Hi all,
I am trying to find a liberal arts college in NY or New ENgland that is a solid fit for my rising senior son that is NOT a reach.
I’m finding it really challenging to do this. Any tips would be very much appreciated.
High School: public, large, semi-rural
Location: Maine
Gender: male
Race: White
Prospective Major: Humanities, or social science such as poli sci or psychology
Unweighted GPA: 3.0 (weighed about 3.5)
Class rank: top 20%
ACT: (unknown as of yet)
SAT: 1350
Wheaton College in Norton, MA.
St. Lawrence and seconding Wheaton. For further ideas you can check the individual online U.S. News entries for overlaps of these schools.
thanks to you both. I did not know US News had overlapping schools. Will check that out.
If you wanted to cross the border into Quebec, then Bishop’s University is probably a match. I don’t know for sure whether a 3.0 is enough to get in, but you would be close and I think that you have a better chance than at the comparable schools that we visited in Maine. Strictly speaking, Bishop’s misses being in New England by 29.9 miles (it is just over the border from Vermont, slightly further from the western edge of Maine).
Bishops is quite a good school with about 2,400 students. Classes are in English (except for classes whose purpose is to teach a different language, of course). It is in the very small town of Lennoxville, which is essentially fluently bilingual. It is however near Sherbrooke, which is a primarily French small city in a primarily French province. You do not need to speak any French at all to go there, although they do have a very good languages department.
By the way, we considered LACs in the US, mostly Maine, as well as comparable small universities in Canada. Cost and comprehensible admissions standards were two of the big draws that caused us to prefer the schools in Canada. However, the other small schools that we considered in Canada are either further away from Maine or harder to get into.
Hobart
Union
Thanks! Kids from his high school have gone to McGill but I hadn’t heard of Bishop’s.
SUNY-Geneseo is said to have a liberal arts feel, even though larger than the typical LAC. If he is open to a school that size, he might also consider Ithaca College.
For somewhat less competitive LACs, if you’re willing to consider PA, there are many choices. Check out the Colleges That Change Lives site, ctcl.org
Also this thread has a lot of great information, including about merit scholarships and financial aid:
Do you need financial aid? And are you open to schools in PA or MD? There are a lot of great liberal arts schools that are in the Northeast but not necessarily New England.
Skidmore College might be a good high match. Their median SAT score is 1300-1320, but I couldn’t fit information on the average GPA.
You could also try Hobart and William Smith. Their average GPA is a 3.47, but your son’s scores are above the Class of 2020 range of 1190-1320.
Allegheny College is an option if you’re willing to look in PA. He’s above their middle 50% of 1100-1300. They don’t mention an average GPA, but they do mention that 75% of their students are in the top 25% of their classes.
Also look into Wheaton College (MA), Bennington College, St. Lawrence University, Muhlenberg (also in PA), Ursinus, and Washington College (MD).
Another vote for Wheaton and St. Lawrence, adding Siena & SUNY Geneseo. There are also a lot in PA if that is an option.
We visited Siena College which might work (if a Catholic school is OK). Some other Catholic schools that I haven’t visited but that you might consider are Sacred Heart (CT), Lemoyne (NY), St. Anselm (NH) and St. Bonaventure (NY), and Manhattanville (NY). Some SUNY schools such as Potsdam and Brockport are pretty small and may work (and have good rates for OOS students).
And I’d third Wheaton and Hobart. Union (mentioned above) would be a reach.
Stonehill College in Easton, Ma. or Clark University in Worcester.
Since people are not recommending Skidmore, or Hamilton I am guessing those are reaches. I guess a “target” school is one where his GPA and text scores land around the 50th percentile of accepted students?
^^^Skidmore may be less of reach than Hamilton. All the NESCACS are pretty tough to get into.
For easier reference, look for “Students Also Applied To”:
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/st-lawrence-university-2829
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/wheaton-college-massachusetts-2227
Note that some overlap schools may be “aspirational,” and therefore not actual peers with respect to admission.
Hamilton would probably be out-of-reach because of their GPA expectations and middle range SAT of 1370-1520 based on the new SAT format.
@newenglandjane I did mention Skidmore, but the difficulty is that your son is a little lopsided, with better test scores than GPA (at least in my opinion). So there are some colleges where he may be within or above the average for test scores, but below what they expect to see in GPA.
One thing you can do is check the Common Data Set of colleges you are looking at. There is a spot where they indicate the weight they put on each factor (from “very important” to “not considered”). He may have a better chance at schools that put less emphasis on GPA.
Agree with @glittervine His SAT is good and makes him a match for lots of schools, but at the same time the 3.0 makes him not a match. Most Nescacs will want higher than a 3.0, but perhaps check into a Trinity. His SAT makes him a match for College of the Holy Cross, but the gpa is low for them.
“Colleges That Change Lives” was originally a college guidebook, first published in 1996, that identified little-known, and therefore less selective, small colleges that nonetheless delivered high-quality undergraduate education. There are currently three CTCL schools in PA: Allegheny, Juanita, and Ursinus. They all seem like they could be potential fits. Franklin & Marshall was once a CTCL school too, but apparently they got dropped after becoming too popular and selective.
There are only three CTCL schools in NY/New England: Clark University and Hampshire College in MA, and Marlboro College in VT. Hampshire and Marlboro have an unconventional alternative vibe that is not for everyone. Clark is a “university”, but it only has 3400 students, so it is actually about the same size as larger LACs (like Bucknell or Wesleyan). Clark is known for psychology, and also seems like a potential fit.
Thanks again for this, everyone. The CTCL book sounded gimmicky so I avoided it, but I will check it out. We’re hoping he can have an excellent first semester senior year which will offset a little the low GPA.
You may not need to actually buy the book, there is a free website now: www.ctcl.org