Which foreign language is your daughter looking for?
Several of us suggested CoC early on in the strand, but it did not fit into the criteria:
- OOS Public
- Too far
- And now acceptance rate would probably be too high.
From everything stated, it actually meets what the DD is looking for.
Edited to add the foreign languages offered, as that is a concern as well -
CoC has one of the most comprehensive foreign language requirements I have seen in public colleges (even with a BS students must go through 4 semesters to 202 or demonstrate proficiency at that level) and offers:
Arabic
Chinese
French
Greek
German
Hebrew
Japanese
Latin
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
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My kid has a scholarship $3k more than tuition at C of C. Incredible Jewish life. Only issue is moving off campus. Itās pricey. We will be $1200 a month next year rent and weāve got a cheap, but well located place. Iām sure there are ways to do it. But with the scholarship and yes, itās not common, but worse case off campus Iāll be 20k and maybe not even. And most importantly my daughter has great relationships with faculty, has accrued a ton of leadership experience by starting a club, and is making an impact in peoples lives via her club. While due to a boy friend at Denver it was a rough beginning, it is truly the right fit. But itās not Richmond. Itās urban with a smidge of grass.
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College of Charleston has a very long list of languages offered. What language does your daughter need? Is āneedā the right word? Or is it more of a want than a need?
No problem with language at CofC. Is it even required there at all to graduate?
Usually big public do not care about language. Only LACs do.
Correct, it does not fit DD criteria. Sorry.
College of Charleston is not what I would call a ābig publicā. They actually bill themselves as a public LAC. We visited and toured the school with out daughter. Itās a very nice compact campus. Beautiful in every way. Very very nice facilitiesā¦and programs.
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What about this college doesnāt fit your daughterās criteria? This will help us make suggestions better.
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Yes, a foreign language is required at CoC. They must go up to 202 in a language (4 semesters) or demonstrate proficiency. It is one of the things that makes CoC more like a private LAC.
CoC has a very different feel than other public colleges.
There is a very strong Jewish community in Charleston and at CoC. The philanthropic support from the Jewish community is not just within certain academic areas, but significant lasting contributions including the Library. Also, one of the best places to eat is Martyās
Place - Kosher Dining @CofC - College of Charleston
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I think people circled back to CoC because you asked about colleges that would be less of a reach or cost less than URichmond. And CoC is where a lot of the same kids apply that are applying to a mix of public and privates like URichmond, William and Mary, etcā¦
It is about an 8 hour drive to Northern Virginia, but a little more to Maryland - so close geographically to your original post. And lots of cheaper flights to BWI on southwest.
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This studentās primary goal is to attend a very well known private school. Top 1% kids who are looking for merit will be applying to the same schools. Ironically, the type of highly driven student that this student wants to avoid at UMDā¦could be attending these other schools.
My prediction is that this student will be at UMD, or the family will pay a lot of money (little to no merit) for one of the desired privates.
I donāt see medical school as a priority for this particular studentā¦.at least not now. The āfireā is not there yetā¦and thatās ok because sheās 17.
Right now this kid is involved in college talk and seems to be looking to fit in with her peers. We already know that Quinnipiac was removed as a possibility because of a comment made by a friend. I assume her group of peers does not apply to public schoolsā¦.other than UMD or higher ranking publics (ie Michigan etc). Thatās too bad, because there are so many excellent schools out there that check all of her boxes.
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This I agree with. NONE of our kidsā safer options had everything they wanted. Both of our kids were undecided going in and had easier majors to find but, still, the programs differed in how strong they were. Of course, if the OPās D has clear academic needs, then they need to narrow down the list depending on those.
As for safer options and making a list, each of Dās schools had some things on her check list but not all. There was no perfect safe school that checked every box. In fact, even her reaches didnāt check all of her boxes. One needs to be able to prioritize.
If she had ended up with just her merit schools as options, she would have had the option to choose (which would have felt good) and get at least some what she wanted. She would have dug deeper into her possible majors at each school and then prioritized what other parts of college life were most important to her.
Here are a few of the pros and cons of each of her safer schoolsā¦and maybe an example of how you can think about a list of safeties.
U Denver: D really likes Denver and we have family there. Traveling to Denver for us is an inexpensive direct flight. She would have been in the honors program and I think she could have gotten into discovering the city and taking advantage of the nature aspect of CO. Downsides - it wasnāt the LAC experience she wanted and she was concerned that too many kids were from the area and they would go home too often.
SCU: SCU would have given her the palm trees and the Greek system she wanted. She likely would have been in honors there as well. Itās Jesuit and that was not an upside for her. Plus, she wanted a school with school spirit and SCU didnāt really check that box.
