Quality Honors Colleges at Medium Sized Schools?

College Search & Selection
21

You cannot ignore Alabama and while she says she doesn’t want to go to a huge flagship school, she does want to go out of state and south, so that hits 2 out of 3 parameters, and she’s a nice kid and personable enough that I know she’d find her tribe anywhere. With no loans at all, Alabama is looking like $24,000/year and that’s with pretty high indirect costs (less than our state school - U of Illinois). Adding a loan - that’s $18,000 including indirects.

With “guaranteed” numbers like that, I can’t see paying much more for any undergraduate education. I’ll probably cap our budget at $30,000 after FA (including Fed Loans). I’m really thinking Big Fish, Small Pond may be the most financially sound way to go here.

Maybe I look callous, but I’m just being realistic. My husband and I met in law school and we went to school with kids from Ivys, state schools and everywhere in between. We all ended up in the same place. In my mind, it’s not worth it to overpay for an undergraduate education.

22

You might consider Miami Ohio, University of Iowa and Iowa State for admission/financial safeties.

Your budget is going to be the challenge for finding match/reach schools. As you realize, your DD will get into schools you can’t afford. Boston U, GWU, NEU, UMiami are all possibilities but your COA might likely run too high.

Fordham is an option if she is a NMF. Fordham has a full tuition scholarship but this scholarship is competitive. I think you should look at some of the mid sized Catholic schools if a religious school is fine for your DD. If NMF, look at the Florida schools. Too far to drive, but flights would be easy. She could apply to ASU Barrett’s. Again…easy flight.

I was going to mention Case Western as the above poster mentioned.

The University of Tulsa (private university) would likely be affordable and has warmer weather. In Texas (which might be too far), I’d look at TCU which has good airport access. TCU is not a religious school, has good DI sports, and a very nice campus. Fort Worth is a nice city with excellent museums. I don’t know if TCU would meet your budget as it would depend on merit aid.

My advice is to set up a spreadsheet with a lot of colleges. Run the NPCs and enter in your data. Break out the tuition from the room/board. Your DD will end up with financial reaches on her list and you will just have to see how they come in with merit. Identifying financial safeties that your DD will happily attend is really important.

Take this time to nail down your budget. @Twoin18 is correct about merit scholarships and getting the price below $40,000.

23

If Alabama ends up being too big, what about Ole Miss (University of Mississippi)? It’s smaller for sure-- just under 19,000 undergrads–still bigger than her preference but not by as much. I think it would be about 9ish hours drive, and has an honors college. They have merit scholarships based on scores/GPA and also for national merit. I think you’d be able to get the cost to an affordable level for sure.

24

I agree with Iowa/Iowa State and Utah and would add Kansas/KSU and Nebraska as state flagships where high-stat (but not astronomical) OOS students can get scholarships that bring the cost down to at or near in-state rates. In particular, Kansas is in a great college town, and it’s maybe not as large as Illinois or Alabama, though I don’t know the precise numbers; I don’t know KSU very well but understand Manhattan is very nice as well. I did really like Iowa and both Iowa and Nebraska have urban campuses. You can easily see their financial aid info on their websites.

Here’s a merit aid table for Miami of Ohio, which isn’t too far outside your parameters in terms of size (somewhat larger). Also a nice (small) college town.

https://miamioh.edu/admission/merit-guarantee/

Note that Miami super-scores for admission AND aid, which might bump a student up on the table. Also, students improve their chances if they apply early. This is often true, so it is good to get those applications in early.

As noted in my post, I’m not sure about financial aid at SCU and Denver, but schools fall within parameters in pretty much every respect, and it sounds like they would at least potentially be accessible in terms of admissions. CWRU does give generous financial aid. I know a student from just a couple of years ago, obviously a strong student, but not a perfect applicant, and they were paying about $36k at CWRU and many, if not most, of their friends, had similar or larger scholarships. The vast majority of students get aid. Of course that changes year to year, and personal circumstances are tremendously important. But I do feel like the aid is generous at CWRU. Will it get everyone below $40k? No. But, in terms of merit aid, I’d like a non-NMF type student’s chances there about as well as anywhere that does not guarantee to meet full financial need.

I believe Holy Cross and Richmond claim to meet full demonstrated need, though obviously schools can differ with parents on the numbers, they might be “need aware” in admissions, etc., etc.

Anyway, the NPC is very helpful for schools that look interesting.

25

thinking out loud, but I really liked the TCU Honors College. Amazing housing, solid academics, size fits your requirements etc.

26

University of Kentucky has newly formed Honors College headed by former Dean of Penn State’s HC. An opportunity to shape the college rather than taking whatever one can offer.

Many local doctors send their pre-med kids there to tread water at the cheapest rate until med school.

Many daily non-stops to O’Hare.

27

My S18 also got into CWRU with good merit aid ($28K which appeared to be close to the largest amount outside the named scholarships). And tuition & fees were $49042 for 2018/19 plus another $15190 for room and board. So net cost of $36232 for the first year (before books, travel and personal expenses, taking it up to ~$40K) seemed fairly reasonable.

But the kicker is that CWRU has been increasing these costs at over 3% pa (we estimated 3.1% based on 2017/18 to 2018/19, but in fact 2019/20 costs are $50924 and $15614 respectively, a 3.6% total increase). So with a fixed $28K scholarship the fourth year would cost around $46K plus other expenses (i.e. ~$50K per their COA assumptions). That’s a good example of how fixed merit scholarship amounts can come back to bite you. (We were fortunate to have the UCs as an instate option instead, so my S didn’t attend CWRU)

28

@Twoin18
Thanks for that info about Case. I have a student at GW which freezes tuition for 10 semesters. With DS20, I have to remind myself about tuition increases.

