Match me w/ safeties that D24 can get excited about! Northeast/Mid Atlantic [PA resident, 4.0 GPA, 1360 SAT; psychology + education]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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PA white female
Small Private Catholic HS

Psychology - undecided on career path, maybe school psychologist. Likes an option to minor in Education or educational studies

4.0 unweighted weighted 4.3
school doesnt rank…my guess would be within top 10-15%
SAT- 1360 (680/680)

All honors classes (except those where Honors wasnt offered - all Religion and some electives) 4 APs (APES, AP Psych AP Gov AP Lit). Honors Calculus

2 College courses - Intro to Statistics, & unknown for next sem - awarded the opportunity to take these free of charge as a Diocesan Scholar

Sr. Editor of Yearbook
NHS, Blue Key, Student Council, Retreat leader

Lots of hours devoted to several Part time jobs

Essay in my opinion was good.
LOR hopefully very good, small school she has good close relationships with teachers.

Budget. $60K can be considered but obviously really want less, $45-50 would be doable with minimal if any loans. I wish we could find an under $40 that shed love.

NPCs have been mostly spitting out bad news in terms of us qualifying for aid. A few schools have spit out $5-15K in need but most show we won’t get much. Exception was Princeton, said they’d give us 40! We wont bother with that but if it helps give an idea of financials.

Ideal schools - she wants small/medium. Not urban but not middle of nowhere. Likes idea of being near a city but def not IN it. In a nutshell she wants a beautiful campus, cute coffee shops/bookstores/restaurants walkable college town vibe, friendly down to earth students, more artsy than preppy. Wishing for somewhat rigorous and somewhat well known school, is feeling a bit let down at realization how competitive it is out there when she’s used to being an excellent student.

Looking for Northeast or mid atlantic. Prefers going North to South. Somewhere between VT & VA, but for my sake give me some within 2/3 hours of Phila :slight_smile:

Feel like we really need one or 2 good true safetys that she can be excited about.

Her fav school so far is Lafayette but would need merit and a little aid, might be a stretch. And stress over if she should go TO to have a better chance. Also applying to Dickinson which just seems a perfect fit, but a stretch financially. And Univ of Richmond also a reach.

Pitt is safer PA school she’ll apply to but little too big & urban.
No interest in Penn State.

She likes UVM for the vibe and beauty and name recognition hopes to get into Honors (?) but admits it is far and cold, and bigger than she prefers.

We looked at Monmouth Merrimack and Quinnipiac - in a search for where she’d get significant Merit. I think these are likely to fit in budget, but we have some concerns with each of them.

Looking for a few more true safety options to consider given what shes looking for. Maybe an OOS state school that fits in budget that we wouldn’t know about that is actually beautiful, great area, friendly and rigorous enough?

A lesser known well regarded Private school where she’d be a great fit that we haven’t thought of?

Or, chances of getting enough merit at Lafayette or Dickinson, and having them fall within budget?
Applying to Marist too. Beautiful campus, but unsure about the neighboring area both for safety and for things to do.

List is pretty good but looking for advice from the experts here! Thank you

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Get this app in ASAP

Other ideas: U Dayton, U Delaware

Tell your D there are strong/top students at all schools, including those with high acceptance rates.

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Lots of strong schools in your area - but you need merit. Not factoring in the education part but you don’t need a huge name and yes a Lafayette, unless qualifying for need - and its similar ilk - will be too pricey.

DE: Washington College in Delaware

MD: Salisbury

MI Kalamazoo - a little bit more West but great merit,

NJ: Drew, Ramapo

NY: SUNYs like Geneseo, New Paltz - smaller ones. Hofstra (they’ll give you the price on their NPC),

OH Wooster

PA: Allegheny, Gettysburg, Millersville, St Joes, Susquehanna

VA: Christopher Newport, U of Mary Washington

You will find “smart kids” and “concerns” at every school. No where is perfect, even when you think you found the right ones.

PS - if she ventured farther, you could be as low as $20K-25K. It’s a psych degree - no need to break the bank.

Good luck.

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You described St. Olaf here, but it’s unfortunately in Minnesota. But it ticks every box including being generous with merit aid. Northfield is a wonderful college town, St. Olaf’s campus is gorgeous, big emphasis on the arts (especially music), students are great.

What about Skidmore?

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Franklin and Marshall?

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Franklin and Marshall, Washington and Lee, Bucknell, Hamilton?

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Thank you!

Tsbna, lots of suggestions thanks. A few were on my radar, was thinking of checking out Salisbury soon. Any of the rest that you think are particular standouts? St Joes is too close to home. Gettysburg seemed a bit remote, haven’t visited but I assumed. Other PA ones Ill def look into.

I assumed her chances of Merit are about the same at Franklin/Marshall & Bucknell as they would be at Lafayette and Dickinson, so we pretty much just stopped at those 2. Also someone told me Bucknell has a middle of nowhere & big on Greek life vibe. FM looked up her alley, do you think better shot of merit there?

I don’t know anything about Washington & Lee or Hamilton. Will look into.

St Olaf, thanks so much for the suggestion and confirming it ticks her boxes, thats exact feedback I hope for. Its probably ideal but I cannot wrap my head around sending her to Minnesota and I don’t think she could either. Maybe if we considered it sooner…

Ill look into Skidmore. I know I did at one point, I forget why it didn’t originally make a short list.

