Help with college list

College Search & Selection
1

Hi! I posted about finding safety schools a few days ago, and the response was wonderful! However, after talking to my parents and about what they could and were willing to pay for, I realized I needed to rework my college list! I am a white female resident of Pa. I go to a good Catholic school and my parents would prefer it if my college choice were catholic! So much so, in fact, that if I go to a non catholic school, they want it to be a little cheaper (less than $45,000 - 50,000/yr total /they would be willing to pay more for a noncatholic school with a prestigious name)) and/or have a good chance to win menit aid. That put Hamilton, one of my top choices, out of the running.
So I was wondering if you could help me find some great schools that are catholic, or at least offer decent merit aid!

My stats:
PSAT: 183
SAT: 1990 (first time taking it, will retake in Oct)
Cr: 710
We: 690
Math: 590 (low I know! I will improve this! It’ll always be my weakest, but I psyched myself out during the actual SAT part so I believe I made some careless mistakes)
GPA (weighted) 4.65

ECs:
Brass Ensemble
WW ensemble
Pep band
Jazz band
Marching band
Musical orchestra
Field hockey (freshman year - quit for band :))
French club (VP this year will be Pres next year)
Chess club (soph year, will rejoin senior year)

Awards:
-University of Rochester Frederick Douglas and Susan B. Anthony award for excellence in humanities - this means I have a chance for $10,000 scholarship if I apply there, which I hope will be good for getting money from other schools!
-Member of NHS
-Was one of 11 students chosen to dine with published poet because of a poem I wrote on Adversity.

  • Recieved highest average in classes like A Bio, A French 1,2,&3, A algebra I & II, H British Literature, AP Govt, H chem, H religion, H World History, and A Geometry.
  • Received “All in” award from the fine & performing arts center at my school

I’ve taken a mix of academic and honors and gotten very high marks in all of them. I’ve only taken AP govt, but next year I will have AP Euro and AP Lit. (At my school taking 4 or more APs would be incredibly difficult and is strongly advised against, unless you have no extracurriculars) Next year I will also have all Honors.

Ahhh there’s more!

I like LACs, and I would not like to go further than Upstate NY (Can not go to MA) or more southern than VA. I am interested in Political Science and French, and I would prefer small to medium schools.

Current List:
Rice (family in TX) (Reach School)
Washington and Lee
University of Richmond
College of William and Mary
Gettysburg College

As one can see none are catholic but I believe they all give merit aid (correct me if in wrong). But I am in desperate need of suggestions! If you know of any college that match my criteria and that I could get in please comment! (Also I prefer more selective colleges, only because I’ve worked so hard in school)

For all those who did not abandon reading this too long post - thank you! And for those who comment - thank you too!! :slight_smile:

2

This is way off the Coll Confidential typical path and it may be too far out of your geographic zone but Carroll College in Helena, MT is an excellent Jesuit LAC that offers merit aid. Has a good track record with professional/grad school placement.

3

Thank you! :slight_smile: and thanks for the quick response, however I think it may be too far :frowning: oh I forgot to mention! I am also 2nd in my class. I don’t know if that will make a difference or not.

4

I saw St. Lawrence was recommended on your other thread. Any interest?

5

Oh yes! I was interested but I live towards the bottom of PA, and it’s about as upstate as one could go, so i think it is just too far. I apologize if how far I’m willing to go seems weird, I’ll try to be a little more clear…I think within 5 driving hours is as far as I can go. And like I said I’m in the southern part of PA, so the most upstate My I could go would be Rochester.

6

St Mary’s is a great school in MD, as well as Washington College. Both give merit aid I believe. Check them out!

7

Oh thanks I think I will! I did a quick google image and both are beautiful! Do you know of any other schools, but some with more well known names? (Superficial I know)

8

OK … How about Georgetown? It’s slightly less selective than Rice – though both are extremely selective – and better fits your stated criteria. You didn’t say anything about your SAT subject tests, but Georgetown recommends that you take three. Any reason Dickinson is not on your list alongside Gettysburg? Hobart & William Smith may offer merit scholarships.

