Antioch College.
Hiram College.
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hi, my daughter is an rising senior at Grinnell. Here is a list of schools she applied to when she was a senior in high school: Grinnell, Bates, Hamilton, Case Western, Carlton, Oberlin, Colby and UConn. She was accepted only at UConn and wait listed at Carlton, Case Western and Grinnell. Grinnell was the first to release the wait list with a pretty good financial aid package so she took it. She was a good student in high school but she wasn’t the valedictorian type either.
I personally thought it was a good choice for her and so did she. I especially liked the fact the school’s endowment fund was managed by Warren Buffett for many years so the school was financially stable (unlike many of the other small liberal arts schools these days). Based on what my daughter tells us, the students are in general very hardworking. Of course there’s some weed and alcohol like every other college but hardcore partying is not the norm. Hope this helps.
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He graduated from Grinnell in 2019. He choose Grinnell because even though it cost slightly more then Beloit he felt it was worth the small amount of loans to make it happen. He also really liked the Grinnell in London program. Grinnell has since become a no loan school. He is currently in a fully funded PhD program so I think it paid off.
He was looking for a diverse school that was not competive but academically intense. He also wanted small and cold. As far as interviewing, he was just not very good at talking about his accomplishments. He felt saying anything positive about himself was bragging. He got into a very long conversation and was able to be more compfortable and shine.
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I think the hard thing about your question is “easier to get into” and “get merit” don’t necessarily go hand in hand. Merit aid is used by “mid tier” schools to attract students who can get into “top tier” schools so that they can use their stats to boost their averages. I understand not wanting to provide your stats but in order to get merit aid, students generally need to be above the 75th percentile of applicants. It’s hard to suggest schools where that would be the case for you if we don’t know what you have to offer.
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University of Puget Sound
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Connecticut College comes to mind. If you are looking for a school that gives a lot of merit and is a hidden gem, then consider Allegheny. My DS who had a decent but not great GPA got a huge scholarship which drove the cost down to the upper $20’s.
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yes thanks @Sweetgum. I’m UCDProf’s daughter and he hopes I go to school with your daughter at Hollins. I don’t know if either of us, your daughter and I, will wind up there but who knows!
I was wondering if Roanoke is a bit good ol’ boys. What do y’all think? I hope my twin brother will go to Roanoke if I go to Hollins, but he has the same social needs I do, if not needing even more warmth and welcoming.
Goucher seems like it hits the Grinnell spot. Isn’t Centre College a bit fratty?
trying to respond to @helpingmom40 here but the interface is wonky:
yeah what you said is what I meant. I wish I knew to phrase it that way. I’m looking for colleges who are looking to boost their stats but not as hard to get into as Grinnell.
I have a 4.0 uw and #1 in my small high school and good ECs and I hope a great essay. But I don’t have much access to APs, honors, foreign language, or even math as I’ve maxed out at calculus junior year. My counselor’s letter will show that I took everything available to me and aced it. Also I don’t consider myself what society deems top tier nor want to go to school with the uber achievers. I would consider Grinnell students top tier in my mind and values. So I’m just looking for merit opportunities to spare my poor father any amount I can take off the plus loans he’s increasingly fearing are necessary. I feel certain I will get merits so looking for the best opportunities.
I realize that some schools that are targets for me may have more merit for me than some schools that are super safety and it’s not simple.
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I thought I recognized your name. One of my daughter’s friends is heading to Hollins this weekend. I think it’s a pretty great school.
Do you mean Roanoke college being “good ol’ boys” or the city of Roanoke? I don’t think the college is. It seems to draw kids from all over. I think it might be a smidge too preppy for my daughter, but I’m going to see if I can talk her into looking at it anyway. I don’t think it’s tremendously preppy, but she’s just kind of anti-preppy.
The city of Roanoke is pretty mixed with some “good old boy” flair, but it also has some funky to it down by the city market, which my DD likes. It might not be quite funky enough for her, but I think she will definitely apply to Hollins and then we’ll see which school she ends up choosing.
Centre may be fratty. I don’t know that much about it except it has good study abroad programs.
There are some public universities in the South that may give y’all good merit aid. I know you were looking for LACs, but might be worth checking out somewhere like College of Charleston (SC public).
