If she’s open to looking at women’s colleges Mount Holyoke is often suggested for students searching for merit aid and it is in the consortium with Amherst, UMass, etc. so maybe a little more going on than the usual small town LAC.
My D was also looking for a LAC in a bigger town which is one of the reasons she likes Lawrence but it was a challenge to find that as well as some of the other factors that were important to her and enough merit. Rhodes is in Memphis so access to a big city with lots of culture but not likely to have skiing!
While it is a research university rather than a LAC, University of Rochester seems to fit all of your criteria pretty perfectly. Your daughter’s preferences look a lot like the list that mine created during her college search and UR was her first (and only) pick. My guess is with her stats, your daughter would also likely qualify for some nice merit money from UR, which could put it in the ballpark financially as well.
You’re getting excellent suggestions. UR was in our final three. Similar kid profile. (Including not caring for CU Boulder.)
I think she would get nice merit from Union College (Schenectady, NY), which is strong in the sciences. Skidmore checks a lot of the boxes. Saratoga is a smaller town, but jam packed with culture.
Just went through a search with my son looking for a very similar set of characteristics (LAC; music --he’s even a horn player; science – specifically CS; outdoorsy; unpretentious; liberal-leaning; non-dominant frat scene) and he chose U. of Puget Sound. The music ensembles there, both wind ensemble and orchestra, are really terrific, and I think they may be a bit more accessible for non-majors than the conservatory orchestras at Lawrence, from what I’ve heard. He liked the horn prof based on a brief meeting (though it’s a bit soon to say whether or not they’ll really hit it off) and there are a bunch of strong players in the studio. UPS has a funky, outdoorsy feel (it reminded me a lot of walking around a food co-op) and the students seem extremely friendly. S felt very at home there, and is very excited to be heading to orientation in a few weeks. I’d be happy to provide updates on his experiences as his freshman year progresses!
He got a nice merit package and a music scholarship, but that still leaves the net price in the mid thirties, which may be out of your range. It’s not easy to get the net price of private LACs down to $25K on the strength of merit aid alone, though it may be possible at some schools.
He liked Skidmore a lot, too, but they offer virtually no merit money (only a handful of highly competitive music and science scholarships, and even they leave the net price north of $50K).
St. Olaf was also one of his final contenders, but he felt more comfortable at UPS. We didn’t look at Lawrence because they have a very small CS department.
Of the other schools that offer good merit aid that have been mentioned above, my impressions are that Wooster and Knox are among the strongest musically, and Wooster sciences seems particularly good, with a heavy emphasis on undergraduate research.
Good luck!
Just wanted to mention one more thing, not all LAC’s have track teams. Most have xc but it is harder to field a track team because of the need to cover more events. Just as an example my D knocked Kalamazoo off her list because they have xc but not track.
Something that might give a sense of the culture/environment at St. Olaf: their gen ed requirements include taking two religion courses. The area is called something like Biblical and Theological Studies.
I know people will say it’s only two courses, there are wide variety of courses that satisfy the requirements, and it is after all a religiously affiliated school. That may be true, but that’s two course too many, and in this day and age, I can think of about a dozen more important areas in which students should take a course or two. And there are plenty of schools with religious affiliations that don’t require any such courses. It stands out in particular among the schools they are often mentioned with – for example, the other schools mentioned in this thread.
People will feel differently about this, but it was enough for us to eliminate them from consideration.
Yeah, that threw my kid off St. Olaf as well, though I’ve heard plenty of great things. That and the taken-aback response of the rep when I asked how comfortable it would be there for a “vigorous atheist.” (My words, not my kid’s.)
My son sounds similar to your daughter, except that he was looking for a rural place because he wants a change from urban/suburban life.
What we learned from our midwestern search:
*Colorado College has terrible merit aid; really hard to get in–apply early decision/action for best chance
*Cornell College–excellent merit aid, nice atmosphere; lovely architecture; but town was too small for him and science building needs updating
*Luther College–excellent merit and music aid (net price $23,000 for us and we don’t qualify for need-based), adorable town, right next to nature–may be too isolated for your daughter. This is where my son chose to go. He is “mildly religious” but more “spiritual in nature” and is a bit concerned about it being too religious. We’ll see when he starts in a few weeks!
*Lawrence–excellent merit aid, larger town
*Augustana (Rock Island)–excellent merit aid, great music scholarships
*St. Olaf–merit aid only for very top candidates; would have cost us almost twice as much as Luther
If your daughter’s feelings about rural colleges changes, also check out Earlham in Indiana and Juniata in Pennsylvania–both have excellent merit aid that will bring down your costs to the mid $20,000s.
