But sometimes it is a little later - just to keep things exciting I guess.) </p>
<p>Some schools have merit scholarships pretty clearly explained on their web sites (even to the point of giving a definite amount of money based usually on SAT scores -- usually state schools like Ohio State, Ohio Univ, Miami Univ in Ohio). Most are pretty vague (that's were CC can help).</p>
<p>In general, the most financially safe you'll get will be your state university, unless you have a school where your kid would consider living at home. Basically, when really thinking about financial safety you have to look at your list of schools and assume you'll get NO aid at all. Then, which ones could you still afford to send her to?</p>
<p>my son received no merit aide at his safety/matches except for small honors offers of subsidized foreign studies that were appreciated but pretty insignificant. He was in the top quartile of all his safety/match institutions which were still rather selective institutions with the majority of the student body having strong stats. I agree with northeastmom that you must love each school enough to present your best effort on the application and you may get a surprising offer of merit but keep in mind that merit aid will be more likely offered at schools where your student is clearly filling a niche or very clearly outstanding compared to the rest of the student body. we don't feel our S was treated unfairly as he had other friends with similar stats who also received zip in merit from the same institutions, and we did not apply to schools where our son's credentials were that unusual. Our S's EC contributions to a college campus were meaningful but simply not unusual or newsworthy.</p>
<p>If you are "fully able" to pay for her education, then you probably won't get need-based FA. If you go to collegeboard.com, I believe they have a "worksheet" that shows whether you should expect aid or not. (Whatever you do, don't use the Princeton University early estimator since that gives a much more generous answer than all other schools.)</p>
<p>As for merit scholarships, those generally are given out to those applicants who exceed the college's normal range of SAT/ACT scores. For example, if your daughter re-took the SATs, got above a 1350, and graduated in the top 10% of her class, then she would be eligible (although would not necessarily get) one of Dickinson's merit scholarships. To get merit aid with lower stats, you might have to a less competitive school. As several have pointed out all over CC, even if a school does offer merit aid, you cannot predict whether your child will get some.</p>
<p>Knox and Lawrence do not require tests scores and you might find several other schools that do not need scores as well. Many schools will do cumulative score of your D best ones.</p>
<p>I think your 3.3 unweighted and the 8 APs don't quite mesh. Your D's school may simply grade hard. What were the AP test scores? </p>
<p>Does the west coast not appeal at all? The stats and the interests shout Lewis and Clark (in Portland, OR) to me.</p>
<p>Have you met with the guidance counselor yet? Although I am typically hesistant to put my faith in every GC out there, at a school where 9-10 out of 40 get into HYP, I imagine this is one of the first places you would go. As other posters have said, a 3.3 unweighted at your school can and probably does mean something completely different than elsewhere.</p>
<p>Hi Sushi,
I concur with the recommendation of Bryn Mawr...just down the road from Haverford...and the flexibility of cross registering. What about Boston College, Goucher, and Franklin & Marshall? Good luck!</p>