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My niece just transferred into Immaculata University in PA as a junior; she’s playing field hockey. Her merit aid package at Immaculata is higher than the aid she received at her previous school.</p>
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<p>That should be noted for others seeking good merit as transfer students. Was the scholarship all “merit” or was any of it related to playing her sport?</p>
<p>Holy Cross is a well regarded Catholic college in New England that seems to be getting a lot of positive attention recently. Boston College comes to mind but may be too large for your purposes. I was surprisingly impressed with Notre Dame when my son and I visited (but I realize that it is slightly outside of the geographic area that you specified), but we did not visit the others.</p>
<p>I have met multiple graduates of Franciscan University (Ohio) who liked their experience there even if disliking the area of Ohio.</p>
<p>I don’t think BC, Notre Dame, or Holy Cross give merit awards. And if they do, they would be very very competitive.</p>
<p>According to the other thread from the OP, they can only afford $45,000 and would need merit aid to supplement (apparently don’t qualify for need based aid). All three of these schools cost well over $50,000 a year.</p>
<p>My kids’ pediatrician went to Immaculata! It’s a formerly all girls college with a strong alumnae network in Philadelphia. </p>
<p>Holy Cross does give some merit scholarships for Classics majors, Music majors and a few others. HC also has a fantastic alumni network and consistently one of the highest alumni giving rates 50-55%(only Notre Dame comes close).</p>
<p>I live near Providence College - it is very well regarded locally with a great alumni network. I know dozens and dozens of alumni and current students and they are all remarkably happy with their career and life choices…and all huge boosters of the school.</p>
<p>Xavier in Cincinnati does have merit scholarships. S with a 31 ACT was offered a 15K automatic scholarship in 2010. D2 is applying this fall - not sure if merit is currently at the same level. Nice campus with lots of building going on. MOST dorms pretty good though there are a couple that are old-time yucky. </p>
<p>Again, would be great to know your D’s area(s) of interest. </p>
<p>Hi abasket, my D’s area of interest is neuroscience/psychology. Her plan is to go to medical school or get a doctorate in psychology. She was to attend a school where she will be with peers who will challenge her. I can relate to her on this point. It does make a diference when the students sitting around you in a class are at or about the same level (or higher if you are lucky). She is a discipline and diligent worker but likes to laugh and enjoy herself. She runs cross country and very much wants to do so in college. She has several coaches talking to her but all with schools where the tuition, room and board amount to over 60,000. </p>
<p>Not catholic, but christian, Geneva college has a biopsycholgy major.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.geneva.edu/object/biopsychology”>http://www.geneva.edu/object/biopsychology</a></p>
<p>If your daughter is taking pre-med prerequisite courses…especially the upper level ones, she will be surrounded by smart, motivated students regardless of where she attends college. You know…there are bright and capable premed students at almost every college.</p>
<p>I would strongly urge you to look at instate public options for your daughter. If there is an honors college, it will make that larger school seem smaller. And it will save you a ton of money that you can put towards medical school should she be accepted.</p>
<p>St Vincent has a merit calculator</p>
<p><a href=“Unknown Address”>Unknown Address;
<p>Hi Thumper, Yes, I know that there are bright and intelligent people at every college, but I also know that it makes a difference when the admission standards are more difficult. I started college at Bucknell. The students there were very intellligent and my classes were definitely challenging. I HAD to work to get good grades. Everyone was smart!! I ended up transferring after my first year because my parents could not afford to continue sending me there because of circumstances that came up. I transferred to a Jesuit college. The students there were bright and intelligent and wonderful (I have great friends and we all keep in touchl!!), but the students and classes were not of the same caliber as the students at Bucknell. It was easier to get good grades at the college to which I transferred. </p>
<p>Well a high GPA is important for pre-med right? And if she is a the top of applicant pool there is a higher chance of merit aid and less cost for undergrad and more money left for med school.
Also it would be better if you received a merit scholarship for 4 years to stay at the school instead of transferring and maybe getting less merit aid.</p>
<p>Oh please. My daughter graduated from a Jesuit undergrad school as an engineering/biology major. There were plenty of smart kids there. Plenty. And the work was challenging.</p>
<p>If your daughter wants to go to medical,school, she wants the highest possible GPA and highest possible science GPA. And her MCAT needs to be superlative as well. She can be prepared for this at most any undergrad school. She doesn’t need to attend a $65,000 plus undergrad school to be a competitive applicant for medical schools.</p>
<p>I think the small mistake you made was taking her to these highly selective, but unaffordable colleges. It’s like looking at a $700,000 house when you can afford to finance a $350,000 house. If you look at $700,000 homes, those $350,000 ones might not look so swanky. But really…there can be some hidden gems in theses homes too…and with some sweat equity, you can have a pretty nice place to live.</p>
<p>There are many hundreds of smaller colleges with excellent science preparation…for the prerequisite courses for medical school. </p>
<p>You need to start looking outside of the $65,000 box. Look at other options. Smaller schools, less competitive schools,where YOUR kid will be the standout…and get research opportunities, and excel. Where she will receive attention from her professors. Where she will have opportunities for internships and summer research.</p>
<p>You don’t have to pay $65,000 for this…you don’t.</p>
<p>And your kid doesn’t need to go to a school in the top 30 to get accepted to medical school.</p>
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<p>sorry, but that is not a given. </p>
<p>The way it often works is THIS…</p>
<p>If your child chooses a tough academic major, then likely the school’s best students will be in that major. Surely you understand that a school’s best students are NOT equally spread out amongst all of its majors. </p>
<p>My son is in med school. He went to our state flagship which does not have difficult admissions. However, the top 30% have an ACT 30+…so guess where those 30% are mostly found??? They are found in about 12 majors: Eng’g, math, bio, chem, physics, English, The Classics, Business, History, Poly Sci, psych, Music Performance, and a few others.</p>
<p>It does NOT matter AT ALL if there are some lower-performing kids in some of the less-academic majors BECAUSE your kid will NOT be in those classes. </p>
<p>And if your child comes in with some AP credits, then she will skip on past the GE classes that these kids might be in.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, when your child is taking the post 100 versions of classes, her classmates will be the best of the best. </p>
<p><<<<
Well a high GPA is important for pre-med right? And if she is a the top of applicant pool there is a higher chance of merit aid and less cost for undergrad and more money left for med school.
