Help me build a college list for my D22 who is undecided on what to study

My D22 is a high school senior and is very stressed about the college process. Her GPA is 100.28, 1330 SAT,27 ACT, 5’s on AP Psych and APush, 4 on AP Lit and some 3’s on last year’s AP exams that I can’t recall. National HS, Foreign Lang HS, Tri-M HS. She does musical theater club, habitat for humanity club, works at dunkin donuts after school, does local theater and models p/t. She is a 1st generation college student as well. She excels in English and writing and is leaning towards a communications major but really is unsure what to study. We live in NY and are going to apply to several SUNY’s (New Paltz, Cortland, Binghamton, Purchase). We want to apply to some private schools where she has a chance at good merit aid that can bring the cost down to a SUNY price. We have UMassAmherst, Susquehana and Lycoming on our list. She likes a city or hippie vibe atmosphere. Any guidance or suggestions within 6 hours of New York is so appreciated! Thank you!!

Do you qualify for need based aid? Or are you strictly looking for merit? Does she have a preference for a big school of 20,000 students or a small school of 2,000? You mention city or hippie vibe but does that mean a hippie vibe in a small town? Or a city campus without a hippie vibe? Is she looking for an open curriculum? Greek life? There are a ton of schools within 6 hours of NY!

is your daughter graduating this year? If so, it would be more clear if you used D22 (as the number designates your child’s high school graduation year as a rule on this board).

Getting private schools down to public school cost can depend upon both merit and need based aid. Have you run any NPCs on college website to see if your daughter will qualify for need based in addition to merit aid? Or should we assume that your daughter will not qualify for any need based aid, and you are looking for schools that will come down to a SUNY school price solely with merit? Because that looks like you are looking to get a price down to somewhere around $28,000 per year which, if looking solely at merit aid, is a tough order especially if you want to stay within 6 hours of NYC.

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Thanks for your response. I should have been more specific. We don’t qualify for need based aide unfortunately so merit aid is what we want. Hippie vibe to her I think means artsy environment/kids. New Paltz she loved because of the shops around campus and the friendliness of the students she met. She’s not that interested in Greek life. She doesn’t want a school that’s too small or that doesn’t have anything to do around it. Thanks.

Thanks for the update, are you willing or able to go to $35k a year or is $28k the maximum you are willing to spend per year on college?

Thank you. I edited to be D22. Sorry. This is my 1st post so I wasn’t sure what that meant. No needs based aid just merit. I haven’t run anything yet but I will right now. Should we consider going farther than 6 hours to have more opportunity for her?

Yes 35k but that would be the max we could afford.

It is a bit easier to get the price down below $30k per year for privates if you are wiling to flex a bit on location.

You may want to check out CTCL.org (Colleges that Change Lives). Many of those colleges offer fairly good aid, many of them will probably get to the mid-$30s with just merit aid, but very few are going to be within 6 hrs of NYC.

Ohio Wesleyan would definitely get you below your max budget, and your daughter would most probably be offered honors privileges there. It is a small LAC about 30 minutes outside of Columbus, OH. Cute little town, but not a real hippie-ish vibe in either the town or school.

College of Wooster has a bit more of the vibe your daughter may be looking for, great school, cute downtown with yoga, boba tea and some good looking restaurants (at least when we went to visit).

Allegheny might be interesting, although it might be too isolated for your daughter. Seems like a great place for an undecided student interested in LAC.

The other two schools that came to mind were Kalamazoo and Juniata. Both are pretty generous with merit aid, Kalamazoo might have more of the vibe your daughter is looking for, but both give excellent educations.

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Thank you very much!

D20 liked Muhlenberg a lot. They have a robust theater department and offer a few substantial merit scholarships. The students were friendly and fun. It is a bit on the small side and Allentown is small but the proximity to NY and routine excursions to the theater might be up her alley. Maybe take a look at Ithaca, too.

Does she have plans to retake the SAT? Many schools are TO right now but if she had a bit higher test score, it might help with merit.

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Edited to add: Your daughter sounds like a student lots of schools would love to have, like with many of us on this board - her/your choices will be constrained by budget not be ability. But there are lots of great schools out there that can meet your budget, figuring out what is most important to your daughter (size of school, location, vibe, etc) and what she is willing to compromise on (size, location, vibe, etc) is going to get your further in this search than perhaps a long list of possible schools. Good luck, she will be successful wherever she decides to attend.

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What about Ursinus for writing?

Eckerd is definitely strong in writing but it’s in FL so 6 hours… by plane?
Skidmore has the vibe you’re looking for, not sure merit for English/writing would be enough.

A bit farther but College of Charleston and Eckerd, Clark (MASS)and SUNY Purchase.

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