Smaller school with merit aid for Jewish girl B+/A- premed [really 3.95 unweighted HS GPA]

She needs to take the ACT or SAT, it’s really important. She needs to see how she does on a standardized test - for herself. The Medical path is all about standardized tests and it’s certainly not even close to to late. Buy her a book or 2 on Amazon and have her prep and take some timed tests at home. Test scores open up a lot of merit doors.

Have you looked into Marist? Their sticker price is lower than most and my DD and her friend both got 20k in merit with lower unweighted GPAs than your D. Great school.

Marist also has an excellent PA program if she ends up wanting to go that route later.

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We looked at Marist too. Beautiful, modern campus. Lots of pre-health programs. @momsearcheng – the only thing is Marist probably wouldn’t fit your Judaism criteria. Marist attracts a lot of Catholic kids, I think. It is not a Catholic school (although founded by monks) but whenever we talked about Marist I can’t tell you how many people would say – isn’t that a Catholic school? (They knew we were Jewish.) Daughter did apply and got some good merit but chose elsewhere (Skidmore).

If Massachusetts isn’t too far – consider Wheaton (they gave daughter 40K merit!), Mt Holyoke (got $20K merit). There is Brandeis too but have no idea on merit. Consider Clark (lots of Jewish students, I am an alum, great school but kind of in a cruddy section of Worcester) Consider CT College (we got 30K merit), and Roger Williams in RI (good merit, lower sticker price, less competitive school, beautiful campus and location) Good luck!

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If your D is willing to attend a NYS public university, check out SUNY Binghamton. It’s half the size of UMD, good students, large Jewish population, plenty of kids going on to med school, PA school, PT school, etc.

Even if your D is totally set on med school, based on what I am reading I think she needs to also explore other health care fields (doesn’t mean she won’t ultimately choose to apply to med school, and it does not mean the other professions will be free from stress).

Eckerd College in St. Petersburg is worth a look. Freshman students are assigned a professor/mentor, peer mentors, tutors if needed and offer a writing center, communication center and academic coaches at the Center for Academic Excellence. There are honor societies and first year research scholarships. A freshman is highly recommended to join a professor’s research project. Students work with their mentors in research, publish and present both nationally and internationally, there is an on campus annual research symposium. There is a strong pre-health advisory committee. Each summer, an Eckerd alum brings at least 11 Eckerd students to Boston to work with her on a paid internship at Mass. General in genomic research, my daughter’s boyfriend interned 2x and was hired after graduation. Both generous merit and financial aid is offered. There are numerous hospitals in St. Pete, including a level 1 trauma center and a number of students intern at Hopkins All Children Hospital. Rabbi Ed Rosenthal is on campus and there is a very active Hillel and parent’s group: Eckerd College - Hillel International.

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I agree. I am concerned about the plans being made with no real data about standardized test performance, except not preparing for the psat and as a consequence not doing well on it.

Conn College gives a very limited number of merit awards…and I’m sure they are very competitive to receive.

From their website:

“ Q: Do you offer merit awards or scholarships?

A: We offer a limited number of merit scholarships based on your academic performance in high school. There is not a separate application and a student does not need to be applying for financial aid, all applicants are considered at time of applying. Learn more about our Scholarships and Grants.”

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Not sure because the thread is really long whether the University of Mary Washington has been suggested. It is a self-described public LAC that checks off most of the boxes on your OP in terms of size, distance, no religious affiliation, local hospital. I believe based on your stats and anticipated SAT score would make it more affordable than many of the private schools being suggested. I can’t speak to level of Pre-Med advising.

Also I believe Muhlenberg was high on your list. I just wanted to point this out based on a comment about your daughter coming from a large public high school and some schools being too small. Our son toured Muhlenberg and felt it was too small and he didn’t feel that way about Dickinson. Almost same enrollment but more the physical campus size than the number of students. We also have a nephew that went Muhlenberg and did great. Only negative comment was it began feeling small by junior year.

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Hi @thumper1 – All I can tell you is that my daughter did receive $30k merit last year. Our FAFSA was too high for need based aid. Her stats I imagine were comparable to other students attending Conn College. Their sticker price is so high that I think they have to offer some level of merit to be competitive, despite what they say on their website. I will also add that Conn College was kind of an after thought when applying and daughter did not visit and did not do a virtual interview. She did attend a virtual info session but that was all. We visited after she got accepted. Conn College also doesnt have a supplemental essay making it very easy to apply.

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Funny you say that because my D mostly looked at LACs but Muhlenberg felt tiny compared to everywhere else.

