Unfortunately life got in the way junior year for us (broken leg and a dying grandparent) so we are now forced to do most of our college visits over the summer. Planning a PA road trip to see LAC’s. Will be traveling with D20, S22 and S26. Here are my D’s stats. Right now S is only a freshman but I expect his stats/rigor will be better than hers so this trip is also for him to look at schools as well (although focus will be on D).
Her stats:
3.7 UW, medium rigor
Grades have gone from a few B’s freshman year to one B in chem one semester this year, everything else has been A’s.
30 ACT (35 reading, 24 math)
Works at a job and babysits.
Girl Scout for 12 years. Silver award but no gold.
Very few other EC’s due to an accident freshman year that required multiple surgeries and lots of Dr’a appts & PT.
Applying as English major.
She wants a smaller school (prob under 4000). Close relationships with professors. Would love a cute town/possibly a city nearby (but not a dealbreaker). Wants a nice campus. Neutral about Greek life. S22 would probably love it.
Plan is to go Sun-Sat in late July. Drive down from MA Sunday.
Sunday, Monday night- Bear Mountain Lodge
Monday- Muhlenberg & Ursinus
Tuesday-Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg
Tuesday night- overnight in Gettysburg
Wed-Dickinson Open House, Chocolate World
Wed, Thursday night-Harrisburg Hotel
Thurs- Hershey Park
Fri- Susquehanna
Fri night- overnight between Susquehanna & Scranton
Sat- Univ of Scranton, drive home
Any thoughts on whether this is doable and if I am missing anything? Trying to include a mix of reaches, matches and likelies. Also trying to have at least a little time to look around the area surrounding each campus. And of course incorporating some pool time and fun for the other kids. We can be full pay but would prefer at least $15-20k in merit if possible. I know 2 schools in a day is not ideal but there are just so many great LAC’s in PA.
Also around Hershey are Lebanon Valley and Elizabethtown - I think both within 15 minutes or so. Also by Scranton is a nice little LAC called Marywood. My friend’s son just finished there and I know merit was good.
You are right - PA is chock full of LACs! One note - I think F&M only give need based aid now so not sure where that puts you.
I would try to get to Williamsport to visit Lycoming College after leaving Susquehanna before heading home. Lycoming is close to many major highways and is worth the visit. Scranton is not too far from some of the schools on the beginning of the list and would be good to group with those at the start of the trip. The drive between Susquehanna and Lycoming is pretty quick -MUCH faster/easier than getting to Scranton. The school is great, has good athletics and school spirit, nice facilities, and a wonderful location. It is not as remote as some of the others on the list providing lots more opportunities for things to do around campus. Everyone that I know who has attended has raved about it and has had good outcomes after leaving. They are generous with scholarships and the starting price before merit is where you will be lucky to land at Gettysburg with grants. I personally do not think that F&M offers anything as good or better than almost any of the other schools on your list and would never pay a premium to be there. But that is just one opinion.
I would move Scranton to the front end if possible. It is a school that IMO needs a tour not just a drive through. It is not as beautiful a campus as others but what they stand for and what they offer students comes through in the presentation. It does seem “different” from the other schools on your list so it might be nice to start there. The town is just meh (also IMO) but my DD really felt it was a great choice after the tour and meeting with faculty and students. If they are doing Saturday tours at the end of the trip, could you fit it in at the beginning on Saturday? That would allow you to go from Susquehanna to Lycoming and leave from there. Just a thought.
Good luck. There are so many great choices of LACs in PA. You have a great trip planned. As you see some and start to narrow down which you liked and which fell on the list, people here can suggest others that are similar to the ones that you love.
If you like Ursinus, then look at Juniata and Allegheny. They are all featured in the book Colleges that Change Lives. Allegheny gives excellent merit aid.
If you’re visiting Muhlenberg I would also suggest Moravian while in the Lehigh Valley area. That is unless their size is too small. I think they’re around 1,200, so definitely a small school. If you’re thinking at all about heading out towards Pittsburgh at all, Robert Morris has about 5,000 students and her stats would get her merit aid there. I agree about adding Lycoming to the mix as well.
Congrats on her Silver Award by the way. My D20 is also a Girl Scout and I’m so glad she stayed with it all these years.
@voyagermom Moravian has 2100+ students.
I would just echo what some others have said. Juniata College; my daughter graduated in 2017 and loved her experience there. Excellent faculty, small, but a bit isolated, nice small town. Dickinson sounds like a possible match, great student to faculty ratio, rigorous academics and can have very good financial aid. Carlisle is a real small city and it’s roughly a two hour drive to Baltimore, DC or Philadelphia. Susquehanna University is small reasonably priced and offers good aid, small town, but a bit further from the big attractions.
IMO, you might be trying to pack in a few too many schools in during this one trip. Two in a day can be taxing when you factor in travel times. Keep notes on each school, you may be revisiting some of them in the future. I was just discussing all of the choices of good small LAC’s in PA versus NJ, no comparison.
