<p>Hey. This is my first post so this is exciting! :D</p>
<p>I'm a rising senior trying to decide on my list of colleges. I've been looking at mostly LACs as I like the small size and individual attention that they are able to provide. I fell in love with Williams for its outdoorsy and laid-back kind of attitude that seems to prevail in a college noted for academic excellence. Other colleges I also like are Bowdoin, Swarthmore, and Carleton. These schools would belong to the category of high matches to reaches, I guess. Academics would be a big factor in my decision. The same goes for overall atmosphere; as for location, not so much. I would like schools with where I would be able to carry out an intellectual conversation but not necessarily schools where people would be in-your-face about being smart. Does this make sense? </p>
<p>Elon University is a great LAC that accepts a wide range of interesting and involved students. You’ll still need to be smart but smart comes in lots of packages and they look for students who do a lot more than sit in class…</p>
<p>Other schools that you might want to consider are Middlebury, Haverford, Wesleyan and Pomona. The selectivity level is roughly similar to the other schools that you mentioned i.e. if you are a serious candidate for those other schools you would be a serious candidate for these as well. Some other schools to check out that are slightly less selective are Bates, Hamilton and Colgate. I think that all of these schools have a lot to offer academically. Socially, it all depends on you…</p>
<p>Well, as for my stats, I have a high gpa and 2300 sats with fairly good ECs and decent awards. Also schools with good financial aid would be nice as my family won’t be able to pay the full sticker price for schools. </p>
<p>And thanks tuftsalum. I will look into those schools!</p>
<p>If you like Swarthmore, Carleton and Pomona, then Grinnell should definitely be on your list. Superb academics with the facilities to support them, great merit aid, no distribution requirements, and a smart but unpretentious, understated, laid back student body.</p>
<p>Please use an FA estimator to find out your EFC and discuss it with your parents. (There’s an FA estimator on the College Board website.) Remember that your EFC is the MINIMUM amount that a college will expect you to pay after awarding you need-based financial aid. If your parents can’t afford your EFC, you will need to look for MERIT aid that is sufficiently generous to bring the cost down below your EFC and into the range of what your parents are willing to pay for. To qualify for major merit awards, you may need to look a bit further down the USNWR rankings since many of the tippy-top LACs only do need-based FA or have a very, very small number of merit-based awards.</p>
<p>Quality LACs that may give you enough merit to make them affordable include College of Wooster, Allegheny College, Kalamazoo College and St. Olaf College (based on my kids’ experiences.) St. Olaf seems to be pretty good with need-based FA as well. As does Macalaster College. Grinnell and Carelton are also supposed to be pretty generous with need-based aid.</p>
<p>Wow thanks everyone for your advice. They’re a great help. I hadn’t been aware of merit-based FA, although I’m pretty sure I would qualify for need-based aid.</p>
<p>choux, 25+ suggestions! Quite a range. I think you’ll need to do some weeding out!</p>
<p>My son is a Williams graduate. He had a wonderful experience there. Other LACs that he was interested in, for various reasons, were Wesleyan, Amherst, Swarthmore, Hamilton, Kenyon.</p>
<p>Schools that are most like Williams in ambience? I’d say Amherst, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Middlebury, Pomona, Kenyon. Maybe Carleton. If you are female, Mt. Holyoke.</p>
<p>Do ask your parents to use one of those on-line calculators so that you can get a better idea of what to expect in need based aid.</p>