My daughter is a Junior and wants to go pre-med. We are only looking at privates with good merit aid as well is in-state and oos publics near our home. She has decided that she does not want a large university, and is much more comfortable with Mid and small. We have a pretty good handle on the NY schools but would love some suggestions for decent small-midsize publics in NJ, PA, CT and Mass.
Her stats in a nutshell: UW GPA 3.8+/4, ACT 33 (She just retook in April and we don’t have that score back yet.) Lots of AP and honors classes.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, MA; almost at gender balance now, merit aid a definite possibility (especially now for females (anecdotally)). Beautiful campus in a nice part of Worcester, great campus vibe, mid-size (4300 undergrads), unique project-based, hands-on curriculum, 3 classes at a time for all students, top 60 in USNWR national university rankings.
We are not from New England and did not really know much about WPI either. A Worcester friend recommended it for one of mine. They said their neighbor’s daughter had gone to an Ivy and not really liked it. She transferred to WPI and had a great experience (and a great job waiting for her). We visited lots and lots of schools for my kids, including many tip-top ones and were as impressed with the WPI students as those at any school. The school’s done well, and with STEM being so popular, it is really attracting very strong students. Here’s a bio of the school president, Laurie Leshin, who is very impressive.
Muhlenberg is a great place. We visited recently and D loved it. I think we have a good handle on the private schools and would really love to keep this thread to the public options if possible. Thanks!
Those particular states aren’t known for strong public universities, other than their big flagships. You might be better off focusing on privates.
The only obvious fit I see is TCNJ, which was already mentioned above. Other schools mentioned above include Rowan and WPI, both of which are primarily known for engineering. Rowan is public, but WPI is private.
The College of William & Mary (in VA), UMBC (in MD), and the University of Vermont are good small- to mid-sized publics in the northeastern US, but none of those are close to NYC.
If you are from NY, then Massachusetts College of the Liberal Arts (MCLA) might be a good value. It’s a small college in the Berkshires, just a few miles over the NY border. Because of their location, they enroll a lot of NY residents, who get a big discount on the normal out-of-state tuition rate. The NY rate is almost as low as the in-state rate for MA residents. It may not be as low as the in-state rate at a SUNY though.
TCNJ tends not to give much merit aid but Rowan is known to give full merit to high stat kids. They recently took over a local Med School so plenty of opportunities to volunteer etc Close to Philly as well
Small + public + close to home is a very limiting combination, unfortunately. I agree with the above posters that TCNJ checks all your boxes. Not many others will. I completely understand your D’s feelings, but remember that there are ways to make large universities feel smaller - living learning communities, honors programs, majors, clubs, etc.
Would not suggest any small nj publics other than tcnj or Rowan, perhaps, for a kid with a 33 ACT. The other small state publics in NJ may not be a good academic fit.
Binghamton is your best bet by far. Wasting money even considering out of state publics and expensive privates. Binghamton is a beautiful contained campus you can walk to every class, the instate price cannot be beat by any out of state public or expensive private. Why oh why would you consider spending thousands more going out of state public or private when you should save the money for graduate school??? Second, as a physician I strongly suggest your kid consider pursuing a physician assistant program—— six figure job likely right out of school and not a mountain of debt from med school. Now unless you have money to burn, in which case needlessly spend more than you have to on out of state public college or expensive private…
@njdadjest We are looking at the in state publics including Binghamton. It seems like many OOS privates offer merit which can bring the cost down significantly. Also, the privates we are looking at offer generous merit aid as well. My D1 is at a private with merit that brings the cost very close to public.
I’m curious, about your PA advice. Do you suggest that all students who want to be doctors become physician assistants instead? Do you wish you had gone this route instead of becoming a doctor? If yes, could you explain why you think its a better choice?