<p>What a helpful website this is! MY daughter is going into her senior year in Central NJ. She is looking at small LAC not more than 3 hours from central NJ because she really doesn't know what she wants to do.<br>
She's not really into sports much but more involved in lots of clubs ranging from dance club to President of SADD, Intereact CLub (Service Group), is a Peer Mentor in school and she is currently working on completeing her Gold award. She has taken SAT's once but we haven't gotten the last scores. First time she got 590 in reading, 710 in writing and 720 in Math. She takes honors classes and is trying her first AP class (LIT) next year. GPA is around 3.9 I'd guess, our school doesn't rank.<br>
So far she likes Haverford but I'm not sure if she could get in and I think it's too small. Muhlenburg was pretty nice. U Mass was to o large and impersonal feeling. Loved the "feel" of Amhesrt and Brown but too far away and I think aimingtoo high. We're going to Dickinson, U Del and Franklin & Marshall, Will also look at TCNJ. We're having a hard time figuring out what should be "safety" vs. "match" schools. Also, looking for school that will offer merit not just need based aid. Any and all advise is greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Check the schools’ SAT ranges. If your daughter’s SAT is above the bottom of the middle 50% range of the SAT, then the school is a likely match. If her SAT is well above the middle 50% range, then it is a likely safety. </p>
<p>To get the best opportunities for merit money, target schools where your daughter’s SAT will be in the top 25%, top 50% at least.</p>
<p>Merit Aid Data for (mostly) LACs</p>
<p>Here’s our ongoing list of schools that we’ve discussed at one point or another for our kid who will be applying to college for Fall 2010.</p>
<p>I took data from USWN&WR Big Book that lists the percentage of students that received merit aid and the average merit aid award.</p>
<p>We’re doing this to try and find some financial safety schools, since the schools kid is most interested in (Brown, Vassar) provide no merit aid, and with ~$160k income we aren’t banking on any significant need-based aid.</p>
<p>First # is percentage of students that received merit aid; secodn number of average award in thousands.</p>
<p>Kei</p>
<p>School/ % got merit/ avg award</p>
<p>Grinnell 32 10
Muhlenberg 30 11
U Michigan 29 6
Beloit 25 12
Franklin Marshall 24 13
Oberlin 17 10
U Wisconsin 17 2
Hampshire 15 5
Wash U 14 5
U Chicago 11 11
Skidmore 10 0
Dickinson 9 10
Carleton 8 3
Macalester 6 5
Colorado 6 10
Bard 3 11
Swarthmore 1 34
Harvard 0 0
Middlebury 0 0
Columbia 0 0
Brown 0 0
Vassar 0 0
Bates 0 0
Wesleyan
Connecticut 0 0
Amherst
McGill
UVM </p>
<p>For fit I like skimming through Fiske or the lists in Princeton Review. Example: 20 schools where Greek Life is Big and 20 schools where Greek Life doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>After reading can anyone comment on Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, U del or Connecticut College with reference to the parameters I listed above?</p>
<p>My daughter loved Franklin & Marshall and it appears to be her top choice. F&M has a dance major but also has a few Dance clubs and courses for those not interested in Dance as a major. Your D seems to make F&M a match school except that it is small, around 2000 students. Dickinson is larger but my D did not like it. My neighbor goes to Connecticut University, which is about 1800 students and likes it but she also seems to be home every weekend. Good luck!</p>
<p>DustyRose 12 said: “After reading can anyone comment on Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, U Del or Connecticut College with reference to the parameters I listed above?” </p>
<p>Parameters I saw in your original post were size and SAT scores. Post #2 suggested that you look at the SAT ranges to see if your daughter fits into the upper 25% for any of those three schools . . that’d be an initial cut on her safety schools. Post 3 had financial aid information.</p>
<p>So . . .</p>
<p>1- were there other parameters besides size and SAT?</p>
<p>2- Here’s a link to the Princeton Review online; you an get size and SAT info easily there, along with info about the student body profile:
[Test</a> Prep: GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, SAT, ACT, and More](<a href=“http://www.princetonreview.com%5DTest”>http://www.princetonreview.com)</p>
<p>3 - Use the search capability on CC to read info already posted on CC about those schools.</p>
<p>Then tell us what you think . . . and what additional questions you have. Good luck!!!</p>
<p>Kei</p>
<p>Very helpful advice and I will spend time following these guidelines. As an update my D got new SAT scores. Math & Writing were slightly lower than 1st time but critical reading went up by 60 points. I’ve heard that you can take the highest scores and “mix” them. How does that work? Thanks again!</p>
<p>it’s called “superscoring”</p>
<p>here’s more info courtesy of CC’er ReadyToRoll</p>
<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.co…tices-list.pdf%5B/url%5D”>http://professionals.collegeboard.co…tices-list.pdf</a></p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Kei</p>