9

I think you need a strategy here. The schools that you currently have listed, assuming that your SAT score does not improve significantly, are extremely unlikely to give you merit aid with the possible exception of Gettysburg (in fact, you may not even get into several of them).

I would recommend that you add some schools that offer EA/rolling options such as Ursinus, Dickinson, Ithaca, College of Wooster, Loyola Maryland and possibly Villanova (although it might wind up being too expensive), Most of the more “prestigious” schools will cost more than the $50,000 I believe your parents are willing to pay, but you might want to add some additional schools - Bryn Mawr if you would consider a woman’s college and Oberlin are two that I would suggest.

And finally, I assume that you are planning to apply to Rochester - it’s a terrific school and if you got the $10,000 merit scholarship, it might make it somewhat affordable.

10

Oh shoot! I forgot to list Dickinson, as its one of my more recent finds. Thank you! Oh yeah I plan to take subject tests but am still figuring out which ones to take! Oh I’ll look into H&WS too. Hmmm I could look into Georgetown, although I feel like it’s a long shot. However you are right merc81, it does fit more of my criteria! Thank you, I appreciate your help :slight_smile:

11

Midatlmom, thank you for your suggestions. Although, I thought I had a decent shot at Gettysburg, W&M, and Richmond. And you seem knowledgable - I didn’t think all merit aid was based on Standardized testing scores? I know my brother got a lot from several colleges for his grades rather than scores. Anyways, I thought my grades and will-be great recommendations will offset the SAT score, which I didn’t think was bad for the first time taking it. And like I said, I will retake it and hopefully improve at least a little in all areas! :slight_smile:

Ah well after some research, due to Oberlin’s liberal reputation, I don’t think my parents would be too happy about me going there, although it is a good school. Hmmm I looked into Ithaca and Ursinus, but a lot of my family and my counselor said I should also look at more selective schools…but maybe they were wrong. Hmm.

Anyways thank you for your help and suggestions :slight_smile:

12

You have a very strong chance at Gettysburg and a definite shot at W&M and Richmond. However, at W&M and Richmond, your current scores would probably not be sufficient to give you merit aid - take a look at the descriptions of scholarships available at W&M http://www.wm.edu/admission/undergraduateadmission/costs-aid/index.php. Obviously, if your test scores went up significantly, that could change, particularly at Richmond, which has more merit aid opportunities. I don’t know anything about your brother’s merit offers, but in general, schools look at both test scores and GPA when making merit decisions (although that may not be the case at specific schools).

And I’m not saying you shouldn’t apply to prestigious schools, but your parents have essentially said that they are putting certain financial limits on your choices. Thus, I was trying to give you a strategy - which is to apply to some safer EA schools that you will probably get into with merit offers (such as Ursinus) and then apply to your reaches RD (if you had an EA reach school, I would add that in as well, but most of the schools you’re interested in appear to be ED or RD schools).

13

Colleges almost always state that demonstrated academic achievement is what they value most highly in an applicant, so your belief that this also applies to the awarding of merit scholarships seems generally true. Exceptions may apply if schools have minimum score requirements for standardized tests.

Fordham, Villanova, Franklin & Marshall? Holy Cross if you are willing to reconsider your MA stricture.

(William & Mary is a tough admit, not much different than Georgetown.)

14

Oh thank you! And I think you are right about merit aid for those schools :/…hopefully my scores will improve in October; I plan to work very hard to do so. That is a good strategy and I appreciate it :). The financial limit is recent and I don’t think I’ve adjusted my mindset to it yet. Thank you for your thoughtful advice! :slight_smile:

But I’m going to pick your brain a bit more,
1.) Do you have any suggestions for good catholic colleges that give aid? Other than Villanova, which as you said, may be too expensive.

2.) (Random) But as I said I am 2nd in my class and my best friend is 1st. She looked at Richmond and her SAT scores and ECs are better than mine. I know she would never go there (she will go Ivy) but she said she will apply. If we both end up applying, do you think it’s unlikely they would accept us both because we are from the same school?

