<p>Hi, I'm a junior in high school, and I'm looking to go to a college in the midwest. I don't want to go more than 6-8 hours away from Chicago. I'm looking for a college that has between 10k-20k students. I also like colleges that have a contained campus and aren't in the city. I'm interested in business, marketing and fashion merchandising. My weighted GPA is 3.68, unweighted is 3.70. I plan on getting a 28-30 on my ACT. I also want to study abroad in college. Money is not a big issue for me, but I would like to get merit scholarships. If you have any colleges to recommend to me, I would appreciate that as well. Here's what colleges are on my list, & thank you so much for your help!</p>
<p>U of Dayton
U of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Illinois State
Indiana U
Iowa State
U of Iowa
Kansas State
Kent State
Marquette U
Miami Univ
U of Missouri
Ohio Univ
Purdue
St. Louis
Truman State</p>
<p>Could talk to you about Marquette (Engineering '83 & S2 junior EE) & Iowa State (S1 senior Bus./Finance). MU is 11k if you include graduate students, undergrads are about 8k. Have you visited Marquette? Because it is almost in the middle of Milwaukee (do not know if you meant cities in general or Chicago). MU’s Bus. program is very good and the graduate program is highly regarded. ISU is about 28K including graduate students and 22k-23k for undergrads. Ames is very small compared to Milwaukee, you would be 6-7 hr. drive from Chicago. Bus. program not as well known but very good because professors and not assistants (as in most state schools) teach undergrad courses. ISU has one of the biggest job fairs for graduating students with lots of private and government work opportunities. Both S’s have been very happy, no complaints! If you have more specific questions lmk.</p>
<p>Thank you so much! No, I haven’t visited Marquette. I know that I definitely wouldn’t want to be in Chicago, but I’m not sure about smaller cities. I visited ISU, and I loved the size and the surrounding area (Bloomington-Normal). Having a good bus program is definitely important for me because I probably won’t have a car. I didn’t know that they have a big job fair, so thanks for telling me that! I will definitely be applying to ISU.</p>
<p>Purdue has a spread out campus intermixed with the city. I found it confusing and congested. Very attainable with your scores/gpa but limited aid.</p>
<p>Wash U’s campus is contained and more of what I would consider a closed campus. Very easy to negotiate. It does have a much smaller student body (undergraduate) than you mentioned you were interested in though, so it could be too small for you. Your gpa and act scores would make this a high reach. Limited merit aid but good FA for low income.</p>
<p>These are the only two I have visited from your list.</p>
<p>Thanks, my counselor mentioned that Purdue is intermixed with the city too, so I don’t think I’m really interested in that college. I looked up Wash U, and it is quite a reach for me, but I don’t have a lot of reach schools (only U of I), so this is something that I will look into. Thank you!!</p>
<p>Try UW-Whitewater. Probably about two hours from Chicago area. Very strong business and marketing program. [Marketing</a> | University of Wisconsin-Whitewater College of Business & Economics](<a href=“http://www.uww.edu/cobe/marketing/]Marketing”>Marketing Department | College of Business and Economics | University of Wisconsin-Whitewater | Online MBA - Graduate Programs - AACSB Accredited Business School - Wisconsin, USA) 10K undergraduates in a medium-sized town. Your GPA and planned ACT would be above average for them, but that might bode well for you. You could check with their Fin Aid department about potential merit scholarships, but I don’t think there is much to be had by entering freshman. I believe, however, that continuing students have the opportunity for some.</p>
<p>For fashion merchandising in particular, see <a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/lists/list/colleges-with-excellent-programs-in-fashion-merchandising/178/[/url]”>http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/lists/list/colleges-with-excellent-programs-in-fashion-merchandising/178/</a>
The biggest names are on the coasts, but there are some programs to be found in the upper midwest.</p>
<p>If you can handle a small LAC, I would HIGHLY recommend William Jewell College. They have a great Oxford Program (study abroad) and offer a lot of merit and financial aid. It is not very well known here on CC but I think it is a hidden jewel. Your stats are right in line to receive a decent offer. They are located in Liberty, Mo. close the Kansas City and have a beautiful campus. They are small with only about 1100 undergrads though. If you are an athlete, they are a DII school so there is also scholarship money to be had there too. My daughter received enough in merit/FA and athletic that is would have been about a full ride for her, she decided against it because the only offered a 3/2 programing in engineering and she was more interested in a straight 4 year program…but otherwise we really loved the school.</p>
<p>You can get good merit aid at Miami - Ohio with 3.7 and 30 ACT. It is a great school.</p>
<p>Descartesz- Thanks, I’ll check into UW-Whitewater. 
It might be a good safety for me. From what you mentioned, it sounds great. And thanks for the list of colleges that have good fashion merchandising programs; that is so helpful because not a lot of colleges offer fashion merchandising!</p>
<p>BluePoodle- Thanks, I haven’t heard of that school before! But I think that I want to go to a larger college… 1,100 undergrads is half the size of my high school :)</p>
<p>Thanks Blueash, that’s a college that I’m really interested in because of it’s location and size… I’ve also heard that the campus is beautiful. But I’m concerned that Miami might be too preppy for me.</p>
<p>
My thinking precisely.</p>