Help Find a College - Part 2

College Search & Selection
21

@lexluthor5 If you have already been to campus twice, and interviewed, and are emailing and apply EA – sounds like you should be good on the “demonstrated interest.”

And for St L, while there is a lot to like about it, the distance is a challenge. If she has a chance to meet with a rep at a local college fair, and can learn about the school online enough to write intelligently – I would think she should be fine for Regular Decision. They do seem to like the high stat kids, so if her application is credible, then hopefully she will get good merit!

A long season, I am so ready to be done with this! Good luck to your daughter, and hang in there.

22

I have a similar stats D16, looking for similar aid. My take is that very few of these would give enough aid to make it worthwhile for my D to consider. (We are trying to get down to 30K zone; maybe your target is a bit higher)?

Also, for what it’s worth, I think of Kenyon as an ultra-jock school. This may be because my kids are swimmers and Kenyon is multiple year nat’l champs in swimming. Only one of your list making our list is Grinnell.

23

@Booajo not even sure Grinnell is really on our list at the moment. I doubt that it’s going to get an application. I think, at least for my D, there’s a decent chance that Clark, Denison, St. Lawrence get into your range. Our range is probably a bit higher. $40-$45K is probably doable, though I certainly wouldn’t mind it being less.

24

Been moving forward with the college search and application process. Went to the 8 of the Best Colleges program the other night. Kenyon, Mac and Grinnell were all there so it was definitely a good event for us. Got some time to chat one on one with Deans from each school.

Looks like Grinnell has somehow made it on to the application list.

Think the application list will wind up being Kenyon, Dickinson, Macalester, Grinnell, Lafayette, Denison, Oberlin, Clark, SUNY Geneseo and SUNY Binghamton. There were a couple others that had free applications and no supplements (maybe like Colby, if I remember correctly) that we might take a flyer on even though not much chance of merit aid. Don’t think there’s that much interest in Oberlin, Clark or the SUNYs, so those are all really backups. Hopefully one or more of the first 6 come in with a good merit aid package. Think she’d be ok with Denison and really hoping for a good package from them, so that’s probably the real “backup”. Dickinson and Clark both have early action, so it’ll be nice to see what they come back with before the rest. Don’t think Wheaton (MA), St. Lawrence or Ursinus will wind up getting applications. And no matter what I say, Rice, Emory, Rochester all aren’t going to get on the list either. May apply to Union just because it’s a free application.

Think we are fairly safe getting some decent merit packages from one or more of those first 6?

Clark, Oberlin and Lafayette are all visiting our HS, so she’ll get another shot at talking to all of those reps. Dickinson is having an event at an alums house on Long Island next week where people with various affiliations to Dickinson will attend. That sounds interesting and we’ll attend that. My D has been keeping in contact with the various admission reps assigned to our region via email as well. Working on setting up a local interview with Grinnell and Mac as well. Won’t be able to visit either pre-acceptance.

Essay is a few revisions in and almost done and we’ve got a consultant helping with that and the application itself too.

Pretty much on cruise control at this point. Application will be in within a couple of weeks and we then we wait, I guess.

If anyone has any further comments or thoughts, I’d certainly be interested in hearing them.

25

OP, in terms of merit aid, my D received $22k from Denison, $15k from Dickinson, and $13k from Oberlin. She’s a sophomore at Denison and is very happy. Good luck!

26

Hi there, your working list and ours overlap a great deal. I wanted to add a couple additional suggestions, that might be more in the line of financial safeties that have many of the qualities you seek: Lawrence in Appleton WI and College of Wooster in OH. My impression from my research is that merit aid ranging from 12-25K for strong (but not necessarily over the top) students can be had at Mac, Oberlin, Dickinson, Denison, Wooster, and maybe Kenyon. Grinnell’s endowment has gotten a nice infusion from Buffet but I don’t recall the stats for merit aid there. It probably won’t make our final cut due to “work hard, play hard” reputation and the relative geographical isolation.

Good luck!

27

Kenyon has great swimmers, but it really isn’t a jock school except for that. It is really best known for its amazing English department – go look at the course selection, it is amazing for a school that size.

28

Yes, in Kenyon’s admissions office, that have a display with a 1 page sheets describing each major. We grabbed a bunch of them. Very helpful.

