Would it be helpful for the OP to clarify her daughter’s wants, now with the new info on this thread?
Particularly, the desire for large merit aid is incompatible with also wanting a highly selective school. Which is more important? That will help suggestions be more useful.
Also, the concentration of rural d3 schools is in the northeast. Would the daughter be willing to travel farther than a 3-4 hour plane ride?
OP said up to a 4 hour plane ride is fine. I think they might be able to do this from where they live!
Grinnell came to mind first. Rose Hulman? The problem with a lot of these schools is the plane ride. Most likely multiple stops and a drive. More than 4 hours.
If your daughter might be interested in extending her search geographically, it seems the NPCs for Williams or Hamilton would be worth checking. These schools, along with Kenyon, may represent picture postcards of what she seeks for her college atmosphere.
I wanted to chime in to suggest Washington and Lee as well. I have a child that attends there. We are from the northeast and my son is somewhat liberal. Like your daughter he was number 1 in his class. If she enjoys the outdoors, they have a very large outdoors club that has all sorts of outing. They also have many other things to get involved with. If she is able to get the Johnson Scholarship, it is truly an amazing scholarship
F&M has no merit. Near Pittsburgh are Washington and Jefferson and Allegheny - other than noted schools in the city.
OP should definitely look into the WUE. As well as cheap top publics - i.e. Truman State.
They can guarantee under $40K instead of relying on merit. Yes, chase the merit but have some 100% affordable in the bag!!
On the 4 hour thing - if you look at most of these schools - the flight is just the beginning!!! And they are looking at Sewanee and now W&L - so again, I say - what’s the difference - Ohio, PA, NY, etc - at that point it’s all the same.
Save On College Tuition | Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) (wiche.edu)
Schools that are small, rural, with biomedical sciences as a major and in cold locations include:
Susquehanna University (PA, 2200 students)
College of the Ozarks (MO, 1500 students)
University of South Dakota (SD…less than 5700 undergrads)
And I bet that with your D’s stats, all of these would be very forthcoming with merit aid.
and U of SD is a WUE school.
Augustana another - in town - but that town if Sioux Falls - and they can be aggressive.
A few more possibilities. These are rural, small, with biology majors and in cold locations. The first four are slightly smaller, with around 1500 students.
Whitman College (WA)
Hillsdale College (MI)
Linfield University (OR)
Albion College (MI)
Missouri University of Science & Technology (MO, 6,000 undergrads)
Benedictine College (KS, 2000 undergrads)
And a good safety (including financially), UC Merced (8300 undergrads)
D said she read it’s a different style there. Grinnell is actually still on her list actually. I’ll talk further with her about it.
It’s hard for me to do the estimators now because my income was all over the place the last couple years because I was on workers comp disability leave off and on. I’m now retired collecting a pension.
We do have a 2nd family home, in our names, but it has a pretty low value. We do have one rental property that was my home before getting married. So yes, our estimate will likely be a little complicated.
I’m going to give it a try though.
I added W&L to her list to look into, thank you for the info.
Thank you for the suggestions, there’s a couple you mentioned (in MI) that we didn’t know about that may fit. Added to the list!
I wish she would be more open to the east coast! There’s so many more colleges that are her style there. There’s been so many great suggestions on this thread…she’s looking into 6 more that weren’t on her list!
Also, I looked at flights today and found that it’s a shorter (non stop) flight to many of the schools (like the ones in MN and TN) than going to Whitman in Washington…since we can’t go direct. That’s an angle I’ll be going over with her.
With W&L, it’s all about the Johnson. The good news is 10% get it. They also have other merit - if you live in Dallas (you don’t), if you’re Jewish, etc…just other ones. It’s like Sewanee - but cuter town and far more prestigious and with a lower rate of acceptance.
Check out Hendrix too in Conway Ark because they’ll likely match your in state flagship rate.
And Truman State - very respected in Missouri.
And don’t forget WUE - for west coast residents, it’s awesome. I keep pushing it because it has many that work for you cost wise…more should take advantage of it.
FYI - Hillsdale - fine school - but one of the most conservative colleges in the country…I don’t know 100% your politics but glean you are flexible but it’s #63 of 1700…good school though. Neighbor did physics there and then engineering at Notre Dame - had a fine experience.
Thank you for the info, W&L, Truman and Hillsdale sound like great options for her!
Academically, schools such as Carleton, Grinnell and St. Olaf represent great choices for a student interested in biology.
Regarding cold and snow, you may want to research the actual climates of locations of potential interest. For example, Grinnell, while quite cold in the winter, receives less than one third the snowfall of some east coast colleges, at just 27 inches annually. This characterizes the upper plains in general — cold to very cold (as in Northfield) in the winter, but not especially snowy.
Carleton and St Olaf are top of her list to visit. I really think she has no clue what that kind of cold is like!
If you are coming from West coast there are direct flights to Pasco, WA and then it is a 1 hour drive to Whitman. Many students do this rather than Walla Walla to Seattle. This is comparable to St. Olaf and Carleton, both direct flights and then 45 min drives to the airport.
Yes, I acknowledged in my post it was a longer flight, but worth a look possibly. I could see it being in the range $$ but would take a bit longer to get there for sure.