<p>Erin’s Dad, I assumed that was the case but somewhat mentioned it on this thread as a possibility. My brother is an alum of the Vandy medical school and it is a beautiful campus. I’m actually surprised that students with similar stats to my daughter in our area are looking at Vandy and expecting a lot of merit aid. We’ve received a few mailings from them, so perhaps they’re targeting our area for some reason.</p>
<p>Still interested in other thoughts and first-hand experience with schools inside and outside Ohio. We could possibly bump up our per year cost to $40,000. DD has worked extremely hard in high school and don’t want to deny her an opportunity if it is worth the cost.</p>
<p>Don’t take the mailings personally. College mail is just a ploy to get people to apply - it does not mean those colleges are actually targeting your area or your child. I’m sure your daughter will end up at a great school and be happy. It’s nice seeing that you’re there to help her along the way. I have friends who are completely lost and not quite serious about this whole process yet and their parents aren’t helping much either.</p>
<p>I generally agree, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Vanderbilt sent a few more mailings into Ohio, especially central and southern Ohio, than to some other places. Vanderbilt typically draws a fairly large number of students from Ohio. And why not? Cincinnati to Nashville is only a 4-hour drive, Columbus-Nashville is 5.5 hours. I believe that makes Vandy the closest top-25 university to Cincinnati, and among the 5 closest to Columbus (along with Carnegie Mellon, Notre Dame, U Chicago, and Northwestern). With that kind of geographic proximity, they probably get a higher return on their investment–more apps per thousand mailings–than in some more distant locales. Here in Minnesota, my daughters were bombarded with mailings from the University of Chicago, but got maybe 1 or 2 apiece from Vandy.</p>
<p>baseballmom94 ~ we are doing your reverse commute, son is at Ohio U. We are from Virginia (I mentioned James Madison but it is rather rural) OU son convinced new-friends-freshmen-year-who knew-no-one-at-JUM to make the road trip one weekend. He doesn’t have a car. So, at least from Athens, OH the drive is not bad, at least for the young. Neither of my two oos kids (other in Ct) had a car. Transportation worked fine from an airport/train station. OU, for example picks S up from the Columbus airport and drives him to campus. I love this school. Now I’m starting to ramble a bit, but you may want to look at where Southwest flies nonstop out of Columbus ~ for more choices.</p>
<p>bclintonk, yes, I think Vandy is targeting the central Ohio/Columbus, southern Ohio/Cincy areas, particularly certain zip codes. </p>
<p>snugapug, glad that your son likes OU! Columbus is not the best place to get direct flights out of - which is strange because we do have several corporate headquarters here. I guess I worry about a girl traveling alone frequently, more so than with my son, however, my daughter is stronger than me and doesn’t take any baloney from anyone :)</p>
<p>I would edit the original post but don’t see an option to do so. Here are the new slightly less restrictive parameters for our college list:</p>
<ul>
<li>35,000 -$40,000 or under per year total (tuition/room & board)
– public or private with good merit aid available for 4.1 student, 28 ACT</li>
<li>within 7 hours driving or easy flight from Columbus.</li>
<li>at least 5,000 students</li>
<li>vibrant medium size college town or near city</li>
<li>nice rec center</li>
<li>more to do on weekends than partying/Greek activities</li>
</ul>
<p>Thank you – I will take a look at those schools – I’m not hoping for a full-ride (although that would be awesome!) but even some merit aid to OOS or private schools to bring costs a bit closer to instate tuition would be helpful.</p>
<p>You had asked about SLU and while I don’t have a lot of first hand knowledge, I do live in the area and my son did get a ton of information from them. For starters, I would tell you that it simply will not ‘feel’ like Miami-Ohio. It is a mid-town school and not particularly in a great neighborhood. While they have a few great sports teams, I’ve never heard much about their fitness facilities at all. </p>
<p>Secondly I would say that while your daughter may qualify for some scholarship money, she would likely need the ACT to get up in the 30s to be very competitive for the higher money. It is a selective school and gets some pretty smart kids who want to be around their Medical School and other programs that are well respected. </p>
<p>Not to say it isn’t worth a visit, but realize it has a very different feel. </p>
<p>Not sure how far, but she might also like Belmont University - It is literally right next door to Vanderbilt and so many of the students there are Vandy fans and the two schools have quite a bit of cooperation on things. Pretty conservative school and nice campus, but probably too small by itself if it weren’t so close to Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>Numerous LAC’s have great merit $ but are significantly smaller than your D thinks she wants; if she is willing to consider schools in the 1500-student range, she’ll open up more options. Assume you’re familiar with “Colleges that Change Lives”?</p>
<p>Stanatedj is right about needing to get that ACT score up a bit for a shot at major award $, though. Some kids do better on the SAT, so your D could try that.</p>
<p>I’m actually surprised that students with similar stats to my daughter in our area are looking at Vandy and expecting a lot of merit aid</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Sadly, they’re going to be surprised when they find out that Vandy not only won’t give them merit for ACT 28-like stats, they won’t be accepted. Vandy has been rejecting ACT 31/32 students for awhile now. And, merit is only for NMF students ($5k) and tippy top perfect stats students. A friend of my son had a 31 and was “certain” that Vandy would accept her with merit. (her parents told her that ) She was rejected despite being an excellent candidate holistically-speaking. </p>
<p>I would wait to come up with lists until you’re more certain of what her scores will be. I can think of a number of kids who would have about a 28 as sophomores, but ended up with a 30+. Also have her take the SAT. She may do better on that. </p>
<p>Will she be testing soon? What is her major/career interests? (sorry if I missed that).</p>
<p>Since your D is only a soph, she should be aiming for ultimately a 30+. Not only would that mean more schools, but more merit.</p>
We could possibly bump up our per year cost to $40,000. DD has worked extremely hard in high school and don’t want to deny her an opportunity if it is worth the cost.</p>
) She was rejected despite being an excellent candidate holistically-speaking. </p>