<p>How about Tulane? Not as much of a reach as Emory, I think. My S got large merit $$ from Tulane (his stats 94/100uw, 122/100w, 1310, just barely top 10% in a VERY strong PHS, also musician wanting to continue but not major). Very nice campus in a beautiful part of a great city. Warm, of course. Medium small school (about 6K undergrads).</p>
<p>I doubt if ED is in her future BUT EA and Rolling Admissions certainly are! I have learned from all of you. Now to go track down that e-mail.</p>
<p>Sorry, above re Tulane in response to thumper1.</p>
<p>5-9 and 149? No state or national recognition in her sport? For a sport with five players on the court? Five players drawn from a pool of thousands?</p>
<p>You've probably covered this before, cur, but what about a list without basketball? Kinda seems like basketball will hold her back. </p>
<p>She could go a long way ($$$) on smarts and heart. maybe her moment of basketball reckoning should arrive sooner rather than later. What did The Dad call it? Parachuting into an appropriate field? As in parachuting into Political Science from Engineering when you discover you don't have the aptitude for college level calculus?...What about parachuting into intramural aspirations from D3...?</p>
<p>Well a Univ in our area had a 5'5" guard. She led her team to two NCAA D-1 post seasons. Now she plays in WNBA. Height isn't everything. :)</p>
<p>But to make a really detailed list that fits curmudgeon's needs, why not divide it like this, for basic catagories:</p>
<p>Tier 1 = financial reach, ath reach/match, & academic reach.<br>
Your D is well qualified, but at these very selective schools schools, well qualified applicants <em>are</em> turned away and there is no merit $. EX: Dartmouth, Bowdoin, Williams, Princeton. Do max 4 of these. NOTE: coach help can be key at these schools.</p>
<p>Tier 2 = financial reach/match (moderate merit aid) with v. strong ath hook, academic hook, or preferably both (Do 4 of these) Ex: Carleton, Grinnell, Kenyon, Hamilton. </p>
<p>Tier 3. Schools that are financial Matches, with good to great merit aid, and are also academic & athletic match/safetys. (Do 3 of these.) Ex: Lawrence, Beloit, Allegheny.</p>
<p>Tier 4. Bona Fide financial & academic Safeties offering near full ride $ (do 2-3 of these.) You have a few I don't know about, but also consider the honors programs at some D-1 state U's if basketball is not essential.</p>
<p>***NOTE: Your Tier 3 and Tier 4 schools, where possible, can be EA and rolling admission schools.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I am not exactly sure what sort of merit aid is available at Hamilton, Kenyon, Carleton, Skidmore, St Lawrence, Goucher, Centre, Rhodes... Thus not absolutely sure what financial Tier these would be in... List can be refined with better information. Also I don't know which schools that offer equestrian opps. I was trying to stick to size, location & "feel" wish list and give a structure that makes sense with your D's academic credientials & your desire for merit $ without you ending up with 25 schools....</p>
<p>Oh D is well aware of her basketball options and limitations. By the way Cheers, who said 5'9"? I've looked at the rosters of probably 100 colleges at the D3 and NAIA level, and many teams don't have any forwards any taller than D at 5'11" (a real 5'11" . It is funny how many girls are announced as 6'0 and they walk out and D is obviously taller). D won't be taking her horse to college , and academics will trump basketball. It probably is as important to her as the posters with the musical instruments who want to continue playing in college.</p>
<p>We shouldn't make light of her passion for the game. If you haven't been there, I'm sure it is difficult to understand the commitment day in and day out year round to a stupid orange ball. It is as real as other's interest in voice or oboe. She'll decide when it's time to quit. Then she'll start looking for intramurals.LOL.</p>
<p>Curmudgeon, Goucher has equestrian resources as well, I thought I would tell you. Don't know how competitive they are in B-ball. Probably well below your D's sweet spot, which would make it a nice safety. They play McDaniel, College of ST Marys of MD, Mary Washington, I believe in sports. But I have heard that they are generous with scholarship for kids that have a special talent even though they do not have atheletic scholarships. I just talked to a kids whom I recommended to apply there, and he is pretty psyched after he visited there with the campus, the college and the fact that they are interested in giving him a talent scholarship.</p>
<p>Cur, Your daughter would automatically get significant merit money from Goucher based on her grades and test scores alone - she'd actually be a solid candidate for their presidential scholarship which pays up to full tuition for grades of 3.8 and SATs of 1400 plus. They don't have athletic scholarships but they do have many other merit awards based on what a student can bring to the campus. </p>
