Rank these N.E. schools..please

Parents Forum
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<p>One of my star employees is at Hobart / William Smith. She is a transfer from Hartwick. She tells me the academic demands are substantially higher than Hartwick and she is much happier there. She's a bright kid going into education.</p>

<p>I also had a great employee from St. Michaels who was passing through while hunting for a real job. Nice, smart kid. </p>

<p>I like MHC, Hobart, Fairfield as my top three. I do not have a good impression of Stonehill in terms of it being an academic upper end. I know nothing about Clark.</p>

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<p>Many kids from rigorous prep schools haave Hobart on their lists. These kids tend to be very prepared for college, and it is not unusual for them to find many schools very easy as compared to their high school course work. My sons who were not good students at such high schools, found college courses much easier, with standards alot lower the first two years. It seems to me that Hobart has a lot of these kids, which does color the atmosphere there. You'll probably find it quite different from the catholic schools or Clark, and something you may want to take into consideration.</p>

<p>There was a thread that a mom started that impressed me greatly. She looked for "full rides" for her kids. And she gave her strategy. By using it but expanding your list to reasonable cost vs full ride, you may find schools that would be financial safeties. The generous scholarships at most of the schools in the NE tend to go to kids with HPY stats, I have found. Your chances are better going out of this area as even sticker prices are much lower so a smaller grant could bring you into a reasonable price range. Some schools like Tulsa, Hanover, UNC Asheville, Hendrix, some low cost OOS colleges, your own state schools are good bets. </p>

<p>I've known great kids from nearly every school. Great adults too.</p>

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<p>From your orig list: MHC is clearly the leader.</p>

<p>Conn College and Trin are even more selective than MHC.</p>

<p>Re: Trinity - - recent NYT article on racial tension. (D hated tour and interview.)</p>

<p>D liked Conn College (loved the tour guide - - bright, articulate soph just accepted into 2 study-abroad prgms) and even considered applying ED - -until she met the track coach. </p>

<p>Clark, a solid sch, listed in CTCL; parents who do not qual for fin aid often find its slightly lower price tag appealing. Tiny urban campus.</p>

<p>Hobart: Many kids from not-so-rigorous day and boarding schs have Hobart on their respective lists - - often as a safety. According to Hobart's strategic plan, the sch is trying desperately to move up in the ranking and shed its image as refuge for prep sch students in the bottom of their prep sch graduating class (the college's descript, not mine). Beautiful campus.</p>

<p>Union - you either love or hate the trimester system (classes end about a month later than other college - - may be a problem for internships and summer jobs). Beautiful campus.</p>

<p>Wheaton - not bad location, but just didn't offer the course selection of other schools (though it has VERY stron D3 track). </p>

<p>Is your D concerned at all w/ gender im/balance (Conn College and Wheaton) ? My D said she'd rather be a women's college, rather than have to fight for boys in scarce supply.</p>

<p>Schools (not on your list) that D loved: Kenyon (somewhat limited course offerings and does not gaurantee to meet fin need), URoch (has LAC feel, D considered applying ED).</p>

<p>D also looked at Wooster (lots of merit aid), Case (ditto) and Oberlin - - none of which resonated w/ her.</p>

<p>Glad to have it all behind me/us now.</p>

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<p>Lots of great school, but the money is the issue. I am in the same boat as OP for junior son. There are Ohio schools with merit aid as Nyc mentioned, Wooster. I think Denison, though the parameters may be high, Ohio Wesleyan, Wittenburg are some.</p>

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<p>nyc- i remember talking to you about conn. where did your daughter end up?</p>

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<p>Ahhh, apathy in the junior year. We had that too. What it mostly meant was that the parents did all the work and then, upon becoming a senior, the kid suddenly announces a preference. (Hopefully not like mine, in January, saying "Hey, why haven't I applied to Northwestern?")</p>

