We just got home from visiting six schools and my daughter (interested in majoring in environmental science/studies/health or global health and then medical school) is struggling with making her final decision. Part of the challenge is because we recently got the award letters from her first (University of Rochester) and second choices (Dickinson) and they are no longer real options financially. She is very drawn to places that feel like they will be rigorous as she is tired of being in high school with lots of students not being prepared or taking school seriously. She was surprised to encounter similar things while sitting in on classes during some tours. She applied to schools where we felt she would be very desirable and thus be offered generous merit aid (she has three brothers who we will need to pay for college for soon) as we do not qualify for need-based aid but this means she did not apply to the most selective of schools.
She didn’t love Beloit and heard from students that the health advising (done by a committee of faculty rather than a dedicated health professions advisor) was weak and she felt the students were not very serious about academics. While I liked Beloit a lot, we had almost ruled it out until admissions contacted us after her visit and offered an additional 8k/yr scholarship on top the scholarship she had already been offered of 27k. This makes them clearly the best option from a financial perspective.
Allegheny had great health professions advising and strong environmental science and global health programs but she has concerns about it being challenging enough and the town of Meadville seemed like a very economically depressed place. They offered her a 28k scholarship.
St Lawrence was a lovely place with a strong environmental studies program but the diversity of students was seriously lacking. During the admitted student day we attended, everyone’s eyes popped when they learned we were from the southwest as everyone else was from NY or neighboring states. The students seemed very preppy and there was a strong emphasis on athletics. They only have a faculty committee to handle health advising. They also offered her a 28K scholarship but they are almost 10k more expensive than the other schools.
Along the way, she kept saying she would be happy at any of these schools but as the decision gets closer and some schools are no longer an option, the decision feels difficult and confusing for her. Any thoughts or perspectives on any of these schools or making the decision would be very helpful.
Regarding your perceptions of St Lawrence, they are probably true, but Allegheny will be about the same in terms of ethnic and geographical diversity, and Allegheny is sporty as well.
I know two young people absolutely thriving at Allegheny. One is also from the Southwest. These schools are not easy to travel to and I would take that into account as well. Have you asked Dickinson or Rochester for more money?
I have a call scheduled with Rochester tomorrow but her merit award was only 10k and they are pretty expensive. My hopes are not high that they would be able to increase it enough. While her grades and class rankings are high, her test scores would not place her in the top 25% at Rochester. Dickinson did not offer her any merit aid as they didn’t think she would actually come (seemed like strange logic to me given that she reached out and did an interview) although she was encouraged to appeal this and would likely be offered 10K. Their top merit awards are only 15 and 20k and she would not qualify for these based on scores.
Beloit is in a pretty good spot, 50 miles south of Madison (and UW med school and hospitals), about 75-90 minutes from Milwaukee and Chicago, and maybe 2.5 hours from Green Bay if she wanted to watch the legendary Green Bay Packers.
Beloit was one of the few other schools I was considering way back when I was considering colleges. I ended up at UW because I love(d) it, but Beloit would have been my second app if I had applied to a second school (I was clueless about admissions…). It is known for academic quality; it’s the top LAC in the state along with Lawrence, and people in the area respect a Beloit degree.
I just wanted to chime in - my son rejected a number of the CTCL schools because he thought the students were not serious enough for him based on attending a class, but he applied to both Allegheny and Beloit.
We never visited Allegheny in the end because he had other choices, but we have a neighbor who is a current freshman who confirms the sporty and somewhat frat-driven social life.
Beloit is still under consideration for my son; according to the common data set, it has a somewhat higher percentage of kids (25%) who scored over 700 on at least one section of the SAT than some of the other CTCL schools he had been considering.
For my son, the quirky/nerdy vibe from the Beloit students is a big draw.
I never visited Rochester, and though I thought Dickinson was lovely, it was too foreign language focused and had a student body that seemed somewhat "stylish" (not preppy, per se, but lots of kids in stylish boots/shoes/outfits etc) - and another neighbor who says the sports teams are important for socializing- so not the right vibe for my t-shirted video game player.
I’m so sorry for your D that her preferred options are too expensive - I totally get how that makes choosing among the others difficult.
Anyway, we only ever visited Beloit of the three on your list, but for my History/Computer Science kid, we have our fingers crossed that there will be enough of a critical mass of serious students.
Btw - did your D apply to Juniata? They have a strong Environmental Science program - they also seem to have a small but critical mass of serious students, particularly in Biology (we atrended a local session with current students and alums - the 2 clearly very bright young women included an alum working at NIH and a senior headed to Brown for graduate school).
Best of luck to your D (and my S) with about a week to make a decision!
Thank you, @CoyoteMom. I firmly believe both our kids will land well. It is just so hard watching her suffer through this decision. She is a really easy going and grounded kid but this decision has raised to the surface all these ideas she has been fed by others about what the college you attend says about you and your value. She and your S will thrive and contribute no matter where they attend college. I asked her about Juniata because it had been on her list but they didn’t do the common app and It didn’t seem that different on paper so she didn’t apply.
