<p>I have a son that is a Jr. right now and we just started looking at Colleges. Need some ideas of colleges that might be of interest to him.
Stats: High School Jr. taking all AP or honors classes since Freshman year that was offered. Current GPA 3.74 unweighted 3.94 weighted. Class rank 56 out of 920 or so. Expect GPA to only go way up with him taking AP classes this year. Took SATS and PSAT this month no scores yet. Varsity Track, peer tudoring, some community service which he is going to work on more this year.</p>
<p>Wants a smaller school 3,000-8,000, not in a city, Tons of school spirit.. would prefer a divsion 1 school where the football, basketball games are big, but would consider division 2 or 3 if the school is into the sports teams. Interested in Studing the sciences or Engineering. We live in NY and he would consider any college on the east coast.</p>
<p>Schools he liked so far on visits were .. Villanova, The College of New Jersey. Going to look at BC and Holy Cross next week. </p>
<p>Aid - We fall in that middle income where we make enough to live a normal life but dont have 50,000 sitting around every year for Villanova per say. We probably could come up with 20,000 per year to pay tops. He is our 1st out of 4 kids.</p>
<p>I think with his grades that should push over 4.0 gpa and adding more EC activites this year...that he would be close to getting into schools like Villanova and BC with little or no merit aid.. So, I am guess I am looking for the tier below those schools that still can give him a good education but would give him merit help.</p>
<p>Any ideas would be great...</p>
<p>Thanks...</p>
<p>Um, speaking as parent with three kids to educate … we’re currently halfway through … I’d suggest your time would be well-spent investigating schools that offer good merit aid. Kids generally assume “Oh, my parents take care of the money side” … but they have no appreciation of what that means. Parents, on the other hand, have and EXCELLENT understanding of what it means to be unemployed for four years (which essentially is the effect of your S committing to Villanova as a full-pay student – $60K COA all paid for with after-tax dollars). </p>
<p>Your S has the stats to qualify for merit aid at many excellent schools. Check it out … and Good Luck!</p>
<p>Thanks NewNope,
Out of our 4 kids he is our “brightest” as far as stats are concerned and has worked hard and we really did not want to not be able to send him where he wanted to go. That is why I am looking for choices that he might like that will not carry the 50,000 price tag. He did like the College of New Jersey… which dropped it to 35,000.
New to the website as of yesterday so I guess I will search… can you point me in the right direction to help me find the colleges that would give me good merit aid.
Thanks…</p>
<p>TCNJ has the most 1st and 2nd finishes in all sports combined out of any division III team</p>
<p>How about Siena College in Albany NY? Pretty good academics (and a 3+2 engineering program with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute). No football team but the basketball team has been great of late. They will also give generous financial aid.</p>
<p>Other possibilities are Patriot League schools like Lehigh or Bucknell. Or, maybe UVM (Univ. or Vermont). Public school price and lots of school spirit.</p>
<p>Or maybe Syracuse? A little bigger (~13000) but tons of school spirit and good engineering program.</p>
<p>And SUNY Binghamton has everything but the school spirit (although they do support their basketball team). Great academics and dirt cheap in state.</p>
<p>thanks… will take a look at the few that you mentioned.</p>