<p>We live right outside Boston and I think it would be a big plus for DS to go to school outside the Boston area to get a different perspective on life. His GC really wants him to put an MA state school on his list but UMass Amherst was just too big and overwhelming for him so I’m looking for a small state school with reasonable tuition OOS like the SUNYs. The flagship state school from my home state (Vermont) is $$$ for OOS</p>
<p>RubyTuesday2, for an affordable, out-of-area public that isn’t too big, try Univ of Minnesota Morris. Estimated oos costs are cheaper than your instate schools. It’s a liberal arts college with 25-75 SATs 1510-1910, ACTs 23-28 and 58% of men who applied were accepted this last year. I know a young lady there who loved her time there.</p>
<p>Found a fantastic school for the “true” 3.0 student-one with test scores to match (ACT 19-25) that offers merit aid as well as pretty good financial aid, Mount Mercy in Cedar Rapids, IA. It’s a lovely campus, probably the cleanest commercial buildings I have ever been in. There was not a speck of dirt anywhere in any building. Every building is either newer or newly remodeled. The facilities were very, very good for a school this size (1800 students). It’s a good school for someone wanting to go into nursing, business or biological sciences for research, not so much for medical school-but, they have only had one student in 10 years NOT get into med school-but they have only had about 30 kids apply over those years. Research opportunities are abundant–a lot of wildlife research along with cell biology type projects going on.</p>
<p>Support services are amazing. The nursing students have tutors that come to the dorms weekly to work with anyone that wants help. They have a large tutoring center for everyone to use. Freshman year many of the prof’s give extra credit for kids that use the center to get them in the habit of doing that.</p>
<p>The business school is VERY well connected to the business community in Cedar Rapids–which is extensive. It is a very wealthy town with ample internship opportunities.</p>
<p>Cedar Rapids is a town of about 150,000, a couple malls, all the shopping you want, 30 minutes from Iowa City and the University of Iowa. It’s just a lovely, lovely area–once you get off the interstate anyway :D. There is a student lounge on the 6th floor of one of the buildings that overlooks the river valley that is just beautiful.</p>
<p>There is a tunnel system that connects all of the buildings so students go to class in the winter in shorts and flip-flops.</p>
<p>Rubytuesday- good call on avoiding UMass Amherst. My D avoids the school (and the students there) at all costs. She says they have “riots” there- whatever that means- and was not impressed with the UMass students in her Ag class this past semester at Hampshire.</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions for financial safeties, we need them.
HeavyLidded-DS’s GC loves MCLA, she thinks it’s a great small school that will suit DS well, she was not enthusiastic about Westfield but thought UMass Dartmouth might be an option. Let me know what your DD thinks of MCLA. We may give SUNY Geneseo a shot, it’s a bit of a reach but OOS tuition is ~28k not much more than instate at UMass Amherst.
kinderny-it was DS’s call on Amherst, his GC was not thrilled but we agree with him-he would get lost there</p>
<p>SteveMA, I never heard of Mount Mercy, but it sounds like the type of school that we were looking for when we were looking at colleges. IMO, that school is definitely worth investigating further if one has a B or a B+ student.</p>
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<p>Really? That’s interesting. I lived in Poughkeepsie for a while and it’s hard for me to think anything about Marist except as the school that Rik Smits went to.</p>
<p>[Media</a> Library - Wingate University](<a href=“http://www.wingate.edu/media-library.html]Media”>http://www.wingate.edu/media-library.html)</p>
<p>If interested in coming south…</p>
<p>Two of my best friends have D’s attending Wingate University and love it. Both received merit aid. It’s about thirty miles from Charlotte NC. </p>
<p>[Queens</a> University of Charlotte | Charlotte, North Carolina](<a href=“http://www.queens.edu/]Queens”>http://www.queens.edu/)
Queens University is a great school with a pretty campus right in the heart of one of Charlotte’s most beautiful historic neighborhoods close to downtown Charlotte. </p>
<p>[Guilford</a> College](<a href=“http://www.guilford.edu/]Guilford”>http://www.guilford.edu/)
Guilford College in Greensboro, NC…a Quaker college… One of the CTCL schools. Greensboro is home to several colleges/universities,lots of college students, nice city with a good airport.</p>
<p>Rubytuesday - We also live outside of Boston (on the MA/NH border) and are going to be looking into Western New England University. It is in a suburban area of Springfield, about 2700 students and they offer automatic merit aid based on your GPA and SAT scores. </p>
<p>I would love to check out Geneseo (have heard good things about it) but they don’t offer engineering.</p>
<p>We went to Geneseo last week. Beautiful spot, but we didnt love it. For engineering, look at Alfred (near geneseo) mid cost, but merit can bring down the cost.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using CC</p>
<p>Thanks, will check it out.</p>
<p>ConfusedMom
My sister was at Western NE this spring for a basketball tournament and loved the campus.
