Looks like Hartwick fits the general profile, but may be ranked a little lower academically than we’d otherwise like. Will look a bit closer and thanks for the suggestion.
One thing to keep in mind, that I read about is" geographic diversity". I know that you are not interested in a long plane ride away, but students tend to apply relatively near home, and so a private college that wishes to have a student body composed of students from different areas may find your D’s application appealing. Some merit aid is also “holistic”- not based entirely on numbers, but the student’s overall contribution to the college- and sometimes the actual award isn’t known until acceptance.
Also, while some of the colleges may have an overall lower academic admission averages than your daughter has, the higher she is at the top of the application pool, the more competitive she is for merit aid. With these colleges, I would look to see if they have honors programs or other programs that are aimed at good students. Merit awards are intended to attract top students to a school, so it stands to reason that if a school has a lot of top applicants it would be very selective about the merit awards.
I do get that students want what they want, and it is important to match the student to the college as best as possible. I think you have a good list. However, if you are seeking awards, it may be a good idea to apply broadly- add a few potentials that may result in some good awards.
One college that seems to fit what your D is looking for ( except for being near you) is New College of Florida- small, very personal attention, good track record with graduate programs. I understand the concern about her relocating far from you after college, but from what I have observed, some students these days are very mobile, and tend to go where the internships, jobs, and graduate programs they like are.
@Pennylane2011 yes, think we probably will have a broad application base and include some schools we haven’t looked to hard at specifically. Perhaps do a local interview but no visit before applying.
New College of Florida looks way to small at under 800 students.
She had interviews at Lafayette and Muhlenberg yesterday and Dickinson and Gettysburg today so exciting week.
Some good progress this week.
Had a good trip through PA.
Started with interview at Lafayette. I scheduled that over the phone and apparently there was some sort of mix up. I had it for 11:15 and they had it for 9:15. I looked at my paper notes when I got home and it said 11:15. No way I would have scheduled it for 9:15 as it would have been tough to get there that early. Anyhow, I can’t imagine they’d hold that against her. No one seemed upset and they were able to get her the interview. Seems like their policy is to interview the student for about 30 minutes and then they bring in the parent for the final 15. My D seems like like Lafayette and it’s definitely high on the list. Had a nice breakfast at the old book store/diner in town first, which was nice. Walked over to Crayola too. Never had been there before.
Next was an interview then a tour at Muhlenberg. Interview was with the admissions person we had previously met at Hofstra fair and he remembered her. Very nice guy. Brought me in at the end again and said something about her being a good candidate for merit aid. Tour was nice as well. We did eat their as well (main dining hall wasn’t open). D doesn’t seem to like Muhlenberg. Thinks it’s maybe too artsy.
We stayed over in Carlisle and had an interview at Dickinson the next morning. Was with a younger woman, not the admissions rep for our region. Again, D said interview went well. I sat and talked to a couple of tour guides (one was the one who did our tour last month). I really got some great insight into all different things from the female tour guide. She really was very nice and had a great story to tell. D loves Dickinson.
I was starting to get worried as the interview was running a bit long and we had an 11am tour at Gettysburg. We left Dickinson right around 10:15 and got to Gettysburg with about 5 minutes to spare. Luckily, admissions parking was easy to find and we get in on time. Had a very nice tour of their beautiful campus. Had an hour before the interview, so we walked into town. Very nice town since it’s a tourist town in the summer. Back for the interview which went well. Again, they brought me in for the last few minutes. D doesn’t like Gettysburg for some reason. I can’t really decipher why, but I guess it’s her choice. I enjoyed the tour and seems like the school has a similar profile to Dickinson, with a nicer campus, so I was a bit confused.
As far as bringing up merit aid, in one of 2 of the interviews when I came in, I brought it up by saying something like, is there any separate application process for merit aid or something like that. Seemed like a decent way to mention it.
All in all, the timing worked out just perfectly and we got a lot in in 2 days.
She’s got some drafts of follow-up emails to go out. Any suggestions? She’s noting some specifics of what they talked about as well as that she’s excited to continue to work with them through the application process. One specific question I have is if she met with someone who isn’t the area rep, should she cc the area rep on the follow-up email?
We may try to go to Clark this coming week and still need to set up a trip to Oberlin, Kenyon and Denison.
She’ll probably set up a skype or local interview for Macalester and Grinnell, but I don’t know if schools that distance are really on the table.
Thanks for the update, it’s good and informative reading!
Looking forward to your description(s) about your other stops.
Good visit to Clark today. Worcester is really a dump at first look. Driving in, my wife had about eliminated Clark. My D was put of too.
D had lunch with a student and interactions with other students and things really changed. She loved the vibe from the students. These kids really love the school and the city and it shows. The campus is ok, not as nice as the others we’ve seen. I’m thinking that the lower cost of admission maybe means less money to spend. We did see quite a bit of construction going on though. Library and student union definitely were not impressive. There was some nice green space and song nice buildings though. We didn’t get to see the dining hall.