We are not sure why, but the Lutheran colleges seem to have excellent music programs–maybe originating in importance of church music decades ago.
For a college in the city, Macalaster would be great–I don’t know about their merit aid situation. Also maybe Hamline?
Also consider Grinnell–even though it is rural, there is so much culture on campus that your daughter would never feel deprived. I think they still have great merit aid.
I hope this all helps a bit! Will be thinking of you.
Lewis & Clark is quite strong in biology and chemistry. It pops up high on the LACs that produce students who go on to get PhDs in bio and chem. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19805249/#Comment_19805249
Portland is a great city and very accessible from campus. The bus comes on campus and the city has a light rail system. The campus is absolutely lovely. Wow. Definitely worth a visit if you come out to see WA/OR schools.
Oh–and tons of cross-country skiing at Luther–biking and skiing trails everywhere in area.
This table lists science PhD production of LACs (meaning LACs alums that go on to get a PhD in science) along with info on admit %, % who get merit aid and average award size. It might give you some ideas of other schools that have particularly strong/large science departments and give merit aid.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19801988/#Comment_19801988
I SO APPRECIATE all the really helpful responses, everyone! My daughter and I have read each one and are making notes from all of them.
Midwestmomofboys, we hadn’t considered Kalamazoo or St. Lawrence yet, and your comments about the others (Knox, Earlham) were really enlightening. Your and others’ comments about Grinnell are right where we are on it – besides it being “in a cornfield” (a negative for my D), Grinnell’s net price calculator came back astronomically high (as did Mac, Oberlin, Haverford, Colorado College - D’s true love school, sadly). These calculators, while certainly not perfectly “accurate” or predictive, surely give a ballpark of what a kid might be considered for for merit aid, and for Grinnell and those in that class, it’s definitely NOT enough for us to swing. I’d be curious to see if she got in to these schools and what their offers enf
Also, you are absolutely correct about stats for sexual assaults on campus possibly being because of increased reporting. In fact, I view increased reporting in a mostly favorable light since we all know assaults are happening on campuses all over the place and a school has a tiny percentage may in fact be because it’s not a safe environment TO report. Still, our impression of Knox with this issue (albeit not formed in real fact) had more to do with student comments than stats, mostly from Niche (anyone read those??).
ZZdecision2016, I’ll be curious to follow your son’s feelings about Luther. It’s been on our “enh, maybe maybe not” list precisely because of its religious nature and because it sounds more homogoneous and white-bread (and white) from everything we’ve heard (same for Olaf & St. Ben’s, and we’ll see about Gustavus which we visit next week). It may be worth a re-look for her, though, especially because of the music stuff. And I didn’t know there was nordic skiing there…??? (My D has a knee-jerk aversion to Iowa for some reason, which makes the fact that she really liked Cornell College a lot harder to reconcile. ;P) My D LOVED Mac (top 2 choices) but it doesn’t look good as far as admission and merit aid, and she’s written off Hamline for some reason. We’ve never heard of Augustana but will do some research.
csdad2 and porcupine98, I had to chuckle when I read your responses about religion. I REALLY wanted to blurt out something about our atheist family while talking with the charming St. Olaf admissions counselor but I held my tongue. My daughter discussed it a bit more before I came in the room though. She and I both get the impression that their party line is all “comparative religions” and “sure, philosophy counts!,” but that’s not what I can tell from their two courses required on the bible and theology! I’m sure it’s great for some people, but not my D…
Liska21, thank you for the table - we will definitely read it more closely!
Again, THANKS to all of you for your responses! Please do keep 'em coming!
@mnparentof3 I would enthusiastically second @cellomom2’s suggestion back in post #20 of Mt. Holyoke. And I would add Smith as well. Both have excellent academics, excellent sciences and plenty of snow and outdoorsy activities. They’re In small towns but part of a 5 college consortium in a sophisticated environment, a couple of hours from Boston and New York. Plus, they are both very generous with merit aid.
Smith has an especially good music department with many performance opportunities for. non-majors and its STRIDE scholarship is one of the best available. I’m more familiar with Smith, but I believe Holyoke has similar programs.
Even if your daughter has not been inclined to consider women’s colleges, these two merit a close look. (Pun unintended.)
Rhodes is also worth considering (also mentioned by cellomom2) for strong sciences and merit aid in a lively urban environment.
NPCs often do not give merit projections. You can glean some info by looking at the Common Data Set for each school (Google it). There is a section that shows the number of students getting non-need based aid and the average amount. Combine that with info on their website and acceptance results threads out here to get a little clearer view of merit chances.
