<p>candace: While Boone is somewhat more remote than Asheville (not even sure where the closest airport would be), it is a pretty active place and actually not all that far from Winston Salem (an hour and half--at most-- car drive from Winston). Most people really love it. (I'm in the minority in that regard.)</p>
<p>Wake's SAT scores are fairly high, I think, so if she can get that up to 1300 (old score), that would help with Wake, especially since she did not take the toughest curriculum.</p>
<p>Can anyone name public schools in NC, Va. and Maryland that are not suitcase or commuter schools? Please do not include UVA, VATech, W&M, UNC-CH , NC State and Un- Maryland. My D either could not get in or the size is not right.
northeastmom mentioned James Madison- where else?</p>
<p>Maryland - St. Mary's in Southern Maryland (people think it is private, it is not), Salisbury Univ (Eastern shore), Towson Univ (10 mins north of JHU in Balto), Frostburg (way out in Western Md). There are also several good small private college in MD that may have what your D is looking for and all fairly generous with merit money.</p>
<p>Edited to add - We found that with merit money and grants, our cost at a private college was the same as in state public. Just read you earlier post - UMBC is mainly a commuter school</p>
<p>cmbmom- Salisbury and St Mary's are rural and the NJ kids at Towson tell us it is a suitcase/commuter school. When we visited UMBC we were told it is becoming less of a commuter school. GMU also. I am starting to think that most public schools fall into the commuter/suitcase classification. They may still have more kids around on the weekends compared to small private colleges however.</p>
<p>Tom: Appalachian is not a commuter school, and UNC-Asheville very well may not be, either. I have that sense that it is, based on what I've "heard" and a feel I got when I visited there last fall, but that may be completely incorrect. I would certainly ask, or try to research their site to determine if that's true or not. The NC School of the Arts, located in Winson Salem, is not a commuter school. I believe freshmen and sophomores are required to live on campus at NCSA.
While Warren Wilson College is not a public university, it is very affordable. As stated before, it has an excellent reputation, is small, and is also located in Asheville.</p>
<p>We also may be talking about somewhat separate definitions here, too. When I say "commuter" school, it is less about how many full-time students actually live on campus, as it is about part-time and/or older students who commute to take some classes, and then leave.</p>
<p>I do know that most of the public universities in NC, including UNC-Asheville, have almost all freshmen and sophomores living on campus. In their junior year is when students at the public universities tend to move off campus.</p>
<p>jack- what my D is looking for is a residential experience. She could live home and commute to many schools in our area. She wants to live at school and have activity available both on campus and the surrounding community. She does not expect everyone to stay around every weekend but she also does not a vacant campus either. A core of people around would be nice.</p>
<p>Tom: Then I don't think that would be a problem at either Appalachian or UNC-Asheville. And at Warren Wilson-- (I know I sound like I have stock in the school--I don't-- but it is highly regarded)-- 90% of students live on campus. It is small, though, around 800 students. If you're going to be in Asheville, anyway, she might want to visit there, too. As I said, it's private, but very affordable (relative to most private schools).</p>
<p>I don't think Greenville is a big drawback for ECU (maybe because I went there,lol). Greenville is growing by leaps and bounds. New dental school in the works for ECU. Downtown is being revitalized. Lots of kids from NJ and lots of school spirit around town for the Pirates.
I also attended UNC-Charlotte and would chose ECU over UNCC for the better college experience.</p>
<p>A young lady from our church attends UNC-Greensboro and is happy there.</p>
<p>What about Radford in Va?</p>
<p>I know you didn't include S.C. in your search but Winthrop University is a small state university in Rock Hill, SC which is literally just across the state line from Charlotte.</p>
<p>PackMom- thanks. Right now my D has artificial distance limitations. I hope she reconsiders. I tell her once she is > 100 miles away she is not coming home much anyway. I want her to look at U of Kansas and U of Montana. Also Oregon. If she wants a small LAC there are plenty but to be honest while I can pay I will ask her to consider some form of value. Like Mini always says you can get a lot of education for 10 or 15k extra per year.</p>
<p>Tom: I don't think the problem of commuter/suitcase is a public school issue per se, but the fact that you are looking in or near a big city. Big city I think = higher % commuters. Your daughter's GPA/Test scores may be limiting her to regional schools also which brings in the suitcase effect. And on top of it all, there are very few small public schools of ANY description in ANY location. I think in the end you may need to find a compromise. JMU is a great school but it is not exaclty small, and to call Harrisonburg a "city" is a bit of a stretch- it is probably roughly the size of Salisbury, which apparently doesn't float your boat (but also a good school and pretty campus). UNC-Wilmington may be one of your best options, again not really "small" though. GMU I've talked about earlier, good music program, nice campus plunked in the middle of the far DC suburbs but fairly large and with many commuters.</p>
