Finalizing List - Suggestions/Advice

College Search & Selection
1

Hello! I’ve posted before and my list and preferences have changed, and with the new SAT scores out, I wanted to make a new thread and get some more advice/commentary/suggestions/whatever.
Stats:
SAT- 2090 (CR: 730, Math: 590 [I tried. I really did. I have great math grades so hopefully that offsets it.] Wr:770)
APs - Govt (5), will take Lit, Euro, and Psych this year.
GPA: 4.5 or 4.0 unweighted
Rank: 2
Excellent recommendations and essays
State: PA
ECs: Field Hockey (1) Marching Band (3) WW ensemble (3) Brass ensemble (3) Jazz Band (3), Musical Orchestra (3), Pep Band (3), French Club (4 - VP and now President). Obviously, I’m a band kid! It’s a HUGE commitment with hours and hours of practice but I absolutely love it. I’m not good enough to play in college, but oboe players are relatively rare so who knows. I’m also in NHS, Music Honors Society, and I will be in a French Honors Society this year.

Awards: Highest average in 14 classes. I got an award form the University of Rochester that makes me eligible for a $10,000 scholarship, I was chosen for a leadership retreat over the summer sophmore year, a poem I wrote got recognition and I was able to meet a published poet! And I received an award from my school’s music department for being extremely involved and very enthusiastic.

Financials: I will not qualify for financial aid, so I am dependent upon merit aid! I don’t need the cost to go way way down; only about $15,000 off (or more :wink: )

Schools:
Reach - ND (legacy), Washington and Lee (If I get in I won’t be getting aid but I do love these schools so I would like to see what happens)
Matches -
Lafayette (Love! I think I have a chance at one if the Marquis scholarships/fellowships - any feedback would be great about this!)p I also have shown a lot of interest here!)
Villanova (I probably won’t get any money, nor am I taking a fourth year of science so I don’t know if I will even get in but I do like the school).
University of Rochester
Gettysburg
Allegheny (I guess this could be a safety, but I’m not considering it one).
Safety: Arcadia University

Because my math is much lower than my other scores, I don’t know where I stand with merit aid! I think I can get into a lot of the schools in my list but I don’t know about financials! Any feedback is great. Also, I know my SAT math isnt great. I took it twice with different, but very committed types of preparation, and got the same exact score. I tried. Also, any school suggestions that seem reasonable to add, please mention! :))
Thanks :))

2

So, can you actually afford to go to a school that doesn’t give you merit aid?
For schools that give merit aid, consider Dickinson which I like better than Gettysburg anyway.

3

@doschicos if the tuition and costs are less than/equal to $45,000 - $50,000 a year then I can barely afford it however it’ll be tight, and my parents would rather spend a little as possible obviously. A lot of my schools total $60,000-$65,000, which we cannot afford. Thanks for the suggestion! I looked into Dickinson but the merit aid seemed out of reach for me, I’ll give it another gander.

4

St. Lawrence in upstate NY and Lawrence University in Wisconsin are other schools to look at with decent merit aid.

5

Thanks I’ll check those out! I was worried about distance originally, and I would like to stay within 5 hours (southern PA) but if the merit aid generous the I don’t mind a long trip :slight_smile: @doschicos, what do you think of the schools on my current list, are they reasonable for $ or too reachy?

6

I think its a good mix along the spectrum of admissions difficulty, as long as you’d be happy at your safeties, but I think you’ll have other acceptances. My only concern is applying to schools where you don’t expect to get merit aid. For that reason, adding a few more matches/safeties known for merit aid wouldn’t be a bad idea.

7

I think you are going to have a tough time getting much merit with that math score. Honestly, it will make admission to ND impossible. Maybe you should look at some test optional schools. However, not submitting test scores at test optional colleges can hurt your chances for merit. But still… that score really sticks out.

http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional

If you are female, consider Mount Holyoke. Lawrence is another school to look at – they are a little cheaper to start with, too.

8

@doschicos thank you! Yeah exactly. I wasn’t aware of my financial restrictions until after I visited Villanova and W&L (I don’t think my parents or I realized some schools were almost $65,000 a year…how that went over our heads I don’t know.) but I already liked the schools so much I still wanted to apply. Thanks for your suggestions!! :slight_smile:

9

@intparent That’s my fear. I really really REALLY tried to raise it, but alas. Yeah I know Notre Dame is pretty much not going to happen but I’m not too worried about it. My siblings all got rejected so if I did, it wouldn’t be the worst thing. However I’m much more qualified than they were ;). And yeah I know math sticks out but my other scores are so good (at least I think). I would prefer to submit them; a lot of hard work went into getting them! Hmmm I’ve never considered a girls’ school, thanks for the suggestion! I’m also willing (albeit a bit reluctantly) to look at less selective schools to get some $$$ (hence allegheny), so any suggestions like that would be cool too.

10

Mount Holyoke has solid academics, an amazing campus, and is part of a consortium so you can take a few classes at the other colleges (shuttle runs between them) and also take advantage of social opportunities there. My two Ds weren’t sure about women’s colleges until they visited, but came away very impressed. Both applied and were admitted, but for various reasons made other choices. But they both liked it a lot.

11

How about Ursinus? Ursinus should come within budget. Judging from some of the other schools on your list, I think Ursinus may be a great fit for you.