Budgeting for an increase of COA of $10,000 (more for kids wo merit scholarships) over 4 years is worrisome to my pocketbook.

29

With Case, start showing interest really early. Go visit, interview, apply early, etc. They do give good merit aid. The trick is avoiding the dreaded wait-list. University of Rochester might be worth a look too. My son didn’t apply, so I don’t know how much merit they award. Pretty sure you have to apply early, though, to be eligible for the highest merit awards.
I know you asked for mid-size, but if she’s willing to go smaller, College of Wooster, St. Olaf would keep her closer to home.

30

I’m not sure if this is helpful, but I’ll put it out there in case it is. We learned that not all honors programs are equal, for sure. A good honors college can make a large school very small, while a program that’s not really strong, can be meaningless. Some questions to ask:

  1. Retention rate? Some schools we looked at only had a retention rate of 30% or so. You have to ask why are 70% of honors students leaving the program before they graduate. At those numbers, probably not because it's "too hard" but because it wasn't worth it or it didn't really success in building a community that students felt committed to.
  2. Registration Benefits? We took for granted that this was a given but it's not. Some schools don't offer that benefit for honors students.
  3. Access to program after freshmen year? The more exclusive/competitive program only accept students to the honors college their freshman year - again, building a more cohesive community.
  4. Research $$? Do they have research dollars set aside specifically for the honors students?
  5. Honors Housing? Some schools we visited offered it year one only and had no central office where honors students could congregate - again, not much of a community.
  6. Internships/Career Development? Specifically for Honors College students? Or are you referred to the university system.
  7. Advising? Do they have advisors specifically to guide them through their 4 years?

We found some universities to offer an honors program/college in name only - seemed to be more of a marketing tool than a real program providing a different experience for high achievers. While others truly advocate for the honors college students.

Hope this is helpful. Good luck!

31

I agree with @universitymom67 and would suggest looking at prestigious graduate scholarships awards as one marker of how much the Honors College does to support and encourage top students (i.e. how regularly do they get Truman, Fulbright, Churchill etc scholarships, and do they have a dedicated office to support these applications).

And although they are usually very competitive, the cohort based scholarship programs, such as NC State Park, Alabama RRSP usually do an excellent job in building a cohesive (albeit small) class group with lots of suppprt. Although you hear about the famous scholarships (like UVA Jefferson) there are many similar programs which are less well known and somewhat easier to win. We’ve been very impressed with Utah on both counts.

32

Agree with a post above. Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas and Kansas State all have excellent Honors programs and great study abroad options. My son was OOS and got great scholarships making it the same cost as in-state with less expensive housing. They are all great places. Manhattan is a wonderful college town and my son from a large metropolitan area has loved it there. Even though they have high admission rates the honors college is challenging as are most of the other classes. They give most people a chance to succeed as their state likes. Not schools to overlook because they are in the plains states.

33

I’m going to throw out UT-Dallas. Assuming test scores are strong, she would get automatic merit. I am unclear as to how large their Honors College is. If she’s really strong, consider looking at their McDermott Scholars program. Highly selective.

I’ll second Ole Miss, too.

34

@3kids2dogs

At the outer edge of your geographical limits (12-13 hours from Chicago), maybe look at U of Richmond? They offer very competitive scholarships equal to half and full tuition. William and Mary, similarly distant, also offers some merit scholarships. U KY has already been mentioned and I have heard good things about the Honors program here. You might look at U of West Virginia - there is auto-merit for stats so you can go on their website and see how much it would cost. Ohio University offers a tutorial-based Honors Program and with merit, costs for OOS can be quite reasonable.

I’m also a big fan of CWRU. Maximum merit these days is in the low 30s per year, although there are a few very competitive full tuition awards that require separate applications. Demonstrated interest is very important.

35

FYI There is no merit attached to the Monroe scholars program which is the honors program at William and Mary. Merit for out of state students is little to none even for top scores.

36

If she is willing to look at schools with up to 19,000 students, there are more possibilities. Clemson, Univ of Delaware, University of CT and Univ of Vermont all have top 20 Honors colleges and less than 20,000 but more than 15,000. I can speak personally to Clemson and it is a fine HC that they have worked hard to develop. Depending on her stats, she could get in state rates as a merit carrot for some of them. If she is willing to go smaller, there are tons of LACs that although start out with a high ticket price, merit brings the cost down( e.g.Hendrix, Furman, Rhodes, Wofford). My son is a C of C grad and he absolutely loved it. There are just not many mid sized public unis with a good Honors College. It is a unique place. You will probably have to go a little larger to get that mix.

37

Mary Washington or Christopher Newport in VA? Both public colleges, although only 5000 students. CNU heavily markets their honors program. I have no idea about the quality. Mary Washington has a good reputation for pre-med, has a hospital and some sort of arrangement with George Washington for early acceptance to med school. I know several students who have done pre-med at Mary Wash and have been pleased. Your daughter should qualify for merit money at either school. Fun fact, in the past, Mary Washington was the women’s college of UVA. Now it is coed.

38

The primary merit scholars program at William & Mary is the 1693 Scholars. There are relatively few, perhaps 10 per year, so very selective. The Monroe Scholars program is for top 10% or so of class, but has no merit aid, provides $3K grants to do research, and has additional benefits in curriculum and flexibility.

Washington and Lee provides full scholarships to nearly 10% of the class. It is small rather than mid-sized. Wake Forest and Richmond might also be possibilities.