Great Schools for athlete with high GPA?

College Search & Selection
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I’ve seen some threads with incredible suggestions and hoping you can help us find some good ideas for my daughter. Here is her profile:

Attends urban school in big city, multiple AP courses: 4.7 GPA. High GPA is due to work ethic; she is not a natural scholar, but rather a hard worker.

Very competitive club and HS soccer player. Captain of HS varsity team. Has been told by coaches she could play D2/D3. She really wants to play on a college team. Soccer is her stress reliever.

Interested in sciences, especially biology, wildlife bio, zoology.

She would like some diversity on campus (not too white). Would like a town with some culture. Craves coastal school, likes both east and west coasts. Does not want midwest.

Wants school/life balance; does not want to be on campus to only study or to only be an athlete.

Wants to know her professors; so thinking smaller, possibly LAC. Wants study abroad program.

We would like to keep the tab to under 30K.

Any ideas??
Thank you!

2

Wesleyan?
Occidental?
Lewis & Clark?

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This article may offer you a few ideas for colleges to research further: https://www.newsweek.com/25-schools-stocked-jocks-71873.

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Could you be more specific about the financial constraints? What does “keep it under $30k” mean – are you full pay, and need merit money to bring it to $30k? Or, have you run the NPC (Net Price Calculator) and it shows your EFC (Expected Family Contribution) to be around $30K?

For a full pay family to get merit aid to bring the cost to $30k, that is roughly 3/4 tuition merit award, for a school which is about $65k tuition and $12-15k room and board. While you can find good, often midwest, schools with 1/2 tuition merit for high achieving kids, finding schools that give between 3/4+ tuition becomes more difficult, and exceedingly rare among LACs on the coasts. On the east coast, women’s colleges are more likely – BMC and Mt Holyoke, perhaps Agnes Scott in Atlanta.

Alternatively, if you’ve run the financial aid calculators and are comfortable with the range of your EFC then you can focus on specific schools, run the NPC there and – barring the factors which can throw off the NPC, such as divorce or family owned businesses, have some comfort in the likely financial aid offer.

5

Thank you for the replies!
Midwestmomofboys: we are proceeding as likely full pay. We would like merit to help with final cost and end up in the 30K ballpark. I think D is enamored with the idea of coastal, but a cultural bigger city in the Midwest might fulfill her need for diversity and culture. She is a POC.

2plustrio: great suggestions. We’re looking at L&C. I’ll look more closely at Occidental & Wesleyan

Thanks merc81, I’ll read the article!

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Read this thread: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2154331-looking-for-advice-in-merit-aid-for-a-top-1-student-p1.html

This poster’s daughter was also an URM and an athlete and needed big merit dollars. Lots of good suggestions on where to look. Your budget is a bit higher but that thread had great advice throughout.

Your D may need to be more flexible with her list to get the cost to where you need it to be.

I’ll add some smaller research universities to your list where your D may see merit money - Case Western Reserve and U of Rochester. Case, while in OH, is in the middle of the cultural hub of Cleveland, bordering the museums, botanic gardens, the symphony’s hall, etc… Lake Erie is right near by and believe it or not, there are some great beaches!

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What is her unweighted GPA? Has she taken any standardized tests? If you are full pay and want to get under $30k it is going to be difficult for any school that you have heard the name.

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Thanks for clarifying! So the search is for more than 1/2 tuition merit aid. As parent of D3 recruited athlete, full pay, needing 1/2 tuition merit, on my experience, that is a tall order. Most top 50 LACs have tuition above $60k these days, so 1/2 tuition award brings the cost down to $30ish k, but that leaves room and board which is usually about $12k but can be closer to $15k. If that $30k could be stretched to $40-45K, that could be quite do-able.

The list of schools which don’t give merit and are therefore not options, is pretty long: Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, Middlebury Haverford, Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Tufts, Pomona, Hamilton, Vassar, Colgate, Davidson, Barnard, Franklin & Marshall. I’m pretty sure Wellesley and Smith do not give merit aid but someone else can chime in there. Skidmore gives a few music awards but does not generally give merit.

