Just adding that if your parents are divorced, financial aid is going to work differently for you. For next year you only use the income of the parent you spend the most time with. After that, it is the income of the parent who provides the most support. Some schools also use CSS which will generally take into account both parent incomes in a divorce situation. That might make a big difference in whether you are eligible for need based aid. And as previously stated, if you want to row in college, maybe start with those schools. I know nothing about rowing ranking but I am guessing you are Div. III level, which will not get you money for rowing but will often give you an admissions boost or they will magically find “extra” academic scholarships. Also, if you are a NMSF there are a number of schools that give good automatic scholarships for that.
Would you consider rowing in college (D3)?
Yes, LACs = Liberal arts colleges. Undergraduate-focused, smaller institutions with a low faculty: student ratio (often 12:1, 11:1 or even lower!), some rather academically intense, all with a specific “culture” or a personality. Generally less into spectator sports than large universities, although 20,25, or even 30% srudentd may be athletes (ie., participating in spoets rather than watching).
You can compare some in the Fiske Guide (any year), such as Kenyon, Colgate, Bates, Davidson, Smith, St Olaf, Washington&Lee… You should be able to pick up on differences. 
Thank you; and Duke is now on my list (I’ll be applying for the Robertson Scholars when it opens up again in the fall)! Colby seems really cool and I like how their class sizes weigh in on the smaller side, though it’s currently residing in a ‘maybe’ column due to lack of financial and merit aid.
I’ll take you up on the more affordable options offer; again, thank you so much!
Will do, thank you!
I’d love to row in college and had gotten started on the recruitment process early last year… alas! It was presented to be a major time commitment and I don’t think I’ll be able to juggle it all, especially at more competitive colleges.
I’d love to row in college but I don’t think I would be able to juggle that along with academics ;-; There’s a certain cloud of panic haunting me from spring break until AP testing is over (States and Regionals somewhat overlap with testing) that I don’t want to follow me to college…
From what you and others have said, it seems that LACs will generally be a better fit experience wise! Thanks for the help and I’ll look into the Fiske Guide : D
This kid says they think they will be NM finalist. If that is the case and he or she is a FL resident, wouldn’t they still get the Benecquisto…which IS a full ride?
@JustVisiting76 @PrdMomto1
Thank you for the comparisons! Due to Covid I likely won’t be able to see and ‘feel the vibe’ of either, but your experiences have helped tremendously! I may just end up applying to both and see which one pans out best financially : D
I didn’t see OP’s statement that she expects to be NMF but was responding to @fladadK4Q stating that Bright Futures is full ride. Honestly don’t know what Benacquisto will be for instate residents. I think what the bill did was put the funding back into the general budget (Benacquisto was a separate agency and funded differently). Some of the funding could be reduced or it could stay the same. Either way, it’s a lot of money.
Yes, rowing is a big commitment but there are a lot of benefits to college sports too. My daughter learned a lot about organization and time management. And had fun. Taking the athletic scholarship allowed her to not work during school (although a lot of her teammates did).
Tulane offers merit. Some of the LACS that have merit that seem like they might have the vibe you are looking for include Trinity (CT), Connecticut College, Union (NY) and Denison. Union is great in the health fields (including a BS/MD program) and would give you merit.
To @loquat you would get excellent merit aid at University of New Mexico, University of Alabama, University of Arizona, Arizona State University. And you would likely get into the honors colleges at all.
I’m not sure I would refer to Wesleyan as a safety, despite her impressive credentials; it’s become extremely competitive and selective within the last few years. Blame Lin-Manuel Miranda 
If you are looking to save some $$, check into University if Central Florida where historically NMF gets amazing scholarships. UCF is one of the largest University but they have a medical honors college which could help make it seem smaller.
I think for Wes, more than 40% of their students last year were TO - so that’s what’s overloading the applicant pool. I’d like to think maybe incorrectly, that a 36 (and 13 AP classes) means something.
But you could be right.
If both end up on your “accepted, now considering” list make sure to visit both when students are out and about. My mistake in excluding Rice was the exact same reason the other poster’s d wasn’t feeling WashU. I was in Houston and visited Rice when students were on break.
As far as identifying merit aid: my suggestion that is especially applicable to private national universities is to make a spreadsheet of CDS merit aid stats.
If you go to the financial aid section, 1) total full time freshman - those with demonstrated need = those without need. A little further down in the same section are some figures with the label H2A. That will contain full time entering freshman getting awards not to fulfill need and average award.
