If she’s looking at Denison, Earlham makes the geographic cut. Punches way above it’s weight pre med and offers good merit.
3 Likes
Washington and Lee will take a long time to get to. The closest airports will not have direct flights, and they are all more than an hour’s drive away.
You could fly to Washington DC, and then drive 3 hours. Guessing that door to door it’s about a 10 hour trip.
2 Likes
Yes, that’s why the four hour thing really makes no sense. If you do W&L, you go Roanoke. If you do Seweanne, your are Nashville or Atlanta and a long, expensive shuttle or you do Chattanooga and it’s still an hour.
When you look at schools like they are seeking - transport is not going to be easy regardless - even if it’s a Dennison and it’s 45 minutes, etc.
On the flipside, you are going to the place of your dreams - or at W&L chasing the Johnson (which 10% get or one of their full tuition) - so what’s a little transport cost in exchange?
Most “rural” schools will have this issue.
But would you rather pay $40K (the target) and a flight and $100 shuttle. or free and a flight and a $200 shuttle, etc.?
Anyone going to a school that’s far from a major airport either has to take two flights and a long shuttle or one flight and a longer shuttle.
If you go to Grinnell, for example, it’s like going to W&L - Des Moines or Cedar Rapid.
To me, finding the right school at the right budget (with $$ baked in for travel) is most pertinent.
I don’t see $40K with merit at most of these schools - especially when you add in other costs, etc.
To me, that’s why you make sure a few schools can “guarantee” to get you there to $40K is important- i.e. applying to colleges whose COA with either auto merit (Ms. State to show rural or UAH for suburban), highly perceived merit (a Miami of Ohio), or just flat out low cost (W Carolina, Truman State, WUE school)
All these schools we are mentioning above will have strong merit but are still an unknown as to whether they will get you from COA to the necessary level - so they are worth pursuing as long as you ensure you have the 100% will come in under budget on the list too!!
2 Likes
Agree, rural usually isn’t close to a major airport.
They are too far, but since a lot of schools that have been suggested also are too far, I’ll throw out Hobart (generous merit) and St. Lawrence, both in upstate NY.
7 Likes
In terms of the distance requirement…we had a kid who went to college across the country…all the way across. Even with a four hour direct flight (tough to find with rural schools), the student should plan on a full day of travel, and the likelihood of not having one direct flight.
Since it’s one full day of travel (getting to the airport, time at the airport, flight time, drive home from the airport), I’m not sure a time limit within the U.S. is needed.
6 Likes
Haven’t read all, but W&L is not going to give her the kind of cold weather she seems to want and it’s pretty conservative. She might get a bit of snow, but it’s not very likely she will get to ski much, if at all. If she is willing to fly to VA, she should really consider broadening her chances and look at some schools in PA and NY where she would probably get merit. Bucknell, Susquehanna, Juniata and Gettysburg come to mind. Skidmore, Hobart & William Smith, Ithaca, Union in New York offer merit aid. She might offer geographic diversity at those schools.
4 Likes
Consider this school only if you are very conservative by today’s standards. Due to its stance its reputation could be tarnished or enhanced - pending future employers.
Liberty (too big for you to consider so only put on here as a comparison) is another that comes to mind in a similar manner. Employers who agree with their religious stance like hiring their grads, but many don’t. 'Tis best when kids know what they are in for going in.
If you like Hillsdale and don’t mind a little more Christian and perhaps a little less political, consider Grove City in PA. It gets high marks from students at our high school who have gone there and is rural.
Northern Va has ski slopes. Massanutten comes to mind as relatively close. It’s small though. WVA has some larger ones.
This one will definitely provide snow, cold, skiing, and rural! It was more or less in my back yard growing up. I kept a horse there and rode a few times a week at their stables.
6 Likes
Seconding Grove City College, which has not only excellent academics but very low cost for a private school. Total cost for tuition, fees, room and board is just under $30,000. Your daughter would probably receive scholarship aid, further reducing the cost.
3 Likes
Thank you for the suggestion, I’ll look into that as Whitman is on our list to visit and go to a prospect camp.
2 Likes
The allure of W&L is only the Johnson or a full tuition scholarship. That’s their only merit.
Skiing in PA or VA is existent but not good. She’s looking at Hillsdale - I think W&L will be just fine.
The point is - purely on merit - to get to $40K elsewhere is unlikely at most the schools mentioned.
W&L, btw, is one of the highest ranked colleges for students wanting the outdoors - tons of activities.
She also wants prestige - not Ivy but near. So in theory, none of the other colleges work but Skidmore is closest on your list in regards to selectivity.