Who does give merit aid? Trinity and Conn Coll, Bryn Mawr, Mt Holyoke, Grinnell, Kenyon, Oberlin, Denison, Dickinson, Rhodes, St Olaf (I think?). As you go deeper into the US News list, you get Wooster, Lawrence, Beloit, Kalamazoo. I’m not familiar with PNW schools like Lewis & Clark and Whitman or at Macalester and Occidental.

1 Like
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Agree eyeore123. Would love to hear about some schools that I haven’t heard of…ideally D2/D3 with women’s soccer. Her unweighted is 3.9. Rising junior w only 1200 PSAT under belt.

The unicorn school she wants:
Diverse student body, moderately selective, soccer, sciences.

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Thanks! Looking into Case Western.

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Midwestmomofboys, thank you for this list: very helpful! Do you know if any of these have a more diverse student body? She attends a diverse HS (both racially and economically) and as a person of color feels more comfortable around a broad range of people.

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Really helpful post from midwestmomofboys above.

Also echo that we need your D’s unweighted GPA, core courses only, on 4 point scale.

Has your D been speaking with college soccer coaches? You might be able to get in that price range at a D2 school, but will likely give up something on academics and name recognition.

Go to College Navigator and take a look at each of the schools’ net price by income level. Here is Trinity College’s info: average net price for families making >$110K in 2018/19 was $46,711. The most recent data is 2018/19.

https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=trinity+college&s=all&id=130590#netprc

College of Wooster’s average net price for families making >110K was $32,688.
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=wooster&s=all&id=206589#netprc

I would encourage your D to also consider playing club soccer in college. Club soccer teams can be highly competitive, so something to think about.

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Mom of POC (adopted) here too so that will be a factor for my daughter in the future. She doesnt go to a hugely diverse school now but Im hoping in college for her to see a few more people who look like her.

Im not sure about their soccer stats but heres some more diverse schools.
Lynn U in Fl
U of San Fran
Hawaii Pacific
Uni of Washington
Clark in Mass
StonyBrook in NY

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Rice University in Houston is a small Division 1 school, but it checks off many of her boxes. Rice has a good women’s soccer program. Rice tries to recruit a diverse student body and gets high rankings for race/class interaction. It gives athletic scholarships and some merit aid, especially to POC. Super high scores are not as important for recruited athletes.

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Out of diversity, D2/3 soccer, location and <$30k: which are most important / non negotiable?

Because I think she are unlikely to get what she wants in all categories

Is your in state flagship affordable? If it is, could that be a safety with a club soccer team?

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If considered by international diversity, Mount Holyoke rates highly. For the study of biology, it represents a top-notch destination.

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On my above list of LACs which do give merit, Grinnell, Bryn Mawr, Mt Holyoke, and Denison are the more diverse. Denison does not publish its Common Data Set, but current stats are about 20% first gen, 20% low income, and about 35% non-white.

My urban public school, recruited athlete, whose club and high school soccer teams were largely Hispanic, African, and African-American and whose top priorities included a diverse, welcoming community, preferred Grinnell and Denison among the schools which gave merit.

Case Western is on the Ohio side of Lake Erie, an urban school with excellent sciences. Case plays in UAA D3 conference, which includes Emory, Brandeis, NYU, Wash U in St Louis, Univ Chicago. I’m pretty sure it gives merit. We know several female athletes (tennis) who had great experiences there.

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This is so helpful, thank, everyone.
Your questions are helping us zero in on what she really wants.
CollegeMambO, her order of preferences are:

  1. Playing soccer (the field is her zen place and needs it to de-stress). Ideally campus of under 10K kids where she can play on D2/D3 team. She has been to ID camps and is beginning to communicate with coaches now, however, we would like to narrow her list of potential campuses down so we're not wasting anyone's time
  2. Sciences, leaning toward bio now. Will likely go to grad school
  3. Around 30K OOPocket
  4. Diverse campus/community. I just got her to admit she is open to midwest schools lol (former midwestern girl here:)

Our flagship is an option with a great club program.

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Emory, Washington U, Cali State Polytechnic, Regis U, St. Edwards (I have a friend whos son went there for soccer).
All over the map there. Most might give merit or scholarship. Would have to look to see her preference.

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Small clarification – as of 2 years ago Skidmore did give merit aid. My son got a $10,000/year award, which clearly is not nearly enough for the OP’s budget, but I suspect for students stronger than my son the award would be bigger.