Need Help Finding Schools to Look At

College Search & Selection
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Would love to tap the collective expertise here in coming up with a list of schools to explore for my D24. She is mostly undecided, but probably interested in the sciences, as far as a potential major.

Her student profile:

She has a 3.8 weighted GPA (I don’t know unweighted) with a curriculum of advanced (one level up from college prep) coursework. She got a bit of slow start in being motivated (some mental health challenges for her first 1+ years of high school), but it now doing quite well, and I expect her GPA will rise a bit. She is taking her first AP course this year (chem) and is doing exceptionally well in it. She will likely take just one to two more AP classes (calculus and physics) in her high school career.

She will be taking SATs in March. Based on her PSAT scores and her general ease with standardized test-taking I expect her to score at least 1350, but possibly higher.

She has no extra curricular activities except for a part-time job. She is not a joiner, so I don’t expect that to change.

As far as what she wants in a school:

Location: Hasn’t really expressed a preference. My preference would be for to be within a five hour radius of home (NJ).

Size: Mid-size (5-15k students).

Setting: Possibly urban, but definitely wants a defined campus and a campus-centered social life.

Culture: Not interested in sports, would like Greek life to be an option, but not a requirement for socializing. She’s very bright, but not terribly intellectual, pretty apolitical at this point in her life.

Budget: Would entertain paying as much as $40k per year, but would prefer to cap it at $35k.

Other considerations: I work in higher ed, so she would automatically be considered for free tuition through Tuition Exchange Program (CIC-TEP). If I secure a spot through a lottery (won’t know until next September), she could also be eligible to apply for free tuition through https://www.tuitionexchange.org/

Final note: we are Jewish, so not really interested in any religiously-affiliated schools (even if they are “barely” religious).

So far we have toured Rowan University and are scheduled for an open house at TCNJ later this month. Would love help compiling a list to explore outside of NJ schools. Thanks in advance!

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I wonder if this student might not need a private school, maybe smaller - to get them engaged.

You might take a look at UHA (Hartford), Quinnipiac, Ramapo (maybe not urban enough), Montclair State. I’m not sure if you want Jewish life, if Rowan is it. Also, Suffolk and SUNY Albany might work and maybe Marist (has religious history but many on here say is great for Jews) and URI but not sure those last two meet the urban bill.

Crazy reach and a little far and maybe too big - but Pitt.

Good luck to you.

Not sure how the budget will work with the program you have so the OOS publics may not work - in that case it’d be the UHA, Quinnipiac, Suffolk and Marist if it had interest.\

OK - one more - Hofstra.

Best of luck.

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What is her UGPA? UDel could work, but will probably be over budget. SUNY Bing? My NJ kids chased merit to go OOS and found several that got close to $35,000 but stats were higher. I hear good things about Rowan lately, my kids have friends at Stockton who like it, my 3.7 UWGPA 30 ACT got nice merit offer from them (he chose Rutgers NB).

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You’re early in the college search, but I understand the temptation. Just make sure you only involve your daughter as much as she is interested. This can wait until later in the year… make sure she has time to focus on her studies, extracurriculars, and having fun. And, although I’m providing a list of schools, make sure that your daughter ends up making her list of schools to apply to. She will be the one living there for four years!

In looking at the CIC-TEP schools, the only non-religiously affiliated school with more than 5k students is Pace. It has both a suburban and an urban campus, and it would probably be good to investigate it as an option. But most of its colleges have fewer than 5k students. For non-CIC-TEP colleges, Howard (an HBCU) and U. of New Haven are about the only private options I think might hit your requirements.

Some of the CIC-TEP schools which have at least 2k or more undergrads that you might want to consider include:

  • Endicott (MA) (eliminate…no chem major)
  • Robert Morris (PA ) (eliminate…no chem major)
  • Springfield (MA) (eliminate…no chem major)
  • York (PA )

You’ll notice, we’re still not at a lot of schools to start considering. Looking at publics, we have:

  • Binghamton (NY) - 14k undergrads will be over budget unless she gets merit aid.
  • Miami (OH), 17k undergrads might come in price-wise after merit aid
  • Ohio U -18k undergrads
  • Salisbury (MD) – 6700 undergrads
  • Slippery Rock (PA ) - 6900 undergrads
  • West Chester (PA ) – 15k undergrads
  • West Virginia – 20k undergrads

If we look at the 2-5k undergrad range, some other schools I’d take a look at are:

  • Clark (MA) – 2300 undergrads
  • Ithaca (NY) – 4800
  • Nazareth (NY) – 2100 undergrads … and this school has no religious affiliation, per College Navigator, the feds’ website
  • Roger Williams (RI) – 4200 undergrads
  • SUNY Geneseo – 4500 undergrads

ETA: @DeeCee36 Indicated that Endicott, Robert Morris, and Springfield should NOT be in consideration due to the daughter’s STEM interests. Never realized that chemistry was becoming a specialized major that I would need to specify for inclusion.

