Congratulations!! Now you have an urban LAC option!
My friends kid play soccer for them. Just know it’s a great Lac by reputation. Congrats!
So happy you have choices this year — and great ones at that!
Congrats! Mac would be an excellent choice given all of your stated preferences
Congratulations! It’s such an excellent LAC and in a city (which you like!)
Are you going to visit? Perhaps reach out to your rep to see if they have a fly in program for admitted first gen/low income students?
Thank you everyone! They do have a fly in program that I’d love to go to…but I’ve missed too many days recently due to college and family.
I would make every effort to attend. Mac could be an excellent option for you.
Currently my “list” is:
- UIC GPPA
- (Probably Tie with GPPA if I get the Johnson) W&L
- Macalester
- UIUC (Last just because their Illinois Promise would be null since my brother is back and my father should start working soon).
Mac was one of the top choices on my Daughter’s list. It is less conservative that W&L, the Twin Cities are both urban, but also have a lot of green space, and overall it’s an awesome LAC. It is also a much cheaper and quicker trip to Chicagoland than W&L.
However, I think that your “difficulties” in deciding are not over just as yet. I predict that there will be more acceptances with good financial offers as the admissions season goes on.
PS. For full disclosure, I am not objective about the colleges on your list since my family is from Minneapolis (I was born there), I went to grad school at UIUC, and I worked at UIC (and have mixed feelings about anything related to Biological Sciences).
I may be missing something, but the FA letter from UIC seemed to say that tuition and fees are around $17,000 and another poster said that room and board option of about $10,000 exists on campus.
So that would be $27,000 a year.
You stated you have $20,000 aid from UIC, not including loans.
So the gap would be $7,000, right?
You could cover that with the student loan of $5,500 and a summer job. You can also get a campus job (work study), maybe even in a lab, for spending money and books.
So if med school is your ultimate goal, this might be your best option.
Instate tuition rates for med school should be much lower than OOS or private.
If you have a guaranteed seat in the instate med school, provided you have the required GPA and MCAT score, would be extremely valuable.
Especially since you won’t have to spend thousands of dollars on med school applications and travel to interviews, etc
So when it comes down to decision time, make sure you calculate the possible cost of undergrad plus med school.
Including the fact that you can become an MD in 7 years versus 8, and won’t need to spend money on applications/travel.
You have some great choices. With great choices, come some great decision making sessions which will be painful.
Friend of ours were a bit miffed when their kids had basically one obvious choice, but it sure made things easier. My youngest went the ED route and it was a great psychological relief. Senior year a breeze. For one of my kids, it was grinding teeth to the very end.
I would really go on that fly in. You need all information in hand to make the decision. Are you worried you’d lose your job if you went on a college visit?
Good news! The Macalester fly-in is on the days I don’t go to the lab!
The bad news is, multiple schools are canceling big events and admitted students day due to the COVID-19 virus.
I think Minnesota is pretty safe though
At the very least, you can know that if you don’t fly in, no one else will either. Is there any way you could take a bus to St. Paul before decisions are due? You could at least get some feel for the surrounding community.
I think St.Paul/Minneapolis would be a soft landing ground for anyone used to Chicago. Small enough to feel refreshingly …well, small. But large and urban enough to find things to do. You might grow to love Lexington but it would be quite a shock, after the first novelty of it wears off. I grew up in the south, and have lived in Chicagoland (visited St.Paul) and now live in between. Can’t say from a financial, academic or career standpoint which school would be best, but I think you’d likely enjoy St. Paul.
https://www.tripsavvy.com/minneapolis-to-chicago-2370038
Several ways to get there. Is there a way that maybe a church group or your brother or someone can spring for a flight to get there?
A fly in is all inclusive (no cost). However it tends to be at a specific date, first come first served.
I think I will signup after a week or two just to see how things settle with the current news.
On a new note, this weekend is pretty BIG. Johns Hopkins, UChicago, Bowdoin, Colorado College, and the Johnson Scholarship notification - on Saturday, MIT is released!
Wow you’re right about this weekend being BIG! Good luck!!!
With all that is going on in the world, most schools are cancelling their admit days/fly ins etc.
Yes, it’s pretty disappointing for my son who is graduating this year. No admitted student weekends, and possibly no prom or graduation ceremony.