Small LAC for Student w Good Stats, But Not a Lot of $

Junior D is a good student (3.95 unweighted/4.6 weighted) with a 130 PSAT (will take SATs in Jun). AP classes, sports, clubs, some leadership, national ski patroller, NHS, etc. She wants a small school, has no interest in Greek Life (a school having it is ok, just don’t want it to be a major activity on campus). Not a party kid (would like to keep it that way as much as poss!) She will need merit (we’d love to have cost be the same/close as our large in-state univ, which is about $22,000 tuition and room/board). PA, MD, or VA would be her ideal (we are in MD).

We have visited Juniata, Susquehanna, and Lynchburg.

Also wondering if doing an honors program at a large school would make it “smaller”. The thing we like the most about the small LACs is the closeness to the professors and advisers. Possible at a large school? Thank you!

Honors programs are a great, cost-effective way to get many of the benefits of a smaller school at big, public U prices. I don’t know if those programs will give the same type of relationships that students and professors have at LACs but the flip side is that there may be a wider selection of research opportunities at the big U. So definitely put honors programs on her radar.

The high quality LAC merit opportunities I’ve seen have been in the midwest, but University of Richmond might be a contender in your region.

Allegheny, Ursinus, Washington & Jefferson all offer great merit.

Look at this list of Colleges that Change Lives (you have seen some but there might be other good options) http://ctcl.org/category/college-profiles/

Another option might be Muhlenberg ¶ which gives good merit aid.

And might any of the Jesuit schools work (more mid-size universities but typically have small classes, no Greek Life) such as Loyola-MD or St. Joes ¶ work? http://www.ajcunet.edu/institutions/

If you’re willing to consider smallish public universities, some of the PASSHE schools offer tuition of 150% for eligible high-achieving OOS students, and your D might qualify. I know Slippery Rock and Shippensburg do this; there could be others. McDaniel in Maryland might be worth a look, but the merit aid might not be there. Have you disqualified UMBC for one reason or another? I’m thinking Frostburg and Salisbury are likely too party-heavy.

Perhaps some of the public LACs that are not that expensive even for out-of-state students? For example:

Truman State University
University of Minnesota - Morris

“we’d love to have cost be the same/close as … about $22,000 tuition and room/board).”

Our large in-state is close to this, or a bit more, but is big. My youngest wanted a small school (1500-4000 students total). We looked at a few LACs in the northeast (where we live) but didn’t find anything even close to this price. What we found for about this price (about US$25k without any aid for tuition plus fees plus room and board) were several small universities in eastern Canada. We looked at five of them and really liked all of them. However, we live close enough to the northern border that it made sense for us.

“The thing we like the most about the small LACs is the closeness to the professors and advisers.”

Definitely something my daughter wanted (and got) also.

Have you looked at St Mary’s College of Md? It’s designated as the Honors College of Maryland. It’s in-state for you–even better. The science depts are very strong, and (I assume) with the historical St Mary’s city right on campus, history should be a strength as well.

She has high stats for Lynchburg, which gives very good merit aid, so she’d get the highest level. It also has a separate scholarship competition. But it may have too much Greek life for your D. Mine started there because of the great aid, but it turned out not to be a good fit.

Check out Earlham. It’s in Indiana and consistently ranks very high in teaching quality and classroom experience. I was pretty wowed by this one and continue to be impressed by the graduates from there. Definitely small…

Washington and Jefferson isn’t mentioned enough. It’s a great little school. It has some impressive grads too. Roger Godell of the NFL. The Rooney family who own the Steelers have many grads including current president. Just to name a few.

“Roger Godell of the NFL”

Not a popular name here in New England. >:P

Earlham is a great suggestion, though the merit aid is seems to top out around usually 1/2 tuition, leaving definitely more than $22k to pay. Tuition and room and board costs are lower than many east coast schools, so with tuition at about $46k and room and board another $10-11k, it would still likely be around $33-35k. Kalamazoo is another midwest LAC with no greek life and good merit awards, roughly similar merit and tuition to Earlham. Centre, in KY, might be another to consider, it has greek life but is “non-traditional” as I think they are not affiliated with national organizations, plus good merit. I realize those don’t hit the OP’s geographic sweet spot but there is more merit generally to be found in the midwest LACs.

I’m going to second the vote for St. Mary’s. The campus is just darling, historic St. Mary’s City is right next door and if you like boating at all it’s wonderful. It’s a bit rural for my kid, but I know some kids who went there recently who absolutely love it.

Thank you all for your input!

McDaniel, St. Marys, and W&J are on our radar. She wasn’t interested in UMBC (maybe too big, maybe too close to home!) but we are eyeing for our other D who is transferring from a 2 yr school and it interested in computer science.

@Barbalot - what about Lynchburg was not a fit for your D?

Second for Muhlenberg. Great school with very involved staff. Minimal Greek life. Very good aid. Worth a look. Best of luck to you!

The Honors program at University of Delaware can be very personal in terms of faculty interaction. Also a very nice honors programs at Pitt, Penn State, Ohio State and Miami. Ohio University has a tutorial college, but one has to be pretty sure of major because it’s unlikely credits from tutorial classes will transfer to another school.

Truman and UMn-Morris are good options. There are some LACs in Canada like Mt Saint Allison in New Brunswick (there are some others like it if this is even of remote interest).

SUNY Geneseo is the honors liberal arts college in NY and NY OOS tuition is relatively low.

Rochester is a small university with a LAC feel and a very studious student body that gives good merit.

I’ll cast a third suggestion for St. Mary’s College of Maryland where my D is a student. No Greek life and with merit aid, the cost of attendance should be right in your range. My D also seriously looked at Juniata, Wooster, and some other CTCL schools and found that even with great merit aid, they couldn’t come close to St. Mary’s. Most ended up with a COA in the $30,000 range while St. Mary’s was about $8000 less for her. She really preferred St. Mary’s for many other reasons besides $ and loves it there!

What about College of Wooster? Muhlenberg? St Lawrence? Hobart&William Smith? Thinking St Olaf would be a good fit but not sure it’d be within budget. Luther, Gustavus Adophus, Concordia-Moorhead are similar but less selective so more generous with merit.
Seconding St Mary’s, UMN Morris, and Truman State.

Don’t know about the merit, but look into Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA.

A little further afield, Denison University is a rising LAC in a pretty town near Columbus, Ohio, that seems to be giving very generous merit aid to high-stats kids lately. It used to be known for Greek life but I think (hope) that Greek life is diminishing. I hear that the current administration is assertively trying to steer the school toward high academics and economic/racial diversity.