More affordable LACs (or schools with a similar "feel")?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi all, I’m finishing up my junior year of high school and in the process of finding and visiting schools. For reference, I’m looking to major in either political science, psychology, or philosophy, and then go on to law school. My GPA is only about a 3.57, and I haven’t received my SAT scores yet but I got around a 1310 on the PSAT.

So far I’ve visited Bard, the New School (specifically Eugene Lang), and NYU. I really fell in love with the liberal arts atmosphere and experience that Bard and Eugene Lang offered, but tuition is very high, and I’m not sure if I can get enough aid to be able to attend. My family makes about $200k a year, so our EFC is around $50,000, which just isn’t realistic for us to be able to pay, and with my stats I don’t know if I’d be able to get much merit aid. Nevertheless, I’ll still be applying to those schools to see if I can get a low enough cost, but I’m looking for schools that are more of a financial safety for me.

I live in Connecticut, so I can of course get in-state tuition at UConn or CCSU, ECSU, etc., but none of those schools appeal to me and are more of an absolute safety. I know that ECSU is designated as a public liberal arts college, but I don’t feel that it has the atmosphere I’m looking for.

In terms of location, I’m kind of all over the place. I prefer the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and the Northeast. I’m not very interested in the Southeast or the Midwest, but I’m open-minded.

They don’t have to be dirt-cheap, but under $40,000 is important, and under $30,000 is ideal. This may not be realistic, I don’t know.

Here’s a list of schools I’ve found that seem fitting:

  • The Evergreen State College
  • Keene State College
  • Fort Lewis College
  • St. Joseph’s College
  • Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
  • Paul Smiths College (a little too remote, maybe)

And some other schools that aren’t LACs that I’m looking at:

  • UMass Amherst
  • U of Vermont
  • Rutgers University
  • A CUNY (I like the city setting but I’ve heard there’s not much social life)

I’d like feedback on the schools on that list and any recommendations you can give!

2

Check out the Colleges That Change Lives books and/or web site - http://ctcl.org/category/college-profiles/
Some schools that would likely meet your academic, social and budgetary needs with merit aid may include:
Lewis & Clark, Willamette, Goucher, Wheaton (MA), U Puget Sound and Clark.

Good luck.

3

Look into the New College of Florida. It is their public LAC. With merit awards it may come in at roughly your budget

4

How about Truman State?

5

@hop - I’ve heard good things about Clark (actually had a friend who went there but transferred to a school with a better theater program) but don’t know much about the others. I’ll look into those, thanks.

@Snowball City - I actually meant to put that on my list but must have missed it!

@intparent - Not sure Truman State is really what I’m looking for; it seems like I’d be better off going to ECSU (Connecticut’s designated public LAC) than Truman. Maybe I just haven’t looked into the school enough, but from what I can see I don’t think it has the eccentric countercultural atmosphere that I’ve seen at, say, Bard or Eugene Lang. Thank you, though!

6

Mid West schools (if you can exercise the open mindedness) Denison, College of Wooster (this would be a good fit I think) , Pacific Northwest- University of Puget Sound, Lewis and Clark

7

DS ran into several of the same kids at Earlham and Bard during admitted student days suggesting some similarity in vibe. It’s small and in the Midwest. And several kids who considered Earlham also liked Guilford (NC). You might want to look into both as it seems that both are generous with merit aid.

8

I hate to break it to you, but you are not likely to get financial aid, unless your family will have a handful of students in college. 200k per year puts you out of the running for any substantial financial aid.
I just ran the Harvard EFC (Harvard and Princeton are the two best schools for Financial Aid) using your parents’ income of 200k and assuming that only one kid is in college. I assumed 0 dollars in parental and student assets. so no money in the bank.

It spit out 25k per year. So that would be your financial aid award at HARVARD. If I up the assets to 200k parental assets and still 0 student assets, it drops to 18k per year.

People are gonna come and say that these EFCs are not accurate, but I will argue they are. The calculator probably uses the same formula that the financial aid department uses.

