"Intellectual" Colleges - w/ curious, "intellectual" students

College Search & Selection
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<p>

That is one thing I’ve been wondering. Many schools unofficially restrict merit scholarships to students in the top 10% of their classes.</p>

<p>Hendrix in Arkansas would be worth a look. It’s a rather liberal school in a decidedly less so state, with a good reputation and a solid amount of merit aid.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.hendrix.edu/[/url]”>http://www.hendrix.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Denison, Wooster, and Ohio Wesleyan are traditionally generous with merit aid as well, and I second TK’s suggestion of Knox.</p>

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<p>New College of Florida would qualify as intellectual and as generous with merit aid – but it has fewer than 1,000 students.</p>

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<p>I third the idea of Knox, but Galesburg isn’t much of a city.</p>

<p>The winters in K’zoo will be just as bad as Min/St. Paul, and Mac is in a really wonderful part of town.</p>

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<p>Does anyone know how to figure out if I’m in the top 25% of the applicant pool, like bopambo mentioned?</p>

<p>And thanks for the colleges, everyone. If anyone has any to add, that would be appreciated, but I think that I may be applying to College of William & Mary, Grinnell, and maybe Lawrence.</p>

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<p>gasmasque, all the colleges show the middle 50% scores for SATs and ACTs. For instance, at Lawrence University they show middle SAT scores as Critical Reading: 590-730, Math: 600-710, and Writing: 590-680. Your SAT scores are higher than their middle 50% so you are in the top 25% of their applicant pool for SATs. Also, their average GPA is 3.63 and I presume that’s unweighted. Again you are higher than the average. With good recommendations and essays I’d bet you’d get merit aid at Lawrence U. </p>

<p>Good luck!!!</p>

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<p>Yes, the SAT score ranges are widely available. You can find them for instance on the Princeton Review site, sometimes in a freshman class profile on the college site, or in the “Common Data Set” file downloadable from the college site. The published medians generally reflect the scores of enrolled students, not of admitted students and not of the general applicant pool. As long as you are comparing apples to apples, that’s o.k. The averages for the whole applicant pool generally aren’t made public.</p>

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<p>San Diego State comes to mind.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the clarification, tk21769, that’s why I love CC.</p>

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<p>[St</a>. Mary’s College of Maryland - Costs & Aid - Financial Aid - Types of Aid](<a href=“http://www.smcm.edu/admissions/costs/financial/costs_fin_types.html]St”>http://www.smcm.edu/admissions/costs/financial/costs_fin_types.html)</p>

<p>I have always heard good things about St. Mary’s of Maryland, a Public Honors College.<br>
Nice location, great academics, need-based & merit aid, $35,000 to OOS and 1,994 student population.</p>

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<p>I would check out Sewanee… University of the South. Also Whitman and Colorado College.</p>

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<p>^^ SMCM is a fine school in a beautiful location. However, the average merit grant is only about $3K. I wonder how many larger grants go to OOS students. Merit grants from the midwestern, private LACs typically average about $10K-$15K.</p>

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<p>Not a college but University of Chicago fits the bill for intellectual curiosity and atmosphere.</p>