Very torn. If the campus was just a little nicer and in a better area, this would probably be number 1 on the list. As it is, it’s certainly still on the list and will probably get an application, but a lot more thought would have to go into this before accepting. Plus COA will probably be very low as their starting point is lower and they give good merit aid.
Need to plan a visit to Ohio in early August next. D seems excited to see Denison and interested to see Kenyon and Oberlin too. Not sure if we’ll be able to squeeze a fourth school (maybe College of Wooster) in too.
Ohio 5 visiting day is booked! Flying Southwest nonstop to Akron/Canton Airport and then renting a car. Thursday we are doing Kenyon Tour/Info/Interview in the AM and then the Denison afternoon program, plus interview. We’ll probably have dinner in Granville and then drive up to Oberlin. Oberlin has an all day program on Friday and D has another interview schedule there in the afternoon. Probably spend Saturday at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (never been to Cleveland before) and then fly home Saturday night. D is very excited about this trip. She seems to really like Denison from what she’s read and Kenyon and Oberlin both look pretty good too. Wouldn’t be surprised if at least 2 of the 3 wind up getting applications. Found a really cute B&B in Oberlin to stay for 2 nights. Tons of B&Bs around there that aren’t really any more expensive then a Holiday Inn Express type place.
After this, I think we are pretty much done with the trips. There may be some other schools (Macalester, Grinnell, St. Lawrence) that she’ll look to show some interest in via local alumni or skype interviews, but not sure we’ll have any more visits).
NYU has a college fair this Wednesday with some schools we’ve visited and like (Dickinson and Lafayette), some we are visiting soon (Oberlin and Kenyon) and some we still wanted to look at (Macalester and Hobart and William Smith). Davidson and U of Rochester are both there too, but they are real outliers.
I can’t remember why Hobart and William Smith wasn’t higher on the radar. It was mentioned on page 1 here, then nothing further. Seems to tick all of the checkpoints upon first look. Maybe the dual colleges thing threw us off some. Only thing I see initially is like it might be overly “preppy” which would probably turn my daughter off, but is that much more preppy than Lafayette or Dickinson?
Still need to figure out what to do with St. Lawrence too.
Any suggestions on how to handle seeing schools we’ve been to before and schools we are visiting soon at the college fair? I suppose it’s certainly possible my D will see someone she’s already interviewed with or someone she’ll be interviewing with soon. For Dickinson and Lafayette, should she communicate to the rep at the fair that she is definitely applying?
Also, any suggestions on what to do with schools that she’s interviewed with/visited but didn’t like? I suppose she should still reply to all of their communication very nicely as if she still may apply. Never know if she’ll change her mind on one of them or if an admissions rep winds up switching jobs and working at a school she really likes. Do we never specifically communicate that she’s not applying?
@lexluthor5 we’re going to visit Clark this week. Were there a lot of students around when you visited? We did a spur-of-the-moment walk through on the Friday after Thanksgiving last year, on our way to Boston. Needless to say, it was completely dead, raining/sleeting, cold, etc. so wasn’t the best first impression! I would have preferred to push off this visit until the fall, but this week works timing-wise. I’m really hoping D gets a positive vibe from the visit, as I really like Clark and think the merit potential is pretty good.
Not too many students mulling around campus, but in the Admissions office they must have had a pool of 6 or so that could do lunch with a Clarkie and they had 2 participate in a Q&A session. There must have been 5 other families there for the tour/info session. I would definitely suggest the lunch with a Clarkie as my D got a lot out of that. We are not sure what to do with Clark. If it was located in a different town, with slightly better facilities (student union and library isn’t very impressive at all), it’d probably be #1 right now. I guess maybe that’s part of the reason why Clark is priced lower than everyone else. Still on our list as my D really liked the people she interacted with and what she heard. Hope you have a good visit.
Hobart and William Smith College has had a rape issue that they’ve been dealing with (or perhaps it might be more accurate to refer to it as an issue with the college’s response to a reported rape): http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/nyregion/support-for-a-student-grows-as-college-examines-its-sexual-assault-policies.html?_r=0. I don’t know where the school is on that.
Insofar as communicating with schools that your daughter won’t apply to (at least at this point), my suggestion would be not to sever a link yet; keep your options open until you start getting acceptances from the schools that your daughter wants to attend (and can afford). Then your daughter can send an e-mail or letter thanking the college for its interest, but stating that she will be attending college somewhere else.
Some friends have a son who is starting Macalester in September. Excellent school; but it does seem to be a little top-heavy in female undergraduates (60%). That may not be as much of an issue in a metropolitan area such as the Twin Cities, though.
Hi I was reading the trail of posts about your daughters search and I’m wondering where she landed? My son is considering Denison and college of Wooster. He got $22500/yr at Wooster and we are hoping similar if/when he hears from Denison. Did your daughter end up with some good merit aid as you were hoping? Thanks for any insight
@lexluthor5 that question was for you
@firstborn no decision yet. Follow along and post in the new thread, part 2 here, if interested.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1800576-help-find-a-college-part-2-p1.html
And congrats on your son so far. Good luck the rest of the way. Please post any further reply on the other thread so i don’t have 2 different active threads.