<p>She could look at Macalester (in a really nice neighborhood in St Paul, MN), Goucher (Baltimore), University of Richmond, Bryn Mawr (Philadelphia), Simmons (Boston), Agnes Scott (Atlanta)? All are in cities and would likely provide merit aid for her stats, except for Bryn Mawr (iffier since it’s highly selective).
Pace is just a run-off-the-mill university similar to a directional, except it charges super high tuition due to its location.
Drexel is very preprofessional since it works on the co-op system. You need to be ready to relocate and lose friends for the internships, every year. It’s good to find a job but I’m not sure it’s worth the cost academically.</p>
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<p>It’s also an all-women college. Out of question. :)</p>
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<p>What is “directional”?</p>
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<p>Is NE any better on that matter?</p>
<p>Northeastern is a bit of a better university, in my opinion, than either Pace or Drexel. If your daughter is interested in Boston, Northeastern would be an option worth exploring. Plus, Northeastern has much better merit aid possibilities than Drexel. The NEU students we know have all done their coops in the greater Boston area.</p>
<p>You say she is interested in urban living? What about those colleges in the greater washington DC area? There are plenty to choose from from Georgetown, to American, to Catholic.</p>
<p>Or what about the LACs in the greater Philly area? Haverford, Villanova, etc? They are mighty good too.</p>
<p>What about Tufts?</p>
<p>There are tons of options in urban areas.</p>
<p>Tufts doesn’t give merit scholarships, AFAIK.</p>
<p>I am not sure how much I am intersted in sending her into Philly area … how safe it is? How many really “livable” neighborhoods are there? What does the area around those campuses looks like (from what I heard, for example, UPenn area is not so great … don’t know about other colleges there).</p>
<p>The same concern about DC area … she likes cities, but not the “sketchy” ones. And we are kind of concerned about sending her off to some such surroundings, where she has neither experience, nor physical ability to fight/escape any undesirable encounters …</p>
<p>Anything Catholic or somehow church-affiliated causes her “knee-jerk” reaction - “no way!”.</p>
<p>My son went to BU. My husband used to live in NYC. Both are cities, and neither is any safer overall than DC, Philly or Chicago. All of these are urban areas with parts that are terrific and parts that are not so terrific. Any student heading to these urban campuses needs to quickly develop city sense. BU actually had a student orientation session on this.</p>
<p>If you don’t want your kid in Philly, then Drexel needs to come off of her list. It is in Philly.</p>
<p>Haverford, and Villanova are located in very nice parts of greater Philly. So is Bryn Mawr. </p>
<p>The Main Line area of Philly is VERY livable! So are many other areas of Philly.</p>
<p>Georgetown is in a fine part of DC. So is American. Catholic University abuts the National Shrine. It is beautiful.</p>
<p>In ANY city, one needs to be aware of the neighborhoods…which can be very different from block to block. If you are worried about cities, then NYC and Boston need to come off your list too. If your daughter can live safely in NYC or Boston, she can live safely in DC, Philly or Chicago…or any other major metro area.</p>
<p>We live in a semi rural area of our state. Our son went to BU and our daughter to Santa Clara. Both learned how to live in a city carefully. </p>
<p>No matter which city your child chooses, she will need to be careful. That is a reality.</p>
<p>Re: church affiliation…as I mentioned earlier, the Jesuit colleges are very ecumenical. But if your daughter has an aversion to a school with a religious affiliation of any kind, then fine…take those off of her list. But really, they do have the right size and the right kinds of courses of study. My kid is not catholic, and never had an issue while at Santa Clara.</p>
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Google much? 
[Juniata</a> College, by any measure one of the best liberal arts colleges in the U.S.](<a href=“http://www.juniata.edu/]Juniata”>http://www.juniata.edu/)
<a href=“Google Maps”>Google Maps;
<p>thumper 1, </p>
<p>if it would be completely up to me, I wouldn’t be looking at anything outside California. And I’d love it if she would agree even to hear anything about Santa Clara University. 