So, if Harvard would be giving you 18k per year, imagine what a school out of the top 50 would be giving. Heck, even sub top 10. Brown’s financial aid is much much much less generous than Harvard.

Ok.

So you want to go to college for a good price. As you said, Uconn is a good option. I don’t know why you classified it as an absolute safety with a 3.57. I’d consider Uconn an extremely good option.
If you want to apply to private schools and out of state schools, you will have to apply to schools way below the rank of Uconn to be considered for substantial merit awards.

9

Yeah, I don’t think most of the CTCL colleges would be affordable with no fin aid or merit money.

10

Check out Western Washington.

Love the CTCLs, but without aid…OUCH!

11

My daughter got some really good merit aid at a school in Kentucky called Centre College. Not what you had in mind, but it is very highly ranked and offers good programs in the academic areas you are interested in. I’m pretty sure that if you get good test scores you could get in for <30K. Google it.

12

I just wanted to say as an aside that getting good financial aid with your EFC is possible. I received 20-30k in need based aid from every school I applied to with an EFC of 47k and I attend a top-40 liberal arts college for a sizable amount less than my EFC. Every family’s financial situation is different, though, and I am extremely lucky that my parents were willing to contribute that much to my undergrad education.

Anyway… I would look into:

Guildford College
Marlboro College
Earlham College
Knox College
Denison University

I can personally attest to how AMAZING Denison and Knox’s merit scholarships are. The other three also offer merit scholarships and distinct counter-culture vibes. Plus, Guildford’s tuition is only 34k to begin with.

Feel free to message me if you want to talk about any of these more! I could preach the value of a liberal arts education for days.

13

Knox, in Illinois, is a great option for substantial merit awards. Also, take a look at Kalamazoo College. Both have similar vibes to Earlham, and would likely give solid merit, and have lower sticker price to start with.

I don’t think Denison would give its $24k and higher merit awards with a 3.57 unweighted, but hard to predict. With a coherent application telling a strong story, could get the lower levels of $16k and $20k.

14

Here’s the full list of public lacs.
Just have to visit and feel them out.

https://coplac.org/members/

15

Is a womens college a possibility? Many of them are generous with merit aid

16

My D (similar stats) got $24k/year merit offer from Willamette, known for happy students and walking distance to the state capitol building in Oregon. It’s a popular choice out here for students with an interest in politics.

17

Two LAC options that often give good merit and may fit you would be Goucher and Clark.

A non-LAC option to look at would be SUNY New Paltz - SUNY has good rates even for OOS.

18

@AimingTop50 - Believe me, I’m aware that I won’t get much fin aid with the income we have — that’s why I posted this! I think “absolute safety” was a poor choice of words on my part. UConn is a great school and definitely has more prestige than Fort Lewis or Evergreen, but I really would only go there or to one of the state universities if I couldn’t find a better match (financially, socially, and academically).

@blurryface and @midwestmomofboys - Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll look into those.

@nw2this - I’ve checked out that list, which is where I heard about Evergreen, Keene, etc. Thanks still!

19

@acrylicpaint Believe me, I did not meant to come of as vitriolic. I’m upper middle class to so this process is no fun in terms of finances for me as well. I really think UConn will be the most prestigious and probably cheapest option you can find. Seriously these liberal art schools have nothing on Uconn. I have no relation to Uconn; I just can’t see anything it coming anywhere close to beating it. Still, you may not even get merit from these schools.
I think you really need to consider the three variables that seem/should be most important to you.

  1. Fit
  2. Cost
  3. Prestige

Essentially, you kinda want to try to get the best of each. My personal goal is to get the best aid from the most prestigious college. Then I will compare schools (with comparable COA and prestige) to work out where I’d fit best in.

I feel like you are placing way too much emphasis on liberal art colleges, especially if you are trading quality of education for being at an LAC.

20

I do not recommend Ft. Lewis College. In Colorado, where I live, the school doesn’t have a very good reputation (party school, low 4-6 year graduation rate) and CERTAINLY isn’t worth the nearly $30,000 OOS per year price tag.