S20 received need+merit aid so take these suggestions with a grain of salt. Still, here are some smaller schools that offered us happy FinAid.
Ursinus - 1500 students on a campus just outside of Philly.
Marist - 5600 students in NY state. NY state’s Elon?
Manhattan College - 3300 students in a nice quiet (for NYC) neighborhood 20 min outside Manhattan.
U of Tampa - 8600 may be larger than she wants, and it is in FL …
Stetson U - 3100 students 30min from Dayton Beach & 50min from Orlando. Again, in FL …
Allegheny - 2100 students in a perfect little LAC bubble in PA.
Knox College - 1100 students in a nice small college town.
Wooster - OH’s finest little LAC (imho).
I can’t speak to the writing departments of each of these - I’ll leave it to you and D to figure that out. But if your daughter is looking for an LAC experience OOS and has the time to write a couple of extra essays (many of these do not require an extra essay) I think it’s worth it to apply and see if the FinAid makes any affordable for your family.
Also check out Flagler in FL, St Joseph’s in Philly, St John’s in Annapolis, and Charminade in HI.
@sweetgum as another poster mentioned check out the Colleges That Change Lives list. Most of the schools I’ve recommended in an earlier post are from there or are similar schools. I recommend running the Net Price Calculator at any school you’re looking at. I always run them using the option to run without requesting need-based aid or I use very very high income numbers to ensure no need-based aid is offered. I’ve run the NPC at all the LACs I’ve mentioned, with a 3.5 gpa, test-optional and come out with prices ranging from 30-44k. So it’s possible! If an NPC doesn’t ask for gpa or test scores it’s safe to assume that school will not be offering merit, or that merit will be very competitive. But, even at the others, I think it can’t be 100% relied on and we all have to have those in-state affordable safeties in our pocket, just in case. That said, I feel comfortable that my 3.5 uw D who will likely apply test-optional will have options we are willing to pay for.
I agree with @murray93 about Southwestern for anyone else in the thread. Great school! My older D did her first 2 years there and is sadly transferring through no fault of the school. They unfortunately do not offer a creative writing program, even as part of their English dept. so it’s not an option for my D, nor I’m guessing yours sweetgum.
@Evie800 welcome! This last year was tough on a lot of kids. Your S is doing great!
@Sweetgum, just lurking on this thread, but I have known of students with B/B+ grades in our area getting good merit at McDaniel College in central Maryland near the PA border. It’s a pretty LAC in a small town (around 1800 students, I think) and a CTCL school. It also has a lot of students doing study abroad (in case your daughter is interested) and they have their own campus/in-house program in Budapest…a very popular semester abroad for McDaniel students.
I have also heard really nice things about Roanoke college on this forum. What size LAC is your D favoring and what does she want to study. Vibe?
Oh, I see now you’ll probably want to disregard this…your D was hoping for a more urban environment, as I remember. Possibly Goucher in the Baltimore area? It’s in an outer suburban part of Baltimore I think, but with easy enough access I think, a gorgeous campus, and an accepting, liberal vibe (or so I hear). I imagine there would be a good number of arty, creative kids there.
My D22 is open to different sizes of schools. I get the feeling that she is leaning a little larger rather than very small unless the very small was in a very cool place. She does love her some bubble tea so it hoping for a school with a walkable shopping district with things like coffee shops and bubble tea shops for studying in. We live in Chapel Hill NC and she walks downtown to Franklin Street from our house and studies at one of the many tea or coffee shops. She would like to find something similar, but not in her own backyard.
I just mentioned that I kept wondering if we were missing a LAC that might offer aid because I didn’t think there were many out of state publics that would, but happy to be corrected on that if I’m wrong.
Roanoke College is on my list for her to look at. She’s doing a pre-college writing camp at Hollins in Roanoke this summer so I will see if we can sign up for a tour.
I’m going to try to get her to look at the College of Charleston just cause why not? And I’d love to visit there. Been a long time since I’ve been to Charleston and she’s never been, but in general she’s not that excited about going further South because she hates the heat, so I may not be able to convince her.
I will check out all the ones y’all mentioned. She is looking for somewhere artsy and not too preppy (I’m a little worried Roanoke might be too preppy). I am looking for something that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and is a good fit for her.
So far I think her list is:
VCU
UNC-G
Mary Baldwin U
maybe Hollins
maybe UNC-Asheville
I love Staunton VA (an older friend/acquaintance goes to Mary Baldwin), but I don’t think MBU is going to have the creative writing program she wants. I think Hollins would be great, but she has a very good friend is going there this year and D22 kinda wants to go somewhere to reinvent herself w/o people she knows around. I am trying to convince her on App State (good writing program), but she says too many people from her high school go there. I feel like VCU is the front-runner right now with UNC-G second, but we’ll see how it shakes out. Still somewhat interested in the UK, too, but we couldn’t get over there this summer.
@Sweetgum You re right that many OOS publics don’t offer that much merit aid, but you may also want to look at SUNY schools which might fall into your price range, even OOS (I think they are one of the underrated gems in the US higher ed system).