From there, you can figure out % of non-need full time entering freshmen getting something and the average award. This won’t help you determine how the merit aid pool is allocated among those who receive something, but it will give you some idea of how competitive the process is. A good comparison is Duke v WashU. Duke may have 12-16 $70,000 awards for 900 non-need freshmen. That’s it, so it’s all or nothing and extremely competitive. WashU may have 150 awards with an average of 15-20k. This doesn’t help you with how the awards are allocated, but you can dig down a little deeper in boards and on various sites and see that 2/3 of those awards are nominal 500-1500 “feel goods”. So there are about 50 merit awards ranging from half tuition to full ride averaging about 45k.
Northwestern is another good example. They have merit, but almost all of it is used to support demonstrated need or it is tagged for certain applicant populations. Like those going to Chicago of Evanston public schools, etc. Just something to consider as you’re playing the merit award probability game.
Seconding UCF Medical Scholars. The honors college (Burnett) is excellent, both academically and in terms of experiential offerings, and it’d offer a smaller community within what is a HUGE university.
(UF’s Honors college is very lightweight and wouldn’t reduce your sense of being at a huge university; because UF has such outsize prestige in Florida, it doesn’t need to offer anything extra to the students it admits. The downside is that if you want/need an honors college that will offer a smaller community, that’s not it.)
Obviously this would only be a safety, in that you’re sure to get into Burnett and sure it’s affordable.
Wilkes is also good for students in the sciences but it’s very very small (400 students total).
D3 rowing is likely less intense than the championships you’re part of (though not for the faint hearted).
At D3 LACs you don’t get athletic scholarships and the coach has no say about your academic choices, meaning you can quit if it gets too much (which happens… not uncommonly, for whatever reason).
Rowing would, however, be an enviable hook at most LACs. Since you clearly have the academic chops, you could have several great offers, especially if you apply EA where it’s possible.
Your goal is to find a better fit than the Florida publics with an affordable cost for your parents, right? So perhaps use that card to increase the odds in your favor, since you clearly earned it.
Perhaps check out LACs that look interesting to you, see if they offer rowing, and reach out tentatively? (Remember to list your academic stats first, athletic stats second, and ask relevant questions at the end. Do not ask about athletic scholarships but perhaps ask about how current athletes balance academicsand rowing, perhaps asking to be put in touch with one or two on the team?)
Rowing even at the D3 level is no joke. One of my closest friends and a girlfriend of mine did it. They were in the boat from 5:30-7:30am 5-6 days a week. They’re also in the weight room in the late afternoon for another hour 5-6 days/week. There’s also time spent getting to/from the water depending upon the campus, preparing the boat, storing it when done. So a two hour practice session can turn into a 3 hour time commitment very easily.
You can easily burn 25 hours/week at inconvenient times. And this is club rowing.
You give up a lot of random 11pm conversations on your dorm floor moments and end up finding ways to squeeze in an hour nap rather than talking in the quad after your last class ends at 3pm, etc.
Having seen it, I totally get where she’s coming from. I’ve seen my buddy fall asleep at a restaurant table at 9pm because he wants to hang out to “take a break” but his body really won’t let him with his sleep schedule and academic demands.
My athlete daughter never saw 11 pm! She was in bed by 10. Of course, those non-athletes never saw 5:30 am and random conversations can happen at that time too.
This was not that different than high school. My daughter often got up at 6 to go to our community rec center to work out for an hour. She’d do homework until school started, and then had practice for 2 hours after school. She liked it.
Athletes like working out! They also get benefits like first choice of classes (and coach pull to get into sections that might be closed).
My theater kid liked hanging out with the other theater kids and there was a whole lot less structure in her life. She often had to be up for 8 am classes because those were the only sections open with her low priority registration.
Absolutely. I think the difference is that you can form a different type of deep bond as an athlete on a team, but you need to be willing to sacrifice a lot of the social serendipity of college. Choices need to be made. Our rowers got up at 4:30 to meet at 4:45 to take a bus that arrived at 5:15 to set up to be in the water at 5:30 to practice until 7:30 to tear down by 7:45 to be back on campus at 8:15. Takeaway: if you wanna row in college, do it at a campus that isn’t 30 minutes from where you train.
No real course selection privileges other than maybe some 4 hour 1x a day labs that ran in 3 blocks: 8-12, 1-5, or 6-10. They got the 1-5 and would do their other training with a later group in that day. This was 20+ years ago though.
It’s not for everyone. And rowing especially isn’t too different D1 vs D3 wrt commitment. Our guys were in regattas v schools like Notre Dame and Michigan and more than holding their own.