I will look at Duquesne. Temple seemed like a good choice. How is the campus and surrounding town?
I’ve never been to Temple or Philadelphia, maybe others can chime in. But my daughter visited Pitt and Duquesne and liked them both alot. You definitely need to visit.
Pitt, Temple, Duquesne, UMD seem to be the best so far.
It’s going to be hard to beat UMD-CP for cost plus quality. Pitt becomes more attractive, cost-wise (merit), with a 2250 SAT.
Have a look at Furman University, near Greenville SC. Private LAC. It’s on the larger end for a LAC, about 2800 students. It’s not urbanized, but it has good internships in Charlotte (100 mi) and Atlanta (150 mi). Study abroad. Georgeous campus, apparently. There are merit awards for tuition or tuition+, but I’m guessing your D would need, as above, a 2250 SAT or 33 ACT and very good ECs.
The thing is, it sounds like she is capable of a 2200+ SAT, if she is pulling off a 2100 PSAT right now. If she can ace practice tests, find her some exam coaching/guidance and she might be surprised by an excellent one-off result, either SAT or ACT. That would magnify her options, seeking merit, and it might bring into play some smaller privates. I’m not saying your D would/should prefer them over the larger (more urban) publics, but it’s really nice to have more options, especially when she’s a solid student.
If she wants to go to school in a warmer climate, check out the thread “Southern LAC’s.” Tons of good info there. I posted reviews of Davidson, Elon and Furman, all great schools, but with quite different vibes. Worth a few minutes to browse through that thread, if she wants to go somewhere warm–and who could blame her!
It’s hard to beat the University of Alabama’s full tuition scholarship that’s guaranteed for her GPA and test scores. This way she can save up money for med school. UA has a pretty good track record of getting their pre-meds into med schools. You can go ask on the UA board.
Good advice everyone. I am a very optimistic person, but I just don’t think a 2250 is gonna happen. I am going to try to get her practice tests in a test-like environment, as she tends to get nervous for the real thing. I do think it is going to be hard to beat UMD, but it is nice to have choices. We visited Elon, UNC & Duke because we were in the area. Beautiful campuses. Probably does not have a shot at Duke or UNC. Elon is nice, but very expensive. I don’t see that she would see any benefit to Elon over UMD for the extra money.
Elon has opportunities for very good merit scholarships.
Again, I reviewed this college in the Southern LAC’s thread. She doesn’t have to get 2250 to get merit aid, either.
Adding to all the suggestions, I would take a look at the University of Richmond.
For our financial situation (34K EFC) and considering merit aid, we’ve found private colleges to be on par financially with our state flagship universities. For some private colleges, the cost of attendance is much less than the in state flagships. Your D’s stats are a notch above my own D’s stats too.
I suggest keeping your options open regarding colleges and running the net price calculators for colleges that seem like educational fits. If your financial situation is typical (no business ownership, etc), the net price calculators seem to give fairly accurate estimates for many colleges.
A 1400 SAT (CR+M) is good for full tuition at Alabama and Temple: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
For non-automatic merit, you don’t need a 2250, but the OP’s D probably needs full tuition. A $10K award would still put her several thousand above UMD, and I don’t see a frugal kid opting for a UPitt, for example, over UMD for even a couple thousand more. Non-automatic full-tuition awards are very competitive. A 2250 (1500 CR+M) would give her a decent shot at equalizing the costs with a UMD. (But the OP thinks that kind of score will be hard for her D to attain, so she shall see.)
OP, if her projected SAT score is 2100 (not at all bad, by the way), have you thought of having her take the ACT? Often a student does better on one test than the other – my high school junior had a 2100 on the SAT (about 100 points below the score predicted by the PSAT), but did better than expected on the ACT. If your daughter is a better ACT tester than SAT tester, that might help with some options.
Also, the link mentioned by BrownParent above regarding financial information threads – especially regarding the automatic and competitive full tuition/full ride scholarships – would be worth perusing.
All good information. To be honest, I don’t really know what the ACT tests are. I know they are kind of like the SAT, but I don’t know how the ACT is different. I will look into having her take that too. I am getting a lot out of this thread, and I really appreciate all of the responses.
^ A guy I know who runs a test preparation service has told me that usually students score better on either the SAT or ACT; part of the reason has to do with the materials that are tested (for example, science questions are asked on the ACT but not the SAT), part of the reason has to do with how the questions are asked. It would probably be worth your while for your daughter to take the ACT; then look at which test she did better on (there are SAT-ACT equivalency tables out there), and either later in her junior year or early in her senior year retake the test that she did better on. Most colleges will accept the results from either the SAT or ACT.
Also, if you are not familiar with Colleges That Change Lives, you may wish to visit their website: http://www.ctcl.org/ It might give you some ideas about schools to look at, and the website has a map showing the geographic distribution of these schools.
Finally, a former guidance counselor I know used to work at Susquehanna University, and he had lots of good things to say about that school; maybe it is worth a look.
Once you have narrowed down your list of colleges, you should go to the individual school forums here on College Confidential, and look at the threads on the “Discussion” link; you might find some useful information there also.
Good luck.
^Sound advice!
Thanks Gandalf!
To be honest, I’ve never been to Salisbury, so I can’t comment on what the environment is like. And the only time I’ve been in St. Mary’s City was as a bus chaperone for the 4th grade trip to the historical sites. Your daughter could ask around at her HS and find out who has gone on to study at either of those places, and then have a chat with them.
The Salisbury grad I know truly benefited from the “big fish/small pond” situation that she found herself in as one of the very top students in her department. Lots of personal attention, lots of opportunities in the professor’s labs and research projects, etc. The St Mary’s grad I mentioned was also heavily involved in research projects with her professors there. I do think a lot of it has to do with taking advantage of whatever opportunities are available.
Rather than take a full ACT, your daughter could check an official prep book out of the library, and work her way through one of the sample tests at home. She’ll know pretty quickly how she feels about it.
Thanks Happymomof1!