Hi - I’m a new poster here. My daughter is a junior & we’re in the throes of our research! She and I visited Elon in November & she fell in love with it. I can’t say I blame her. However we live in NJ so it’s over 8 hours by car and not near a major airport. Does anyone have recommendations of schools closer to the northeast but which have the same feel as Elon? She loves the size of the school, the beauty of the campus, the little nearby town, etc. She’s not a big city or huge state school kid, that seems very clear. So we know what she likes, I just wish it were closer to home! Any guidance would be greatly appreciated - same level academically or above.
You are lucky, living in the northeast. Lots of small LACs there! A fit shouldn’t be too hard. Out here in SoCal the only close by (but high quality) ones are the Claremont McKennas, super hard to get into. You can read Fiske and Colleges That Change Lives to help your kid out.
Elon is less than an hour from the Raleigh Durham airport and the school runs a shuttle. Similar schools closer to NJ include Dickinson, Muhlenberg, Franklin and Marshall, possibly Lafayette.
Thanks to everyone for the great advice & suggestions! I know of some of these schools, don’t know much about others. I also didn’t realize it’s that close to the airport. Her GPA (weighted) is 4,2, got a 1450 on PSAT (SAT scores coming next week!) and we are blessed that we don’t have financial constraints. Again, thanks everyone!
When you say have no “financial constraints,” does that mean you can pay full freight at any school, upwards of $55k to $65k per year, and rising every year? If not, it’s really critical to (1) run the NPC (net price calculators) at each school she’s considering and (2) be sure you understand which schools meet “full need” (according to the school, and how do they define that, i.e. loans, work-study, grants, etc), which offer merit aid and what are their averages of merit aid for a range of stats, etc.
Elon was suggested to my S but he didn’t want to go that far away so I’m guessing we were looking at a similar range of colleges. Some other schools he considered that may meet your criteria include: Marist (NY), Quinnippiac (CT), SUNY New Paltz (NY), Muhlenberg (PA), Siena (NY), and Fairfield (CT). Note that both Siena and Fairfield are Catholic colleges if that matters one way or the other to you (Marist used to be a Catholic college but is now non-denominational).
FWIW my S ended up going to Fordham but that sounds like it would probably be too urban for your D. We also liked UScranton but that may also be too urban. Both are Jesuit schools with very nice campuses though if she wants to consider them as well.
I second looking at University of Richmond. The campus is beautiful, Richmond is a nice sized town, the airport is easy to navigate. Plus, there are LOTS of kids from NJ. My D (sophomore there) says they call it the “Univ of NJ in Richmond”. So far, her stats looks good for UR. Good luck.
^ Good point. Also, @asbecker57 one thing to consider if your daughter ends up with a 1500ish SAT score is that she is a bit on the high side for Elon (`Common Data Set has a 1930 as the 75% level for old SAT score). At that score level she should also be considering Davidson, Wake Forest, Richmond, Wm & Mary, etc.
@asbecker57 Sounds like your daughter is a great student. What does she want to study? Also, the question about “are you sure about financial constraints?” is a good question. The reason they are asking is many of us were initally blindsided by the true cost today. My family was surprised that some private colleges my daughter was interested in were 70K (all in) each year. That’s 280K (if your kid graduates in 4 years). So if you’re ok with that, great, otherwise, consider the most you are willing to pay first and great suggestions will follow!!
The common data set is your friend. At several schools mentioned, including Elon, William and Mary and Davidson, there are literally thousands more female applicants than male applicants. As college try to hold near gender parity, the acceptance rates differ greatly for the genders. Upper middle class female applicants from NJ are seriously overrepresented in the applicant pool at many of these colleges, and that needs to figure into your consideration as well, as they all attempt diversification. High test scores might land her serious merit aid at Elon.
@roycroftmom do you have suggestions for an upper middle class white girl from the the northeast? I had thought applying to southern schools would be helpful, but now you’re making me wonder how far one needs to look. Thanks
Applying early decision (not early action) can be a very effective strategy to maximize one’s chances, if that possible for you. Almost all liberal arts colleges have disproportionately female applicant pools. Colleges with active engineering and/or undergraduate business programs tend to have more evenly matched applicant pools (and a few more technical places, like MIT and Harvey Mudd, attract more male applicants, but there are few of those). Many posters suggest colleges in the mid-West or Southwest are interested in attracting more NJ applicants, so for example Rice and Trinity in Texas, Carleton, Macalaster and St. Olaf in the mid-West, or Colorado College.
Londondad
The op should find the school with the best fit for their child…not the school that has the most “prestige”.
College could be an amazing 4 years or a long miserable 4 years if the fit is wrong. Rankings carry little value in the real life daily grind.
^ True, the only point that I am trying to make is that if someone likes Elon there are other schools that are nearby that have a number of similarities with Elon but they are all a bit different as well. In addition to the ones that we have mentioned there is Furman, CoC, etc is the LAC/smaller college size. The OP should consider all options at this point.
We would be amiss if no one at least pointed out to her that her DD might be a bit “overqualified” (whatever that means in this context) for a school like Elon.
Just as an example, section c of the 2013-2014 CDS for Elon shows it received approximately 3500 male applications and just under 7000 female applications. While it is true that more women were admitted than men, the acceptance rates were about 47 percent for women vs. 63 percent for men. Quite common at many colleges. The averages are just that-averages-and it can be helpful to dig deeper into the data to more closely judge one’s chances and qualifications.
Why did your daughter like Elon? Mine liked it because it was so symmetrical, all nice green lawns, walkways. She thought the facilities were nice, the sorority houses were grouped together, the town was cute. She likes new and modern better than ivy covered buildings that are not ‘matching.’ Other schools she liked were the Air Force Academy and UC-Boulder. I know part of the reason she’s at her current school is that it is also balanced. It’s not all ‘matchy’ like the AFA, but the buildings are spaced well and the sidewalks are symmetrical. That was very important to her.
For that cute town feeling, I think Rollins (Winter Park FL) is the cutest school around. Close enough to a few airports in the Orlando area, Amtrack right in town. You might find some of the colleges in Baltimore attractive.
I wouldn’t let the 8-9 hour drive control the decision. You’ll make it once or twice, but she’ll fly most of the time,and there will be lots (lots) of other NJ kids traveling for holidays and they can carpool. For spring break, she’ll head to Florida with all the other kids.