<p>As a former all-female school, they do have a very good women's athletic program, along with a solid basketball team. And, they have a beautiful equestrian stable and trails right on campus with lots of opportunities for riding. Other benefits are the ability to take classes at Johns Hopkins and other Baltimore area schools, very nice dorms (among the largest rooms we've seen plus lots of singles!), excellent study abroad options run by the school, and a beautiful green campus right outside of Baltimore. </p>
<p>Goucher is looking to expand to 1500 students in the next two years and is very aggressively pursuing quality students for this reason.</p>
<p>I agree with Jamimom that it might be a very solid safety for your daughter, but she would definitely be in the tippy-top of students there. Still, definitely worth a look if you're looking for a solid financial safety. I'd say academically Goucher is a step up from St. Lawrence.</p>
<p>I forgot: good LAC clone of Dartmouth, Williams: Middlebury! They also have tons of info on sports & recruitment standards on their website. Don't know about fin aid there though.</p>
<p>My bad on the 5-9! 5-11 is better :) One player told me that many schools measure the kid in his shoes, thus the additional 1.5 ".</p>
<p>My S was Captain and MVP of his basketball team, playing since he was 6 or 7, Five Star camps, the whole sha-bang. But he is only 6-2 and he's too lean for college basketball. </p>
<p>Played basketball all over the world on Gap Year though--Africa, China, NE London. Loves intramurals :).</p>
<p>"I doubt if ED is in her future BUT EA and Rolling Admissions certainly are!"</p>
<p>The rub here is that none of Curmudgeon's daughter's four reaches, nor Grinnell, offers EA or rolling admissions. The ED process has certainly generated a lot of heat on this board recently so I am hesitant to be the voice in the wilderness. . . But I will (respectfully and timorously). For many families ED works wonderfully. I know that it's common knowledge that it's better to be able to compare financial offers, but isn't it possible to get a clear indication of the minimum offer from the school before applying so that you could make the decision on whether or not to apply ED based on the minimum not the maximum? </p>
<p>I'm greatly in favor of aiming high and I think that ED gives the applicant a considerable boost, especially if s/he is a well rounded, smart, talented white kid without any other significant hook. Of course if parents want to compare financial aid plus merit from college choice #2 to financial aid alone at college choice #1, then there's no way around it but for their child to apply to both, so maybe I'm being unrealistic. It just seems to me that at least three of the colleges on C's daughter's reach list are heavily endowed (I'm not familiar with Bowdoin's history) and that there is no reason to expect that they would be less than generous with financial aid even for ED. </p>
<p>I don't mean to single out this specific case, as a high school junior still has nearly a year before making the ED/EA/RD decision and a lot of water has yet to flow under that proverbial bridge. I just feel in general that so many parents and kids on this board have been delighted with the outcome of the ED process (and if not ecstatic over the money offered at least not miserable with it) and it's shortsighted to eliminate this option as a strategy for selective schools. Personally, I'd like to see all colleges go with EA and spare families so much anxiety, but it doesn't seem likely that that will happen for this crop of highschoolers.</p>
<p>To all of you again,thank you very much. </p>
<p>To cheers ,yep-a 5'11" female and 6'2" male have a name in D-1 ball, it's manager (to butcher a funnier Pat Summitt phrase).While not skinny, D has to constantly lift and eat to keep weight on during the season. She usually starts at 154 and ends at 144. Her natural weight is probably 140-144.</p>
<p>To SBmom, Middlebury had this image to me built up over years of knowing the name but not the school. From their website, it appears I was wrong-again.Thanks for the heads up.</p>
<p>And as to the allure of ED and its pitfalls, I'm learning and if we can swing it without any aid but loans, I'll let D consider it but will have my eyes wide open. We have so many issues, me basically self-employed (value of business and losses added back, depreciation) with a volatile income plus own and live on a ranch with livestock and equipment of some substantial value (home equity or farm value, losses added back in,depreciation, business value,asset value). While some calculations are unfairly favorable to me, others are hideously unfair. Depending on how the numbers are viewed the EFC calculation can vary as much as 20K. It will be very difficult for me to estimate so I will play that hand very conservatively.</p>
<p>Asuming your daughter is anything like you, she is sure to be accepted at the colleges on your list. I think she should also reach a little higher too, think you would also have those choices.You never know!</p>