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Yes, this is very possibly true. Her statement about size is based, in part, on wanting something bigger than the tiny school her sister attends (1800 undergrads), but perhaps opening up the search to the schools that fall in the 2-5k range would be a good idea.

As far as Jewish life on campus, that doesn’t seem to be a priority for her. As far as what I want (fwiw), as long as there is a Hillel, that’s about as Jewish as I need it to be.

@Mjkacmom I’m not entirely certain of her UW gpa, only that it is at least a 3.5, as she qualified both freshman and sophomore year for a school-wide recognition that requires a 3.5 minimum for the year. Her core subject class scores have always been very high (As and A+s), but she hasn’t always done as well on electives (B’s and B+s).

To @AustenNut 's point about it being early…I agree. I’m feeling a bit of internal pressure to start thinking about it with her, but the truth of the matter is that she’s pretty passive about the whole thing and I’m not convinced she will be ready to go on to college immediately after high school, anyway. I thought that by starting early, we could be more relaxed about exploring rather than feeling the pressure of deciding where to apply asap. But maybe we should back burner it for another few months. :woman_shrugging:

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It might be a bit early for her, if she’s not interested, but it’s not necessarily too early for you. :wink:

You can start looking at school websites and programs and start filling out a spreadsheet with the info that you gather (size, # of majors in areas of interest, special opportunities/programs you think she’d be interested in, costs, including percentage receiving merit aid, average amount of merit aid, distance from home, etc). But, if she’s not interested, this is just an activity for the adults in the house. When she is sufficiently interested (or once time because a more limited thing), you can give her a curated list of the schools that you think might be best suit what she she says she’s interested in, along with perhaps an outlier or two that you think have characteristics that she hasn’t thought about or might benefit from. That way, it’s not so overwhelming for her and you will already know that the schools on the list are not all reaches or near-impossibilities (admissions-wise or financially).

By the way, how has she reacted to her tour at Rowan and how does she feel about the TCNJ open house? If she’s open to doing these things and is enjoying them, then there’s no need to stop doing visits when it’s convenient. Also, if you’re planning to do any travel this year (fall break, Thanksgiving, winter break, spring break), you might plan vacations that could include some of the possible colleges, or at least different types of colleges.

ETA:
Of the Tuition Exchange schools, you might want to consider these. They’re mostly not 5k+, but they have no religious affiliation and might be at least worth investigating. I’ve listed the percentage of TE applicants who receive a scholarship and whether it’s full tuition or the set rate.

  • Quinnipiac (CT) - less than 10%, set rate
  • U. of New Haven (CT) - less than 10%, set rate
  • Stevenson (MD) - less than 10%, full tuition
  • Elon (NC) - less than 10%, full tuition
  • Juniata (PA ) - 11-40%, full tuition
  • Ursinus (PA ) - 11-40%, full tuition
  • Widener (PA ) - 41-60%, full tuition
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I appreciate your thoughts so much. Thank you. This is such a different experience from my first go-around with my D20 (who was excited to start thinking about it and looking right away), it is hard not to doubt myself.

She enjoyed seeing Rowan. We kept it very low-key (and I did my best not to embarrass her by asking any questions of our tour guide, LOL). She is open to attending the TCNJ open house, too.

We are headed up to visit her sister in Boston in a few weeks. I thought about seeing if she wanted to tour…somewhere (?) there. Maybe Wentworth (though the size is probably too small). We are also headed to Charleston at xmastime…not sure if CoC is within reach (admissions-wise or financially), and it will be closed that week, but thought she might enjoy just walking through the campus (as did I when I visited a few months ago). It also breaks my distance from home preference rule, but I would be willing to suspend almost any of these parameters if she were to be truly excited about a school.

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The good news is - many schools recalculate a GPA and only use core classes. So your list maybe can skew a bit higher although many of the privates will look at ECs.

But the GPA used may be a bit higher than you think.

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SUNY New Paltz is another school you may want to look at. And having a part-time job is a great extracurricular!

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It sounds like your daughter is pretty flexible right now, which is great for her, but also makes it harder to start looking because she could look anywhere. My daughter was a little but like that so I started with lists for “happiest students” and “ prettiest campuses” because I thought those would be great qualities:) you could pick a few and do the online info sessions to see what appeals to her. 5-15k size is a little tough because the schools that tend to be that size are super selective like the ivies. Lafayette, Colgate, Bucknell are a little under 5k students. DC schools like American and GW might be the right size if she likes DC (though maybe they are too politically focused for her.) Or maybe since she seems to want some options with activities, Greek life, and vibe, she will like the state schools that are on the smaller side. UDelaware? UConn? Best of luck with the search!

