Help me find colleges I love!

College Search & Selection
1

Hi! I’m not really sure how this works or if I’m doing it right but I’m going to give it a shot. I’m a high school junior and am in the thick of college searches. So far, I have visited: University of Rochester, Ursinus, Muhlenberg, The College of New Jersey, Marist, Bard, Ithaca, and Binghamton and I plan to visit Union, Skidmore, Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg, and Dickinson. My top choice, however, is Colorado College but I can’t visit it until/unless I get in next fall. So far, my favorite school I have visited has been Bard College because of how unique and different it is. Here is some info about me:

~I live in New Jersey and would prefer to stay within comfortable driving distance of home, but am willing to make exceptions.
~I plan on getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from a traditional 4-year college or university.
~My SATs are not too great (540 critical reading, 570 math, 640 writing), and I’m taking the ACTs in June, so I am mostly looking for schools that don’t think of standardized tests as super important.
~My GPA is 3.71 UW and 3.83 W; I took 3 honors classes last year (biology, US history, Spanish III), 4 this year (chemistry, global studies, Spanish IV, personal financial management), and 3 APs (psychology, comparative government & politics, English IV Literature & Composition)/2 honors next year (chamber orchestra, physics).
~My extracurriculars include: community theatre, in-school theatre, string ensembles, improv troupe, video game club, orchestra (cello) all 4 years of HS (honors orchestra next year), I work at a theatre camp over the summer full time, I work at an elementary school in my town at after school during the year tutoring and taking care of the children.
~I can apply to schools of any cost, but after scholarships and financial aid the total costs (fees included) must be $30,000 or less. I know I qualify for some aid-- my sister attends University of Rochester which is around $50,000/year, for only $28,000 with scholarships and aid.
~I am Caucasian (Middle Eastern, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian), but I live in a 52%-Indian dominated town, so I prefer a school with as much diversity as possible, however, that would not be a deciding factor.
~Max amount of students for a school is about 6000-7000; finding myself most attracted to 2000-6000 student schools.
~I want to live on-campus for at least two years.
~I prefer isolated schools or schools near a small city/town, but not a deciding factor unless it’s in the middle of a huge city with no campus.
~I prefer private schools, but am willing to look at publics given they are small enough.
~Coed is a must.
~I’d like selectivity to be between 30 and 50% if possible, but not mandatory.
~I’d like the school to have a high graduation rate.
~I am going to participate in mostly performing arts type extracurriculars: string orchestra, choir, musical theatre, dance, etc.
~I need career counseling and job placement services to be available, as well as tutoring and writing help.
~I am mildly learning impaired (ADHD).
~I prefer a school with minimum Greek life.
~I’m a Secular Jew, so I prefer a non-affiliated school.
~It needs to be liberal.
~Prefer minimal party scene.

Thanks for reading my lengthy entry and I look forward to hearing advice :slight_smile:

2

Try Lawrence University in Wisconsin. They love music there, and are test optional. It’s a small private liberal arts college. They offer scholarships up to $22000 for merit, as well as financial aid. It’s relatively isolated, near a small town/city. It’s less selective than your criteria, but it’s still an awesome place. (I haven’t visited, but the facebook group is awesome). You should look into it :slight_smile:

3

No, you cannot! You need to restrict yourself to the following two types of schools:

(1) Colleges that will be affordable without ANY merit aid. You can figure this out by running the net price calculator for each school you are considering. (And if the NPC asks for your GPA and/or test scores, do not include them, or put the minimum value possible - what you’re looking for is simple, need-based aid ONLY.)

(2) Colleges where your GPA and test scores result in an automatic/guaranteed scholarship or put you among the TOP candidates to that school - above the 75th percentile, if possible. (And yes, if you want to rerun those NPC’s now, with your grades and GPA included, go ahead - but the NPC results are NOT a guarantee!)

Applying anywhere else is a waste of time and energy - you want to limit your app’s to those schools you can, or have a good chance of being able to, afford.

Oh, and by the way, your aversion to “affiliated” schools is nonsense. Yes, there are a handful of off-the-deep-end, right-wing, religiously conservative schools, but those are the minority. At the overwhelming majority of church-affiliated schools, you would feel just as comfortable as you would at any other school, and you would certainly not be the only student who’s not Christian. If you’re concerned, look up “Hillel” on these schools’ websites and see what you find.

To find the schools that fit your criteria, use the college search function on CC (or Princeton Review or College Board) and see what you come up with.

4

I’ll look into it! Thank you :slight_smile:

5

My parents told me that I should apply anywhere regardless of cost, as long as they give aid, so that’s what I’m doing. I cannot use the calculator because they haven’t told me our financial details, such as family income or medical expenses.