LMU: LMU would have been the palm trees again and a gorgeous campus and Greek life. Extracurricular dance is amazing there and she would have loved that, plus she was in their honors program with is actually pretty small - something like 100 kids per grade - and had a lot of perks. Also have family in LA. She was concerned with the overall fit again, though, with lots of CA kids and a monied atmosphere with expensive off campus housing and socializing mostly off campus.
Furman: Furman would have given her the LAC experience she wanted and the Greek life, but was just too conservative her her and too hard to get there.
Iām sure she could have chosen one of these schools and had a good experience. The only thing we might have done differently was added a bigger state school in the midwest (where we live) to the mix just so she could have compared that to the others in the end. She would not have chosen a big school over the schools she eventually was admitted to but, if she had been left with Denver, SCU, LMU, and Furman, it would have been good to have a Wisconsin or something in the mix.
Something else that needs to be considered - even if/when a student gets into what they think is their dream school, many times there are downsides that arenāt discovered until the student gets there. Many here will know how much time and effort was put into our S and Dās searches and neither of their schools are perfect even though they did end up at the reachier schools on their lists.
Edited to add: Itās hard to help the OP when the criteria are too stringent.
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And many times there are upsides the student doesnāt realize exist until they get there.
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At this time, I encourage the OPās daughter to take a step back from college selection and enjoy the end of her junior year! I commend the family for working on college lists so early but hope it isnāt taking away from her high school experience, especially since she has been described as very social.
Regarding college selection, several points came to mind as I read through the most recent posts.:
- Have realistic conversations with your D about budget and any other āfamily requirementsā, but otherwise let her drive the process (with your guidance and support as needed/requested). It took me a bit of time and a couple of conversations with her to find the right balance of support my D needed/wanted.
- When cost/merit is the main priority, one needs to be more flexible with any other preferences. Make that clear to your D and encourage her to research and apply to a range of schools.
- Once your D finds a couple guaranteed/very likely schools (for admission and affordability) that she would be happy to attend, then go after more selective schools that will only be possible with competitive scholarships. Keep in mind the extra work required and the earlier deadlines for merit consideration.
- Kids often change their minds over the four-six months from application submission to decisions. They could change their minds about career goals and desired college experience. So apply to some schools that may not seem as great a fit to have a range of choices next spring.
- Start drafting essays this summer. There are so many essays when hunting merit due to more applications. You can typically google to find the prior year essay prompts which donāt always change (can confirm with Admissions). Get ahead of the game to reduce stress next fall.
- If possible, approach a trusted teacher/mentor now to ask about willingness to review essays next fall.
- If allowed at her school, identify recommenders now and let them know she will request a LOR. Some teachers like to write the LORs when they have time over summer. Also, many teachers limit the LORs they will write so get on their list early.
- Even though most schools are TO next cycle, everything Iāve read indicates there may be a better chance for high merit with strong SAT/ACT scores. I would explain that to my kid and encourage prepping and sitting for a couple of tests.
- ETA: As someone else mentioned, we had a couple of āparent picks.ā Having never been through the college app process, no clue how competitive our D would be for merit and no clue what would happen with covid, we wanted an option close to home. But we discussed those with her in advance to make sure she could be happy there in the event that is where she ended up.
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I just read on an Elon thread that a student had an unweighted 3.95, weighted 4.98, 1420 SAT.
This student received a Presidential Scholarship and was also accepted to the Honors Fellows program, which appears to give additional money.
I know a student with similar stats who graduated from Elon and also received a merit award (might be the same). This student is now in grad school. While at Elon she had some very impressive internships beginning with her first summer as a rising sophomore.
I think it is a mistake to keep Elon off the list if this student is looking for merit and has premed intentions.
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Sounds like it will be UMd, which will be fine. Too much fault-finding with other options to be viable.
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Medical school is not necessarily the goal for this student, which is fine. Sheās young.
If she attends UMD she will give up on med school, be a psych major, and apply to grad school for psychology. Thatās the planā¦until/unless it changes again. One of my kids had a plan that she stuck to. The other changed several times.
If Iām understanding correctly, the D thinks she might be able to pursue pre-med more easily with smaller classes. I think thatās fair but, if thatās the priority, then some other criteria have to be given up. Might be rural LAC that gives merit. The D needs to decide how important pursuing med school is.
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That seems to be the plan, but sheās also looking for more āprestigiousā private schools than the ones that have been suggested (thatās how it seems).
Class size confuses me, as one of her lists had large schools besides UMD ā¦that she likes. I am not convinced that smaller classes are a āmust have.ā
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My daughter applied to Elon last year, 3.9 gpa (one B freshman year, 7 APās, rest honors) 33 ACT, 1470 SAT, did not receive enough merit to bring it down to $35,000.
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