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A lot of the schools in the 5000 to 10,000 range are Catholic schools. That just seems to be the sweet spot those schools hit, and if your daughter isn’t interested in any religious schools, she may have to readjust her preferred size of a school.

Maybe you should look at schools of different sizes, see if she would go a little smaller or a little larger. 20k might be okay if the schools have a good distribution among majors (some in A&S, some in performing arts, some in business…) Maybe 4000 is okay? Both my kids thought they wanted small schools, maybe about 3000. One ended up in a school with about 4000 kids on campus (plus some grad students) but almost all were in science or engineering, so every dept seemed small. In fact, after a few years, school was almost too small. Other went to an OOS flagship but with only about 11k undergrad and another 2000 grad and law students. She too often wished it was a little larger but both were glad their schools weren’t smaller.

Your daughter could look at some of the Pennsylvania regional schools like West Chester, Slippery Rock, UIP. They are pretty nice, low key for sports (most are Div 2), small Greek presence.

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Visiting- even if she is reluctant- is really going to help.

There are large schools that feel small, and small schools that feel large. But you have to physically be there to really have this resonate.

Colleges list their total enrollments. But a law school which is 50 miles away, a med school which is self-contained five miles away and located near the teaching hospital, various grad programs which are in an adjacent city, etc. mean that you can’t judge how a campus is going to feel based purely on enrollment. You may have thousands of students who never cross paths with the undergrads.

Small colleges are often part of a larger consortium. So you can be at the tiny college but students are biking or taking the bus to larger colleges for cross-registered classes, EC’s, athletic practice, or to attend concerts and events.

And it’s ok if she’s not interested right now. Lots of kids postpone the college talk until later on and they do just fine!

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Already mentioned above - AustenNut - but Salisbury University might be a good look for your daughter? I’ve known some NJ families for whom it ended up cheaper than the in-state options. It is in your size range, it has a defined residential campus, it has greek life but smallish, and does a good job with offering STEM majors close attention, funding for summer research, small classes, etc.
And it is within your drive radius …

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Thank you to all who have taken the time to respond. You’ve given me a lot to think about, and I’ve also started having more conversations with my D24 about what she might want and also with the grandparents, who have offered to fill in the $ gaps, to the extent they are able.

With that in mind…what schools would you add to the list if size parameter was between 10 and 20k students, the location was within a six hour radius of NJ, and the COA was $40k per year?

I’m thinking JMU and Syracuse (only financially feasible if we are awarded a TE scholarship)? Where else?

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I just got off the phone with my jersey girl who is currently driving from Clemson to JMU for the weekend. I asked her if she had applied to JMU (she applied to 20 schools), she said yes but the merit was too low (3.9, 33act). My son was offered $10,000 a year from Syracuse (3.7 30act). I told him he was nuts to even apply (we try to keep costs around in state).

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For a chemistry major at a school with no religious affiliation that has between 10-20k students and that is within 250 miles of the 08527 zip code (looks like middle of New Jersey to me), there are 28 options (linked), per College Navigator.

I previously mentioned Binghamton (NY), West Chester (PA ), and West Virginia as possibilities, which would fall into these criteria. I’d add U. of Delaware and Towson (MD) to that list.

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10-20K (not including graduate school) and Jewish - these may not all be large enough but I go back to my initial post - you also want urban and now $40K.

Look at some of these - some won’t work - but a school like Hofstra is heavy in merit aid (run their NPC).

Original post I mentioned Hartford, Quinnipiac, Ramapo (maybe not urban enough), Montclair State, Rowan, Suffolk, SUNY Albany, Pitt, Hofstra, URI.

Not sure - with the $40K - if you can get - you’d have to check NPCs - like you won’t at Pitt for example. Salisbury - not urban and not very Jewish could work.

@AustenNut mentioned some great ones but not urban.

Your options are limited unless you can pull off tuition exchange. RIT could be another.

It’s the merit that will hurt - you could look at some directional schools in CT or regional in PA but you likely won’t find the Jewish life you want.

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I’m obviously rolling with the focus on it being possibly rather than probably or must.

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Possibly - yes. A defined campus is more important to her, so I think this variable could easily be dropped.

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University of Maryland-Baltimore County is an excellent school… 13,000 or so, great science programs, defined campus, near the city but not in it. Don’t know anything about financial aid there.

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