Others I have on my list to check out (haven’t gone through all of them yet so some may not be what we are looking for or what y’all are looking for) are: Coe College, Allegheny, Lewis & Clark, Knox, Sewanee.
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thanks @Sweetgum I meant isn’t Roanoke College (for location, I’m thinking beggars can’t be choosers) kind of retrograde as your daughter would see it? Don’t tell her I said that though since I really don’t know. Preppy is also a problem for me and fratty is really a problem.
I did see College of Charleston on a thread this morning and was interested. A lot of talk about Allegheny giving merit but I don’t see much hope on the NPC at all.
Sewanee seems like a nice dessert, soaked in alcohol.
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There’s UMinn Morris, which is a selective but not super-selective public LAC - only 1500 students - identical median stats to Knox, which has been suggested above (and which is also worth a close look). Equity, Diversity & Intercultural Programs | Student Life The OOS full-pay COA is only 27K, and there are merit awards that can bring that down further. I don’t believe there’s any Greek life, or if there is, it’s not prominent.
My CA daughter’s experience with Lawrence was that they offered exactly enough merit to match the cost of UC’s. (she had a 4.3-something GPA, 34 ACT) I suspect that getting below that threshold isn’t likely, but it’s not a hard application so it doesn’t hurt to try - I was very impressed with the vibe when we visited - students seemed particularly kind and supportive of one another.
Beloit is generous with merit and seems like a great Grinnell alternative. Earlham as well.
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For our HS, people that apply to Grinnell College also apply to:
Swat
Reed
Hamilton
UT-Austin
Haverford
Oberlin
Bowdoin
Wash UI
Colorado College
W&M
I don’t know about that. I mean it’s not NYC or anything, but I think Roanoke has some good vibes. You might like to read this article: Bloomberg CityLab: How a Downtown Revival Reshaped Roanoke VA . It’s got a cool railroad hub history and a nice artsy outdoorsy vibe now. There’s a cool art museum there, the Taubman and the historic City Market area has lots of interesting shops and restaurants as well as a local farmer’s market. I liked Roanoke.
Have you looked into Cornell College (NOT Cornell University) in Iowa? It is a very unique school in that you concentrate on one course at a time. Kind, motivated students that are more cooperative than competitive. Courses give you a chance to really get into a topic in many different ways (off campus trips, going more in-depth, longer lab time) due to the schedule. They list their merit right on their website and if you search Youtube they have a ton of informational videos and really give you a sense of what the school is like.
I don’t think I’ve seen Kenyon College mentioned, it could be worth consideration.
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@sweetgum (the replies don’t load right for me) I was trying to say I was talking about the college, not the town, and that as far as the surrounding area to any college, I’m thinking beggars cant be choosers.
But it’s good to know Roanoke the town isn’t half bad. Thanks!
@aquapt (the forum won’t let me reply to the right person) thanks that’s interesting about Lawrence. I might be equivalent since I have the maximum possible gpa at my school, or they might not see it that way. I could make it there if there was merit plus need could come closer to my EFC, which is far less than UC COA.
Hmmm, I don’t know exactly what you mean by retrograde, but I will say we just haven’t really seen it much. We might go visit or she might say, no way. Not sure yet. She is still very much exploring.
The main thing we know about Roanoke College is we know someone who went there about 7 or so years ago and he enjoyed it. He spent some time overseas through the college, too, which is something she wants to do. He’s a really cool guy, very musical, very intelligent and super friendly and easy to talk to. Everybody loves him. Definitely not a preppy frat type. So going on him it could be a cool place. But he’s also the kind of guy that would do great anywhere because he’s so personable and likable and hard working and fun to be around.
yay it let me reply to you!
I mean from the niche and unigo reviews it seems kind of rich white oriented, and I was troubled by some faulting professors for bias against the nonnorms. It would be better to visit of course but I can’t.
I also get easily frightened by student made youtube videos about their school or day in the life or whatever, which are so dependent on who makes them. However, you can’t unsee them once you see them.
I had a good example of such video in mind but now I’ve confused it in my memory.
Yes, I have read some of the Unigo reviews. This guy we know is not like that, though. Hard to say what it would be like w/o visiting and trying to get the vibe in person.
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