Too many of the suggestions being made are $60K schools that give a max of $25K merit (eg, Mt Holyoke) or less. Do you plan to have your D take her federal loans? That adds between $5500 and $7500 per year to the budget, and could open up a few options.
A lot of the CTCL schools (e.g. Wooster, Knox, Kalamazoo etc.) have pretty clear merit projections so you can have a reasonable idea of what to expect. Grinnell seems to be more idiosyncratic, but some kids get very nice merit awards. Worth a shot, since your kid has decent stats – just don’t fall in love first.
Congrats to your daughter, @mnparentof3, for all her achievements. I have a son attending starting Grinnell in a few weeks, and a rising senior, S17, who is interested music, and an outdoorsy type of student body. After receiving some aid offers, even though S16 applied ED to Grinnell, I can tell you that Lawrence, Kalamzoo and Beloit were very good schools with quite generous with aid. Unless your family income is more modest, you will probably have a difficult time getting any cost at an LAC down to $25K. Does that include your daughter taking out any loans at all? (Sorry loans have been discussed, didn’t have time to read everyones posts) Since the tuition/room/board at these schools is lower than Grinnell and many other LACs ($54K compared to $60K+ for most schools that have been mentioned) you net cost will be lcloser to $30K with a $20K to $25K scholarship. I suggest looking at Luther College too. They have good science programs, the area around the campus is really pretty, w/ a river the kids swim in running right thru the edge of campus. It’s Lutheran, but there are no religious requirements. Just a lot of nice kids there. They are known for their music programs, as you probably know, being from MN. I really love St. Olaf and Denison (prettiest Midwestern college town we visited!) but they both have a preppier vibe. That is why my S16 didn’t apply there.
For the Pacific NW, I highly recommend Univ of Puget Sound and Whitman. We just visited UPS with my S17, and he loved it. W/ her stats, she would be in line for very good aid there. Whitman is more competitive, so the chance of aid is not as great as UPS, but you never know! Most of these schools are on the Common App, and are definitely considering applying to. We also visited Willamette, and they have a pretty campus, too, and some good arts opportunities. Their rep for MN is really nice. II highly recommend you try to can make it down to St. Paul for the Colleges the Change Lives event on Monday, August 29, 2016 @ 7:00 p.m.
RiverCentre Convention Center, 175 W. Kellogg Blvd, St. Paul, MN 55102
Many of the schools discussed here will have booths there, and I went last year with my S16 and will be back with S17 this year!
U of M Morris is not in the greatest location, but if your budget is really tight, it will be your best financial option. With those stats, she will qualify for merit aid. I assume she did well on the PSAT, if she got a 35 on the ACT. The expected cut off from MN for Nat’l Merit is probably going to be about 217 or 218, under the new test. My colleague’s daughter studied Psychology there, and had time to compete on both the soccer and track teams, all while working a few hours a week too. She had a great experience there, and since she saved so much $ on tuition, she was able to afford grad school in Colorado, and just graduated in May!
One last comment - Your name implies you have 3 kids. Will any of them be in college at the same time, like mine will be? You may already know this, but for the years you have 2 or more kids in college, your EFC is lowered by the colleges fin aid offices. Give it a try in the NPC’s and see what type of difference it makes. Grinnell is higher for Freshman year, but we will get more aid in years 2-4, due to S17 also being in college.
Good luck, and again congratulations on all your daughter’s accomplishments!
I will just agree that, several of those midwest LACs have tuition in the $42-44k range, and room and board in the $8k range, so about $50-52k total per year. Merit awards of $22-24k are almost certain for a student like OP’s and could be higher, bringing total to the $25-30k range. If you include $2000 from summer student earnings, then Knox, Earlham, Beloit, Lawrence, Kalamazoo are in the ball park for OP, without loans.
Morningside95, thank you for your many excellent points. Are you also in MN? I’m trying to instill some positivity about Morris as a safety for exactly those reasons. I have a friend who’s a tenured prof in chemistry at the U Twin Cities who’s been very pleased with the caliber of several PhD candidates in his department out of Morris. That’s very nice to hear.
Her PSAT is 220, so we’re crossing fingers for a NM semi designation - we’ll see.
And THANK YOU for the info on the CTCL fair August 29th - it’s in our calendar now! The CTCL website was how we started our list. 
Oh, I forgot - good reminder about # of kids in college. We’ll have 4 years in a row of 2 kids in college at once. Eldest S16 going to engineering school in NY in 2 weeks, plus our youngest is HS class of 2020. Alas, all our NPCs have already been run with those numbers.