D18 is searching for colleges that seem like a good match for her and where she has a chance at good merit aid. Although she has straight A’s in tough classes, her SAT and ACT aren’t great.
UW 4.0 / W 4.7 after this year (straight A’s)
SAT 1280
ACT 28
4 AP classes junior year and 3 next year
4 years varsity sport
4 years band
3 years science club
Girl Scout Gold Award
National Honor Society
Volunteers at local library and summer camps
Intended major is Biology (Pre-Med)
Our financial situation is in the middle class doughnut hole where they say we can afford a lot more each year than we have ability to pay. She needs a school that comes in below $20K with merit aid/grants and BEFORE loans. She will take out max Stafford loan herself and we will use our money, college savings, and co-sign additional loans up to the $20K mark.
She is looking for a small LAC in a smaller city/large town. Of colleges she has visited, she liked Hiram but thought it was a little too isolated. She did not like the vibe at Kenyon and again thought it was too isolated. She loved Wooster and liked Ohio Wesleyan. She especially liked the research opportunities at both of those schools.
Any suggestions to places that she has a chance at merit aid to make COA below the 20K mark? And might be similar to Wooster in terms of size and vibe?
There is still time for her to retake the SAT or ACT. Getting her score up just a few points will make a big difference since the best merit awards go to students who are at the top of a school’s applicant pool.
An investment in a good test practice program could pay off handsomely for you guys. Also, if she wants to go to medical school, she will need to do well on the MCAT. That could be especially stressful for her if she goes into it thinking that she’s not great at standardized tests. You’ve got a lot to gain by boosting both her confidence and her test scores now (and demonstrating to her how much good test prep can make a difference).
Speaking of med school, you may want to guide her away from LACs where you will be maxing out on loans since she will have to take out a ton of loans for medical school. Getting the test scores up will qualify her for full ride scholarships at some good schools and a zero debt bachelors degree.
University of Minnesota - Morris is a public LAC. Currently cost of attendance for out of state is about $22,000. If she has some merit award it would be affordable.
If the ACT gets up to a 29 she would get the largest merit award ($24000) at Simpson College. That would bring the cost down to about $22,000.
She has taken the SAT (1240 and 1280) twice and the ACT once with no prep. She is going to take both again with some test prep, but we want to have a good list of schools to apply for with the scores she already has.
I have looked at test scores she needs for full tuition and I am not sure it is realistic for her to gain 6 points or 200 points. Right now we are just trying to find places that might work and can visit over the summer.
Going to sound like a strange thing, but Lake Superior State might be worth a look. Cost wise it’s there, 1200 students give or take… But the weather will bust anybody’s bubble. Sitting between Lakes Superior and Huron, there is a unique and diminishing culture. The experience would be phenomenal and unforgettable. It was DD’s no. 2 choice in the end, having beaten out Rose Hulman, Case Western and a couple others. What can I say, she thinks her own thoughts.
Also, Hanover just might maybe possibly come through.
Thanks for the suggestion about Hanover! I have a friend from grad school that teaches there and it will be a double reason to visit. Lake Superior State sounds interesting - she loves the cold and snow so it is a definite possibility.
Hopefully people with experience can chime in on that list. I’m a jaded parent from the 2017 board. I haven’t seen anyone’s COA come in at under $20K with stats like those. Don’t get me wrong…they are solid. She sounds like a great kid. But 28 is kind of in doughnut land for merit too.
FWIW, my kid with a 34 ACT only had one offer coming in UNDER $20K and that was University of Alabama.
If she is a great student like you say she is, she could most likely crank that score to at least a 32 with some daily motivated prep.
For the types of schools you are looking for, Kalamazoo College and Lawrence University are worth a look. They are both LACs in larger towns than some other LACs that are in really small towns. That being said I think carachel2 is right, it seems to be hard to get much below 25- 30K at most LACs with merit alone.