<p>Any reason not to consider NJ or NY? If you do and if money is somewhat of an issue, ti sounds like Nazareth College of Rochester might meet your needs. It is private but really no more costly than many OOS public schools would be! It also has decent music programs for a small school and is in a beautiful suburb just outside Rochester</p>
<p>weldon - thanks. My D's grades will not be an issue for most schools. The elite schools are another story. Her grades and rank are the same or better than students accepted to NYU/BU, Fordham etc. from her HS. The test scores are the main concern. She has 3 NJ schools on her list but is leaning to an o/o/s school. I think you are correct about schools by cities having a higher % of commuters. Really she is looking for a critical mass of students even "commuter/suitcase schools" may be ok.</p>
<p>Tom, my son is looking at smaller liberal arts schools in NC/VA as well. We visited Lynchburg and loved the feel of the campus, but I'm getting mixed signals about the academics. He's a B student with average SATs, but a really good college prep courseload. He liked the feel of the App State campus, but that was in the Fall. I think we need to visit in January to get a real feel for the winter environment. UNC Wilmington was deader than a doornail when we visited, midyear on a weekend. Elon's campus is gorgeous, but he says it's too "preppy" for him. So right now, he plans to apply to Lynchburg, App State, UNC-Asheville(we haven't visited yet) and East Carolina(he visited and said he didn't get a commuter feel at all). I'd appreciate your insight on schools you've visited, especially Lynchburg or UNC Asheville.</p>
<p>msewell, When your son visited UNC-W was it during a break (ie: between semesters or when they were on a 3 day plus weekend)? I am interested to know bc my son and we are considering this school. We are OOS. Thanks.</p>
<p>Just noticed that you are a new poster on this site. Welcome!</p>
<p>You might have him look at Randolph in Lynchburg. It just went coed and is recruiting males. The academics there are strong. The campus and location are nice too.</p>
<p>Thanks. I'm happy I found this site. It's been helpful already, confirming that everyone else is trying to answer the same questions I am. I believe we were at Wilmington in Oct of 05. We had driven down for something else and decided to stop by the campus to see what it was like. Definitely a weekend, could have been a Sunday morning, which would account for the sleepy, dull feel. Honestly, though, there wasn't anything going on, very few people walking around and I didn't think the campus had much character. I feel bad knocking the place when I spent so little time there, but that was just my first impression. I've learned never to take anyone's word for whether a campus is a good fit for my kid or not. There are too many variables to predict. We're going to Open Houses at UNC-Asheville and Appalachian State in September.</p>
<p>We drove up to VA from Durham at Spring Break and toured Va Tech (too big and windy-also just 3 days before the rampage) and Lynchburg College. We thought about seeing Randolph because we heard it was going coed, but my son said he isn't ready to be on the front lines of what he thinks may be a battle of the sexes. I don't know about a battle, but there probably will be some skirmishes as they incorporate males into a previously female school.</p>
<p>Thanks, msewell. We will tour UNC-W when we are in the area. A Sunday morning, defintitely could account for a quiet campus. We toured a few small schools on Sat. morning, and prior to 2pm we have found a dead campus, as in one could count the number of students we encountered on one hand. </p>
<p>I have suggested Randolph to my son and my H. My H does not even want to look there bc he does not want our son to be part of an experiment, and have the kind of distractions that are discussed in post 56.</p>
<p>tom1944 - if you D is seriously considering McDaniel, be sure to thoroughly examine the student culture. DS and a number of his friends felt the student body was "off" and the environment quite toxic; many have transferred out after successful freshman years...a number to top-calibre public universities and highly regarded colleges.</p>
<p>The professors and a number of the admin staff are terrific, but other admins don't mind the store properly and students suffer. Son experienced some very harsh experiences regarding his protected disabilities and DIII athletics coach (and he was their top recruit and record breaker) and pledged Greek group (with up front notice of his specific disabilities and their impact, they dumped him as a pledge rather than work with his workload difficulties as promised). Not a happy situation for him. Beware.</p>
<p>Virginia:
College of William and Mary - for top students
Univ. of Mary Washington - small and definitely more gals than guys
James Madison University - larger and students love it
Christopher Newport University - like Elon and on the rise
Univ of Richmond, W & L - a reach
Hollins - great and probably most expensive
Randolph Macon in Ashland -- small and kids like it, definitely for average student
Randolph Macon in Lynchburg - just went coed a few years ago
Lynchburg College - good for nursing</p>
<p>NC
Wake, Davidson are reaches - very competitive
Queens University - great location, small
Elon - rejecting many top students, definitely moving on up
Guilford - nice Quaker school
Appalachian State - again, kids seem to love it</p>
<p>UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Asheville, and UNC-Wilmington, and UNC-Greensboro = good, average schools
Greensboro College - very small in a big town</p>