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As I mentioned before I am over the fence with SAT (ACT). Almost all schools are test optional for 2023 graduates ( I googled it).
She does not need it for UMD or St. Mary’s.
It looks that most LACS are also test optional (some are permanently).
I am not sure can a student get merit without SAT (ACT) for fall of 2023. It looks that it is possible.
Because of COVID last year and summer were not good for SAT prep. Older child was pretty much done with SAT by the middle of 11th grade. With younger, we just run out of time now.
Between her internship, two college classes, two school classes, sport and important EC there is no time for any SAT prep at this point. Any prep will cut out either grades or quality of life. (Child is very social and needs break from studying and running around with all of the above.)
I know my kid. I know how much effort (and 3 attempts) it took my (advanced math and voracious reader) older child to get to 1560 or something around it. I was also told it is bad idea to submit score less than 1400. I know all of my friends’ kids were able to get great admissions and some scholarships without SAT/ACT for this fall. That is why I am not sure I have to push for it. There would be some time in January for prep. But then there would be no SAT for a while. I am not sure it is even worth the effort…
BTW. In one of the forums I came across Clemson. Should we consider it? I know that it is not LAC, but it should be more relaxed than UMD in terms of environment and happiness.

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Clemson is located in a large town in a more rural part of South Carolina; it does not have a Hillel on or affiliated with the university, as best I can tell. Perhaps the University of Tennessee at Knoxville might be a better substitute option than Clemson, and slightly closer.

Thanks! Good to know.

Thanks. I just looked at Marist. It looks that they do have active Hillel and some anti-Semitic events too. I think we will skip that one.
I was thinking about Bradeis, but was not sure should we consider it or not. It looks like it is very competitive in science. It hard to say will she get any Merit scholarship there. Mostly likely not. Some students complained about survival in science classes. So I am not sure that would be better option than UMD for my DD. What is for sure, she could be very happy there in terms of environment. It sounds also that they have small classes - big plus.

Sounds like great school but I think that Florida is way too far for us.
It is 14 hours drive non-stop to St. Petersburg.

Clemson does actually have a Hillel, although it is very small. We are Jewish and my son was just accepted at Clemson a couple of days ago. Agree that Clemson is huge and doesn’t really meet OPs ctiteria. Bama and University of South Carolina offer better merit aid and have larger Jewish populations if looking at larger schools.

As for the smaller Southern schools, my son liked and applied EA to both Rhodes and Furman, both of which have Hillel. Rhodes also has a scholarship for students who are active in the Jewish community.

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My daughter is a freshman there, she was chasing merit and got a lot more from other universities, but she fell in love first visit the end of last April. We are in NJ and she is the first student from out HS to be a Tiger (although there are a ton of NJ students there). She says she thankful every single day to go there, she loves everything! Her dorm, her friends, the food, her sorority, her classes, parties, football games, going to “the beach.” It’s like she is on an all inclusive vacation with too much to do. Since she had a rigorous schedule is HS, she is acing her classes (because she puts the work in so she can go play). Google best 25 seconds in college football. Oh, and she loves her advisor.

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Survival in freshman science classes has been brutal at all of my kids colleges, according to parents on the Facebook pages. Only one of my kids is STEM, it was tough.

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Clemson has a football coach praising Jesus and has gone unchecked….in fact made some of his players uncomfortable. UGA has Jews and a solid Hillel . U of SC has solid Jewish life. Clemson is southern Bible Belt…an absolute no. Bama for an easy school with Jews and great merit. Yes. Clemson also not easy for big merit.

Someone mentioned Furman. For a Jewish student…no. Rhodes….very little Jewish life but they are trying. If you want a Southern LAC making strides in this area it’s W&L….but it’s need based merit only although they have a tuition scholarship for a Jewish student.

For more merit and easier to get then C of Charleston is your best bet down south.

A 1400 SAT can be submitted. Depends on the school.

You should use the Hillel College Guide.

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From what I’ve seen, W&L only works out well for Conservative students who want Greek Life and aren’t interested in cities.

Out of those three, the latter two seem to be very, very important.

Perhaps others have had different experiences though.

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I just re read the first message. Thx. She wants an LAC with merit. She wants within 8 hrs she wants a Jewish presence. No religious classes. I didn’t see city but there are 100+ messsges so it’s likely in there.

I think you look at Union, Skidmore, Wooster, Allegheny, Kalamazoo, st Mary’s in Maryland, UNCA, Collehe of Charleston, Dickinson, Gettysburg, W&L for a prayer, Oberlin and Hendrix for possible UMD price match.

If you want merit and have a 3.95 your better bets will be alabama, uah (few jews), Arizona, ole miss and ms state (both few Jews).

You have to be flexible geographically depending on how much aid you seek.

3.95 is great although we don’t know the rigor. But 3.95 is also very common in this age of grade inflation.

I’m sure I just mentioned what is written elsewhere through the many messages. Good luck.