<p>So I am trying to find a financial safety that would work out for me. But I dont want to go to a giant 30k+ student school. I am looking for something ten thousand max, preferably under 6k. Reason? Because I want to actually have classes instead of getting lectured at all day. So does anybody have any recommendations for small schools that would fit me well?</p>
<p>Gender: Male
Current Location: Wisconsin
GPA: 3.85
Class Rank: 12%
SAT: 2210
ECs: Average for elite schools</p>
<p>What I want in a college:
Prospective Major: International Relations
Location: Anywhere Except the Midwest
Size: Under 10k
Actually have a defined campus, not with streets all through it
No predominance of frats</p>
<p>What I have on my list right now:</p>
<p>Georgetown
Tufts
Middlebury
Claremont Mckenna
U of Chicago
Macalester
Colby
Connecticut College
Lewis and Clark
American
UW-Madison</p>
<p>Obviously UW Madison is a complete 180 from the rest of the schools--but it is my only financial safety. So is there any private school that doesnt cost 45k a year? That I would still like and has a strong IR program? Any help is most def appreciated.</p>
<p>
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Anywhere Except the Midwest ... No predominance of frats
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</p>
<p>By virtue of those two criteria, you have basically just eliminated virutally all of the "affordable" private colleges and universities, which are primarily located in the south, where greek life is prevelant, or the midwest.</p>
<p>That said, maybe look into Syracuse, which has a very well known and regarded IR school, and Trinity U in San Antonio</p>
<p>Syracuse is 43 Grand a year...I'm looking for a financial safety.</p>
<p>LACs have a particularly hard time attracting males. Fortunately, it seems that LACs would match your interest. Check out some LACs that offer merit aid. Some that come to mind are: Rollins, Stetson, Goucher, Skidmore, and Rhodes, at all of which you'd have decent chances for getting merit aid. My S is a freshman at Rollins, which gave him merit aid. It has small, interactive classes (average class size is 17), caring professors, a gorgeous and well defined campus on a lake that's in a very nice small city that's a 10 min. drive from Orlando. It also has a very long history of offering international opportunities for students, including freshmen.</p>
<p>Syracuse has lots of Greeks, not a good choice for you.</p>
<p>your grades may get you merit money at Syracuse.</p>
<p>You don't think you would qualify for any merit-based aid at the 'Cuse? Your stats are well above their medians, and they appear to hand out a fair # of scholarships in the $6000 to $12,000 range:
<a href="http://financialaid.syr.edu/academic.htm%5B/url%5D">http://financialaid.syr.edu/academic.htm</a></p>
<p>My older S got offered $9 k merit aid at Syracuse, but the kind of college environment he wanted was very different than what you want.</p>
<p>One thing in the OPs post which is a personal pet peeve--"I want to actually have classes instead of getting lectured at all day." This notion that big schools are nothing but gigantic lecture halls is complete fantasy. Virtually no junior and senior classes are lectures instead of classes, and many kids, because of the proliferation of AP credits, place out of many of the freshman requirements classes. If my daughter sticks to the four year initial plan she's mapped out, she'll have exactly three classes in her college career which will exceed 30 students (two required courses in her major of choice, and a science class), and many with less than 20 students, and she's at a very large university.</p>
<p>There are more huge classes at big schools than at small schools, but the number rarely exceeds 15-20%, even for those who do not have incoming AP credits, and in some cases, it's much less.</p>
<p>I guess I just get scared off by the figures of average class size and student-teacher ratio. One of my friends at UW-Madison who will be a junior this year said that during his first two years he had one class that wasn't a lecture. One. That's not something I'm interested in.</p>
<p>Plus theres the whole concept of just being a number at a big school.</p>
<p>I apologize if I offended anyone who goes to a big school by saying that they aren't actually classes. I was just trying to explain why I want something smaller. At this point I know what I am looking for in terms of size so a giant school is really just not something I am interested in.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help, especially Northstarmom, I will look into the schools you listed.</p>
<p>New College, Florida's public honors college, has only about 800 students, is relatively low cost and has nice merit aid.</p>
<p>Two friends of mine had NM scholar sons who chose New College as their first choice college. One of those sons now is in grad school at Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>I've never visited it, so can't describe the campus from seeing it in person. Its pictures, however, make it seem very attractive.</p>
<p>I'm going to second the recommendation for LACs. As a guy, they'll probably offer you great money to lure you in.</p>
<p>Try to look at LACs that are a little more local. Not as in local to Wisconsin, but as in local to the areas where the college is located. This means moving down the list of US News rankings. A financial safety doesn't have to be one that has a low COA. It can also be one that gives away merit money like candy. For example, Ohio Wesleyan University offered me $10,000/year as a HS freshman for a science project I did. They gave out 25 of these scholarships at the competition. That's a lot considering the school has under 2,000 students. Try using College Board's search.</p>
<p>OK, Ill give that a try. Any other recommendations or ideas?</p>