<p>My daughter and I just returned from our first official weekend of college visits. We did walk arounds at William and Mary and University of Mary Washington (both were on break). We toured the University of Richmond, and it was love at first sight for my daughter. She was captivated by the beautiful campus, the promised small classes, etc. I was pretty impressed too, though suffering from sticker shock and unsure of the chance of getting merit aid.</p>
<p>My daughter is a junior, a straight A student thus far, taking honors and AP classes. No SAT scores yet...She is definitely a liberal arts type, loves history and language. Lots of extracurriculars. We are certainly considering some of our great Virginia state universities, but I am looking to expand our known universe to consider small liberal arts colleges too as these ultimately will provide a better fit for her, I think. I am finding my search thus far overwhelming! Environment seems really important to her - she seems to be drawn to a campus that has ambience and a nice college town feel, though she loves cities too. Maine through South Carolina are primary regional interests. The financial piece is of course part of the picture; we are not likely to qualify for need based aid, but hope to find a place that would offer merit based aid. Anyone have any great schools for us to consider, with University of Richmond as a jumping off point of comparison??</p>
<p>Look at Wellesley for beautiful campus and academics. They do give merit but they are very competitive. Sorry I don’t know U of R. Smith gives special awards to high achievers, including guaranteed research grants.</p>
<p>Colgate University (NY)
Hamilton College (NY)
Bowdoin College (ME)
Middlebury College (VT)
Colby College (ME)
Wheaton College (MA)
St. Lawrence University (NY) </p>
<p>Here are a few, you would have to look at FA & see if all of them give merit aid.</p>
<p>Wake Forest and Elon would be well worth a look since she liked Richmond. </p>
<p>There are plenty of LACs likely to give her at least some merit aid (Guilford, Wofford, Juniata, Wooster, Furman, etc.), but full rides are difficult to get even going down a few notches in selectivity. In-state tuition at W&M (or Mary Washington) is hard to beat.</p>
<p>I would not expect much merit aid from most of the previously suggested schools. Most of them offer no or very little merit aid, and that goes to extraordinarily qualified applicants.</p>
Please remember it is primarily her search. You can (and IMO should) contribute to the search process but it should be her ideas and work, with you being the realist for the results. YMMV.</p>
<p>I am new to this website and this is my first post - I am so grateful already to this forum for all the helpful responses that have popped up in just a few hours! What a terrific resource this is!! Thanks all…</p>
<p>Elon would be a great choice and their tuition starts 10K - 15K less than comparable schools so you need less aid to start off with. Wake and Davidson are likely to be expensive even with aid, same for many of the others.</p>
<p>If your daughter liked the feel of the University of Richmond, I would would agree with the previous suggestions of Elon (great campus, community and value), Furman (beautiful campus, small discussion based classes), Wake Forest and Davidson.</p>
<p>Some of the suggestions, particularly those in the slummom post, don’t not offer merit. Without scores it’s hard to say. Most of the top LACs only give need based aid.</p>
<p>I would look at Rhodes and Mac along with others mentioned.</p>
<p>You should take a look at Bucknell in Pennsylvania. In my high school’s graduating class, there was one girl who went to Richmond whose second choice was Bucknell, and there was another girl who went to Bucknell whose second choice was Richmond. Also see Lehigh and Lafayette if you’re in the Pennsylvania area.</p>