Also it would be better if you received a merit scholarship for 4 years to stay at the school instead of transferring and maybe getting less merit aid.
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<p>Very good point. </p>
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<p>This is very true. </p>
<p>I don’t know how familiar you are with the premed process. </p>
<p>Each fall there are usually a large number of incoming frosh claiming to be Premed. For instance, at some schools, there may be 400 frosh claiming to be Premed. Then they start their journey. They take Principals of Bio I and Gen Chem I (these are the versions for STEM majors and premeds) and QUICKLY a good number drop classes and change their goals after the first test or so. Then first semester grades come out. Then maybe another 50-100 change goals. Then Chem II and Bio II cause more to change their minds. </p>
<p>At this point there may only be 200 remaining premeds.</p>
<p>And then comes Organic Chem I and II…the dreaded super-weeder classes along with Physics I and II and the other prereqs.</p>
<p>After soph year, there may only be 100 left standing. These are the best of the best. I am not saying that the other 300 were dolts. No, many were likely high stats students themselves, but not cut out for the hard sciences or the kind of thinking that Orgo requires. Their strengths may be elsewhere. (Usually the weakest students are the ones who weeded out after the first tests.)</p>
<p>Wouldn’t Holy Cross be pretty much the premier small Catholic college in that area?</p>
<p>ETA: obviously I should have read the whole thread before posting.</p>
<p>What about Stonehill?</p>
<p>Holy Cross is well-regarded…I know several students there now and it seems to me to be the choice for those who were not accepted at Notre Dame. I would caution anyone considering Holy Cross to visit - it’s location in Worcester is not very pretty and may be a problem for some. They also highly consider interest, so a visit is really mandatory for anyone serious. Stonehill is much less selective and tiny.</p>
<p>I came across this post in another thread and thought I would quote it here: </p>
<p>In reinserting myself into this thread (and agreeing with Garland), I’ll start by reiterating that I think the biggest advantage to attending one of these “elite” schools is the concentration of smart, highly motivated students, which creates an environment that is a formative experience in and of itself. Can you find a similarly stimulating niche for yourself at other, less selective schools? Absolutely. The only thing missing will be the ubiquity of that vibe, which, as SBmom has said, is palpable at the schools we’re talking about. It’s like the difference between honors courses and standard courses. Are there smart kids in the standard courses? Absolutely, and they will go on to do well wherever they go. Is there a concentration of smart kids in the standard courses–that critical mass of drive, intelligence, and interest that makes a good honors course a superior experience for those who “fit?” NO.</p>
<p>Quite a few pages back, dstark asked if I, as a BU alum, felt inferior to people who attended elite schools. Well, no, I never have, and participating in CC discussions has only confirmed that sense. But I did have a half dozen friends from my HS attending Harvard at the same time I was at BU, and spent a good deal of time over there visiting and attending parties, etc. I knew many interesting people at BU, many of whom became very successful, but for anyone to claim that there is not a significant difference in what one will encounter in a Harvard dorm/classroom and what one will encounter in typical BU experiences is simply uninformed. There were downsides at Harvard too–a lack of street smarts and some serious dorkishness. But the intellectual firepower, the drive, the curiosity, were hugely noticable, as they have been in recent years during various “elite” college visits involving my children.</p>
<p>Regarding the “connections” issue–I had an interesting experience over the weekend, which is why I popped back in here. It’s just an anecdote, I hope no one will read more into it than they should, or become ticked off. I attended a funeral, and ran into one of the aforementioned friends/classmates who went to Harvard. He went on to Yale Law after that, and a very successful career in the politics/media nexus, and since my son is looking at some of those schools now (those that offer a dual major that includes music performance), I was interested in his thoughts. We had an interesting chat, but the only time he became truly animated and enthusiastic was after he asked about my daughter–“she’s at Williams??? That’s an incredible school! I think it’s the best school in country. I’ve never seen career paths like the ones I see from Williams people–their network is unbelievable.” This from a Harvard/Yale guy who knows more about networking and connectedness than anyone else I know. I don’t mean it to be an ad for Williams–I’m sure similarly-pedigreed folks can say the same thing about a lot of others schools. It was just interesting to hear from an extremely savvy and wired-in HY (albeit totally east-coast) guy that HYP weren’t necessarily the be-all and end-all of the in crowd. 
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<p>Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Holy Cross habe been the Catholic academic powers for well over 100 years and probably in that order. HC has only 3000 students and is strictly undergraduate. HC like ND meets 100% of demonstrated financial need. The HC campus is very nice and the school competes in the highly selective Patriot League(Colgate, Bucknell, Lehigh etc). HC ALSO HAS THE OLDEST ATHLETIC RIVALRY with many of the Ivies(Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, Brown)-many of the rivalries date back to the 1900’s very remarkable for a Catholic school to play the Ivies in that era.</p>