Help with College List

Parents Forum
1

I have been a silent reader of this forum for about 3 years and now I need some help from experts here.

We are trying to make a college list for our D who is junior in public high school in MA. She wants to stay within 2-3 hours of car ride from MA so we are looking at school in and around NE.

We are planning to do some college visits during her winter and spring break so need help from experts here.

Her stats are below.

GPA: 4.25 unweighted

Course load: 5 APs so far, she is planning to take 4 more APs her senior year.

PSAT: 1490 - RW730, M760
NMSC Selection Index: 222 (which is cut-off for our State)

SAT: 1st Sitting in December - 1530 – RW760, M770 (she is happy with her score and done with SAT)

SAT Subject Tests
Literature: 770
Biology: 750
Math-1: 740
She is planning to take SAT Math-2, US history and Chemistry in spring.

ECs: Varsity Cross-country – Captain for Senior Year
4 years of Cross-country, winter and spring track
Couple of clubs at school: International relations, LIME and other clubs, no leadership position.
Dance – 12 years of intense classical dance at local dance academy, graduated in 11th grade. Continue to perform and help junior students at her dance school.

Awards:
Scholar Athletic award, National honor society

Volunteer hours: 120+ helping in doctor’s office
Job: She was a tutor at Kumon for few months and now she works at local church’s daycare on weekends: about 10-12 hours a week, also do private tutoring to a freshman homeschool student.

Interested Major: She is undecided on one major, her interests are
Political Science / International relations
English / Psychology
Biochemistry

As you can see, her ECs are not many and strong, most of her time goes to cross country and dance so she is not doing many ECs at school.

She is not particular about school size and should fit into small or large college/universities. We are full pay and have good savings for her but with the college tuition rising every year we will need to chase some merit money.

Her dream schools are Brown University and Amherst College, which she knows are her reach schools. I am thinking of following safety/matches/reaches

Safety: UMass-Amherst, UConnecticut – need 1-2 more added here.
Matches: BC, BU, Northeastern – are they really matches or reaches now?
Reaches: Brown, Amherst, Williams, and Middlebury – definitely reaches!

Any help is greatly appreciated!

2

None of the Ivies or NESCACs offer merit money so you may want to think about how you want to approach this before your daughter starts to apply to and fall in love with schools she can’t afford. I would sit down and determine whether and how much she needs in merit based scholarships to attend the schools on her list. If her reaches are not affordable she should take them off her list, as painful as that may be.

If you determine you can swing the need-only schools I would consider taking out BU (3 times the undergraduate population of any of her dream schools) and adding in a less competitive NESCAC school. A school like Hamilton, Bates, or Connecticut College would feel more like Amherst or Williams than BU and would be matches for a kid with her stats.

BTW, what scale are you using for the GPA? An unweighted GPA is usually on a 4.0 scale so a 4.25 would have to be a weighted GPA unless your school uses an unusual grading system.

3

I agree with @Sue22 about the GPA. I thought that a 4.0 GPA unweighted meant that all grades were A’s or A+'s, and that nothing higher than 4.0 was possible. However, I will interpret a 4.25 as all A’s.

UVM would be a very good safety. Depending upon where in MA you are it might be just over 3 hours. Your D would have a very good chance at a presidential scholarship which would put the total price of everything as somewhere roughly around $40k per year. I am not sure whether a larger merit scholarship is possible. Burlington is a very nice small city.

With straight A’s and 1530 SAT, McGill is probably the academically strongest and most demanding safety that you will find anywhere (other than perhaps Toronto). It is however roughly a 5 hour drive from MA (slightly more or slightly less depending where you are). Depending upon major, with no aid for an international student assuming that you are neither Canadian nor French citizens, it would be close to or slightly over C$40k in Canadian dollars, which puts it somewhere in the $30’s in US dollars. Merit aid is possible but rare. Montreal is of course unique and a very interesting place to spend 4 years.

If you are fine being full pay, then my guess is that BC, BU, Northeastern are matches. However, if you need financial aid, I would move them to reaches unless the NPC gives good news.

4

Yes, BC and Northeastern are high matches/reaches with your stats, as is Hamilton. Bates would be a match, and BU and Connecticut would be low matches/safeties.

5

You might want to look at schools in eastern NY state. Hamilton was mentioned. Union and Colgate are two others.

6

For merit aid, look at Mount Holyoke, Brandeis, Northeastern.

7

I’d second Hamilton and Colgate in particular. Holy Cross claims to meet full financial need and is as strong academically as anywhere. IR/political science is definitely a strength. Dickinson in PA is a terrific place and very strong in her area of interest. It’s farther away than she’s looking but is a pretty, low-traffic drive, though could be snowy in winter.

I like your list. Just asking, NE and BU are very urban. Most of the rest are in smaller town settings (except BC, which is fairly near-in suburban Boston but feels pretty quiet). Do these schools all appeal, even though the settings are very different, i.e. BU and Williams? Yes is a fine answer. Just thinking that’s a helpful question.

Good luck!

8

For merit aid (and an open curriculum if that is part of the attraction to Brown and Amherst), I’d also add Smith.

9

I’m currently a senior that just finished applying to schools, so I’m by no means an expert, but I just went through the process, have the same interests as your daughter (IR/polisci), and applied to Brown as my ED school, so I thought I’d jump in here!

