<p>S would like to add a school to his list with the following qualities:</p>
<ul>
<li>Size = 3,000 to 8,000</li>
<li>Location = Preferably in Midwest but can go anywhere in U.S. for right fit</li>
<li>Must give good need-based aid (ideally meeting 100% of need or close to it)</li>
<li>Must be a match for a kid with 3.95 and 27 ACT</li>
<li>Would prefer not to have a dominant Greek system</li>
<li>Would be nice for it to have a business program but considering LACs as well</li>
</ul>
<p>Does this school exist? The closest we have come to finding something similar would be Wake Forest (test optional) or Marquette. The greek system at WF is a turn off and Marquette is great but not known to give good need-based aid.</p>
<p>^ University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. That’s where my daughter is headed this fall (with a 28 ACT and 4.0 GPA), thanks to some generous merit aid. Check out the UST website, but more importantly, visit the campus. It’s in a great location.</p>
<p>Butler University? I don’t know a whole lot about it–for example, I don’t know how Greek it is–but it’s the right size, it’s in Indiana, and it has undergraduate programs in business. Those ACT scores are about the median for currently enrolled freshmen, and that GPA is a little higher than average. So your son might be a student they’d like to have. (Butler claims to meet about 76% of need, but a lot of colleges meet a higher percentage of need for students they actually want than for students they’d simply be willing to have.)</p>
<p>Willamette is a great LAC in Oregon. They have an excellent business school, where you can get a BA/MBA in 5 years, I believe. It is a little smaller in size than the specs you gave, but you might want to check them out. They give great merit and good aid.</p>
<p>yeah, the jesuit schools hit the “sweet spot” size that many others don’t, many fit the academic/admissions range, and most have both a decent business program and a liberal arts offering. The problem comes in with financial aid, which can be hit or miss. I think the only jesuit school stating 100% need in Holy Cross.</p>
<p>This might surprise you, but how about WashU? It’s about the right size. In midwest with a good biz school. Greek is there, but not at all like some. (SS is kinda anti-frats, and he has plenty of company. I think WF is really big into frats). And I think they provide need-based aid. At least check them out. And stats? Check that out too.</p>
<p>Great suggestions. Interesting that several mentioned St. Olaf. This is #1 on his list right now, #2 is Gustavus. But just trying to make sure we’re not missing any other good possibilities. Butler is also appealing but I don’t get the sense that the aid dollars are there. Will do some reading on Williamette, Ithaca, St. Thomas & Creighton.</p>
<p>Limabeans – your WashU suggestion really threw me. I didn’t think there was any way S’s stats would be good enough??</p>
<p>I don’t believe any college exactly matches all the OP’s criteria.</p>
<p>One that comes fairly close is the University of Rochester. It is one of the least selective of the need-blind, full-need schools (although, the average ACT composite is 30, so it’s not really a “match”). It has 5600 undergrads, so it’s the right size. Only about 5% of students belong to fraternities. It’s not in the midwest, but New York state is not Maine or Arizona, either. It has an excellent reputation.</p>
<p>The long pole in the tent is the “full need” criterion. There are only ~50 such schools, and they are almost all at least as selective as Rochester. Trinity (Hartford), the University of Richmond, and the College of the Holy Cross are also full-need, and perhaps slightly less selective than Rochester; however, they all have less than 3K undergrads, and are also outside the Midwest. At Trinity and Richmond, ~15-20% of students are in Greek societies. I don’t know about Holy Cross.</p>
<p>Michigan is one of only two full-need public institutions. The average ACT score is 29. About 16% of undergraduate men are in fraternities. 27K undergrads.</p>
<p>In the 3K - 8K undergraduates range, most schools are private and expensive. The ones that are full need (or close to it) tend to be quite selective.</p>
<p>Look at Earlham College in Richmond, IN (on the IN/OH border) although it’s smaller in size at only around 1200 students. My kid had higher ACT and lower GPA than what you listed but with a great combination of merit aid and need-based aid, the final COA is pretty much what you’re looking for. PM me for exact details. Do you already know what the EFC will be? This college is one of several that has a special scholarship/leadership program available for low income students. If selected for that program, the college then meets remaining COA. </p>
<p>Denison and Case Western also both awarded at least $20k in merit before they even started considering the need-based aid on top of that. There were even higher merit awards available from Denison that my kid wasn’t eligible for due to not visiting campus before applying. If you have a kid even remotely interested in Denison, they require applicants to have already visited their campus and then to apply separately for those big merit awards by January 15 of their senior year. You don’t have to visit campus to apply for admission there, just to be considered for the larger merit awards.</p>
<p>Trinity University (TX). They do not met full need but have excellent merit and need based aid. Their endowment s nearly $1 Billion so they have a lot of money available for aid. Enrollment is 2600. Run your numbers through their NPC.</p>
<p>They do have a Greek system but they are all local chapters. None of the people that I know from there were Greek and the all love the school.</p>
<p>n my experience, FA at Rochester can be very iffy, but it is a great school. (Our FA situation was a little weird, though.) Your S’s GPA is fine for them, but his scores are definitely low. I would think of it as a reach. No harm in trying. :)</p>
<p>Seems to me that you should be looking at score-optional schools. I would suggest looking at some schools that are a bit smaller in order to bring in some score-optional LACs that meet full need, such as Bowdoin.</p>