15

Wow! I know W&M is a great school but I always thought Georgetown was almost Ivy…I think I need to do some more research! Hmmm I haven’t heard of Forham! I’ll look into it! Great suggestion!

Hmmm I’ve been to F&M, awhile ago though, it seemed a little too preppy for my taste, but I might revisit, I’ll have to look into their merit aid again.

16

Catholic schools that fit your regional criteria (check their sites for merit scholarship opportunities, but I think you will find that most have some to offer…)
Catholic University of America, DC
Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA
Fordham University, Bronx, NY
Franciscan University of Steubenville, Steubenville, Ohio
Georgetown University, DC
Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY
Loyola University Maryland, Baltimore, MD
Mount St Mary’s University, Emmitsburg, MD (Note St. Marys, mentioned in an earlier post is a state school)
Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia
Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ
Siena College, Loudonville, NY
St John Fisher, Rochester
University of Scranton, Scranton, PA
Villanova University, Villanova, PA
Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio

17

JJ:

“Southern” PA covers a lot of territory - it would be more helpful if you said eastern or western part of the state.

Some observations:

  1. W& M, Georgetown and Rice are not reasonable options with you current SAT, unless you have a hook you haven’t mentioned. Applications to these schools would not be worth your time or money. Richmond would be possible but not guaranteed. Don’t know much about W & L.

  2. You would not be a contender for the largest full-ride award at Villanova and there is not much merit aid there. They do give most students a small tuition discount in the form of a few thousand dollar “scholarship”. Your parents would need to pay close to $60,000/year unless you were eligible for financial aid. That said, it’s a great school with a great reputation in the area and would fulfill your parent’s Catholic requirement.

  3. I might have missed it, but what are your interests?

  4. Don’t compare yourself to your brother or the #1 student in your class. Admission is % more difficult for women. The #1 in your class is not going to “go Ivy” - she may have a compelling application but she will face the same almost insurmountable odds that all the other applicants face unless she has a hook.

  5. It’s great that you’re investigating and planning a reasonable college list now. You might want to reconsider your idea that you need to go to a “selective” college because you worked so hard in HS. Aim for schools that are a good fit. If merit awards are what you’ll need , then look for fit in schools lower on your list. That’s how merit aid works, it’s a “lure” for students who could go to a more selective college.

  6. Other places to consider : Pitt - if you raised your SAT math score you might meet the criteria for one of their partial tuition scholarships. Lehigh/Lafayette - two great schools in the eastern part of the state. Bucknell - more likely if SAT math goes up. St. Joe’s - lower prestige than it’s neighbor Villanova but does give a large amount of merit money to higher stats kids and you’re right in their demographic. Scranton - as another poster mentioned. If considering a big city, look at American. In the past they’ve given decent merit awards, but that may have changed over the past few years.

Good luck, you will find that the CC community will help you with all aspects of the college search. Keep asking.

18

I agree with some of the admissions assessments above. W & L has the highest entering SAT/ACT scores of any any college in Virginia, so that’s another school where you will have to see where you stand after you retake yours.

19

Eastern PA. Thanks for all the Catholic schools listed! I had heard of some of those but others I didn’t even know were Catholic!

1.) Well I will try to raise it, but I know some are definite reaches.
2.) Yes after looking at it’s site Villanova seems too expensive
3.) I am interested in Political Science, and I play three instruments
4) I guess that’s true, but she does have one or two hooks.
5.) Yeah I think that’s what I needed to hear, it’s a tough pill to swallow but I think most of the responders here are right: I probably/definitelyy won’t get in at a lot on my current list. Thank you! :slight_smile:
6.) Oh thank you! I actually visited Lehigh but the preppiness was just too much for me! Man, I have never seen so many Ugg boots and leggings and northfaces! But I digress…thank you for the suggestions!

20

Hmmm after reading these posts and researching a bit, my new list looks something like this:

W&M (Reach)
University of Richmond
University of Rochester
Hobart and William Smith College (great merit aid)
Gettysburg College
St. Bonaventure University
Le Moynen (on fence)

I wish there were more Catholic colleges on the list…but I don’t gravitate towards them or like them as much as the others. Oh well. Any thoughts or suggestions?