@MACmiracle - our kids sound like they want the same things!
Ohio U is much larger than what your D wants, but it is a lovely, totally walkable school in a cute town with relatively small class sizes. With merit, she’d probably come in around $21-23,000/yr (based on my PA kid with 27 ACT but much lower GPA). Those costs (tuition, fees, R&B) as established at enrollment remain unchanged for 12 consecutive semesters. She’d likely move off campus for junior and senior year, so R&B might change then; but tuition and fees are set. U Dayton does the same thing, BTW.
Don’t retake both tests, pick the SAT or ACT (whichever she liked better) and focus on that only.
@LuckyCharms913
Did your D decide on Ohio U? I was so curious about what the final decision was. I have a good friend whose D went there for engineering and loved it … and had a great job waiting for her after graduation.
What were net costs like at Dayton? I’ve read that campus is beautiful and because it’s a little bigger than an LAC, it would probably provide a lot of opportunities.
If I remember correctly, your D also considered Xavier. Were there any cons that took it off the list?
Sorry to be nosy and hijacking again but maybe @2018mom2018 might be helped by your experiences, too. We are both looking for miracles! 
It’s funny, @MACmiracle I almost tagged you on #41 because your D’s preferences seem similar to @2018mom2018 . You have a good memory!
My son did decide on Ohio U. I never thought he’d go for a rural school (everything else on his list was urban); but he’d liked it when we first visited, and when we went back in March, it just felt right to him. His dad and I were extremely impressed by the meeting we had with an Associate Dean in the Business School. His cost (after merit) is about $26,500/year, stable for all 4 years. OOS students with strong GPAs should see at least $3,000/year more than that. Requires 3.0 to maintain, which seems fair.
Dayton came in around $32,500, which was a combination of merit and FA (we have another kid already in college). But what was a surprise was they guaranteed the same aid for all four years even though the kids will only overlap for two. Price was higher than our EFC for Years 1 and 2, but much lower that what I expect it will be in Years 3 and 4. Dayton’s campus is lovely; it reminds me of Villanova. Almost forgot, Dayton has an unusual award where if you visit before applying, you get up to $1,000 each year for books.
Xavier was my favorite right up until the end (I am a big fan of the Jesuits), but the Accepted Students Day event (which we trekked 9 hours to attend) was kind of a bust, and then we saw Ohio U the next day, which sealed the deal for my S. Would still recommend Xavier in a heartbeat. Price after merit would have been $32,500 for Year 1 (which of course would increase each year).
My takeaway is that some of the Catholic colleges are pretty generous with tuition discounting for good/decent students, but few of them offer full tuition awards to the really high-stats kids. Strategy seemed to be to offer merit to bring the cost in line with the State-supported schools, since, right or wrong, many PA parents are almost psychologically conditioned to consider the low 30’s an acceptable price (although the PASSHE schools are about $10,000 less per year than Pitt, Penn State, and Temple).
For our family, a willingness to get out of the immediate area was helpful. For example, the NPC at St. Joe’s showed us paying $50,000/year after a small merit award. Scranton would have been $50,000+ (no merit there for my modest-stats son). He didn’t apply to either school; but Xavier is a lot like St. Joe’s, somewhat like Scranton, just transported to Cincinnati with a significantly lower price.
One last thing that was great about these schools: All offer EA, so S had decisions, including merit amounts, in hand before Christmas (with Dayton deferring until February). He never applied to a “safety” since he had acceptances to three matches that he liked, and at prices that were within our budget. Also, and this is really minor but appreciated anyway: All have free applications (well, Ohio U charges, but they waived it after we visited).
And just so we don’t seem like total hijackers: West Chester is about 10 minutes from me. It’s a very nice school in a fun little town with some of the nicest kids I know attending. Temple is also very popular with kids from this area and well worth a visit.
@LuckyCharms913 Thanks for your thoughtful reply. So much great information!
@2018mom2018 Looking back at your original list, the NPCs for University of Toledo and Kent State came back around $20K for us. Not LACs as you know, but…
And about Ohio U. I was recently told that if your child gets into the Honors Tutorial College, tuition is free. I was skeptical since I hadn’t heard that before and had Ohio U on my radar for awhile. Now the average ACT of 32 so it’s a reach…but maybe their admissions is holistic. B-)
Also, despite the questionable state of the PASSHE schools, Westchester, Millersville, and Bloomsburg seem to be doing very well.
Duquesne is in Pittsburgh and she might qualify for up to $20,000 merit and they gave a $4,000 on campus housing scholarship too this year.
Also look at Gannon, Seton Hill, U Scranton, St Francis University in PA
@LuckyCharms913 - I appreciate you hijacking and giving me some wonderful information! We are going to look into Ohio University and U of Dayton. The THC sounds very intriguing.
@MACmiracle - we will have to compare notes as we go along. My D wants to major in Neuroscience as well.
Look at Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Bryn Mawr. Free to apply to & test optional
@LuckyCharms913 Would you mind sharing why your Xavier accepted students day was a bust? My S18 is looking at Xavier pretty seriously and I’m always interested in others’ experiences with the school, both positive and negative. Thanks!
@UncannySV The “vibe” at Xavier just wasn’t what he wanted, which is hard to quantify. Part of that couldn’t be helped, as it was a rainy Sunday and the campus seemed dead. Prospective students got a meal pass to eat in the dining hall, but that was pretty empty at noon. Even the students working the event, who I presume are chosen for enthusiasm and knowledge, seemed bored.
Son was supposed to “sit in on a class.” Since the event was on a Sunday, we knew it wouldn’t be an actual class, but expected sort of a “performance” of how a professor might teach, maybe an interesting lecture. Instead it was a student-led Q&A, not academic at all.
I still think it is a fine school, just not a fit for my kid, who preferred a bigger school all along but kept Xavier on the list for academic (strong business program), geographic (loved Cincinnati) and financial (nice merit) reasons.
@LuckyCharms913 Do you know anything about John Carroll?
Also, I noticed kids at my D’s school applying to King’s in Wilkes Barre. Have you heard anything about it. An unexplainable something about it has turned me off, but maybe it’s worth looking into.
Sorry @MACmiracle but i don’t know much about either of those schools; somehow neither one made it onto our radar.
Most of the LACs like Allegheny, Juniata, Susquehanna, give an estimate for merit and need based aid in their NPC.
Not sure if it fits your daughter’s wishlist but Mercyhurst in Erie is a lovely little school that gave my son phenomenal merit which brought us well under $20,000 for COA. His stats were comparable to your daughter’s (maybe even a bit below). He also is looking at grad school for Physical Therapy so wanted to keep the undergrad costs in line.