If you like Villanova, I think you should at least look at St. Joe’s. They’ll definitely be within budget. I know it’s a step down from Nova, but you may really like it and it would be a lot cheaper.

12

@JeanJacket123 What’s the reason Arcadia is on your list? You have great merit chances up to full tuition at schools much, much better than Arcadia like Siena, Providence, St. Bonaventure, St. Michael’s, Scranton.

If you were accepted in the Providence Honors College with a 50%+ scholarship you would not consider it?

13

Add Muhlenberg to the above list.

14

@ScaredNJDad - I agree that OP can find affordable safeties that are higher ranked than Arcadia, but I think expecting full tuition at Scranton and Providence is a stretch. They’ll almost certainly be under 35k, but I think she’d really need to have a CR&M score >1400 for full tuition at either place.

OP should probably check out Loyola Maryland, which feels very Villanova-ish to me. They’re not as great with merit as say St. Joe’s or Scranton, but OP has a big budget and I think she’d make out fine there.

I should add that I know some kids who’ve gotten the Marquis at Lafayette. They did have high SAT’s, but I don’t really know how high and I don’t know if a super high SAT is a pre-req for the scholarship. I do know Lafayette has very holistic admissions and that OP sounds like a great, involved kid. Every year it seems there’s at least one high stats kid with virtually no EC’s who’s shocked that Lafayette didn’t accept him. I think Lafayette will like OP’s application very much - I wouldn’t want to guess how much money that will translate into. Of course, the only way for her to find out is to apply. :slight_smile:

15

@halfemptypockets I worded it broadly by saying up to full tuition.

The OP is between full tuition and say the next level down @ 20k a year at Scranton. Much closer to the full tuition award than the other.

Full tuition at Siena, Bonaventure and St. Michael’s are more than likely. At Providence, it looks those stats are 50% or greater tuition.

Certainly all these options are preferable to Arcadia.

16

@halfemptypockets Thankk you! I actually visited St. Joe’s but the fit didn’t feel quite right. I missed Ursinus though, I’ll look into that! Thankk you! :slight_smile: Also, thanks for mentioning the Marquis awards! I really put a lot of effort into showing interest at Lafayette, and my interview went really well! I think the lesser of the awards (I can never remember if it’s the fellowship or scholarship) is more attainable for me.

@ScaredNJDad I visited Arcadia on a whim one day and I really liked it! It has plenty of majors and it’s in a great area. However I didn’t look up any rankings for it, maybe it’s not that good of a school (?).
I visited Siena and again, I just could not see myself there at all. Which was a shame cause it was my safety for quite some time.
I have a bunch of cousins who attended Loyola actually! They all said if I wanted to go into business then it’s great, but otherwise I could find a better school. I realized I didn’t clarify a major in my post and I apologize! The truth is I’m not too sure, but taking an economics class has assured me that business is NOT in my future :slight_smile:

I’ll look into Scranton, Providnece, St. Michael’s and Bonaventure, the last of which seems to have a great journalism department! Thanks for the suggestions :slight_smile:

Again, I know my math score isn’t the best, and it seems like the worst part of my application, but I don’t think it should make or break merit aid at some schools (but I understand it does at W&L and Villanova). I probably won’t get full aid but thankfully I don’t need a full ride. I was considering American University as well, but I don’t know enough about it. College sites don’t seem to paint a very detailed image of it.

Thanks again all! :slight_smile:

17

@halfemptypockets Thankk you! I actually visited St. Joe’s but the fit didn’t feel quite right. I missed Ursinus though, I’ll look into that! Thankk you! :slight_smile: Also, thanks for mentioning the Marquis awards! I really put a lot of effort into showing interest at Lafayette, and my interview went really well! I think the lesser of the awards (I can never remember if it’s the fellowship or scholarship) is more attainable for me.

@ScaredNJDad I visited Arcadia on a whim one day and I really liked it! It has plenty of majors and it’s in a great area. However I didn’t look up any rankings for it, maybe it’s not that good of a school (?).
I visited Siena and again, I just could not see myself there at all. Which was a shame cause it was my safety for quite some time.
I have a bunch of cousins who attended Loyola actually! They all said if I wanted to go into business then it’s great, but otherwise I could find a better school. I realized I didn’t clarify a major in my post and I apologize! The truth is I’m not too sure, but taking an economics class has assured me that business is NOT in my future :slight_smile:

I’ll look into Scranton, Providnece, St. Michael’s and Bonaventure, the last which seems to have a great journalism department! Thanks for the suggestions :slight_smile:

Again, I know my math score isn’t the best, and it seems like the worst part of my application, but I don’t think it should make or break merit aid at some schools (but I understand it does at W&L and Villanova). I probably won’t get full aid but thankfully I don’t need a full ride. I was considering American University as well, but I don’t know enough about it. College sites don’t seem to paint a very detailed image of it.

Thanks again all! :slight_smile:

18

@JeanJacket123 Bonaventure is one of the elite journalism schools for sure.

19

Consider Washington College for another safety with merit. Your scores are high end of 50% for math and over over 75% for R and W. But they do look heavily at interest (as do most colleges at that selectivity level). I believe Washington College has non binding early action as well.

20

Might look at Holy Cross-imo better school than Villanova or Lafayette. HC has beautiful campus 1 hour from Boston.