<p>Good luck...keep us posted about your search.</p>

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<p>"Mount Holyoke is the gem of the bunch. But D is really up in the air about single sex schools."
At a similar decision point, my D toured Smith and found many features attractive but didn't know how to evaluate single-ssx college for herself. She looked up a buddy who was then a sophomore there, who said, "If your closest circle of high school friends is all-female, you won't miss boys on campus, but if your inner circle is male and female, you'll miss the boys." Interesting!</p>

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<p>Helimom, mine did the same sort of things. I never used to grit my teeth.</p>

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<p>As the OP I can tell you this is discouraging. It seems I'm one tier above where I should be in garnering merit from Fairfield, Providence, Stonehill, Clark, and Mount Holyoke. Somebody asked about a major. Well if I put a gun to D's head she would say she was leaning toward the health sciences.. maybe bio.. pre-med.. Unfortunately I'm also stuck within about 300 miles of Central Mass. as Mom does not want D to far away. So that means schools in N.E., New York, N.J. and Eastern PA. Again, D is apathetic. When I speak to her about possibilities I get the same look my dog has on his face when he attempts to watch T.V. Thank you all. I'm looking into more places. I've got some nice PM's that are helping me cope as well. Please suggest some schools based on my D's stats as listed in post #15 of this thread.</p>

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<p>A friend's D got large merit money from St. Anselm in NH with similar stats.</p>

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<p>One of the big gaps in college info, lies among the majority of colleges that fall outside of the top 500 ring. You can fill a bookcase on descriptions of Harvard, which are not that useful since by reputation alone, people are going to want to go there. BUt when you are looking at schools that don't make the "Best" lists, it's a whole different story. For someone who wants to know the differnence between SUNY Fredonia and SUNY Cortland, for instance, or LaRoche College and Robert Morris, there is little out there other than the bare statistics. The narrative descriptions are scarce if existant at all. You need to rely on word of mouth from those who go to the specific schools. Though schools that make the "Colleges that Change Lives" list have come into the radar range, most of those schools are expensive, and do not have the merit opportunities to put them within range of those who are looking for money.<br>
For starters, I would look at the SUNYs. There are a number of smaller ones, the out of state tuition is not outrageous, and there are some merit possibiilities. 1300 SATS would garner about $1500 easily at SUNY Buffalo. You should also look at your state school, actually that should be your first stop, to see what could fit the bill, as the costs are lower. Also talk to your D's GC. They would know schools that have been generous to kids of your D's stats in the past. Wells College and York College are two schools that pop in my mind for low cost. Also Manhattan College has been known to be generous for above 1300 SATs, as is Iona and St Vincent. The PA state schools, the smaller ones like West Chester, Millersville, Kutztown, etc have lower price tags and would likley have merit money. Indiana Univesity of PA has an interesting honors college, and they may cough up enough merit money to make it worthwhile. </p>

<p>I would not give up on your list entirely, as it is possible something could come up. I know Mount Holyoke does not give merit money, but the others do. Fairfield's standards are very high for money, I know, and Providence is looking for males, and would not be likely to give much merit money for females at those numbers coming from NE. </p>

<p>It's also early yet, and your daughter's numbers should be going up. My junior son has yet to take the SAT, and kids tend to go up the second time if there is some time between sittings. That would bring the stats up for merit money. </p>

<p>I'm looking too for my junior.</p>

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<p>I'm going to go in a different direction and suggest that the first question that the OP needs to digest is why his D is apathetic. The best fit in the world doesn't mean a thing if the student is engaged with the process and the ultimate school. Is D apathetic because of parental restrictions on choices? she really doesn't want to go to college? she feels overwhelmed by something or some aspect? Her bf/gf is going to a college where she can't possibly go? she's reluctant or terrified to leave home?</p>

<p>I'd want to figure that out before I expended a lot of energy and effort in a direction that might very well come to nothing.</p>

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<p>"I know Mount Holyoke does not give merit money, but the others do."</p>

