I think Barnard is a great college. But I think it is the wrong message to say “I’ll pay for Barnard because it’s where I went to college…but I won’t pay for college XYZ because I didn’t go there”.
There are other colleges with fine rigor on the list the OP posted.
Also…rigor in what? There are some colleges with excellent programs in some fields that would not be on the “big rigor” list if there was such a thing.
But most important to the OP…whatever your financial message is…please…please…convey that to your daughter BEFORE her applications are even sent. There is no point in her applying to Wesleyan, for example, if you have no intention of paying for it.
I personally don’t think it’s wrong to say you think it’s okay to spend more for a school of the caliber of the seven sisters. If you’re confining it to Barnard, that’s probably arbitrary and controlling. If you’re saying you’ll pay for a certain feature or quality, generally speaking, that’s different.
The question here is if you can actually afford these schools if she doesn’t get merit. Have you run net price calculators on each of the schools? Many, many people think they don’t quality for need-based aid when in fact they qualify for a chunk. It’s worth running the numbers, especially for some of the schools that you’re looking at that guarantee to meet full need.
Thanks everyone for the input. I appreciate all your honest feedback. Our family as a whole has discussed the financial parameters . We have put money into 529 and will be able to afford the colleges. We are so happy that academics come natural to her and she will make the most of wherever she goes.
Maybe i should clarify my parameters for this board. I hope i am not arbitrary and controlling with my attitude. It is just that i dont know first hand about the other colleges. Whereas i do feel, just having toured Barnard, that the education continues to be first rate with opportunities galore. We look forward to seeing the colleges i wrote of above. Togther we selected those along with SUNY Binghamton as contenders. I have heard nothing but great things about all of them. We just havent toured, nor do we know anyone attending them. We hope to visit and learn what makes each one great. We will have an open mind. And we hope to be blown away with them, too. If a few give her merit money, and we like them all the same, then, the merit may help.
Thanks again for listening.
Bryn Mawr does give merit – up to $30K/year.
I personally would NOT pay a premium for Barnard over getting merit at schools like Bryn Mawr, Smith or Nt. Holyoke. And liking or not liking NYC should be a big consideration (I say that as an ex-NYer).
Has she looked at Scripps? (Although you mentioned that distance is a factor, so it might be out of the running).
You are correct that both Barnard and Wesleyan do not give merit. American has a very different vibe than some of the other schools, but they do offer merit.
" is interested in political science, history, journalism, and possibly business"
@silverpurple
she should add Claremont College in S Calif, which is part of the 5 college Claremont Consortium. Other colleges there are Scripps[ women’s only,] Pomona[ one of the tip top LA colleges], Harvey Mudd [STEM focused], and Claremont, which has the majors she is interested in. There are 5000 students total in the Claremont group, all of which are located within walking distance of each other in the town of Claremont, located north of LA, and all students within the consortium have the chance to take classes at other colleges that are not offered by the Claremont college they attend.
This is true because they get too many apps from high stats students.
That said, some of these schools have “some” merit, but those are usually targeted to certain students that help their reporting diversity numbers.
We threw American into the list of consideration because of the potical science, journalism and DC opportunities. Also, it is under 5 hour drive. Unless she has a change of mind, she prefers to be under five hours drive from home. Thanks for the California recommendations, menloparkmom. Some of the colleges in California sound dreamy but too far.
We live in CT. One of our kids went to college in CA and the other in Boston. There were times when it took less time for the CA kid to travel home than it did for the Boston kid to travel home.
We did have close relatives and friends near her CA college…so I do understand if that is a consideration.
But really…sometimes flying cross country takes less than five hours!
Note that American considers “level of interest” to be highly important, since it does not want to be anyone’s “safety” behind Georgetown or George Washington (so “overqualified” applicants are at risk of being waitlisted or rejected if they do not show enough interest beyond applying).
“But really…sometimes flying cross country takes less than five hours!”
This is especially true when fllying from the WC to the EC, since one almost always has a tailwind .