No such luck (15 minutes from home ;)), altogether with Stanford (but then nobody is going to accept here there, anyway).</p>
<p>If the competitivness and unpredicatbility of UC admissions wouldn’t gone so crazy these days, I would strongly discourage her from looking anywhere else (except, maybe some super-nice schools, which might give something more than UC). The problem with cities is, we visited Boston and NYC and, have at least, SOME idea, how the neighborhoods look like … but never went to Phylly, so have no idea (only rumors) about its (un-)safety. </p>
<p>I know about Drexel - told her right away it’s not a good idea … for one more reason. :)</p>
<p>We visited Georgetown and JHU in DC area with the older daughter - I remember that Gerorgetown area was nice … but don’t rememember they had any merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m misreading your child’s SAT and GPA, but I do believe she will get accepted to at least one UC, if she applies to them. But then I’m not an adcom.</p>
<p>Is she a NMF?</p>
<p>blossom,</p>
<p>I forgot to address this one:</p>
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<p>Last spring, when we spoke to her hs councelor, she showed us our school statistics on UC acceptances for the kids with similar stats (but, mostly, those were the ones with slightly better GPA - hers for that moment was 3.68 uw (hopefully, would be better by the mid-senior year) - and slightly lower SATs): for such kids UCB acceptance rate was about 50%, UCSD and UCD - about 75%, UCSB, UCI - somewhat higher, but also non-100%. The 100% acceptance started with UCSD (where she doesn’t want to apply to).</p>
<p>But the councelor couldn’t tell me anything about ECs of all those “similar” kids from our school - some of them might have zillions of math/science competitions or athletic awards, leadership positions etc. … and some, like my daughter, would be just nice kids, highly involved in their school social-cultural-athletic life, but not too much personal achievements to impress admissions.</p>
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<p>She is going to apply to UCB, UCSD, (hates LA, so no UCLA), UCD, UCSB, UCI … no UCSC (hates forests), and we are not sure whether to ask her to apply to UCR and UCM.</p>
<p>If not totally unlucky, she SHOULD get into at least some of them, but seeing so much completely inexplicable bad luck happened to some of other good kids from our area recently, one could never tell for sure what will happen. And, since she hadn’t seen many of them, what if she relly doesn’t like those that accept her?</p>
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<p>Unfortunately, no (as I just found out :().</p>
<p>If she doesn’t want woods, better take off Lewis & Clark - can’t get much “woodsier”!</p>
<p>Santa Cruz…in the woods…really?</p>
<p>OP-Your D will need to develop street smarts if she’s going to an urban university. Although there are parts of Philly and Boston and NY and DC (and LA and SF as you well know) that aren’t safe to walk by yourself in the evening, your D will learn to navigate public transportation and will learn to walk with a group late at night.</p>
<p>For my money (and all my kids went to urban U’s) it is far safer for a kid to learn to be street smart, then to have a kid at a suburban or rural U who relies on kids with cars to get around at night, especially without a designated driver. So for sure that’s a trade off. But I don’t think you can rule out urban schools based on a vague sense of good area/bad area… your D could be at NYU and have a cool internship at a hospital in a not so great part of the city, and like every other employee there, will learn to get back and forth safely.</p>
<p>Drexel is not a particularly bucolic campus- I suggested taking it off the list because I can’t see coming from thousands of miles to attend there. I think Northeastern has a more academic vibe with stronger students.</p>
<p>Unless your D is targeting the super competitive merit awards at places like Wash U (where the kids who get significant money are truly superstars) then I wouldn’t worry quite so much about EC’s. If there is a teacher who your D feels is going to rave about her… I think that carries a lot of weight.</p>
<p>I don’t want to cast a shadow on what I think is a fine application plan, but I want to encourage you to make sure you’ve got a few affordable options if the money doesn’t come through. There are a lot of schools who cut back (some significantly) on merit awards in the last two years- some of the other posters can be specific about which schools and how much) but I know a couple of kids who got some nasty surprises when they assumed that their awards were pretty much for four years, barring anything horrible. Some schools package the merit as part of an overall financial aid (need) package, so if a family’s financial picture improves (older child graduates from college; new job with more money) both the need based and part of the merit can evaporate.</p>
<p>If it’s 5K that won’t really change your quality of life then fine. But if you’ve got your budget set and will really be counting on the Freshman award going forward (and potentially going up as costs increase) then make sure you’ve got a contingency plan.</p>
<p>I think going to a new part of the country is a fantastic part of college for kids who want that. So I’d urge you to encourage your D to keep an open mind about some of her criteria. Some places are “worth” the added expense of flying back and forth; others not so much. She can probably find a better academic fit closer to home if she relaxes some of her criteria, no???</p>
<p>That’s why I was down on Pace. Can’t see a kid flying across the country to go there. There are lots of schools like that in the NY Metro area- Adelphi, Hofstra, Farleigh Dickinson, Seton Hall, all fine schools. But you’re going to chew up a lot of money getting back and forth when there are probably schools with a more academically challenging vibe much closer to home.</p>
<p>She didn’t see Lewis nad Clark (formally, it’s in Portland , right?), but seen UCSD as we drove through the campus on couple of occassions … it was, mostly, woods. ;)</p>
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<p>Well, I see such options as UCs and maybe couple of CSUs - she is considering applying to CalPoly SLO and, just in case, SJSU (even though I am not sure whether it’s better - in the case of unexplicable bad luck - than going for 2 years to CC with further transfer options to better schools). Should I look at anything else as more “safe” financial options?</p>
<p>Thumper, UCSC is definitely in the woods! It is a very unique campus that reminds me more of a mountain retreat center than a university. Gorgeous tall redwoods. Maybe your confusion is because it ALSO has ocean on at least two sides!</p>
<p>Yep…I was picturing the ocean!</p>
<p>OP…you meant UCSC, not UCSD, right?</p>
<p>Lewis & Clark is in nature but unlike UCSC it’s ten minutes away from a major city. That means that while plenty of students explore the many trails around campus, far more spend their weekends in the city.</p>
<p>Yes, Lewis & Clark is technically in Portland and very easy to get to the city from campus…the school has a shuttle bus…but the campus is south of the city in a very wooded area and is basically surrounded by it. The campus is a beautiful old estate with some of the original buildings…the surrounding area (Lake Oswego) is a very nice, somewhat upscale suburb…</p>
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<p>Yep, UCSD (up-scale suburbia near the beach) is fine with her. 
Gorgeous redwoods near another beach (much colder, though) - no way.</p>