When I first started looking at colleges, I had a bunch of different sized colleges on my list, and touring colleges of different sizes (and in different locations!) really helped me figure out what I wanted. Ultimately, I realized schools like Williams were a little too small and rural for me, but I also didn’t like big state schools, so I tended to gravitate toward medium-sized (5-10k undergrads) schools in suburban/urban locations. That might not be the same case for your daughter, obviously, but I think it would be a really good idea to tour some schools of different sizes in different locations on your initial tour just so she can get a sense of what she likes! She might not care much about size/location right now, but the reality tends to be very different when you actually step foot on campus :slight_smile:

Northeastern does give some merit aid, although maybe not as much as other schools. If you’re willing to look outside the NE, there’s a small liberal arts school called Macalester that gives great merit aid and has a really strong IR program. I would also second Brandeis as a match school, I visited and personally didn’t love the campus but it’s a great school and I’ve heard many good things about the professors and student body.

As for reach schools, I would also suggest Tufts! There’s a lot of overlap between students who apply to Brown and students who apply to Tufts, and Tufts has a great IR program and I know there’s a strong artsy presence, which your daughter might enjoy because of her background in dance. It’s also super close to Boston!

10

Set an affordability figure that you can be completely comfortable with, and then take a good long look at the places her guidance counselor tells you have never rejected a student with her stats. The one(s) that fit your budget easily, and haven’t rejected anyone ever, are her pretty-much-safe places. Better yet if there are any that will guarantee admission for her stats. Make sure she likes a couple of these well enough in case everything else goes wrong in the admission cycle.

11

As an NMF Finalist Northeastern would give $30,000/year merit aid.

Assuming that she will be an arts and sciences major McGill in Montreal would be pretty much a safety. Admission is GPA and SAT/ACT based. Tuition is lower than at comparable US schools and limited merit aid is available. For humanities and social sciences international tuition is C$19,000.

12

You guys, this student has straight A’s (and I guess A+s in a school that counts them as >4.0), a great SAT score, time consuming EC, and you are saying BC and Northeastern high match/reaches? I know a bunch of kids with lower GPA and standardized test scores who got into both. There’s no reason to terrify this parent. With Northeastern, it’s more important to express interest/give the idea that it’s your top choice, than to have a 4.0.

13

I know this wouldn’t help with looking for merit, but how about Vassar? Her interests in English, science and political science seem a good fit and I would think it would be a match school. Plus, if she wants to do dance as an extra curricular activity, there would be some great options.I agree with visiting schools of different sizes, locations and social atmospheres so she can get a better idea about the types of schools she prefers.

14

Unless OP’s DD applies ED to Northeastern, it can’t be assumed to be more than a match given the Class of 2021 admitted student median ACT was 32-34 and SAT was 1400-1500. BC was close to the same with a median ACT of 31-33 and SAT of 1310-1450 - so it may be viewed as slightly easier, but as its become extremely popular that can’t be assumed. The good news is that both schools are fairly large so that reduces the benefit of hooks and limits any ORM impact.

All of the top-20 Universities and LAC’s will still be a reach with these stats as they are typical for ORM’s. If OP’s DD has the ability to be a recruited student-athlete that could provide a hook.

OP, Hamilton College sounds like it could be a great fit; our DD’s both attend with similar stats - one is a Poli Sci/IR major and a Varsity XC/Track student-athlete; the other is a Neuro major and on the Sailing Team. They both love the school.

15

Lots of good suggestions so far.

I too think Tufts would be another excellent choice.

I’ll add the U of Pittsburgh, which does offer some merit money.

So… being conservative:

Reach: Amherst, Brown, Williams
Low reach: Colgate, Hamilton, Middlebury, Tufts, Vassar
High match: Bates, Boston College, Northeastern
Match: Boston U, Connecticut College, Dickinson, Holy Cross
Low match: Pittsburgh, UConn, UVM (hard to call OOS public flagships true safeties)
Safety: UMass

That’s a lot of schools. Figure out what her preferences are, compare costs, and maybe whittle that down a bit, unless she has a lot of time for the apps.

16

Based on curricular and other factors, she should probably also strongly consider Wesleyan, Hamilton, Smith and Connecticut College.

17

With regard to BC, I was at their info session recently. From what was said, the OPs D would be a match. Doesn’t mean she is definitely getting in, but I agree with what @JenJenJenJen said.
BC gets tricky because they get so many applications (25k) that strong kids do end up getting denied, but it still is a match here.
She could also look at Trinity as a match low/match

18

Thank you everyone, these are some great suggestions.
And yes her GPA is 4.25 weighted.

We are planning to visit small/large urban/rural colleges during winter and spring breaks so she will get an idea since currently she doesn’t think it matters but as someone said once you visit a campus things may change.

Thanks for all the wonderful advise.

19

I would consider adding Bowdoin, Bryn Mawr, Colby, and Middlebury to the list. All fine colleges strong in humanities and social sciences.

20

You say you’re full pay - have you run the NPCs at Amherst, Williams, Brown etc to see if you would get any aid? If not, it’s going to be about $70k per year. If that’s doable, carry on. If not, I’d drop them and any of the others that do need-based aid only.

If she’d consider a women’s school in the 5C consortium, Mount Holyoke does merit and to a lesser degree, so does Smith.

Hampshire offers merit as well and has the same access to the 5cs as the other schools, more, in fact, since it was designed with the consortium in mind.