I think I’ll have to check it out
anniezz-we won’t be able to make the trip out to Geneseo, any more feedback? What did you like/dislike about it?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Please DO check out Western New England University in Springfield, MA.
Our son enjoyed a great year and has been very impressed with the academics in the Honors school. Administration is very helpful and we were very happy with the merit aid he received. Lots of good quality work study too and he is looking forward to his study abroad next year in England. Lovely campus and engaging faculty. We only heard about this school through a friend of a friend but are making sure they get a mention to all our friends starting their college searches!</p>
<p>Hey guys. I’m going to apply to Skidmore ED1 and would like to know my chances. I have a 3.2UW average a 30 on my ACT and I’m a male. I had an interview that went well and I’m going back for an open house. I have very good EC’s. Is this unrealistic?</p>
<p>We just returned from a New England area and had a great time thanks to Golfdad and Anniezz. Your travel advice really came in handy. D is in love with Northeast (drat!) and I can see why. Its a huge change from Southern California.</p>
<p>More on our New England trip…</p>
<p>We flew into Baltimore and drove up to Susquehanna. The school was gorgeous (we don’t get to see many brick buildings here at home). Everything so green, and there are groundhogs wandering around the campus. Our tour guide was excellent and the interview with admissions was a positive experience. Susquehanna is test-optioinal with writing samples acceptable as alternatives. That just might come in handy. They seem to provide lots of support through the career center.</p>
<p>We drove to Boston area, stopping for the night at Danbury, Ct. I loved that little town. There is a UConn campus there but we did not check it out.</p>
<p>Bentley - another beautiful campus. It surprised me to learn that it is actually a fairly new campus. The school is old, but I was told it was originally located in Boston. Its a business-oriented school but liberal arts are also available. I think it would be an academic reach. Not an issue for us, D thought it was too uniform. All the buildings looked alike.</p>
<p>Wheaton (Ma) - a mix of old and new buildings. Science building is spanking new and full of technology. This school is smaller than our local HS and located in a tiny town. D loves the place. Everyone we encountered was welcoming and helpful. It rained that day, so everyone was trying out their rain boots. That was new for us. In SoCal you just wear your flipflops anyway. Test optional, I believe if you don’t submit SAT or ACT admissions relies on grades, course difficulty, references, interview. Liberal Arts focus and emphasis on school as a community.</p>
<p>Clark University - old and new buildings juxtaposed, located in an urban area. The students all seemed happy to be there, and very friendly. D also loved this school. The school emphasizes collaboration among the students and attempts to link a student’s areas of study together. Also a Liberal Arts school, I think it might have more business course opportunities than Wheaton. Another test optional school. While D had a great time staying overnight on campus, I shared my hotel room with a mouse. :)</p>
<p>D could easily see herself attending 3 of the 4 schools. I guess now the real work begins. Will the schools have her?</p>
<p>My daughter is undecided on her major but she does have areas of interest. She doesn’t know if she should check “undecided” in the academic and career interest areas or indicate one of the areas of interest. Do you think it matters?</p>
<p>Also - what’s the thinking on filling out the optional demographic information? She doesn’t fall into any categories that might be a hook.</p>
<p>@Joiseymom – A friend who used to work in college admissions at a LAC advised my son that many LACs put little value on the “major” choice of the application, so checking undecided is fine. The caveat is if the LAC has a designated scholarship for a specific major.</p>
<p>For many Universities, choosing a major is better because many departments have scholarships. Even if the student changes the major later, the student has the scholarship for the 1st year.</p>
<p>My son is tailoring this question depending on the school he is applying to.</p>
<p>Mikasauntie, glad you had a successful trip, but sorry its so far from home! Interesting about the schools. Wheaton and Clark strike me as so different, but I can see liking both. My D’s top choices have similar feels - and appeal to opposite sides of her personality. :)</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using CC</p>
<p>Any additional feedback on Clark? My son’s GC loves the school but there have been some incidents in the news (I live in the Boston area) that have me concerned about campus safety. I guess I should just get DS’s butt out there and visit!</p>