I recall someone here whose S/D went to Wyoming with loads of merit $ and had a fabulous time.
LACs in the Northeast are definitely a rat race for admission, esp for East Coast young women.
Look at Lewis and Clark, Scripps, Puget Sound, St. Mary’s/CA, Colorado College, Western Washington Univ.
I think your D will find that many students work PT while in college. FA packages pretty much make it necessary.
Willamette is an excellent school in a great location. Most importantly, "merit scholarships may be stacked with other forms of financial aid such as need-based grants, low-interest loans, competitive scholarships and student employment.
http://willamette.edu/offices/finaid/undergraduate-students/scholarships/willamette-scholarships/index.html
I think that being a student on full scholarship at college will feel very different from being on full scholarship at a private HS. Generalizing here, but the majority of students at college attended public high schools, so the playing field will be a bit more even than at a private HS where few are on scholarship. There will be a broader range and wider distributions of income at college. The top students at college may have the same household income as the top students at private HS, but there will then be students all along the range from full pay to full ride.
What I am trying to say is that I don’t think she will feel as isolated as she did at her private HS, and I can understand how she would feel isolated as one of a small minority of scholarship students at HS.
I would worry about stretching to make a college work financially. If your D can obtain a full ride, she can use her summer earnings as spending money to buy clothing, go out on weekends near campus, travel home for breaks, etc. If she has to take out a loan and put her earnings toward meeting a financial gap, she will again feel like she is separate from her classmates.
Once OP nails down a school that will work for DD, Affordable and definitely will take her, Maybe a local school, maybe a CC, start looking at the dream schools. Look in the areas that interest DD . Get a list of those colleges, LACs, regionals , state Us, directional state colleges, Catholic schools. Apply to some with good financial aid, some with good merit possibilities.
Maybe take a look at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. It’s in a city, but a bit outside in a very green environment. The school has great academics and and a laid-back feel. It also has an enormous endowment that they use to attract top students. They have an extensive range of merit scholarships that are clearly-described on the website. We stumbled upon Trinity during our S’s junior year and it went straight to the top of the list.
You don’t need to go to a t20 school to get a good scholarship I have a friend who got a full ride room and board to Syracuse with high stats. Apply to a range so that she has as many options and backups as possible. For top schools I think she has a shot at schools like Vanderbilt ED or other ED that offer full financial aid. It’s better to get into one good school then not worry about admissions.
She’ll likely find friends who are similar in any environment. That being said, she might feel more comfortable in an honors college at a state school then a “top 20” But have her think about why she isn’t going to apply top 20. Many kids doubt themselves at this age. They believe they are imposters and will sink when they go to college. They hear so many stories of kids with perfect everything that they think they can’t keep up. If that were my daughter, I would not allow her to fall away from academic/top schools because of competition. At the best schools she’ll likely find more kids who are academic. At other schools she can still find this type of student, however. She might be one of those kids who really is saying they want to take a break. They want to go to an easier college because they are burnt out from high school. I’d have a frank discussion with her and see what is driving her.
There are many excellent schools in every state. She’ll need to dig deeper and see how colleges are ranked by her major. Having a geographical area she likes will help. I’d have her chose geography, size of school, things that are important ( good graduate program etc), and help her create a list. She’ll need to know what she wants and doing the research she’ll likely find a handful of schools which she can be excited about.
Based on what you wrote, my first thought would be OR, CO or Maine.
UVM hasn’t been mentioned…I know it’s East Coast (!) but it combines an interesting small city with lots of opportunities to get outside and hike or cross-country ski or whatever. The student population includes in-state with varied socioeconomic backgrounds with admittedly mostly wealthier out-of-state. Not sure what aid for out-of-state might be but I know kids who weren’t well-off who attended. Academics are excellent and the young people I know who attended have thrived during undergrad and in the years after graduation. Small sample though!
Good luck to you and your daughter. I would encourage her to not discount some of the top colleges especially places like Carleton, Haverford and Vassar (there are others) where the student body is more collaborative than competitive.
High school can be toxic at times, it doesn’t mean college has to be the same.
