<p>The train from WP to Grand Central may be only 20-25 minutes, but Purchase has a definite rural feel (no sidewalks!!) - - very different than, say, New Rochelle.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the great suggestions. D is just starting to work her way thru the list, but she has taken an immed liking to Mass College of Liberal Arts (North Adams is a small town, but walkable and funky/artsy and surprisingly inexpensive for NYers), some of the Wisc schools and Delaware State. In the en, however, D could end up at a SUNY (like Marny’s D).</p>
<p>emilybee – I apologize – but the quickest train from grand central to WP is 31 minutes. And that’s an express train. A local can take 53 minutes. I know because once I moved to Westchester, I had the metro north schedule tattooed to the inside of my arm. Sure, it stung a little, but it was worth it. :)</p>
<p>I echo the suggestions to consider Buff State. It’s actually on Elmwood, which has a lot of stores, restaurants (ok, bars), and a farmer’s market on Saturdays. Buffalo is a very livable city. In addition to paying3tuitions excellent, informative post, I would add that Buffalo has an impressive architectural legacy (Frank Lloyd Wright, H.H. Richardson, Eero Saarinen, McKim Mead White, Louis Sullivan) as well as a park and parkway system designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. I recently encouraged a friend to tell her son to go to Buff State over Quinnepeac in CT. People make such a big deal about the snow. Buffalo is home to the most sane, friendly, down to earth people you will ever meet.</p>
<p>My 2 final ideas: your D might be surprised by how much aid she can get at a women’s school. Smith is very generous. See if she’ll visit.</p>
<p>How about a service academy. Would she consider the Coast Guard? Zero tuition…</p>
<p>OK, so I was off 10 minutes. The kids at Purchase go into the city a lot and, imo, a 30 minute train ride is considered a quick trip, in my book. </p>
<p>And with all do respect, the OP’s DD stats makes Smith out of her reach. </p>
<p>NYC, I have heard some very nice things about Mass. College. I’m in the Albany area and I know several kids with stats like you DD get accepted there.</p>
<p>All in my family are fans of women’s college. D would LOVE Smith/Northampton and she will likely apply. But even as URM and a legacy, her stats are, as Emilybee points out, too low for Smith to be considered a reasonable “reach.” Spelman and Agnes Scott are probably out of reach as well. A friend for Philly suggest Chatham, a women’s college in PItt, with less competitive admissions than Smith. </p>
<p>So far, I like everything I’ve heard/read about Buff State: an admissions “match,” affordable, lots to do w/i walking distance of the campus and increasingly popular among artists. D seem oblivious to the one draw-back . . . the weather, and I’m keeping my mouth shut.</p>
<p>NYC, I hope I didn’t offend you by my remark. My mom and sister both graduated from Smith (as did two cousins) but when I was applying even way back in the 70’s I knew there way no way I would be accepted. I was a rung below and got into Skidmore but didn’t attend. I should have but that’s another story. </p>
<p>Have you looked at Wells? It was a women’s college which recently went co-ed. I have no idea of tuition or amount of aid given.</p>
<p>[With</a> endowment revenues down, Wells College looks to cut faculty, programs | syracuse.com](<a href=“http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/05/with_endowment_revenues_down_w.html]With”>With endowment revenues down, Wells College looks to cut faculty, programs - syracuse.com)</p>
<p>Ok. Cross Wells off the suggestion list.</p>
<p>Bennett College is a very small (less than 1000 students) private college for African American females. It’s in Greensboro NC. </p>
<p>Also in Greensboro is UNC-Greensboro, a larger but not huge, state university and North Carolina A&T University, a HBSU state school. Greensboro is also home to Guilford College and Greensboro College (both privates) so there are lots of college students there.</p>
<p>Converse College (SC) Women </p>
<p>Simmons College (MA) Women</p>
<p>Not sure of the COA for these two, but both fly under everybody’s radar for Women’s Colleges. Simmons is in a nice urban area in the Fenway, near Wheelock College, Emmanuel College, etc. the Longwood Medical area, Fenway Park, Museum of Fine Arts…
The girls have the advantage of city life & easy access to the T, but then can retreat to their gated secure campus. </p>
<p>NYC, are you sure you will not qualify for need-based aid?</p>
<p>NYC: The University of Cincinnati is cheap, urban, diverse and large enough to offer pretty much anything you are looking for. There is also a decent mass transit system. There are two African American sororities (female) and two AA frats. (This is back in the day, not sure about now). It is not selective.</p>
<p>Emilybee, no offense taken.</p>
<p>PackMom and slumom, D will probably apply to at least a couple of women’s colleges (Converse, Simmons and Lesley are all possibilities), but I expect the COA to be significantly higher than than of a SUNY, and my focus now is to add a few more affordable schools to the list. I suspect we will qualify for some need-based aid, but not enough to make D’s school as affordable as her sibs’ schools (since she is the youngest and will be the only one in college).</p>
<p>Olipond, interesting - - a segment on one of this morning news shows listed Cincinnati as a great city (jobs, decent cost of living/housing, public transit, etc.). Thanks for the suggestion.</p>
<p>COA @ Cincinnati for out of state will be about $10,000 - $15,000 more than in-state SUNY. Admission is highly likely…especially if applying to Liberal Arts (Design and CCM are more selective.) There is some merit aid available…but most goes to good GPA and high test scorers.</p>
<p>What about CUNY schools? Definitely urban, and definitely affordable.</p>
<p>Converse College COA was $35,874 for 2011-2012.</p>
<p>For the more competitive CUNY schools that she would want to attend Op’s grades and scores would put her out of reach. For the schools where her scores and grades are in reach, she may not want to attend. </p>
<p>[Freshman</a> Admission Profile - Undergraduate Admissions - CUNY](<a href=“http://www.cuny.edu/admissions/undergraduate/prepare/high-school-students/freshman-profile.html]Freshman”>http://www.cuny.edu/admissions/undergraduate/prepare/high-school-students/freshman-profile.html)</p>
<p>Hunter is certainly a reach; Brooklyn, Queens and City colleges are match schools (especially if, as is often the case, the non-resident, non-honors applicants present higher stats than resident, non-honors applicants). But D does not want to stay in NYC (even if not living at home).</p>
<p>nyc- my d also had sub 1000 SAT’s (she did much better on ACT ), so she applied to SUNY Delhi as an absolute safety. I am hearing that a good # of NYC/Long Island kids attend Delhi and Cobleskill, which isn’t too far from Albany. In the past, the SUNY application was a breeze- just add the code #'s to all schools you are applying to- and just check to see if specific schools have supplemental essays. So, it might be worth considering SUNY Tech and community colleges too. I think Monroe community college in Rochester has dorms (but I may be wrong on that)- so it might be something to look into. Most of these schools have “articulation” agreements with the 4 year campuses, so it’s an easy transfer to a SUNY 4 year school.
