<p>Finishing Junior year and looking for some suggestions for Midwest colleges.</p>
<p>3.3 uw gpa (lack of effort freshman year but on the rise since soph. and probably 3.8ish this year)
ACT 28 took it once but going to take again in fall
school does not rank
Small private with no AP classes but all classes college prep level, school grading system is a little harder than our local public A grade is 94+, B 88+
Volleyball 3yrs will be varsity senior year
Basketball 1yr
Softball 2yrs
community service 2hrs a week all 3yrs
active in Christian youth group
Two mission trips oversees</p>
<p>Not a leader
Looking to study psychology</p>
<p>Parents paying full ride</p>
<p>Would love some options for reaches and safeties</p>
<p>Thank You</p>
<p>I wouldn’t pay full fare for any midwest LAC except, perhaps, Carleton. Look at the many good midwest LACs where your daughter could get a generous merit scholarship and a great education. I would also suggest that you get the Fiske Guide to Colleges. It is great resource for identifying schools. Most schools typically recommended on CC are in Fiske. Supplement Fiske with another guide that perhaps lists more schools and identify those in the midwest. Several of these below are not in Fiske.</p>
<p>Central (IA)
Coe (IA)
Luther (IA)
Beloit (WI)
Lake Forest (IL)
Lawrence (WI)
Kalamazoo (MI)</p>
<p>Slightly larger schools…
Evansville (IN)
Valpo (IN)
Truman State (MO)</p>
<p>University of Wisconsin- Madison
University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign
University of Michigan- Ann Arbor
Michigan State University (safety)
Iowa State University- Safety
University of Iowa</p>
<p>The quoted stats would put the applicant in the bottom quartile for both GPA and ACT scores at a school like Michigan. I’d rate that a high reach, especially if applicant is OOS.</p>
<p>Schools like Kalamazoo College (MI), College of Wooster (OH), Earlham (IN), Knox (IL), Lawrence U (WI), Luther (IA), and Gustavus Adolphus (MN) are more realistic. These are all solid LACs with fairly high acceptance rates where the applicant’s ACT score would be somewhere in the middle 50% of the entering class.</p>
<p>Two larger schools to consider would be the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota, both of which have relatively low OOS tuition. Minnesota has one of the top psychology faculties in the country, but psych is a popular major so there are probably a lot of large classes.</p>
<p>Lawrence is test optional.</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions. We live in MN here is our list in order of preference.</p>
<p>1) Gustavus (would really stretch budget)
2) U of MN (not sure if can get in)
3) Iowa State (not in love but its ok)
4) Mankato State (true safety)</p>
<p>Need to visit</p>
<p>1) Truman State (seems perfect but have to see it- Junior’s Day April 20)
2) Beloit
3) Knox
4) Juanita (seems like one she would like but its really far)</p>
<p>These seem like they might give merit-especially if ACT is 2-4 pts higher (she didn’t study for the first one and has committed to study this summer for fall test)
Don’t know if saving money is good fit for her since its far from home and so far she prefers to be closer</p>
<p>1) Ohio University- Athens
2) University of Alabama
3) University of Alabama-Birmingham
4) LSU</p>
<p>By the way she is Latino but not first to go to college.</p>
<p>Wisconsin might be a possible reach with instate tuition deal. Excellent psychology dept.</p>
<p>For a Minnesota resident who wants to study psychology, both UMN and UW-Madison should be on the list as they have some of the top psychology faculties in the nation, and with tuition reciprocity they’re both effectively “in-state” publics. They may be a little reachy, but if ACT scores improve it could dramatically increase the applicant’s odds.</p>
<p>For other close-to-home schools, besides Gustavus, St. John’s-St. Ben’s in Collegeville, MN is also worth a close look. I really like the academic values, school spirit, and campus environment there. Minnesota-Morris would also be an affordable in-state public LAC option. St. Olaf in Northfield and Luther (in Iowa, but just barely, about 1.5 hours south of Rochester; they listen to Minnesota Public Radio, and their health care provider is the Mayo health system) are close competitors to Gustavus in the ELCA niche, and also worth a close look.</p>
<p>Try visiting <a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search[/url]”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search</a>
It’s a search that lets you put in all of your criteria and preferences, (including selectivity and SAT/ACT scores) and then produces a list of colleges that match. It’s really helpful for narrowing down your choices!</p>
<p>Here are some schools to look at:</p>
<p>University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
University of Minnesota: Twin Cities
University of Saint Mary
Grinnell College
Hillsdale College
Oberlin College
Kenyon College
Macalester College</p>
<p>But why only limit to midwest? There are some great colleges in Texas, California, and in D.C. UMiami is also a great school that would match your stats. Anyway, check out the link above, it’s very helpful! All the best!</p>
<p>@newfaith</p>
<p>Oh, edit: didn’t see your post that your daughter prefers to stay close to home. Don’t mind that part in my message above about schools further away. Sorry about that!</p>
<p>Have you considered Loyola Chicago or Marquette University in Milwaukee? Both are mid sized Jesuit Institutions.</p>
<p>After our experience with D1 (3.5 unweighted, 3.75 11th and 12th grade after a bumpy 10th grade) in most rigorous courses and 30 ACT), I would, with regret suggest that Oberlin, Grinnell and Mac on the LAC side and UW, IUUC and Michigan on the public side are not good options. My son is at UW but got in by the skin of his teeth and knows folks with better records who were denied. </p>
<p>Univ of Iowa might be an option – it uses the RAI formula so you can plug in info online and see if would get admitted as an OOS student. </p>
<p>For LACs, your best bet would be the midwest Colleges that Change Lives – Kalamazoo, Beloit, Knox, Earlham, Cornell College (a block program like Colorado, if I recall correctly).<br>
Good luck, and hang in there. Junior year felt like the longest year for all of us.</p>
<p>I just wanted to update that after a visit to Truman State found a school she feels like she fits into and would love to attend. Talked to the head of admissions and also the rep for MN and both we’re very helpful. Due to my D’s unique grading scale and her ACT score they both said she should have no problem being accepted. So this summer this is the list of schools she will be applying to with a tie for first.</p>
<p>1) U of MN
- Truman State
- Beloit
- Knox
- Gustavisus
- Iowa State</p>
<p>Her gpa this last quarter was 3.9 and she will study this summer and take ACT again this fall where I really think she can pull a 30 or higher.</p>
<p>This is going to be a nerve racking year for my husband and I, daughter is working hard on gpa but not worried (she knows she’ll be going somewhere).</p>
<p>Great, wonderful that she found some places she likes and is a solid candidate! Relieves a lot of the worry to have some clear targets. Good luck, and hang in there!</p>
<p>How about Butler in Indy and DePauw in IN? Or in OH there’s Wittenberg and Denison.</p>