My son who is a rising junior is looking to stay in PA and is narrowing down his college choices.
We have a family budget of 30-40k per year. He is a very good student first in his class and scored 98% on PSAT as sophomore. I am hoping that he qualifies for alot of merit aid once he takes his SAT.
He seems to like the smaller schools and he also seems to be going toward smaller class sizes hoping that will get him to know his professors better and therefore get a better education and better letters of recommendation.
What are your opinions on the following schools? Any better than the other? Plus or minus.
Ursinus Gettysburg Lafayette Dickinson Scranton Muhlenberg Bloomsburg Arcadia
Thanks again
I’d suggest adding Juniata to your list. With his stats he would likely get merit $. Also my impression is that Juniata students do well when it comes to getting into med school.
You might also look at Susquehanna - when my d originally wanted to major in bio, we visited and were impressed with the department. He should receive an invite to their honors college. Washington & Jefferson seems to do well with med school placement as well. I’m not familiar with Bloomsburg or Arcadia, but I think all the other options would be fine. I’m not sure if Laf gives a lot of merit, but you should be at or under budget at any of the others. Dickinson was our favorite of that bunch.
F&M isn’t known for merit, but is excellent for premed. Another one, great for merit and premed but in Indiana, is Earlham.
Muhlenberg and Ursinus have very strong science and pre-health programs. I think he would qualify for good aid at Ursinus but I am not as familiar with some of the other schools’ policies.
Bloomsburg was originally a state teachers college so I am not sure that it is great for pre-med and your child would likely find more academic peers at some of the other schools on your list.
I second Post #1. We know a kid who attended Juniata and was accepted by a well respected med school. They are generous with merit aid, too.
From your list I’d recommend Dickinson, then Gettysburg. Agreeing with others to consider Juniata and Washington & Jefferson. If Franklin & Marshall is affordable, consider them too. Run NPCs on all of them you consider.
Scranton is strong in the sciences and should provide enough merit to meet your budget if his SAT scores are high. You might also look at Duquesne if Pittsburgh isn’t too far.
Dickinson and Lafayette are both fine schools, but will be pricier.
Arcadia is tiny and I don’t know how strong it is for the sciences. I think it’s known for extensive study abroad, which can be tough (though not impossible) with the course sequences and labs needed for Biology.
West Chester might be another state school to look at.
Definitely go visit Ursinus!
And if they retain the current guaranteed merit scholarships, it sounds like your student would meet the current scores.
Juniatta has competitive full tuition scholarship for NMF.
From your list, Muhlenberg is also quite strong.
Ursinus has a Gateway Scholarship that guarantees $35k in merit per year with 1220 SAT or 27 ACT, assuming he is taking a college preparatory high school curriculum. That makes the cost fit your budget, and they appear to be strong in the typical pre-med disciplines. One of my kids is in her first year there and is pretty happy, albeit as an English major.
My other kid is a freshman at Moravian College, which is in Bethlehem, across the river from Lehigh. She is very happy there, and again the merit she received makes it even a little more affordable than Ursinus. While she is studying Art and English, I think their pre-med focus is pretty similar to Ursinus.
Susquehanna gives comparable merit and easily allows for multiple majors. We loved their attitude toward academics and practicality regard career preparation, plus every student studies abroad (or comparable) - we just didn’t like the town.
Muhlenberg may be a notch above those in terms of selectivity, but that also makes the merit a bit less generous, at least for my kids. The campus is very appealing, and they have a clear focus on pre-med subject areas, especially neuroscience.
Gettysburg, Dickinson, and Franklin & Marshall are all a tad more selective, and your son might have trouble getting the price down to $40k. F&M gives no merit aid, only need-based. Of the 3, we liked Dickinson the best - it seems to have the best integration of the college with the surrounding town, and a large focus on being green. All of them are relatively strong in pre-med areas of study.
West Chester and Bloomsburg are affordable state schools, but they are larger than the others and won’t offer the same level of personal treatment without a bit more student effort.
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Excellent comments form all of you. Great comments and information on all of the schools my son is considering.
Thank you again for all of your great comments.
My son seems to like right now Ursinus and I think Ursinus checks off most of the boxes that he and we as parents are looking at. He seems to like being near a big city like Philadelphia but not too near and Ursinus provides that too.
Scranton is great but he is not crazy about the town.
We are visiting Muhlenberg but again their aide is not as great as Urisinus.
F and M is out for us as they have no aide.
Dickinson and Gettysburg are kind of isolated according to son and that’s why he is hesitant to include Juniata even though I know Juniata has a great pre-med program.
Also as stated Gettysburg and Dickinson seem to be less generous with aide and may not fit our budget.
Thank you all again for your great opinions on all of these schools.
Elizabethtown College has a few different programs with provisional acceptance to medical school, including Penn State. Depending on stats, costs could come down to $30K.
If your son thought Dickinson was isolated, dont even bother with Juanita.
My son didn’t visit before applying. Our first visit included the interview for full tuition. I’m not even sure why we stayed for the interview. He had “checked out” mentally the day before when we arrived in town and the biggest things were Walmart and a small movie theater. By lunch the day of the scholarship interview, the talk in the cafeteria was about where guns could be stored during hunting season. Definitely not the school for my son.
Juniata’s staff was great and the students friendly, but the school is much more insulated then Dickinson which is in an area near malls and walking distance of restaurants.
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If you are hunting for merit aid, may want to add some state schools to the list as you never know how the aid would work. Also look to some schools beyond PA that may give him merit money.
You may want to at least visit some of the larger schools. One of mine is at Pitt and has had good opportunities to do real research and the upper level classes are not large. A bigger school does not have to be overwhelming. He may be eligible for scholarships at Pitt.
He could apply to Cook Honors college at IUP. He should get merit there.
Dickinson is in a small town with chain movie theaters as well as an art house theater, lots of restaurants, shops, etc, very walkable. It’s about 2 hours to DC. It’s probably your best shot combining merit possibilities and strong premed support.
BTW look into a complement to biology as there is an oversupply of majors on the job market.
Muhlenberg would be next on the list.
He could apply to Temple/Honors. Penn State will be within budget, especially with Schreyer (he could apply for BioBehavioral Health or Biological Anthropology) and Pitt. Insuring one, as a safety, would be important just in case. He’d need one or two more safeties due to impredictability of merit consideration.
Bloomsburg won’t offer enough opportunities or support. West Chester (Honors) might work.
Look into Marist, Ithaca, SUNY Geneseo, StMary’s of Maryland, Denison, Allegheny, Ohio Wesleyan. Further away, St Olaf, Lake Forest, Drake, Earlham.
Carlisle, PA is essentially a suburb oh Harrisburg, a good medium size city.
What about Duquesne University in Pittsburgh? I don’t know too much about it, but I know someone who attended because she said the health sciences are strong. I know of another student in my area who got merit aid there (but don’t know how much). It’s a Jesuit school, but I believe welcoming to people of all faiths (or none). Pittsburgh is a fun city for students.
@inthegarden I don’t believe Duquesne is a Jesuit college. It’s not listed as such anywhere. It is a Catholic college.
The school is very nice, and does offer some merit aid. Not sure if it will be sufficient to bring the cost down to where this family wants it to be.
My D got $20,000 merit from Duquesne in 2015. They give another $4,000 I believe for living on campus.
The gender imbalance (more females to males) might put your S at an advantage.