<p>Is it possible to find an LAC financial safety without sacrificing academics? The only school I can think of that might qualify is University of Minnesota - Morris, a public LAC with no OOS tuition surcharge, and I'm not sure how strong the academics are. Public LACs seem like the best bet, but not every state has one and prices go out of financial-safety range for OOS. My state only has one flagship and one lesser regional school that is almost LAC-sized but with a terrible academic reputation. The flagship is a medium-sized public.</p>
<p>So, are there any quality, academically strong LACs that could be considered FINANCIAL safeties for a strong (top-tier-competitive) student? For most purposes, I'm defining financial safety as a school with COA (disregarding merit aid unless automatic by stats) guaranteed <=15-20k.</p>
<p>Would merit-friendly schools necessarily qualify as financial safeties? I don't think any of the above four schools offer GUARANTEED merit aid; what kind of stats would you need to consider "chancy" merit aid a financial safety?</p>
<p>If financial aid is a concern, you have to cast a wider net. Very few colleges offer guaranteed merit aid, so you have to target several merit-friendly colleges, apply, and compare offers.</p>
<p>Mmm, right. So there's really no such thing as an LAC merit safety? (UM-Morris qualifies by virtue of <20k COA, which I gather is extremely unusual.)</p>
<p>From my experience, merit aid that takes COA below $20,000 is very competitive - I haven't seen any LACs that have automatic merit aid for all applicants at that high level. There are LACs that offer full rides, but there are a lot of applicants vying for those. Check Curmudgeon's posts from three years ago when his daughter was applying (and she successfully was awarded a full ride at Rhodes).</p>
<p>The only thing that could remotely qualify as an LAC financial safety would be one that is a home-state public. If there's nothing like that in your own state, UM-Morris might be as good as it gets.</p>
<p>SUNY Geneseo, St. Mary's College of Maryland, The College of New Jersey, New College of Florida. All publics with very good academics and cheap OOS price tags compared to most private LACs.</p>
<p>Mary Washington is a public school in VA that's small enough to definitely have an LAC feel, costs around $17000 a year oos (plus R/B) and is well respected academically</p>
<p>It’s important to note that many of the top LACs (Amherst, Middlebury, Williams) are need blind for admissions, so you get a TOP education and they will at least give you the FA necessary</p>
<p>Would merit-friendly schools necessarily qualify as financial safeties?</p>
<p>Well, you have a point if the student doesn’t have strong stats. But, then again, a student without strong stats (for the particular school) is less likely to get preferential packaging for financial aid.</p>
<p>So, I would think if a student is looking for an LAC that is a financial safety, he needs to have strong stats for the particular school so that he either gets big merit or he gets preferential FA packaging. </p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>BTW…is Rhodes College a LAC? If so, I think it would be a good one.</p>
<p>This thread is from 1.5 years ago when Keilexandra was first starting her search. You can find much more exhaustive updates from her in the Financial Aid forum.</p>
<p>Wow, I feel old (enough to be OP of necro’ed threads!). I never did apply to an LAC financial safety, for non-financial reasons, but Knox fit my initial criteria after guaranteed NMF scholarship, as did the base price of Canadian schools like Mt. Allison because I’m a citizen.</p>