I do know that affiliated schools does not always mean ultra religious. For example, Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Lutheran Church but it is 30% Jewish. I’m more talking about schools that have an overwhelming majority of one religion–Pepperdine, Wheaton, etc. Even visiting Marist, which is a beautiful school by the way, I noticed it being very Christian and white, and growing up in the town I reside in, that would be very uncomfortable to me. As for being liberal, that is very important to me, which is another reason why I prefer schools near me (New Jersey) and other liberal regions. I don’t want to join Jewish life in college unless there is a Secular Humanistic branch available, I just don’t want to go to a school where the population is mostly Christian (or any other religion but that is rare). I’d actually love a school with a strong atheist community, but that’s not at the top of my list.

I have used college search sites, like on here and on College Board, but have not found those as helpful as talking to real people.

Thanks for the advice!

6

Well, that’s a surefire recipe for heartbreak next spring! All schools “give aid,” but you can’t know if they’ll give any to you without more information.

You need to sit down and have a serious talk with your parents. Explain to them that you’ve done your part - you’ve worked hard in school, you’ve done your absolute best on the SAT (or ACT) - but now you need their help to be able to get into the college of your dreams. Tell them you need two things:

(1) You need to know how much they are able and willing to pay for college - yes, a dollar figure!

(2) You need to understand the family finances so you can calculate your eligibility for need-based aid.

Explain that you have no way of identifying affordable schools without their help . . . and you really do not want to spend the next 12 months falling in love with schools that you may have no way of being be able to pay for. Explain that you’ve seen too many kids get into the school of their dreams, only to find out afterwards that it’s completely unaffordable. Tell them you want to be as responsible as you can be, and you want to pursue those schools where you honestly believe you’ll have a good outcome . . . and you can’t do that without their help.

7

We’ve already talked it through and I think we’ve been pretty careful about visiting schools that give good aid, and I’ve asked them several times for the family finances but they said it’d be better if we waited until we filled out FAFSA. That’s another reason I’m looking at mostly private schools-- to make sure aid and scholarships are available. Or if I do apply to public schools, they have to be under $30,000/year, i.e. TCNJ which I really liked. I’m only allowed to apply to 8 schools max that have app fees (I can apply to more with free apps such as Union College), so I think/hope I’m choosing wisely! I do agree with you on the finding a school of your dreams bit-- Colorado College is about $54,000/year-- but realistically I know that if we don’t get the aid, which can be pretty tough to predict, that I will not be able to go which would be sad but I’d understand. And I’m happy because I know that if all else fails with aid, I can go to TCNJ which is well (5,000) below my max budget before aid/scholarships. I do know that their cap is around $30,000–I have to pay $5,000/year and all of grad school regardless of the cost of the school. And given your advice, which I greatly appreciate, I’ve been bringing up the cost of college more and more–and my parents repeatedly say that my happiness and satisfaction with my school is more important than finding the cheapest school, which is nice to hear from them but not sure if it’s realistic. Either way, they said they will make certain that I don’t leave college with “unmanageable” (under $20,000) worth of debt, so that’s pretty comforting.

8

Guilford, Goucher, Wheaton (MA, not IL), St Mary’s (MD - public liberal arts college), Eckerd, New College of FL, Earlham . . .

9

Thank you, I’ll check them out :slight_smile:

10

Well, then it looks like you’re limited to schools where you would qualify for merit aid. And maybe your family is affluent enough that that’s all you’d be eligible for anyway. But if you would qualify for need-based aid, it would be helpful to know that. Why don’t you ask your parents if they’d be willing to run the net price calculators at a couple of schools (by themselves, so they don’t have to share that info with you), just to see what the result is?

11

I know that we qualify for need-based because of how much my sister gets in grants (I think around $7,000 after her $17,000ish scholarship. And that’s a good idea–I’ll ask!

12

Check out Arcadia university

13

Will do, thank you

14

Consider some of the outstanding Ohio LACs such as Denison and Wooster. Also Ithaca College, with a lot of performing arts opportunities. My D received outstanding merit awards from all 3 this year. Also, Hobart & Wm Smith in NY is building a new performing arts complex.

15

Yes I just visited Ithaca last week, I liked it a lot! I’ll check out the others, thank you for the suggestions

16

That’s exactly what you should be doing. Your parents know their own finances and have successfully navigated this road before. To assume otherwise, would be to presume that they are incompetent. They have a daughter going to a great college at an affordable price which demonstrates to me that they are likely competent. You may end up with heartbreak, but you are prepared for that, and you will get over it. There is no such thing as a dream school, only a dream life. There are many good options for you to achieve that.

Doesn’t sound to me like you need merit aid.

17

I guess we’ll see what happens, thanks for the input

18

Muhlenberg seems to fit your parameters. . .

19

Yes I liked Muhlenberg a lot when I visited!

20

That’s where the NPCs come in: it’s not tough to predict, your parents enter their information (with or without you) and they see how a college will treat it for financial aid purpose. Unless your parents are small business owners, you’ll know whether you get financial aid or nor, merit aid or not if the NPC also asks for your grades and test scores.