You’ve reiterated this a couple of times. Yes, a big college can be made to feel smaller through honors programs (if she gets in…I think she’d have a very good shot, but some have become super competitive). But a school with 35k people will still feel inherently different than a school with 5k people or 2k. I don’t think you should eliminate all of the big schools on the list. But outside of TCNJ (and she wants to leave the state) and the relative swing-for-the-fences privates, there are no smaller options on the list. This is what gives me pause.
I’ve taken your list of schools and indicated the undergrad population and the percentage from out-of-state.
State schools:
- Binghamton: 14k undergrads, 11% out-of-state
- Florida State: 32k undergrads, 11% out-of-state
- Purdue: 35k undergrads, 46% out-of-state
- Miami, OH: 16k undergrads, 35% out-of-state
- UNC-Chapel Hill: 19k undergrads, 13% out-of-state
- TCNJ: 7100 undergrads, 5% out-of-state
- Rutgers: 36k undergrads, 6% out-of-state
- Va Tech: 30k undergrads, 25% out-of-state
- UMass: 24k undergrads, 22% out-of-state
- South Carolina: 27k undergrads, 39% out-of-state
- Wisconsin: 33k undergrads, 39% out-of-state
- Delaware: 18k undergrads, 63% out-of-state
Private Schools:
What about adding a school like Clark (2200 undergrads, 60% out-of-state, and about 578 Jewish students) that is likely to hit your budget numbers? If you do a search of “Clark” in this thread, you’ll get lots more info on it, as it seems to hit a lot of your daughter’s interests.
I just feel as though there are no likely schools in the small to mid-range on your list (outside of TCNJ), and since that’s been a repeated refrain of something your daughter is leaning towards, I would think about changing how your list is balanced.