My oldest is a 10th grader, and we are planning our first official college trip for his Spring Break this year. He has been saying his top choice is Duke for a while, so we are planning to visit Duke and UNC on the same day. We would like to add one more college in a reasonable driving distance.
We’re thinking possibly Davidson, but not completely sure.
He hasn’t decided on a definite major yet, but is thinking something in math or science. Currently taking AP Physics and loves it, so he thinking possibly a Physics major.
He will need a possibility of merit aid, so we have ruled out Wake Forrest and Elon.
This is my first child to go to college, so I would love any help or thoughts! I’ve been reading here for a while, and you guys are a wealth of information! Thanks!
UNC-CH gives out extremely little merit. The main ones are the Robertson and the Morehead-Cane. Both of those are extremely competitive. UNC-CH focuses almost exclusively on need based aid. However they meet full need as they determine it using the CSS Profile.
Duke also is part of the Robertson Scholars. Beyond that I suspect merit aid will be sparse but maybe others will comment.
Wake Forest had a lot of scholarship listed on their web site when we look at it. You might want to dig a little bit to see if any would apply to your son.
Davidison also seem to have some scholarships from what I remember. Very small school about a easy 2.5 hour drive from Duke.
Have you considered looking at NC State? It is the NC state flagship for engineering but is also strong in other STEM areas.
It is very hard to get merit aid at Duke and UNC- especially OOS. Wake gives merit but it’s equally as hard to get. You may want to add NC State - I dont think its too far.
Doing Duke and UNC on the same day is perfect. The next day I would do NC State.
Also…I know you are saying NC. We did a southeast college trip. The surprise winner of the trip was University of South Carolina. It ended up being the second choice college for our kid. She was not a tippy top student, but was strong enough. She received a McKissick Scholarship which reduced her tuition to the instate amount plus gave a $2500 a year stipend.
U of South Carolina also had the Cooper Scholarship…same idea but a $4000 a year stipend.
And they have the McNair, which is competitive, by application…but is a full ride.
We are flying- but we are flying in and out of Charlotte and renting a car. We’re coming in Sat and flying back Wednesday.
Looking back at Wake Forrest’s website, it looks like that had more merit scholarships than I remembered. We may make that our 3rd school. We’ll look at NC State also.
I understand merit aid would be hard to get at any of these schools. I’ve told him that he doesn’t need to get his heart set on anything until he finds out what scholarships he gets, if any.
Next year we are going to focus on schools where he can get automatic merit aid and try to help him pick a first choice from those, and then if he loves Duke as much as he thinks he will, it can be his dream school with a hope of some merit aid.
If you don’t mind my asking, why are you flying into Charlotte rather than Raleigh Durham? Charlotte is not close and the fares to RDA can be very reasonable.
We are visiting a friend in Charlotte on Saturday.
Thumper- USC is on our list for consideration. My cousin is a professor at another SEC school, and she feels like USC has the best honors college in the SEC.
South Carolina has a great honors college. I will say…the honors college application…which is also the scholarship application (for McNair) is quite a doozie. My kid said it was THE hardest application she had to complete.
The Cooper and McKissick are awarded based on the strength of your application. The McNair, and honors college applications are the one that is the doozie!
U of Richmond, Washington and Lee, and Furman all offer merit for high stats students and might be worth a look. One of my Ds applied to and was accepted to UNC CH , OOS, and also Wake Forest, and was offered no merit at either with 35 ACT, 3.95 u/w, good ECs. They did meet 100% of her need, which is unusual for an OOS public U as good as UNC. U of Richmond, which she attends, offered her full tuition.
Just in case you haven’t look at a map yet, Duke, UNC-CH and NC State are very close to each other.
Based on our experience, I would not count on merit at UNC unless you are an exceptional student that has something very unique. Even then it not likely. The Robertson and Morehead-Cain Scholars are really that special.
Probably you know this but if you fly into Charlotte it is an easy, short drive (although traffic can be quite bad on I77) from the airport to Davidson. Davidson is quite small and will not take too long to walk around. It is then only about an hour to Wake Forest and it is on the way to UNC/Duke/NCSU.
The plan of Davidson outside of Charlotte, then UNC and Duke in the Triangle area, is a great plan for a first college trip. You can see a top ten private small LAC, a top ten public research university, and a top ten private research university in two days (which you can do in the northeast as well, but maybe not many other places). The strategy of seeing different classes of college early is a good one.
Two other universities between Charlotte and the Triangle are Wake Forest, about halfway between the two areas, and Elon, closer to the Triangle but along the highway. Elon has become very popular and is starting to attract students from all over the country. Might be worth reading about since you’ll basically pass it. Depends on how competitive your son will be for top 10 vs. top 50 colleges.
If you want to stay in Durham and want a nicer more interesting hotel, try the Durham, or the 21C.
Being that you are flying in and out of Charlotte have you considered Clemson. We did a similar trip two years ago. D was attending Duke Summer program so we started in Raleigh. We saw Duke, NC State, UNC, Elon, Davidson and then on the way home stopped at Clemson as a last minute add on. Clemson was the big winner in our opinion. NC State also scored high. D is biomedical engineering major and felt the smaller schools (Elon, Davidson) did not compare to what she has accessible to her at her high school in terms of lab facilities. Depending on what he is looking for in the way of research Clemson may be a good option.
I suggest Elon as well. There’s many schools in a 4 hour radius aside from UNC/Duke - Clemson, USC (South Carolina), Furman, Wofford, Davidson, all the UNC system schools (if so desired) but at least UNCC.
On our SE college trip, we drove. We went to University of Richmond, University of South Carolina, College of Charleston, Davidson, Elon, UNC Greensboro, and did a drive through of Wake Forest.
Without knowing your student’s stats, it’s hard to make suggestions for schools where merit aid is going to be forthcoming. Then again…he is a tenth grader…so he probably doesn’t HAVE stats that will be relevant to college admissions two years from now…no SAT, no ACT, and he only has a GPA through the middle of 10th grade.
I will add, I think you should take him to see some less competitive universities than Duke and UNC-CH. it’s nice to love these great schools…but every student should also know that there are less competitive and great schools out there.
It’s easy to find dream schools. It’s sometimes a challenge to find that sure thing, slam dunk school. Personally, I think that’s where students should,start their college lists…and visits…with safety, sure thing, affordable schools.
Sounds like a fun trip! Enjoy the great mild weather and beautiful state.
As a first trip - what an amazing opportunity to see 3-4 awesome top schools and to take notes on likes and dislikes (size, vibe, diversity, weather, class sizes, research, leadership opps. etc) (pretty substantial Greek system at all those schools -FYI.) As you come away from those schools, categorize what your DS likes about each, so you can find those qualities at campuses in your state and in your selection of known-for-merit schools in your next trip. Enjoy the trip and the process! And PLEASE report back here after your trip to let us know what your family and your DS learned and liked.
@thumper1 - I completely agree with your post #18.