<p>I'm looking for one more school, something of a safe-match, where I could possibly qualify for a decent amount of merit aid. I have good SATs (1500/2200), good grades (3.8/4.7), and great ECs (skating for 13 years, music for 8, 250 hours plus of community service, national Model UN awards). I'd prefer a rural or suburban school, something in New England or Mid-Atlantic, with good language and science programs (for ideas, current schools on my list include Dartmouth, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Vassar, Queen's, and possibly Williams, and American for a safety).</p>
<p>I was looking at Smith, Colby, Hamilton, and Colgate, but I'm really sure about the women's school thing or Hamilton's party school reputation, and I probably wouldn't get much aid at Colby. Any ideas?</p>
<p>There's not a lot of merit aid at Smith. 6 or 7 Zollman half-tuition scholarships. 40-50 STRIDE research assistantships that also carry small scholarships attached. There are a few in engineering, a few for community college transfers, and several for Springfield area residents, but that's basically it. </p>
<p>Although the student body is different from that at Colby, have you thought about Bard?</p>
<p>Mini, I really, really liked what I read about Bard, but I'm a little worried about the sciences. I'm looking to go to grad/med school (international healthcare), and I've Bard is way arts oriented. Is that wrong?</p>
<p>Jrpar, I'm mainly looking at American because they have a full scholarship for NMFs, which is really appealing. Thanks for the help, though.</p>
<p>Bard is more arts-oriented, but lately has been putting heavy emphasis on the sciences, including a large number of merit scholarships reserved for science majors. </p>
<p>Languages at Middlebury, Bard, and Smith will be stronger than at the others. The 5-Colleges also offer an excellent Certificate Program in "Culture, Health, and Science".
<a href="http://www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/chs/index.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/chs/index.php</a>
You might also want to consider Mt. Holyoke if you are looking for something safer (and where there are merit scholarships, and sterling reputation in the sciences.)</p>
<p>Smith seems to offer a lot of what I want, but I'm really not sure about it being all-women (so I'm not sure about Mt. Holyoke). It seems like it'd get slightly homogenous.</p>
<p>Thanks for the insight into Bard! I'm really, personality-wise, more of an arts/poli sci person, since I'm very into self-expression, and politics, and whatnot. I'd be completely out of a place someone like MIT, which is focused mainly on math and science, but I really love medicine (and I'm realizing this year, chemistry, which is helpful), which somewhat complicates thing. At the same time, though, I know I want to become/increase my fluency in at least two languages in college, French and another (hopefully Arabic), which complicates everything.</p>
<p>My d. is at Smith, but had no particular interest in going to an all-women's school. It was her visit that clinched the deal - so I would suggest you visit before you write it off. She also liked Bard, and received hefty merit and need-based aid at both, as well as from Williams and several other places. Smith has its new Center for Molecular Biology headed by the genomics specialist Steve Williams, and offers paid research assistantships to about 40-50 students in their first two years, many of whom work in the genomics lab. (The new Center will probably also add an additional 20 paid summer internships.)</p>
<p>The problem is, I'm taking a class at University of Pittsburgh Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester, so it's impossible to take a trip long than Friday morning to Monday night. I haven't visited Vassar or Williams, so I can really only add one school to my list...</p>
<p>Well, for what it's worth, neither of those offer merit aid. Languages are substantially stronger at Vassar than at Williams; sciences at Williams are likely stronger (though their best programs are in astronomy/astrophysics and mathematics.)</p>
<p>I know neither offers merit aid -- I'm really only concerned about merit aid at schools that aren't at the top of my list. I think I'll really like Williams, though given the choice, I'd probably lean to the school that gave me aid, and Vassar is part of the tuition exchange program, through which I could qualify for an almost-full scholarship.</p>
<p>I'm going to visit both regardless, though I'll drop Williams if it means adding another safer school. I'll definately add one safer one, but I'm not sure which...</p>