S is headed to Allegheny College in the fall - LAC in Meadville PA. Seems to tick a lot of your D’s boxes; ~2,000 students, great environmental sciences program, English, history, etc. Smaller Greek presence (about 30% participate). Beautiful campus and low student/faculty ratio.
While Alleghaney College may be of interest, it is nowhere near the others mentioned on this thread (Lehigh Valley / Southeastern PA area) and would not be an option as part of this road trip. I’d tack on Arcadia (near Muhlenberg). I’ve heard very good things from families of students there.
All good suggestions for PA schools. Does your daughter need a math tutor? Her lopsided score maybe could improve a little, if she wants to apply to some reach colleges. She has an excellent reading score, 35, and math indicates that either she did not get good math instruction at her high school, or that she may need a tutor to understand algebra. She could use Khan Academy to study for the math ACT as well. Although she may not take college math, it may be good to strengthen math skills while in high school a little bit. Statistics and probability are used in the social sciences for instance if she were to change her interests while in college. Some colleges will require a math class, so learning more math now will just make that easier down the road.
@Coloradomama thanks for your comments. She actually had an ACT tutor and raised her score from a 21 to a 24. She may retake in July and if so will see her tutor again before that as well as do more practicing. I’m just afraid her English/reading scores (currently 33/35) may go down a little so it might be a wash. She missed a lot of math in sophomore year because of her accident and has never quite been able to catch up. She currently has an A in the class but is taking the lowest college level math offered for her grade. I think just by finishing the school year before the next ACT, she could do better as she said there are several concepts she’s just wasn’t familiar with on the test.
@eb23282 agree that Allegheny is just too far out of the way for this trip and seems like a really tough school for us to get to in general.
@LeastComplicated unfortunately, she has no interest at all in all women colleges.
@lemon drop and @bamamom2021 I agree that 2 a day may be too much but Ursinus and Muhlenberg seem really close together so I think that will be okay. We may scrap F & M since it doesn’t offer merit and maybe look at one of the other suggestions. I think Lycoming may just be a bit too small. She’d like to keep it over 2000 students if possible. She only agreed to Ursinus as she saw them at a college fair and really liked the student she met and the guaranteed merit aid.
We are doing Scranton at the end of the trip as it is the closest to home and I figured by then everyone would rather a 4 hour ride home over a 6 hour ride. They do offer tours/info sessions on Sat so we will be attending one of those.
@NJWrestlingmom thanks for the other suggestions. I think they may all be a bit too small but we are doing some research on them now.
@voyagermom Looked into Moravian but my D took it off her list as it looks like 1/3 of students are commuters. She is hoping for a campus where most kids live and stay on campus. Otherwise it looks great but I guess we need some criteria to narrow down our choices. And thanks for the congrats, Girl Scouts are great.
@Mamom111 Many colleges will allow superscoring of the ACT so good luck! There is math tutoring that is ACT math focused, not sure if thats a good idea, now that you mentioned she already raised her math score a lot. Sometimes its some conceptual things with math. Once she learns them, the entire test gets a lot easier. Also there is the art of guessing right in test taking. Clearly she is a very fast reader. Thats important.
My D visited all of those; she was also interested in majoring in English. If you have to cut, I might consider omitting UScranton. They are very science heavy. I think for an English major, there are so many better options. I know Allegheny is out of the way and far, but it ended up in the top two for my daughter. Their English department is very strong, and they do give excellent merit aid, as does Susquehanna.
We visited four of them with my S20 recently. I’d recommend taking notes and keeping some kind of visual record, because it’s all going to blur together. Seems like you have a good list. Ursinus and Susquehanna seem pretty likely, with Muhlenberg a match. Dickinson, F&M, and Gettysburg are closer to a slight reach, but not a big one. Don’t know about Scranton. I looked to see if there were other colleges in PA. Haverford, Swarthmore, Bucknell, and Lafayette may be either too reachy, or not a good fit, or both, but that doesn’t mean she can’t consider one at some point. You don’t need to get into everywhere you apply.
I do like Dickinson myself, though I’d say Carlisle is a cute town and not a small city. Harrisburg is a small city. When there, I’d recommend the large Midtown Scholar bookstore (good for an English major), as well as the nearby Broad Street Market (open Thursday, though not Wednesday). Lancaster also has a Central Market about a mile or so from F&M.
Haverford and Swarthmore are out of reach IMO. Lafayette and Bucknell would not offer merit aid.
I think you have a nice list. We visited many of these schools. We didn’t visit University of Scranton (I blame The Office) but I know a lot of kids who love it.
You can definitely do Muhlenberg and Ursinus ( tiny!) in one day. Not much around Muhlenberg, but a nice campus.Collegeville is also mediocre, although is close to Philly.
I agree that Carlisle is a nice little town.
Gettysburg we loved - history and good food. Outside of the historic area there are a lot of restaurants, box stores, movie theater, etc.
When my DD was sitting in classes at Muhlenberg for a half day I was free to roam around the Allentown area. Great free tours of the Martin Guitar factory on weekdays around midday.