Seeking advice on college list for D20 interested in studying English Lit and Creative Writing at small, friendly LAC in Mid-Atlantic, New England, Midwest.
City resident, caucasian F, family can pay up to $45K. Net price calculators are showing need awards of $0 to $10K.
D attends top public academic magnet High School in PA. UW GPA 3.8 (a B, a B+, rest of grades A-and As). 4 APs, all other classes Honors. 4 yrs English, History, Math; 3 yrs Science w/labs, FL. SAT 1460.
Leadership positions: co-EIC school newspaper, co-Pres feminism club, co-Captain top 5-ranked junior roller derby team.
Also Regional Scholastic Gold Key Award for short story, participant in summer and year-long writing programs w competitive admissions. writing center tutor, National History Day participant and peer mentor, member of comedy improv club.
Thank you in advance for your feedback and guidance.
Sounds like you need an almost 1/2 tuition merit scholarship which is tough. Maybe Wooster, Lawerence in the midwest? Goucher in the mid-Atlantic. Did you look at the CC thread “Colleges generous with merit?” Centre in Kentucky. Look at other Colleges that Change Lives.
St. Olaf in Minnesota might offer merit to get you into that price range. Just be aware that their Net Price Calucator is currently “under construction” and the “simplified” one they are offering in its place just seems to give the same “average grant” regardless of inputs, so you can’t rely on it.
Trinity University in San Antonio or Southwestern in Georgetown, Texas. Both are very nice schools which will be within your budget. Also, both are in or near cities with an airport.
I was thinking Denison, and then when I saw “comedy improv club,” that sealed it – Denison has “Burpees” improv group where Steve Carell started in comedy before he went to Chicago Second City. Denison has a creative writing concentration, with well-regarded prof/authors like Margot Singer, as well as an endowed visiting writer program, the Beck Series. Merit money for about 1/2 tuition for strong applicants. Easy transportation as Columbus airport is 25-30 min from campus and traffic is rarely bad. Acceptance rate continues to drop as the word gets out, acceptance rate was 29% last year.
University of Iowa has the top ranked creative writing program in the country and would be within your budget even with OOS tuition. They also offer merit scholarships to OOS students. Big 10 university so maybe not the vibe she’s looking for, but it is an urban campus.
McDaniel, St Lawrence, Susquehanna, Arcadia. Ithaca,
$30k in merit and aid is tough, though your DD is much better off than those needing full tuition or ride.
You can look at the smaller PA in state universities though not truly LACs. Indiana U of PA has a honors college that many say is terrific. York College is a possibility. Geneseo in NY is a good choice. A number of the smaller Catholic schools. Suggestions from posters above also good
Though, a stretch, reaches like Oberlin , Kenyon, Dickinson, Gettysburg and the such might work out. A lot of these schools are giving out $20k awards more frequently than they used to give. You need a bit more, but then your DD is in the upper quarter academically.
Your D has about the same GPA as my D but better EC’s and SAT is slightly higher. We have about the same budget and will get no financial aid. Here are the schools we have found that get down around $45k with merit.
St Lawrence, Susquehanna, Ohio Wesleyan , Loyola MD, Univ of Scranton, Catholic Univ, Butler, Depauw, Wheaton (MA), Roanoke, St Michaels, and Ursinus, all under 45k. Hobart, Marist, Gettysburg, and Clark all came in between 45-50k. Denison showed no merit $ on the NPC but lots of people seem to say it has good merit, so my D’s stats might just not be good enough.
You could most likely get at least a half scholarship at Beloit College. Maybe even more. . I am biased since my daughter is there. Very heavy writing for tests. She is a senior now but was a junior transfer last year, on the deans list at her former college and for a $30,000 merit scholarship. She had a 3.85 GPA coming over.
My daughter is a really great writer and challenged there. Your daughter will be challenged in a very friendly environment. Also very supportive professors and staff. Most of my daughters classes are deep discussion classes that go deep in thinking and theory. My daughter keeps telling me that the students are intellectually curious as a whole. The students take their academic seriously. Every kid I have met is nicer then the next. The school has been very supportive of all my daughters interests even sending her to Indonesia to do research for a month this summer, on a fully paid research grant! She already did study abroad there last year. They have set up speaking engagements at other universities for her about some other things she is doing. Our experience is they don’t say no. If a student has a true interest they will find a way to make it work.
You can pm me if you need more information. It’s like a diamond in the rough. We know several recent grads and they all say the same things and more.
One of the nicest surprises to me is this college is diverse. Her former Lac was not at all.
University of Dayton and Butler University were quick with their acceptances and merit scholarships. Dayton guarantees merit will increase with tuition. A friend was very active in an improv group there a few years ago. Both schools offered my D merit that would have kept billed costs well under $45K.
University of Iowa just added an undergraduate program in creative writing to capitalize on their stellar reputation for their graduate level Writers’ Workshop. Really a lovely Big Ten school, charming small city, not too huge (less than 20K undergrad, I think), if your daughter is open to a school that size. You can look up their guaranteed merit and I’m quite sure it would bring your costs into the $30Ks.
I second (third?) Denison. My son just started there and is a very happy camper. They have good merit money. He was back and forth between Denison and Trinity University in San Antonio, which someone mentioned above. Trinity is a neat school in a neat town, and is very generous with merit. Also, I don’t think anyone has mentioned Connecticut College, which might be a good fit and has good merit. I would recommend your D apply to a couple of possibilities EA and see what happens as a starting point. There are some good schools in the category you are interested in that have EA - Trinity, Lawrence, Beloit, Wooster, Lewis & Clark and Rhodes come to mind from our search, but there are probably others. It’s a great feeling to have one or a couple of acceptances before year-end, especially if the merit comes in at the right level
It is, but the OP may not need that much.
If the family budget of $45K does not include “self help”, then you can add on another $5K-$7.5K/year from that. That may get you close to the COA (even without aid) for a few private LACs. It puts you above the COA (even without aid) for many public colleges, including public LACs such as St. Mary’s College of Maryland at OOS rates.
Selective LACs with sticker prices > $70K, and good programs for you want, will tend to be reaches when you need $20K+ in merit grants. Kenyon (highly regarded for English, writing) offers a writing scholarship for up to $15K/year, but it must be very competitive (and you’d still be a little over budget without more aid.)
Outside of your geographic area, Eckerd College, CTCL school. With merit aid and your daughter’s stats, tuition would be about $36,000. They also offer financial aid. It is well known for their creative writing program, Writer’s in Paradise series, award winning student newspaper and literary magazine, speaker series, close professor/mentor program, https://www.eckerd.edu/creative-writing/why-creative-writing-at-eckerd/