@prezbucky thanks for sharing how Beloit is seen from folks in the area. It is helpful when name recognition doesn’t stretch to the whole country. I could really see myself there as a student during our two visits and am confident she will do well if she attends.
@bloodking My D also applied to a number of CTCL schools because we are chasing merit and ended up being somewhat disappointed in some of them. When she visited and sat in on classes, some didn’t have the kind of intellectual dynamic she was seeking. FWIW, Dickinson fell into that category but she just might have been unlucky about which classes she visited.
If it helps, I know a professor at Rice who is savvy in the ways of higher ed. One of her sons went to Beloit and she had nothing but good things to say about it. He is now in a fully-funded graduate program at a well regarded research university (can’t remember the particulars but it’s social science/humanities, not STEM).
Are there any other choices other than those you listed?
Have you tried a financial appeal at Rochester? Given that you have other good offers on the table, maybe they might be able to offer some merit aid if you assure them that it would be her first choice if the money were better?
I am the parent of a current Beloiter who grew up in Los Angeles. I can’t speak about the other schools other than to say my D was turned off by the sporty/greek culture she perceived at Allegheny when she spoke with one of their admissions reps.
My D came from a highly challenging public program. She was in Beloit’s top 25th percentile. I will admit that she found her first year to be somewhat easy. But, she has other non-academic challenges, so I think that was ok…it allowed her to develop a more well-rounded focus. This situation really allowed her to shine and a number of faculty have taken notice of her.
I think she has found this year to be more challenging academically, but she is still doing well. In addition, she has expanded her extracurricular obligations even more in student government and she joined a sorority (yes, she’s the same kid who was turned off by greek life). She probably serves on 4-6 boards/committees. I think it’s a good balance for her.
Beloit definitely has that quirky/nerdy vibe as well as a high PHF (purple hair factor). My D dyed her hair for about nine months and is done with that. But, the people are as nice as can be: a major reason my D chose Beloit. There are plenty of student athletes on campus, but there are kids like my D who enjoy hanging out with friends to watch anime and poke fun of bad movies. There are also opportunities to head up to Madison or down to Chicago. A number of classes take field trips to Chicago.
We have been hosted for dinner by another Beloit family in our travels and will pay it forward in the same way. My D’s friend received a grant for a project here and will spend two weeks with us this summer. I never thought that we’d also benefit from her choice of school, but we’re very happy with how it’s turning out.
@Earthmama68 Thank you, but I can’t take credit for that. There’s another poster whose daughter coined the phrase and I’ve adopted it because it was a great descriptor. BTW, my D dyed hers blue.
@mamaedefamilia thank you for sharing about your friend’s son. Beloit has a very good reputation of students going on to earn their PhDs which speaks highly for the students’ abilities and the school’s preparation.
I will contact Beloit tomorrow to ask for some more info about students going on to medical school. They don’t mention this in the materials and only one student we met there was pre-med and he was a freshman. This is one area that Allegheny has some definite strength.
I spoke to Rochester today and they said they would only be able to increase her merit by a few thousand and that leaves it far out of our reach financially. She also was accepted at our state school in NM and could go there for free and to DePaul in Chicago and Fordham (also too little aid).
@bloodking UNM is reasonable for pre-med and it’s good value for the money. Did your daughter look into their BS-MD program? A friend of my daughter’s decided to go there so she could bank money for med school and so far, so good. Another did Barrett Honors at ASU, also for affordability. Has your D looked into the Honors Program at UNM?
I am also in the West and UNM seems to be a popular WUE option.
@1518mom it is so nice to hear about your D positive experience at Beloit. I am very confident my daughter will fit in nicely there as she is a Harry Potter loving, viola player with a nose ring.
The closeness to Chicago is nice as well. We used to live there and we have close friends she can visit and she knows and loves the city.
My only reservation with Beloit is related to her interest in going into medicine and that doesn’t seem to be a common path for students and thus there are fewer supports or examples of success.
Our daughter is going to Juniata for sciences. They offered excellent merit aid, about the same as Beloit, and they have a great track record for getting kids into medical school and veterinary school. Everybody gets two advisers and there’s a lot of personalized attention. She also liked Beloit very much and would have been happy to go there. Her other choices were Kenyon and Grinnell, but the aid packages were nowhere near Juniata and Beloit.
Juniata often has last-minute class openings. If your daughter is interested, she should look on the website and call the admissions counselor for your area. (We were really impressed with the admissions person for our area, too.)
St. Lawrence seems like a good opportunity. Your impressions of SLU’s students may be generally accurate, but the school has a lot in its favor when viewed across all of its aspects.
My wife did her undergrad at Beloit and was admitted to one the best clinical Medicine programs anywhere. It is possible. She has fond memories of Beloit. They treated her very well…and no, she never dyed her hair.
