Ok, I’m going to mention a couple more colleges, some of which I’ve mentioned before. But with your daughter’s interest in horses, I looked at schools with equestrian programs and no religious affiliation (some were formerly affiliated, but now have no affiliation). Some of the equestrian programs are intercollegiate and some are club, but all would seem worthy of seeing if someone who didn’t want to compete could still go horseback riding.
As I haven’t received any corrections from OP about how I’ve been getting the family cost, I’m going to assume it’s correct and just give what I think would be the family cost. Since Clark is still in the running with a price of around $28,600, I’m including others that are around that mark. These are listed from lowest price to highest.
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Rider (NJ) has 3500 undergrads and is about 2.5 hours from your location. Its women’s equestrian is at the club level. Family cost would be about $20,600. (100% of students with an average aid of $26,570. Verify in Common Data Set…this was the number in institutional/scholarship aid on College Navigator.) Here is the scholarship info page from Rider.
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Otterbein (OH), mentioned above, comes in under budget and it has intercollegiate women’s equestrian. Family cost of about $21,700 (based on your daughter’s info).
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Springfield (MA) has a little over 2,000 students and is a little over 6 hours from your location. It offers club-level women’s equestrian. Family cost would be about $22,278 as your D would be eligible for the Trustee Scholarship of $25k/year.
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Nazareth (NY) has about 2100 undergrads and is a little less than 6 hours from your location. It offers women’s intercollegiate equestrian. Family cost of about $26,706 (97% receive aid averaging $17,621. Verify in Common Data Set…this was the number in institutional/scholarship aid on College Navigator.) Here’s its scholarship page which includes a $2k/year grant for living on campus.
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Roger Williams (RI) has 4200 undergrads and is a little over 7 hours from your location. It offers intercollegiate women’s equestrian. Family cost would be about $28,692 (96% of students without need receive aid, averaging $21,658). If Maryland is considered outside of the northeast, then there’s also a $1500 travel grant.
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Adelphi (NY) has about 5,000 undergrads and is about 4.5 hours from your location. It offers club for women’s equestrian. Family cost would be about $29,600 (63% of students without need receive average of $19,425). Academic merit aid ranges from $16-28k/year and Honors College students get an extra $3k/year that can stack, so long as it doesn’t exceed tuition & fees.
This one’s public, but I still think it’s a strong contender:
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Christopher Newport (VA) has about 4500 undergrads and is about 3.5 hours from your location. It offers club women’s equestrian. Family cost of about $22,800 (42% of students without need receive average merit aid of $3,219). Here is its scholarship page which includes $5-10k scholarships for students in their honors program.
To save anyone from future trouble, these colleges would likely be over budget unless you see specific school scholarships that OP’s D would qualify for that would exceed the average merit aid package:
- Marist, $33,900
- Furman, $33,200
- Endicott, $31k
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I didn’t mean liberal in a political manner. Here’s one of the definitions from Merriam-Webster.
5**:** BROAD-MINDEDespecially : not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms
If a religiously-affiliated institution (which, in the U.S., is usually Christian) would be liberal-minded, then they’re not encouraging a strict adherence to their Christian views. They would be open to other beliefs and religions and not take the stance that their own religion was the one that needed to be adhered to by all enrolled students. So you might prefer a conservative or Orthodox Jewish-affiliated institution, but you would prefer to have a liberal-minded (not politically liberal) Christian-affiliated institution.
But, if you seek to avoid any institution with any religious affiliation, then the point is moot.
Thanks! I think you a bit overestimated my DD love to horses. She is not professional rider by any means. She attended some summer camps couple times and love horses, but we could not afford private lessons in our area. Her skills are very very basic. She does not belong and will not qualify to any equestrian club.
I agree that majoring in engineering can be challenging for some pre-med students. And agree that, in your case, a school with good support for those wanting to pursue careers in health might can be helpful. I say “might” because the level of guidance varies a lot from college to college for those with a pre-med intention. Plus, if your student takes a year or two off between undergrad and grad, that support when they apply to medical school might be even less.
I believe someone provided a link upstream where you can look for yourselves about what medical schools want in terms of undergrad “stuff”. @WayOutWestMom can you please post that link again. And your very fine list of criteria that pre-med majors should consider when choosing an undergrad school?
Yes, we do not want any official religious affiliation.
Sorry, I do not have time for calculations now.
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Furman is pretty interesting. Greenville has a significant history in the civil rights movement; it has a longstanding and active Jewish community and a pretty vibrant restaurant scene. Also, through my industry, Gourmet Foods, Greenville has a fair number of higher-end food markets which means it has the demographics to support it. Our kid found his clear number one choice early in the process, but Furman was definitely on our list.