There’s certainly a lot going on here. A relatively high performing student, though I don’t see anything to suggest top of the top - no disrespect intended there, but are top 20 acceptances even likely? A desire to avoid a competitive environment, though courses of study being considered are generally on the collaborative side. A need to have college funded almost entirely by either merit or need-based aid. An interest in a healthy, outdoorsy lifestyle with wholesome activity options.
I think I’d read through the Fiske Guide and Princeton Review to narrow the possibilities, then find a reasonable option or two in the early action timeframe before choosing another half dozen or so options that fit the bill (literally and figuratively).
Does University of Alabama still give automatic full scholarships? Surprised this has not been mentioned
Isn’t UVM super stingy with OOS aid and merit? Plus it is among the most expensive state schools I believe.
@suzyQ7 it is my understanding (could be wrong, only personal experience) that U of AL does not give full scholarships except to NMF (and top recruit athletes!) They have a tiered scholarship system for tuition based on your ACT scores (the higher the score the more they give); but that still leaves you with living expenses (ie fees, room and board, books, tickets to sporting events are NOT included for students and they are limited - athletic dept. can make more money selling them to the general public since the Tide is the closest thing we have to a NFL team in Alabama).
My D18 was accepted into the Blount Scholars Program but unfortunately only got a Presidential Scholarship for her 33ACT (nothing extra for being a NM Commended student) and we are in-state (and I’m an alumnae). It was cheaper for her to go to Vanderbilt with their strong need based/no loan finaid (which covers almost all of her tuition) than to go to Alabama. Vanderbilt is a better fit for her anyway and she really did not want to stay in-state or be a huge school, so it worked out great … but a little surprising. URichmond was also cheaper for us with the aid they gave and UVa was equal (cheaper if we put in a no interest loan offered by UVa, but we backed out all loans in our figuring to make a better comparison to the Vandy offer). From our experience UA apparently does a great job of recruiting high achieving out-of-state students, but not so much love shown to high ranking in-state. But maybe it was just our experience. She got more money from Auburn (my husband’s alma mater) and UAB than UA… even though she preferred UA Honors and Blount Scholars Program.
Someone mentioned University of Richmond but it’s seems to be the opposite of what OP wants. The college only has 3,000 students and according to the student opinions “upper class, mostly kids from NY/NJ, preppy, conservative, stressed”.
This is the “rat race” and environment OP kid was trying to escape, no?
I hope OP looks into Berea College as I and some others mention the n previous post. It hits a lot of her wants and need.
The OP’s daughter is a likely humanities major, but a good school for a STEM major would be Harvey Mudd. They have a LAC approach to STEM and encourage collaboration, not competition.
Maybe I’m naive, but my sense is that Catholic colleges - even those in the T20 - have a more supportive community and a more holistic approach to education than the T20. Good luck to her!
@chicago5010
I was a bit concerned about our daughter (Fall '19 freshman) attending a school surrounded by rich private school kids driving fancy cars, living in expensive off-campus housing, and generally creating wealth-based social stratification in the student body. I’m very glad she will attend a school where virtually all students live on campus or in greek houses, public transit is readily available while parking isn’t, and clothing fashion appears to be free tech fair t-shirts and jeans. There are still a lot of high-income students, but also quite a few from more moderate means.
Her college search targeted “Top 20” schools because of both the academics but also the excellent need-based financial aid that their ma$$ive endowments allow. Depending on the school and major, these top schools might or might not have more academic difficulty/stress than a lower ranked school. Look at the 4-year graduation rate. If it’s in the 90% range it is obviously achievable for the enrolled students.
@1stTimeThruMom That’s a sweeping generalization. Catholics schools are not appropriate for many. I would love to see any evidence that points to this.
There are so very many more NON Top 20 or Top anything in the PNW, CA, CO and the areas that interest the OP’s DD. Look for full ride scholarships at schools in the area and go for them. Including at schools you’ve never heard about.
Sure, add Whitman and the few other schools in those areas that tend to meet, say 90% of need (just google “colleges that meet full need”) too. Getting into some of those will be a challenge but maybe less so than the east coast schools that are very much oversubscribed in the application season.
An interesting school in the mix that has sky rocketed in ratings is Soka University. Something unusual , off the beaten track, in CA , meets full need.