<p>I understand the financial limitation and questions, but I echo Jonri's concern. My D was probably higher than top ten percent of her first school, and even in the honors dorm, stuck out like a sore thumb. Many of the girls seemed to dumb themselves down, unfortunately. Seeing how happy she was being in the middle of the pack intellectually and always being academically challenged after she transfered made saying goodby to the merit scholarship a little easier.</p>
<p>Curmudgeon...I am afraid that I have no advice about schools at the moment, but you know that I am wishing you all a good time with the process. Son never had that long a list--I think at the most 15 schools at the beginning, narrowed down to 6 plus the UCs for the final applications (3 additional dropped by the wayside after the early admission decision came through). The athletic recruiting, if it happens which it sounds like it will, will really help narrow your choices because your daughter will probably find out a lot through the visits. The recruiting also makes the process much more personal and fun, so enjoy the ride! I do suggest, though, that you take your daughter to the eastern schools (some of them) during the dead of winter, because she really needs to know how it feels to have your ears freeze when you walk out of your dorm. (I'm serious--lots of warm weather kids really never adapt well to the cold weather)</p>
<p>LOL cur. S weighs 180 but looks like he weighs 140. </p>
<p>Advising another young man, 6-10, 280# Pacific Islander (PI bones weight 25% more. No fair!). Amazing what doors open when I say those stats! :)</p>
<p>Anyway, good luck. Get some good video next fall. My best friend had a 6-4 S who played football (both ways) and basketball (starter). She sent video with all of his apps and was amazed by the 'higher' offers he got. Top 20 acceptances far above his station, so to speak, contingent on his agreement to play football. She reckons it was the video.</p>
<p>In the end, though, she didn't want him to play college sport because the travel is so disruptive--socially and academically. He went to a lower ranked school instead.</p>
<p>Aversion to cold (or heat) is certainly personal. It was a concern for my son, because it was an unknown. He hadnt lived in with snow for 13 years and sometimes the temperature difference between where we live in SE Asia and Western MA is over 100 degrees! In the end, he found that he LOVES the snow -- winter sports, star-flung icy nights, snow ball fights, angels in the snow on the way home. I wouldnt recommend rural Northeast for anyone with a tendency to hibernate as the days are short and the months are long. An inclination to ski, snowboard, sled, ice skate something active really helps to turn winter into a positive. Winter Study is in fact like a month long winter carnival. Again, not for everyone, but those who like it, really love it.</p>
<p>Curmudgeon, I agree with BHG and MOT about having one or two schools even a little higher. She seems to be bigger than the sum of her parts.</p>
<p>Btw, about FinAid: my business is a lot less complicated than yours but even so there was quite a variance among offers. I sat down with a senior FinAid officer at D's #1 choice and we had a conversation that was brisk but surprisingly friendly...I'd been expecting something adversarial like an IRS audit. A key moment came when she agreed that their adding some depreciation back into my income wasn't justified in the totality of circumstances. The point is, even when you get an offer, get your ducks in a row and negotiate.</p>
<p>momrath--it certainly is personal. My son visited your son's college last February during the cold snap and there was NO WAY after that visit that he was going anywhere near the Northeast. Funny enough, at the rival school around the bend from there, when the kids he was staying with on his visit heard where he had already been accepted, they said, "Why would you even think of coming to _____? It's COLD here!" </p>
<p>I really found that I couldn't stand the long winter in the Northeast--maybe it is the hibernation aspect you mention. I ski, and I ice skate, and I love the snow in the mountains HERE, and am generally quite athletic and I still hated it. (and by the way skiing in the East and the West are two totally different experiences, although you learn to ski more precisely in the East because of the ice). </p>
<p>So I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, although I must confess that being back in the snow and ice last year made me think, "Yes, this is the way college is SUPPOSED to be!" because it reminded me of my winter experiences.</p>
<p>OT, but Patient, you know I am finding as I get older that I do not like the cold and I grew up in cold weather, and spent many years in Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and NY. I am about as far north as I want to be and am looking slightly further south for my old age. Maybe Md or Va. Don't like the idea of palm trees at Christmas; I still like the 4 seasons, but I want the winter tempered, and I can deal with the summer if I have good air conditioning. My kids seem to gravititate towards the colder regions for college, however, and it doesn't bother them an iota.</p>