Heavy fraternity/sorority presence.
Requires non-custodial parent information: https://www.bucknell.edu/ApplyingForAid
Unless there is a reliable agreement with the other parent about cooperating with financial aid forms and paying enough (as suggested by the NPCs with both parents’ incomes and assets used), Dickinson and St. Olaf should be considered reaches.
Goucher uses only FAFSA for financial aid, so only the custodial parent finances matter.
thank you re bucknell. sheesh there’s so much to learn.
Bard? How’s their financial aid?
I don’t know a lot about Bard, but I think Bard is a school that definitely needs to be visited, certainly before depositing. I think it’s either a love ir or hate it type of school. It seems to appeal to very creative, arty, gothy, intellectual kids. Not sure if that has changed in the last few years. It’s also quite isolated.
okay thanks re Bard-not for him.
Sorry, but can you please clarify the financial situation? It is hard to make suggestions without understanding where things stand with the non-custodial parent. Not your favorite topic, I’m sure, but we have a good understanding of both admissions and financial aid scenarios, and can help more if you can provide more information on that component. I’m a divorced parent myself who has navigated this terrain. It could be a waste of time for us to provide suggestions if you don’t think you have the NCP’s cooperation. Or it could open up more choices if you do.
I’d suggest running the Net Price Calculator (NPC) for Clark. I believe it offers pretty generous aid, though I’m not expert on it. Like I said, Worcester is a pretty good sized city and a college town, with Clark, Holy Cross, WPI, Assumption, Becker, Worcester State, etc.
Clark requires both divorced parents’ financial information, so be sure to include both parents’ financial information when using its net price calculator (but some net price calculators may be less accurate even then in the divorce case). The same applies to any other school that requires both parents’ financial information.
Re NCP’s help–he will help to the extent he is able. But he doesn’t make a ton either. We have some money saved in a 529 that we put in when our son was born.
Vassar looks like it could be a fit too.
My daughter is a current senior and she has a lot of overlaps with your son … My daughter applied to Macalester, Grinnell, Wooster and Cornell College.
Cornell > he’d be a likely admit with merit money. their starting cost is lower than others (my D got good merit there). very rural but close-ish to Iowa City. However, school does not promise to meet full need.
Grinnell > actually a much more difficult admit that Mac. known for great financial aid though …
Wooster > does not promise to meet full need. (My D did get accepted with merit aid and a grant and work study, too, but it’s still likely too expensive)
Consider these … I’m assuming he could get into all. St. Olaf would depend on where test scores land:
Beloit (southern wisconsin LAC … maybe too quirky?)
Lawrence (central wisconsin LAC, with conservatory + arts)
St. Olaf (in small, pretty town and about a 45 minute drive from Minneapolis)
UMN-Morris (an outside the box option, the rare public LAC, known as a hidden gem but very rural. VERY INEXPENSIVE)
Per the most recent Common Data Set, Vassar’s 25th percentile SAT scores are 1390. Though approx 33% of men who applied were accepted v. only 21% of women who applied.
Another public LAC–UNC-Asheville. It’s an LAC, not another large university campus. It’s a little over a mile, I’d estimate from downtown Asheville, one of my favorite cities and a great place to go to college. Beautiful mountains all around. I believe the full OOS cost, pretty much all in, is in the low/mid 30s, so much less than the private LACs, although financial aid would probably be more limited. It seems like it would a potential fit.
The problem with the public LAC type schools is that they still charge OOS tuition and will usually give little need based aid to OOS students.
@intparent UMN-Morris out of state tuition is $14k per year, just $2k more than in-state. Total COA is less than $24k … and the school does award merit to out of state students.
For cheap public LACs with merit scholarships, Truman State is one, though it is not necessarily obvious to anyone besides the OP whether the net price after merit scholarships (and possible Pell grant) is affordable to the OP.
https://www.truman.edu/admission-cost/net-price-calculator/step-2/
Of course, with New College of Florida being in-state, that is definitely worth a look.
I went to New College and can vouch that it sounds like EXACTLY what your son is looking for. Combined with him being FROM Florida, and I genuinely think he would be in the best position by going to NCF. I understand he wants to leave the state but New College is residential - he’ll get to live on campus, have the LAC experience he wants, pay much lower tuition, and he would likely qualify for Bright Futures so he will end up with little to no debt. I would steer him towards that and have him visit. I thought I wanted to leave Florida when I went to college, but I realized that between the price and the educational quality available to me at New College, the argument was just too compelling not to go.
Franklin & Marshall meets full need and would check lots of his boxes.
I’d also recommend Ursinus College!
What about Allegheny? It’s Fafsa only I believe which could help on affordability.
My D is applying to many of the schools mentioned above. She also liked Mac but likely can’t get in (her stats are a little lower than your S). How about St. Edward’s in Austin, TX, Southwestern in Georgetown, TX, and Loyola New Orleans?