<p>Mount Holyoke gives some pretty hefty merit money, but to a small number of students.</p>

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<p>From the OP... a fair question .Well I may be overstating her apathy. My D knows she wants to go to college. She would like the school to be fairly highly rated because she does occasionally ask me, "Is ______ a good school?" But, she does not go beyond that. She works very hard with her day to day studies, athletics, and vol. work. Plus she is prepping for the SAT and ACT in the spring. Thus far she seems to trust in me to determine what dozen schools might be worth visiting. These kids work so hard I think most parents don't mind doing the initial research for them. As far as a major.. it's tough to know at 16. She does seem content to remain within a few hundred miles of home. The only restriction we will place on her is what we, as a familiy, (2 younger siblings) can afford.</p>

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<p>Nightingale, </p>

<p>I think that your DD's attitude is not unusual at this stage, and wouldn't consider it apathetic, particularly since she's prepping for SAT/ACT. I would wager that as more and more of her friends start to have conversations about their plans, school visits, etc. (this seems to really take off after the middle of the jr. year), she'll become more active.</p>

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<p>Nightengale...maybe your D should take the SATs over. I would bet she could improve. I think over 1300/1350 she might get money at Fairfield, Stonehill. Others to look at for merit money but less name recognition, St. Anselm (nice little school), Assumption (she would get a good merit offer from them), Sacred Heart in CT, Roger Williams (she would probably get a good merit offer here too). My approach to finding merit money was by looking at the SAT 25%/75% scores for each school. If your Ds SATs are close to 75% or above she will most likely get a nice merit offer. My child had significantly lower STATS and was offered money at a lot of the schools she applied to.</p>

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<p>Nightingale,
my son was also pretty indifferent to any colleges - until he started visiting them during the fall semester of his senior year. It only took a few overnights for him to develop some very clear ideas of what he did and didn't want. He even wrote one of his supplementary essays about the process of realizing that there really were some important differences between colleges.</p>

<p>This thread has mentioned several schools that he seriously considered, although - as a recruited athlete - his choices were influenced by more than just academics and general environment:</p>

<p>Clark - had a very good feel about academics and research opportunities, and close interactions with professors. ultimately chose against it because of location, and a less-than-perfect athletic match</p>

<p>Trinity College (CT) - he really enjoyed his overnight there, and he liked the fact that it was a LAC with an engineering program as well. BTW, he was really surprised to read about the racial incidents on campus, because it had felt like a very friendly environment to him and he really liked all the people he met there. One of his top 5 choices. </p>

<p>Wheaton (MA) - some really interesting academic programs, liked the location between Providence and Boston</p>

<p>Conn Coll - LOVED it, had a great overnight visit, beautiful campus, 60-40 female-male split (great for a guy!), lots of study abroad programs and opportunities to design your own major if a traditional major isn't what you're looking for.</p>

<p>Union - offered a lot that he was looking for, but wasn't crazy about the trimester, and thought it was too urban (and too cold!)</p>

<p>One school that hasn't been mentioned was Hartwick - they seem to be trying to move up a notch in the rankings (but they're not there yet so it's not hard to get into), as well as emphasizing a more hands-on, real world kind of approach to education which he found very interesting. They are investing a tremendous amount of time and effort into recruiting students - very creative approaches and multiple contacts from academics, admissions, athletics, etc., even offered fresh cookies in the admissions office! Ultimately too cold and too isolated for my southern boy. Also a small endowment, so financial aid is iffy.</p>

<p>We also did a lot of research on schools outside the NE area, but it sounds like you are looking closer to home.</p>

<p>Good luck with the search - it was interesting, but I have to say I'm glad we are through with it, at least for a couple of years.</p>

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<p>Housefullofboys, where did your son wind up?</p>

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<p>he is very happy to be a member of the class of 2011 at Connecticut College (accepted ED-1)</p>

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<p>go camels!</p>