<p>We have a couple college tours scheduled next month and just wanting information on any other schools in those areas we should consider. Looking at smaller schools 1200-8000 students or so, give or take, rural, small town, suburban settings--not really looking at an urban campus. Looking for strong math/science departments with great merit aid. Marching Band would be a plus, but not a deal breaker.</p>
<p>Looking for schools roughly between Pitt and Baltimore, north/south of that line by a couple hours or so.</p>
<p>Same criteria for Nebraska area. Roughly along 29 from Sioux Falls to Kansas City and a few hours east/west of that line.</p>
<p>Looking to come in top 25% or so for better chances of merit aid, 3.7 GPA, 30 ACT for one, 3.7 GPA with 32 ACT for the other. </p>
<p>We have visited some schools in those general areas but I don't want to post about them so I get a "feel" for what other's have experienced, good or bad.</p>
<p>My son loved Dickinson. Absolutely gorgeous campus, friendly and engaged students, new science facilities…very generous merit money. Unfortunately no marching band. </p>
<p>You could check out Franklin and Marshall and Gettysburg at the same time.</p>
<p>Also it is easy to check out Muhlenberg, Lafayette and Lehigh together. All of these schools also are excellent in science and can be merit money friendly.</p>
<p>St Mary’s College - it’s the honors college for Univ of Md - less than 2k students, right on the river. It’s about an hour and a half south of Baltimore. I hear wonderful things about it. My daughter’s sailing coach went there and she did regatta’s there weekly - just a really pretty area.</p>
<p>I do not know for how much your kid would qualify since Merit awards are changing drastically from year to year.<br>
Case Western is well known for great Merit awards. It is in urban setting though and has more students than you mentioned. Very strong pre-med and engineering programss and Med. School is great. Maybe you should check it out.</p>
<p>There’s Allegheny College in Meadville, PA and Washingnton & Jefferson in Washington, PA. Allegheny has the better reputation for science I think (but may not offer enough merit aid for your needs). The middle 50% range for W&J is ACT 23-27 and Allegheny 23-29. Both have your daughter’s sport, I believe.</p>
<p>Even though Carnegie Mellon University is in Pittsburgh, it really doesn’t feel like it’s in a city at all. When I lived in the dorms I only had to cross one street to get to all of the non-residential buildings. The campus is very green feeling, yet you can hop on any of about 10 bus lines that run right by the main entrance to the school to get anywhere in Pittsburgh.</p>
<p>Also an excellent school in math, science, and engineering. They also have the Kiltie Band which is a very laid back marching band that, well, wears kilts.</p>
<p>I second Allegheny. S just graduated from there-great experience. Strong science programs with good graduate school/med school admission rates. Very good merit aid for those stats. Don’t get turned off by initial impression of the town when you get off the exit-campus is beautiful and most of town is very nice. No marching band.</p>
<p>Bucknell fits but don’t know if there is much possibility of merit aid. The schools in the Patriot League are D-1 so they should have marching bands. So Bucknell, Lafayette, Lehigh (although Lehigh is about 5000 and more urban). Maybe Holy Cross?</p>
<p>Franklin & Marshall ditched all merit aid a couple of years ago. They were a possibility for D2, but we took 'em off our list after they did that. </p>
<p>D1 just graduated from Dickinson and had a fabulous experience with good merit money. Her stats were comparable to those you posted (actually a tad lower – but she had geographic diversity and strong ECs).</p>
<p>I added Dickinson for DS to look at. One thing I saw on their FA page was that if you bring outside scholarships it doesn’t reduce anything you get from the college. That is very nice. I don’t know if DS will get anything but there are a couple math awards he “should” get based on past recipients from our school. I about croaked when I saw the 59,000 price tag but I ran the NPC and it actually comes in at one of our lower net cost schools!!</p>
<p>How Greek is Allegheny? DS isn’t interested in Greek life at all.</p>
<p>Allegheny-Greek life available but not dominant. S had no interest in being in a fraternity, though his gf is in a sorority. GF is with me as I type this-she says most on-campus activities not Greek sponsored and most Greek events are open and welcoming to entire campus.</p>
<p>Look at McDaniel in Westminster, MD. Good merit aid, nice campus, one of the CTCL. They do have Greek life, but it’s not dominant and very inclusive.</p>