29

Seems like you have the college application thing very under control. Your student has a big machine behind her. You’ve hired someone to help with the actual applications and essay. My question is whether the student is doing anything beyond nodding “Yes” or “no” during visits and talks. Even with hired consultants, I recommend that the student do nearly all the leg work, decision making, letter writing (beyond just the click of “send”) scheduling all interviews, hunting down all opportunities to contact reps, and on. Seems like you are playing that role which
makes me wonder how ready the student is to attend college. Your daughter has great ECs and has worked in a college lab. Did she arrange that or did you? Were you arranging most things she ended up getting involved in? If so, now might be a good time to step back.

30

I can see your point, but It’s definitely been a team effort. We are just helping coordinate everything and making sure everyone who needs to get communicated with does so and that things work within our schedule and then she’s doing all of the communication. With these smaller schools and especially looking for merit aid, there’s really a lot to manage.

She’s now got an interview set up with her admissions director for Grinnell locally as well as a Grinnell alum (who is listed on their page of notable alums, so that’s kind of cool and she’s excited about that). She’s still trying to set up a local interview with Macalester and that’s really about it that’s left other than the application submission.

As far as the ECs and college lab, she put all of that stuff together on her own. She fell in love with Model UN last year and has won numerous awards there and has a leadership position this year. As far as the lab, she had been looking up and emailing/calling all sorts of people to find a mentor for her project. Ton of work was put in on that and she wound up with a great mentor. She actually just handed in her Siemens project and I was truly amazed. It was way more complex and professional than I had idea she knew how to do. Her mentor is also going to write a recommendation letter. If he writes a real good letter, that could certainly go a long way. He was the first HS student he ever took on for research and I think he was left with a great impression.

31

I suppose some people think it a positive that applying to college is a “team effort” for some students but I’ m not one of those peopl. Your posts smack of “we” (instead of “she”) are applying. I don’t think it should be a team effort. It should be her effort with support from the family.

32

Applications have been submitted! She wound up applying to Kenyon, Dickinson (EA), Grinnell, Macalester, Denison, Lafayette, Oberlin, Clark (EA), Union, Ursinus (EA) and SUNY Geneseo. She still wants to apply to Brown just to see if she gets in, but we aren’t paying full for Brown, so I don’t really see the point in paying for the application, CSS profile and SAT submission, but we’ve got a while to decide on that.

For her, the first 4 on the list are well out in front of the remaining colleges and think she’d be thrilled to wind up at any one of those. Now the waiting begins on acceptances and merit aid packages and then perhaps some negotiation. Can’t imagine anything will be decided prior to early April. May yet have to make a trip out to Macalester and Grinnell in the Spring.

She still has an interview next week with Macalester admissions rep who is traveling to NY, but, other than that and Clark and Lafayette coming to visit her HS, there’s really not too much more that can be done at this point, I don’t think.

Do schools ever send out early acceptances/financial packages well prior to the RD notification deadline even though they claim to not offer rolling admission or is that rare?

33

Chiming in late, but I think Hamilton would be a great fit.

34

@wisteria100 It’s certainly not too late, but Hamilton doesn’t offer any merit aid whatsoever, so they not being considered.

35

Really? Because the admissions person who ran the info session we attended was an alum and talked about her aid package. Perhaps it was financial and not merit?

36

I’d assume so. They make it rather clear here: https://www.hamilton.edu/finaid/faq#meritaid
Plus, their common data set backs that up.

37

That link and how they word the discussion of merit aid makes them sound very elitist/snobby and condescending towards other schools!
Good luck to your daughter

38

What’s the merit aid situation at Bard? Seems like they may indeed give Merit aid. Anyone know if they have more than just the DSS scholarship (and a couple of other highly targeted scholarships) that’s listed on their site? There’s another paragraph that says Bard Scholarships but it’s very vague as to whether that’s need or merit based. Plus, I can’t find a common data set for them at all.

Think my daughter can still meet the 11/1 EA deadline if she gets her guidance counselor it right away. They have an immediate decision plan as well that looks interesting. Might be a little too late for that, but my daughter signed up on the waitlist. If she can’t do IDP, she can just do EA as long as we confirm there is a shot at merit aid.

39

Have you visited Bard? @lexluthor5

40

No, haven’t visited yet. Wouldn’t be much of a point if they don’t offer merit aid though, so that’s what I’m trying to figure out. It’s only a 2 hour drive, so no problem getting up there in the next couple of weeks for a visit if she winds up applying. Hoping that they do offer merit aid and if so, then hoping she can still get a spot for IDP visit, but if not, then EA is will do.