The parents of CC are awesome so I am asking for help. My older boys both identified schools they liked that did no require a lottery ticket for entrance. Oldest graduated from Case Western. Middle is doing well at Belmont U. Youngest has interest in lottery ticket schools. He’s open to safeties and understands the need for a diverse list.
ACT-35, SAT subject tests-Chem 800, USH-770
Weighted GPA-5.6, UW-4.41 where A+=4.67, A=4.33, A-=4.0 and honors=+1, AP=+2
Private college prep school does not rank but will be top 5%
Varsity lacrosse-captain, some school/county awards, will be recruited at some LAC but not universities
Model UN-officer, awards at two conferences
Lit Magazine-on editorial board
Possible NMSF
He is interested in the following schools (but won’t apply to all):
LAC:
Middlebury
Haverford
Swarthmore
Amherst
Williams
Kenyon
Universities:
Yale
Brown
Columbia
Vanderbilt
U of Miami
He needs safeties/matches. The only safety I see is Miami. Kenyon might be a match.
He is indifferent to the rural/city thing. He prefers urban settings only if they have campuses. He doesn’t like schools like BU or NYU that don’t have campuses.
He has visited Midd, Yale, Brown, Vandy and Miami (it’s local). He will be visiting Haverford/Swarthmore this summer. He wants to stay in the east/Midwest. He visited Oberlin and hated it. He visited Case and Belmont. Neither is right for him. He wants a strong UG school. Nothing as large as most state flagships.
His academic interests are loosely defined. He likes social sciences with an international focus. Think poly sci/economics or similar. We are full pay so safeties/matches with good merit chances are especially appreciated.
Lafayette? You could visit at the same time at Haverford / Swarthmore. Of course, all of these campuses will be very quiet in the summer so difficult to get a real sense of vibe. But Lafayette does give merit and is a solid all around LAC>
Also, Dickinson in PA is supposed to be strong in Intl Relations. Might be a safety for your son? I have not visited so can’t offer firsthand experience.
He could get merit at Lafayette.
Some other safety/matches could be Colby, Bates, Holy Cross, Colgate, Hamilton, Trinity, Conn College.
St Lawrence and Hobart would be safeties and would give merit
I also thought of Macalester and Dickinson and both offer merit scholarships. I have heard anecdotally that Mac gives some preference to NM commended and above. They both prize the idea of global citizenship and that value is embedded in the curriculum and student vibe.
He should look at American - they like to be shown the love, but he should get a big merit award there. I’d suggest GW, but it has no campus. Vassar needs more guys, so it’s probably more of a match than it looks at first glance. Look at their Common Data set, but I know the acceptance rate for guys is more than for women. My younger son with much lower stats got in there. I think Kenyon may be more of match for the same reason Vassar would be. (This is old but still true: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/opinion/to-all-the-girls-ive-rejected.html ) Kenyon not as big a difference as I thought. 25.6% acceptance rate for men, 23% for women. Vassar is 33.7% for men and 19% for women.
I believe the only school in this list that gives merit is Trinity. But I have to,say…if he doesn’t like real,cities, it’s not likely that he will like the location in Hartford.
Hamilton, Colby, Midd, Trinity, Bowdoin are all NESCAC and do not give merit awards. Vassar does not give merit, to the best of my recollection. Davidson is D1, as is Lafayette, Lehigh, Bucknell and Colgate, so those do give athletic scholarships to recruited athletes.
Similar types of schools which do give merit and which are more in the range of matches, include St Lawrence, Dickinson, Denison, Gettysburg (but not Franklin &Marshall), Univ Richmond. Kenyon gives some merit. Centre and Rhodes in the South give merit and would also be matches.
While I understand the appeal of merit, if one is willing to be full pay at Swat or Yale, I don’t quite understand requiring merit at the match/safety schools. Our family just chose a set of schools that were appealing, and if merit came so be it. Of course every family is different and makes the list differently.
I don’t think the OP required merit at safety/match schools, rather they said it would be a plus. With the kid’s stats, his list of appropriate match schools is going to be large, so editing down the list to be both academically appropriate and more affordable makes perfect sense. My son’s stats weren’t quite that high and we approached the list in a similar way.
Vassar has enough guys (to maintain a 50/50 ratio, which they seem keen on doing), but twice as many girls apply as guys, so it’s much easier to get in as a boy. Especially in ED, I would reckon.