SUNY New Paltz - OOS is just under $37k per year (total COA without any aid). About 6800 undergraduates, under 2 hrs to NYC. Has Creative Writing minor, and the town is known as a Hudson Valley gem with lots of quirky charm. Definitely have at least a couple boba tea shops in town, as well as more in Poughkeepsie, which is 15 minutes away, across the Hudson River (and home to Vassar)
Argh, Growing up in Chapel Hill would make almost any other college neighborhood pale in comparison…it’s a tough problem…especially when looking for a smallish school. I know…a long time ago I lived in Chapel Hill for a year …a mile walk down down Franklin Street to downtown (Davie Circle, to be exact) and now my sister lives in Carrboro. My D said UNC would be the only large school she’d ever consider but didn’t even apply…almost impossible OOS…but she was looking for an atmosphere that could compete (in her mind, anyway). She found something she loves just as much (though not as large and vibrant a neighborhood but distinctive in its own way) and I hope your D will find hers too! If not for the $$$ issue (that darn thing that spoils everyone’s fun) I’d suggest she look into University of Vermont…a mid-sized University In a great college town and certainly not too warm!
Thanks for the kind words on Chapel Hill. We do like it here, but D22 is itching to get away somewhere new — as long as it has bubble tea!
I will put Vermont and New Paltz on the list along with McDaniel and Goucher. Thanks for the suggestions!
@1822mom, thanks for the reminder to re-check CTCL. I have looked at it before but it’s been a minute.
@EconPop, thanks for the list! Many of those look intriguing.
@Evie800, right there with ya. My D22 had a lackluster freshman year and a great sophomore year and I was hopeful for a great junior year, but then COVID happened. Lots of “what’s the point” over here too. Hopeful for senior year, but really wish she coulda put a smidge more effort in this year. Oh well, it is what it is, and I don’t need to stress her out anymore right now.
I hear you about Roanoke potentially being too preppy. A pleasant surprise for me was the tour guide we had when S21 visited. Yes, lots of sporty types on campus (and that works for my S) but the our guide was a creative writing major with purple hair and lots of piercings. We loved her. She was happy there, loved the school and had her group. Made me more comfortable that the school wasn’t all one “type”.
Definitely second Goucher and Wooster. Also take a look at LaSalle in Philly. Definitely urban so would move from college town to city life but it’s a great city. College of Charleston is exactly the type of location you’re looking for. Merit will be tougher because it’s a public.
Good luck! There are so many great schools that will be options for her.
I’ll second LaSalle. They were fantastic with FinAid, adding a little here and there, from acceptance until later in the process. They have a list of majors that is both surprising in what is included and what is not included, so definitely research before accepting. But if anyone is looking for a smaller school experience (4K enrollment) in a larger city, LaSalle should at least get a cursory look.
We had a lower budget than most and LaSalle eventually made itself affordable to us through both need based and merit based FinAid. In fact, looking back, 3 of the 4 Philly options were affordable for S20. Drexler provided over $50K in FinAid, but was still too rich for my budget. But Ursinus, St Joseph’s and LaSalle delivered.
I suggest you look at small LAC’s - they often have good merit and some great programs for creatives. Look at Lawrence in Wisconsin, Grinnell in Iowa as examples of possibilities. Also strongly encourage you go through the colleges that change lives list and explore some of those.
My D21 chose Sewanee- they have a well respected literary magazine and grad program for creative writing and now have an undergraduate degree. Great merit as well.
If she would be open to a womens’ school, what about Agnes Scott? I wanted my D20 to apply there, it looked right up her alley!, but they just didn’t have much of a music program.
I’ll suggest she look at Agnes Scott. My mom went there. Might be too hot for her. She seems more interested in Virginia schools rather than schools south of NC, but I think a few might be worth a look.
Sorry, that was unclear.
He had 2 from PE, 1 for Algebra, 1 for Spanish II freshman year.
1 B for Spanish III sophomore year.
1 B for AP Lang and 1 B for Algebra II junior year. Those might actually count as 2 B’s each because they had one semester intensives last year rather than full year with two grades per semester for each class.
So actually, I was a bit off. He has more B’s than I thought. But the school says his cumulative UW GPA is 3.8. Our school doesn’t weight AP classes. Also, our HS only allows juniors and seniors to take APs.
Talked to D22 for about 30 minutes last night about college and the Common App and I could see her just getting more and more shut down and overwhelmed as we looked at the Common App. She just does not want to deal with it right now. I would really like her to get a head start this summer before school starts back up and it becomes overwhelming, but maybe she needs that peer pressure of friends at school talking about colleges, too.
I am trying to get S22 to think about essays and write a draft before summer is up — that is all. I think common app would push him over the edge, Since we probably aren’t doing any EA apps (needs another semester of better grades and still unsure about schools/majors), I’m not feeling a huge amount of pressure to try and get it going just yet.
Finally getting down to posting. Have a middling grades, high score ACT soon to be senior. He wants to potentially go into a health care field or writing. He wants a liberal school in Oregon or Washington. He is quirky and LGBTQ, not interested in sports or greek life. He has had a rough last year, and has gotten help around anxiety and depression. Now that things are opening up, he is getting happier again.
Any school thoughts to share with me? He is an only so we are pretty okay on the money front.