Not an LAC and certainly not cold but it’s a good school under $20k - Florida State University. I was just looking at it as a possibility for my D18. Note that the $18k COA is for instate but OOS tuition waiver generally granted with a 29 ACT and they superscore. Your D has a few more attempts at the ACT to make this option work if interested. She would also have a shot at the added Freshman Scholarship - additional $2400/yr. Here is a link showing COA at FSU - http://admissions.fsu.edu/freshman/finances/
Mount Union or Wittenberg might be colleges to look into. Both give strong merit aid with possibilities of additional merit aid. Is she looking to continue her sport? If so, that could give more possibilities. We know two students who were offered full tuition scholarships (not athletic) with similar profile and ACT only 1-2 points higher. Even the 28 will give you half off at Mount Union and you get more if you come back for the competitive scholarship day. Students are friendly, involved in intramurals, and there are honors opportunities. It may be worth a look.
As a side note, my S18 has visited Wooster, Muhlenberg, Juniata, and Denison from your list. Wooster and Muhlenberg had a similar feel to us, with smart friendly students. And even though you feel Wooster is a reach, stay in contact with them as they may be more holistic? It will be hard to reach $20k with these schools, but imo it’s better to keep more on the list initially until it’s known how all scholarships (merit/dept/etc.) work. Also if you are thinking U of Toledo and Dayton, maybe look at Valparaiso or Ohio Northern. Both seem to have strong merit, and a few years ago Ohio Northern reduced their tuition. We know a few students at Ohio Northern and again smart, friendly students…Small town though.
Lake State has a scholarship calculator … Looks like a 4.0 / 28 would have an expected cost of around 12-13 per year.
There are 7 colleges and universities on the US side of Lake Superior, I think. Any of them would be an adventure. A niece went to Northern Michigan, which is a little bigger than LSSU, and it wasn’t too different from her in state alternatives.
Thanks for all of the advice! She is adding a few of the suggestions to her list to research. Lake State, FSU, Hanover, and Mount Union definitely seem like they might work. I am looking into other low cost schools too. I think it is important for her to get through undergraduate with as little debt as possible - hopefully she will see the light too:)
It is amazing what a motivated student can do with their prep on their own. D went to a five week (2 hrs each session) prep class and it really did nothing for her. Once we looked at serious college planning and what would be needed to get merit at her schools (no way can we afford our entire EFC so merit was the strategy!) she really dug in and worked. At home. On her own.
One section test every other night. Study concepts that were missed. A full length practice test every few weeks.
There is a Midwest Student Exchange Program, with participation by IN, IL, MI, WI, MN, KS, and I think ND, IA andMO. not all schools in those states participate, but it limits OOS tuition to 150% of in state. Also, several of this, and presumably others, waive OOS tuition for ACT scores in the 25-26 range.
DD &I shared a google spreadsheet, and I recall asking her to take a look at St Cloud State, Ferris State, and one or two in Nebraska from this program. (She did the same. A well oiled collaboration!)
Check out Drew University in NJ. If she can get her SAT to 1300 with a 4.0 they have some good merit aid. I think that’s the cutoff for Baldwin Scholars.
Knox College, Kalamazoo College, Earlham College all might be a possibility – they each have lower “sticker” price, and may give 1/2 tuition awards for a well-told story, which includes ECs. That probably is still close to $30k, not $20k.
Target the test scores. My D raised an initial 27 unprepped ACT score to 32 with a week of determined prep. She took practice tests and then made sure she understood why each question was answered the way it was. She studied concepts she consistently missed (comma rules was one). She did the same for the SAT (they were test dates a week apart in June, so two full weeks of test prep total between the two test) and scored highly on her first attempt at that. If you have the summer to prep more extensively, see if you can get your D on board to do that so she can retake with a lot of confidence. She has the grades already.
D also chased merit at LACs. She got offers in the 25k range from a few (Centre, Knox, TrinityU, SouthwesternU). Only Southwestern came in at 20k. She had 3.8UW/4.6WGPA and a 1540M+CR old SAT and some good EC’s. This was a year ago.