<p>I need help finding colleges like the University of Dayton for my son. He has a 3.5W GPA (all honors and APs) and 1310 on his SATs. He would like a medium sized school of around 5000-10000, although that is not set in stone. He does NOT want a small school. To our surprise, he loved U of Dayton and Miami University of Ohio in our last weekend road trip through Ohio. He did not like Wittenburg and was so-so on John Carroll. </p>
<p>We are planning a Chicago, Wisconsin, and Minn road trip over Easter break, but we are open to other places. I would love some ideas to share with him. We are east-coast and not familiar with many schools in that area.</p>
<p>All 3 of my sons wanted mid-sized schools with a real campus but in a city. I have one at American University in DC, one who just graduated from the University of Denver, and one who graduated from Emory. While Emory might be too much of a reach, I would definitely have your son check out University of Denver and American University.</p>
<p>Is money an issue? IIRC, University of Denver is costly ($48k a year COA) and merit scholarships, based on their website, seem to top out at $19k a year.</p>
<p>Since you’re going to Chicago, check out DePaul and Loyola - both Catholic, both urban (obviously). DePaul is not really medium-sized (more like “large,” with a student population of 25,000) but it may be worth checking out, depending on his major, interests, etc.</p>
<p>If visiting Chicago, make the trip to Valparaiso in Indiana. It is a great campus, adn not a bad size either. I think Butler would match that, as well as Bradley and possibly Millikin.</p>
<p>I’ve toured both Miami Univ and U Dayton and I was going to suggest Butler, even though it’s smaller. It’s got the same feel; a beautiful campus, with traditonal buildings.
Marquette, DePaul, and Loyola are all catholic and mid-sized, but definitely feel “urban”.</p>
<p>MuppetMom, these are my daughter’s top three choices. We visited all three schools and agreed that any one of them would be a great place to attend:</p>
<p>1) University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN
2) Creighton University, Omaha, NE
3) Loyola University, Chicago, IL</p>
<p>(If you’re coming from the east coast, Creighton might be too long a haul for you.)</p>
<p>Thanks all! Let me try to answer everyone’s questions. S thinks he would like to major in Business on a path to Law school. He also likes History and perhaps Public Policy. There have been moments of interest in Political Science and Econ. So, he is kind of undecided. Right now, he says business. Money, well money is a hard question. He is a pratical boy. All things being equal, he would pick the less expensive school. We are full pay (at least according to Rice University where his sister is). I know he would lean to the school that gave him money. I believe we can afford whichever school he picks.</p>
<p>He says American is too close to home (I want him to visit anyway). And the university of Denver is too far (will bring it up again anyway).</p>
<p>On our list to visit right now…Loyola-Chicago, Depaul, Valparaiso, Bradley, Carroll University, Carthage University, St Norberts, and Marquette. I would love any information you might have an any of those. Maybe we should cross some off and add others?</p>
<p>Possibilities that need more reasearch and more information are University of Saint Thomas, Butler, Drake, St Loius University and Creighton. We are worried about getting into a suitcase school sort of environment. He won’t be able to come home much at all, but it would be very hard if most of the students went home every weekend. It is hard to judge this from the est-coast. So, anything you know on these schools will be helpful. We have just one 8 day trip to see these schools.</p>
<p>He liked the warm friendly students at U Dayton. He said it felt like his high school with it’s sense of family (only much much bigger). He just loved the feeling of a tight knit community. He liked the business school at Miami, but is unsure if he will get in with his stats.</p>
<p>Valparaiso’s campus culture sounds a lot like that of U Dayton, at least from your description. I don’t think many people go home on weekends. One of my friends is in Political Science, and she really likes it. From what I’ve heard, the business program is somewhat challenging.</p>
<p>As you can see, I go to Valpo, so feel free to PM me. I can’t answer too many questions about the majors in which your son’s interested, because I’m a music major. But I can talk to you about campus life, etc.</p>
<p>Another vote to at least visit Butler. Beautiful campus and Indy is a very useable young city. Negative (IMO) is that it is pricey and for us anyway their fin aid was subpar.</p>
<p>My D is a senior at DePaul and will graduate this June with a degree in accounting (and a job in Chicago!) She looked at the business schools at DePaul and Loyola. Obviously she preferred DePaul (since she chose it), primarily because of the “less overtly religious” atmosphere there (both schools are Catholic, but the environment at Loyola does feel “more Catholic”, if that makes sense) and the grittier urban feel of the DePaul campus (which she loved.) The strength of the business school was also important to her, as were the contacts with the local business community, and she has not been disappointed.</p>
<p>I personally do not think that the DePaul campus feels like a tight-knit community. The students there DO seem friendly and happy, though (at one time, the school was rated in a top ten list of the “happiest students” category - whatever that means!) If I were to describe the environment, I would probably say friendly, energetic, and very urban - NO big sports scene at all, not a huge Greek influence either. It’s really not a typical campus at all, but if you’re looking for an urban school, it’s should definietly be on your radar.</p>
<p>Loyola had more of a campus feel and less of an urban vibe. The campus is very pretty. Access to Chicago is available but it’s not as much “in the city” as DePaul is - which can be a negative or a postive, depending on your viewpoint.</p>
<p>Oh, as for the suitcase environment concern - there are obviously a lot of Chicago kids at DePaul, but there is also a sizeable out-of-state student community as well. (My D did not know a soul when she started there, and she’s not always the most outgoing person.) Anyway, she found that even the kids who lived in the area did not necessarily go home a lot - frankly, the lure of living in Chicago kept them there over most weekends. When she lived in the dorms, there were always trips scheduled to a Cubs game or impromptu shopping expeditions to Michigan Aveneue.</p>
<p>Most of her current friends are actually from other places (Tennessee, Indiana, Texas, Michigan) and are trying to find permanent jobs now in Chicago. Let me rephrase that - her non-business-major friends are trying to find jobs in Chicgao; most of her accounting and finance friends already have jobs lined up post-graduation.</p>
<p>I believe any of the schools previously mentioned would be good. Best advice is to visit as many as possible then you can start narrowing down choices.</p>