OP- She doesn’t care about size? That’s great as it give you lots of flexibility/options. Does she care about things like Greek life/no Greek life, open vs core curriculum vs distribution requirements? Housing options (eg how many live on/off campus after say freshman year), etc. if any of these are important to her, that can help add or eliminate schools.
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I noted if it exceeded budget. OP is unaware that these schools cost so much. They clearly stated that.
As long as OP has a # and stays within then it’s fine.
If the # is $100k, then every school in the country can be considered.
Op said $70k for the right school and expressed surprise when being told that schools on the list were much higher.
You’re taking what I said and rearranging it.
Also applying to a school you can’t afford or don’t want to afford and knowing this up front but applying anyway so you can appeal is a waste of time and energy.
One builds a list from schools that will work and can work. Not schools that I know have no basis to work without appeal.
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Not sure who is the one rearranging information here. No matter. People’s lists change constantly even throughout their application process. This is early for them. Perfectly fine to keep some schools on the list at this point.
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We had 109 schools at the beginning. Once we learned certain schools did not offer merit, they came off. I learned this from our Georgetown tour. I am full pay but had a $50k hard #. My daughter wanted Cornell but it had to go. You have to take the emotion out. If you don’t, then why have a budget ?
Yea schools like W&L and Emory and Rice stayed on. Unlikely to hit but not impossible.
That’s all I’m saying.
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Please take the personal back and forth to PM please so we can back to the OP.
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And all I am saying is that the OP had not said they couldn’t go over 70k. They gave that as a target but we don’t know if that is a line in the sand or just a number because they weren’t familiar with the cost of some privates these days. The OP mentioned that there are currently 1 or 2 expensive schools on their list. There is not yet a reason to tell them they have to remove them “NOW!” They can decide value.
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@yasvish your child goes to a private high school. The counselors at these schools have a sense of where the students are likely to get accepted. Has your student had this conversation with the school counselor yet…usually in private schools this happens during junior year. What suggestions has the school counselor given?
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Perhaps she can classify various types of majors into the possible, unlikely, and definitely not categories:
- Social sciences: anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology
- Humanities: literature (English, foreign language, comparative), philosophy, classics, rhetoric
- Visual arts
- Performing arts: music, dance, theater
- Biological sciences
- Physical sciences: physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy
- Mathematical sciences: math, statistics, data science
- Business: including accounting, finance, marketing, IT/MIS/CIS
- Nursing or other health professions
- Architecture
- Agriculture
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I’ll add…does she have any idea what she wants to do with a degree in biology…perhaps that should be explored. I would suggest choosing a college with a broad range of majors.
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For some small-town schools in the Pacific Northwest, Whitman (target?) and Willamette (likely?) might be worth taking a look at.
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Besides a broad range of majors, I would also attend a school with a broad range of classes and opportunities for biology majors, in case this student remains with this major. This will help decide on a path.
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Maybe OP @yasvish can clarify if $70k/year is a hard limit, and if not, how much more they’re willing to pay if they think the school is worth it.
I assumed $70k was the max, but let’s see.
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Good suggestion. And the OP said they were looking for target/safety schools. Didn’t sound like they were asking for feedback on their reach schools.
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I pulled these from a list I made for my D24. They might require merit (some of the privates give “merit” to a good chunk of admitted students) but have a good chance of being within your budget, good biology and potential for undergraduate research. I would guess that most are at the match to likely level for your D24.
Clark University
Connecticut College
Denison
Elon
Hofstra
Ithaca
Lake Forest
Mount Holyoke
Oberlin
Ohio State
Binghamton
U of Cincinnati
CU Boulder
U of Delaware
collegevine makes it easy to compare certain characteristics of colleges, to quickly eliminate deal breakers (overall ranking/size/setting/state/commuter/religion/dropout rate/etc.)
Starting a spreadsheet and checking out vitals for potential colleges on niche helped keep the stress level down.
Every college I ever looked at in any way got added to the spreadsheet (even if just with a minimal note as to why this place was not going to work) because they can start to blend together.
This site makes checking potential merit very easy (we could easily eliminate schools that had 0-tiny% of students receiving merit aid if the COA was out of budget)
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Congratulations to your daughter on her strong high school preparation which will open many college doors for her.
As Michigan has some excellent (large) public universities, I focused in on schools that would offer something different, primarily small schools and some medium ones. Small schools are often well-suited to students who are undecided, as they rarely restrict the number of students allowed to major in a field, so students can explore and then major in what interests them, rather than what has space remaining (which is really most common in CS, engineering, and business). These schools are sorted by my very fallible sense of what I think your daughter’s chances for admission might be. If you give us more insight into what your daughter does or does not want, then the list can be tailored to better fit her interests.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
- Allegheny (PA ): About 1600 undergrads
- Cornell College (IA): About 1k undergrads
- DePauw (IN): About 1700 undergrads
- Gustavus Adolphus (MN): About 2300 undergrads
- Hope (MI): About 3100 undergrads
- Kalamazoo (MI): About 1200 undergrads
- Lawrence (WI): About 1500 undergrads
- Ursinus (PA ): About 1600 undergrads
Likely (60-79%)
- College of Wooster (OH): About 2k undergrads
- Ohio Wesleyan: About 1300 undergrads, with a really interesting array of bio-related majors, especially for its size
- St. Olaf (MN): About 3k undergrads
- Whitman (WA): About 1600 undergrads
Toss-Up (40-59%)
- Denison (OH): About 2300 undergrads
- Kenyon (OH): About 1900 undergrads
- Oberlin (OH): About 2900 undergrads
Lower Probability (20-39%)
Low Probability (less than 20%)
Mid-Sized Schools, but less “small town”
- Bradley (IL): About 4300 undergrads
- Creighton (NE): About 4500 undergrads
- Gonzaga (WA): About 5k undergrads
- U. of Dayton (OH): About 8600 undergrads
- U. of St. Thomas (MN): About 6100 undergrads
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At Beloit she might get a free ride or closer BTW
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So as stated Michigan has great schools but everyone wants to go away. I agree that University of Michigan is the best value school and if her school sends students there with her stats that is the no brainer. But as stated MSU honors is really great. Lots of advantages. I would do a deep dive. No reason to spend excessively on a biology degree especially if it’s leading to a masters or PhD.
Several of the schools mentioned are in this book https://ctcl.org/
She would probably get major merit or free ride to several of these. If questions about Beloit pm me.
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Thanks , her college counsellor basically said " Well she is doing everything she can for U Mich, if she does not get in then he would be very surprised" But - there are no guarantees.
I heard someone from her school got rejected from U Mich but got into Cornell …