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My 3.98 34 act daughter ended up at UDel honors college with $17,000 merit a year. Beautiful campus, good honors college, cute Main Street with stores and restaurants (my daughter is pretty bougie for a poor college student). Less than an hour drive to Philadelphia (we live right outside Manhattan and she is now at BU for her doctorate in physical therapy, loves cities). I was very impressed with where the students were heading next at the honors college graduation. She came in with 9 AP classes that she got credit for (4’s and 5’s), so graduated a full year early. Villanova was her first choice but they gave her no merit and very very little FA, she’s so glad it was unaffordable because she loved UD. Its definitely work hard play hard.

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F &M was a free app and no supplemental so it’s worth a shot

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Wheaton, Goucher, Towson… any of them look to be affordable?

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I think all budget busters for the OP - that’s the issue.

They have a budget without the need to get there.

F&M just started redoing merit (small), Bucknell has some but unlikely and Hamilton and W&L don’t.

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If she likes Dickinson, Juniata could be an alternative with more merit potential. Huntingdon is on the rail line between Pittsburgh and Philly. The college has an Education department in addition to Psychology - seems to fit her needs academically.

Conn College is reachier but does give some merit and seems to fit what she’s looking for.

ETA: agree with the Kalamazoo suggestion below if the distance isn’t a deal-killer. It’s in a really nice smaller city and has a flexible curriculum that’s great for undecided students and those who want to customize to their interests.

Also, Clark U in MA could be worth a look.

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If you want - not middle of nowhere - redone list - and no to W&L (no merit anyway). They do have a “few” targeted scholarships - you may have missed the deadline.

I bolded the ones that could stay (i.e. not in isolation)

DE: Washington College in Delaware

MD: Salisbury

MI Kalamazoo - a little bit more West but great merit,

NJ: Drew, Ramapo

NY: SUNYs like Geneseo, New Paltz - smaller ones. Hofstra (they’ll give you the price on their NPC),

OH Wooster within range of Cleveland

PA: Allegheny, Millersville, St Joes, Susquehanna

VA: Christopher Newport, U of Mary Washington

If you’d let her go further, you’d be dirt cheap at U of Arizona - it’s big but a wonderful Honors College…with dining hall downstairs and gym adjacent. You’d be low 20s.

A bit farther, you might look at Wofford, Furman, and College of Charleston (easy flights).

To say within 2-3 hours of home, you box yourself in budget wise.

Good luck.

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Exactly, and not to mention, they are reaches for all unhooked applicants

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If St Olaf sounds ideal, I’d recommend her applying anyway. Final decisions aren’t until Spring, and a lot can change between now and then. If she’s accepted there, she can always say “no” if it still feels too far away.

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Thanks, Ill talk to her about it and have her research it. I feel like there just has to be something similar somewhere in the Northeast/mid atl region though. Maybe not.

I appreciate the sentiments I’m getting on here though. Up the budget or get out of the Northeast or convince her to significantly lower her expectations or get over some preferences. Its hard!

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Yes, geographically it’s not a match. But, if it were in or near Pennsylvania my guess is that it would be a top choice! It’s exactly what you described.

Saratoga Springs is a great town. I haven’t visited the campus, but my vague impression is that the campus is nice but not a “wow” type of campus. I also don’t know what type of merit aid Skidmore offers. You might have discarded due to it being pretty far or very very cold.

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Visited Skidmore this past summer; at best the campus is ok. At worst it’s ugly. It was my son’s least favorite of the 9 schools we’ve visited. Take with proverbial grain of salt.

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Look into SUNY–Geneseo, which would be excellent for the study of psychology.

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Since you’re asking for safeties, then I view that as

  1. Extremely likely to be admitted
  2. Extremely likely to be affordable (without loans…if there are colleges within the budget that can be paid for without loans…and for you, there are)
  3. Happy to enroll and attend for four years

If 45-50k is doable with minimal if any loans, then I’m going to be looking for schools that are extremely likely to fall into the $40-45k zone, or lower. If a school is part of the Colleges That Change Lives association, I’ve linked the school’s profile, as well.

Seconding Drew (NJ) as an option. It has about 1500 undergrads and is about a 45m train ride from NYC but there’s a cute walkable area just off-campus and has some areas of nature/woodlands.

Also seconding Millersville, SUNY Geneseo, Christopher Newport, U. of Mary Washington, Goucher (Goucher College – Colleges That Change Lives), and Wheaton.

Adding on some other possibilities:

  • The College of New Jersey: About 7k undergrads
  • Ithaca (NY): About 4600 undergrads
  • Siena (NY): About 3500 undergrads
  • U. of Scranton (PA ): About 3600 undergrads
  • SUNY Oswego: About 6k undergrads
  • Elizabethtown (PA ): About 1700 undergrads
  • Hollins (VA): About 700 undergrads at this women’s college
  • McDaniel (MD): About 1800 undergrads, McDaniel College – Colleges That Change Lives
  • Moravian (PA ): About 1900 undergrads
  • Muhlenberg (PA ): About 1900 undergrads
  • Nazareth (NY): About 2k undergrads
  • Penn State: Behrend College: About 3200 undergrads
  • Roanoke (VA): About 1800 undergrads
  • Saint Vincent (PA ): About 1400 undergrads
  • Stonehill (MA): About 2500 undergrads
  • U. of Hartford (CT): About 4k undergrads

Not a safety, but a couple other schools that I think are worth considering include:

  • Connecticut College: About 1900 undergrads
  • Mount Holyoke (MA): Women’s college of about 2200 undergrads and part of a consortium with Smith, Amherst, UMass-Amherst, and Hampshire

Seconding Clark here, too (Clark University – Colleges That Change Lives).

If she’s willing to leave the east coast, there may be better suggestions.

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