I think your d will be fine with Buff State (my sister went there many moons ago- and had a positive experience. I’m an Oswego grad, so I understand upstate weather). But just as an absolute safety, you may want to check out some 2 year SUNY schools.</p>
<p>Such a helpful thread. It’s such a pleasure that the OP keeps coming back to reply and share her processing of others’ posted comments. It lets the community be most helpful.</p>
<p>Buffalo State is a completely downtown college living experience in beautiful neighborhoods. I;m so grateful another member thought to mention it. Historically it was the state teachers college here before it became a more generalized university. I heartily agree it’s more aligned with the OP’s stated needs for her D than University of Buffalo, which has the two campuses with freshmen living suburban.</p>
<p>Agree: Buffalo people are the salt of the earth. </p>
<p>Agree: people make too much of the snow stories re: Buffalo. I speak as a Baltimore native who’s lived and raised family in 5 much colder-weather locations (Michigan, Chicago, Ottawa, the Catskills and now Buffalo). Before I married, I worked year-round on Cape Cod and lived in Boston. I attended schools in Ohio and Western Massachusetts. All were cold, brrrr.</p>
<p>I conclude: In the North, WINTER IS WINTER. You can parse the differences. Some places are cold/windy/gray/wet/muddy with occasional snow events (like Ohio, So-central Michigan, Eastern Masschusetts, or the Catskills). Some regions are so cold the snow doesn’t form for weeks but the sun shines brightly in blue skies at 30 below F (Ottawa, Canada) and you feel like you live inside a freezer. Some have windchill factors that dominate one’s thinking (Chicago). </p>
<p>Buffalo is cited by national weather reporters when they report from this area east of the Great Lakes. In actual fact, the snow belt hits more frequently and fiercely at the “Buffalo Southtowns” (south of the city) down to Erie, PA. Worst hit is Jamestown/Fredonia. Often in winter, we;re here in central or north-of Buffalo with a manageable snowfall. Meanwhile, just 50 miles to the south it’s socked in with a blizzard that makes national news. It’s a microclimate difference and all about where that Lake Effect Snow drops. It drops most often on a little patch to the southeast corner of Lake Erie…so hits at Jamestown/Fredonia/Erie. </p>
<p>Sometimes an entire storm misses the Buffalo area completely. It flies over Western NY State and instead lands centrally on Syracuse or Ithaca. </p>
<p>Yes upstate NY gets snow blizzards. It piles high in inches and stays a long time. There’s a “January thaw” but you might not see any green grass for a month at a time during the season from Thanksgiving until March/April. It’s a wintry-white “look” modified in perception by hot chocolate. Many people say they don’t mind winter here except that it lasts too long and gets tiresome by March (I’m in that camp.) </p>
<p>I’m not saying there’s no snow in Buffalo or I’d be in denial. It’s a factor! I’m just saying the national reputation is impacted by the way the maps show “Buffalo” with some temperature and snowfall that really is true just south of here by 50 miles. And that heavy snow is counterbalanced by some stunning blue-sky, sunny winter days, too.</p>
<p>I also think for college students that snow is somewhat less of a burden than for homeowners. Most students don’t have to clear driveways or shovel out cars in the morning to get out to where they need to go. They don’t own homes with roof issues. If the young person is healthy and doesn’t shut down or hate every cold day, they can either do okay or even come to embrace winter weather here. College custodial staff shovels out their path to class and away they go. Communities including Buffalo that anticipate rough winter weather seem to manage better maintaining reliable public transportation throughout the storm days. My son in Brooklyn was kind of jealous last winter of the snow removal up here. :)</p>
<p>For the days when students attending schools in Buffalo are uncomfortable, they just have to compare back to the most hot/humid days of a mid-summer NYC and it falls into perspective. I’m sad that students do miss the best season here, which is summer. We call it “Eden” around here.</p>
<p>NYC, you should check out Keuka College. It is SAT optional. Also, because your daughter is a URM the small LACs may be more generous with Finaid as they are trying to become more diversified. My son is Korean (at small LACs he is considered a URM) and the school he is at gave him way more that what we should have gotten with our EFC. </p>
<p>TBH, the small lacs have traditionally had a difficult time getting minority students to come to the smaller, more rural areas of the country. it is a very big thing now on campuses because the kids today don’t want to be on a campus where every one is the same as them. </p>
<p>Keep an eye out for colleges which send her invites to their diversity weekends.</p>