I can definitely appreciate that. But since you thought she would be enthusiastic about Miami’s horseback riding program, then I thought that schools with an equestrian program would be more likely to offer opportunities for horseback riding, even if not at a competitive level. Perhaps there are others with horseback riding for credit? (Emphasis added to the following quote.)
Although I mentioned these schools again because of their equestrian programs, Rider, Otterbein, Roger Williams, and Adelphi were all mentioned previously by me. Christopher Newport has been mentioned by multiple people as well. Your daughter’s enthusiasm for horses just seemed to reinforce that these might be colleges to look into a bit deeper.
100 percent back you up on your impression of Furman. It was one of my S22’s favorites. Stunningly beautiful campus with a lake - very similar to University of Richmond.Also a very easy application with no supplemental essays and at least this year there was no application fee. My son was accepted early with a $35k scholarship. His academic profile was very similar to Op’s D.
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yeah we found it very limiting when looking at more midsized colleges to avoid colleges without religious affiliation. Either that or they were highly rejective like Northwestern, Duke, Vandy.
Schools that size many times fall into the Jesuit or Catholic category - Villanova, SCU, LMU, BC., ND, etc. That was a turn off for our D as well but we did meet students at most of these schools who said it’s not a big deal to be Jewish or an atheist. Exception was ND. I’m sure all of these schools welcome those outside of the faith and it might even be a bump in admissions for someone not Catholic but you have to be willing to be a bit on the outside of the main vibe
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I understand your reservations about Wooster.
A while ago, I suggested it in the thread, but you may want to take another look at Kalamazoo. Not within eight hours and smaller enrollment around 1200, but it may check off some of the other boxes. Also, it is a real college town with Western Michigan right there with over 15k students.
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Healthcare Careers
Searchable database of health-related careers. There are filters that allow the user to select the amount of post high education/training needed (from 0 - 15 years) and average salary ($0 - $300K)
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This was taken from another post from @WayOutWestMom. It also starts with taking pre-med out of the equation when looking for undergrad schools.
And just saying again…medical school application requirements can be met just about anywhere.
Here is what she wrote:
Pick the college that offers the best combo of
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Fit–because happier students do better academically. And because it’s 4 years of their young lives they will never get back. They should enjoy those years.
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Opportunity --to get involved in campus activities (med schools want well rounded individuals with interests outside medicine & science); to find mentoring from their professors (who will involve them in research activities and write the needed strong LORs for med or grad school), to explore new ideas and interests (which may or may not led them away from medicine); to grow as person; to meet a diverse new group of people (people skills are key for anyone who wishes to be physician)
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Cost–med school is hideously expensive and financed primarily through loans so all potential pre meds are advised to minimize their undergrad debt.
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Unfortunately Christopher Newport has no active Hillel and almost 0 Jews. (At list to Hillel website).
Looked at Kalamazoo. It is as tiny as Ursinus. Any reasons why we should prefer Kalamazoo vs. Ursinus? Ursinus more expensive, closure, but will give more money (at least what they said during visit). Plus Ursinus is close to Philadelphia. Ursinus seams to be perfect for premed with well established program, EMT classes etc.
Both Ursinas and Juniata are well regarded around here as small colleges with decent health careers advising and preparation.
Have you looked into York College of PA yet?
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Pre-med is an intention and not any particular major.
It is a set of mostly introductory level classes that can be found at almost any 4 year college in the US, as well as most community and junior colleges.
The most commonly required/recommended pre-reqs are:
2 semesters intro bio w/labs
2 semesters gen chem w/ labs
2 semester into physics w/labs
2 semester ochem w/ labs
2 semesters of writing intensive classes
1 semester “college level” mathematics
1 semester statistics or biostatistics
1 semester biochemistry
1 semester into sociology
1 semester intro psychology
Only biochem is not routinely offered in community college.
There are no requirements for foreign languages for med school admission, but being able to speak Spanish is a plus.
Additionally, all med school applicants are expected to have the following ECs:
- community service with disadvantaged populations
- clinical exposure through volunteering or employment
- physician shadowing (particularly with primary care specialties)
- leadership positions in their activities
- wet lab or clinical research
Again, these can be done almost anywhere.
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Ursinus has very little (basically none) Jewish student population.
It looks that Coalition will stay. They already released essays. I think what they say that people who are using Scoir in their schools will be automatically connected to Coalition.
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