Again, I don’t disagree with anyone’s suggestions - but I’m looking at the $40K # - and why I say, she needs to add schools that are a guarantee of $40K as back up in the likelihood they can’t find it elsewhere.
I guess our experience at W&L - the kids we spoke with on the quad including an african american student, the prof we spoke to, going through the scholarship process for Weinstein, talking to our neighbor who went there - it’s so different than anything I hear people talk about on this website.
3 Likes
Don’t’ mean to comment on everyone’s selections - but Grove City is highly religious and is #11 of 1700 schools in conservative rank. If that’s what the OP wants, that’s fine - but I don’t get that sense.
3 Likes
“Conservative” could mean different things to different levels. For example, “conservative” could mean strict religion-based student life rules but not so much politics, or the other way around. If the OP wants conservative, they may want to note what dimensions they want and how each college matches or does not match.
5 Likes
Yes, I only mentioned Grove City IF they liked Hillsdale and didn’t mind the more open Christian aspect.
It’s not one to consider if they don’t.
Working at a school I’m used to modifying my recommendations based upon what a student is looking for. In person they can tell me. On an internet board I have to make guesses.
4 Likes
The colleges in New Mexico would work. Plenty of outdoors activities, close to great skiing, and price should be at the price point. But UNM is in a city.
I’m thinking there might need to be some kind of compromise on something here.
2 Likes
Hi @SoCalDriver: Welcome to CC! We had a very similar search for D21 last year and are now back for another go-round with S23: both very high stats, 3.98/4.8ish GPAs, NMFs/mid 1500s SATs, etc. Both would be candidates for the tippy-tops, but we are full-pay but not willing/able to pay >80/yr just for undergrad, so I became an expert on merit aid at LACs. (Our budget was a max of 50K/year, so we were targeting fairly highly ranked schools which provided 1/2 tuition merit scholarships.)
I learned a ton. You can search my previous posts and replies, including this one:
Based on our family’s experience, the OP is off to a great start and there is lots of great advice here, but a few posters are off on a few things.
The first is that Carleton no longer gives a penny of merit aid other than token amount for NMF. (This changed very recently, so posters were correct about their merit aid as of just a few years ago.) What they do give is ‘need-based’ aid fairly high up into what most people would consider to be upper middle-class, although if the OP is from CA and owns two homes and a rental property, their family is unlikely to qualify. But it’s worth a shot.
Same with Colorado College: No more merit aid other than token NMF, although it sounds like that one’s already off the list. Same with Middlebury.
The schools I second as great fits are: St. Olaf (a pre-med powerhouse that punches WAY above its weight in biology), Grinnell, Whitman, Kenyon, and Denison. (I would also add UPS for anyone else reading this thread, but it sounds like the OP only wants rural schools.)These are all schools that my D21 and/or S23 considered or are considering. My kids categorically refused to look in the south (see my screen name) so I don’t know much about schools there, but I know there are some great rural LACs with good merit $ there as well.
My general advice is to:
-
Target the midwest and south: that’s the the bulk of merit $ is found for T100 LACs.
-
Be aware of how quickly the landscape is changing as more and more schools shift from merit to need-based aid. Things have even changed in the last two years between my D21 and S23’s search. You have to directly ask the schools what your kid can expect to receive rather than rely on older Common Data Sets.
I hope this helps. Good luck!
8 Likes
Nonetheless, by objective criteria, such as can be measured by the attraction of Greek life, W&L does distinguish itself socially from most other colleges.
2 Likes
I agree with your assessment @UpNorth on St. Olaf and consider Whitman to be very Carleton-like at a lower price point and ranking. That said, I suspect Whitman’s cost will come in closer to $45-47k rather than $40k.
Puget Sound’s cost could be lower, but again, as you point out, not rural nor very snowy.
Linfield was an interesting suggestion by someone above — rural, lots of medical field students, lower cost probably — but less prestige and less snow.
1 Like
It might still be worth looking at some of the NESCACs - a direct flight to New York, Boston or Philadelphia (Swarthmore - even thought its not rural) might be an overall shorter trip with more frequent options than getting to a small mid-west town.
I have a question about how merit aid is defined. Post says Colorado college doesn’t give merit aid. What I’ve seen is unasked-for “scholarship” with admission, despite not applying for financial aid. The one I saw for Colorado college wasn’t substantial $$ (under $10K per year) but to me, this would qualify as merit aid. What am I missing? Thanks
Most of the NESCAC schools don’t offer merit aid, so it is unlikely that the net cost would come in at or under $40,000 a year, unless the OP has significant need (not likely, based on OP’s remarks).
3 Likes