DD is currently a junior with the following stats:
Class Rank: 2 out of >400, suburban public school
UW GPA: 4.0
SAT: 1450 (730M, 720E), will take at least once more before applying, hoping to break 1500
Taking SAT Subject tests (Math II and Bio) in June
Will have taken 15 Honors classes and 8 APs (WH-4, Euro, Bio, Psych, Calc AB, Gov., Spanish, CS-P) by graduation
Good ECs, but nothing amazing
Preferences:
Urban setting, or very close proximity to a city
Medium-Large (~4000-25,000 UGs)
not interested in partying, Greek life, or sports
politically liberal
prefers non-religious schools
enjoys musicals/theater (to watch, not to perform), so a campus with a theater on it or nearby is preferred
EFC is ~33K/yr, which is affordable with 529 savings and cash flow. This is also the approx. cost of our in-state options (PA).
Planned major is biology and/or psych/criminal justice, with the goal of a career in forensic science.
Current plan:
Apply ED to Penn (her 1st choice)
Apply EA/rolling to Pitt, Northeastern, CWRU, maybe UChicago
Also likes BU, American, CMU, though NPC comes up above or close to 40K for these schools, so won’t be affordable without merit.
loves Yale’s campus, but knows she’s unlikely to be admitted there
We plan on making some college visits over the summer to Pittsburgh (Pitt, CMU)/Cleveland (CWRU), Boston (NEU, BU) and DC (American, GW). Looking for suggestions for other urban schools to check out that would provide enough financial aid/merit to bring the total cost to under 35K/yr.
How about Tufts? It’s not too far from Boston, and would probably be a match with your daughter’s stats. It also would seem to fit your daughter’s interests well - they have excellent science programs, and a mid-sized student body. Brandeis might also be a good option.
I would add URochester. The campus doesn’t look urban but it’s right on the outskirts of the city.
Tufts could be a great reach, worth a look when you visit NEU and BU.
ED to Penn, even taking in to account PA resident is pretty dicey with a 1450 or even a 1500. 1550, on the other hand… Has she tried the ACT? I’ve seen some kids with 1450 SAT pulling down 35s on ACT.
@TomSrOfBoston I think there is a bit of home-field-advantege in play at Penn (and schools like Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, etc.) where in-state kids are accepted at higher rates than are kids with otherwise identical applications but for their states of residence. Son went to a top public in NYC with a graduating class of aprox 190. Year in and year out 10-15 kids end up enrolling in Columbia and another 10-15 at NYU and it’s not like they didn’t also apply to HYPSBDWA as well. They just have better results at the in-state schools then you’d expect. Friends with kids in MA and CA have noted the same. Of course, the plural of anecdote is anecdote, but I think there is reason to believe that it might be a real thing.
If anything it’s harder to get into Penn as a PA resident, for “geographic diversity” reasons.
If Rochester’s NPC is disadvantageous, merit is probably not going to fix the problem, unfortunately. It is rare for schools to “stack” merit and need-based aid. To get below a $45K NPC at Rochester, you’d need the merit award to exceed $27K which probably won’t happen. Merit with your D’s stats is certainly possible, but the amount isn’t likely to be that high. Does Northeastern give you a better EFC than Rochester? (You definitely won’t do better than your EFC at NU without NMF, and even then it might be a wash, with the merit simply replacing the FA.)
It sounds to me like that early app to Pitt is going to be the ace in the hole - you’ll have a decision early, which hopefully will be favorable, and Pitt hits all of your criteria with guaranteed affordabilty even before merit. Tippy-top-tier musical theater nearby at CMU in addition to Pitt’s own programs and everything the city has to offer. Then the question will be whether she can get into a generous-FA school like Penn or Tufts… but Pitt sets a great baseline.
@tdy123 We know Penn is a long shot, but hope legacy (great grandfather) gives her a slight edge. That’s why she’s applying ED and also EA to other schools. She really wants to take a chance on admission there, and there are no other schools that she would apply ED to due to our financial constraints, so she figures she might as well try. She hasn’t taken the ACT and is hesitant because she feels the pace of the test will prevent her from finishing in time.
@aquapt Northeastern’s NPC is ~40K, so still higher than we’d like, but doable with Direct Loans. Just redid Rochester and it’s actually closer to 48K. I totally agree about Pitt, and she’s starting to come around to the idea of going there.
Any suggestions on other schools that meet her criteria where she could get significant merit?
Syracuse? U of Miami? U of Richmond is smaller than her specified range but there’s a great performing arts scene, both at the school and in the city of Richmond (including VCUArts). And Brandeis as suggested above. Also, Fordham might be worth bending the religious-school aversion for.
Syracuse actually has a forensic science major, not sure on how well it performs though as I don’t hear much about it. However University of Maryland College Park has notable criminal justice/criminology and biology programs, also close to Baltimore; might be a match for your daughter.
The ACT is also more STEM based in my opinion as it has the science section. The time wasn’t a concern for me because the reading section was very straightforward while the SAT reading requires you to analyze the passage more, if that makes sense. If time is still a worry, I suggest taking practice tests and timing yourself-- there are some free ones online if you don’t want to buy a review book.
Worth it to try to take both the SAT and ACT and see which is a more fit and more representative of your daughter’s strengths.
Brandeis has no urban feel whatsoever imo (and in D19’s opinion, one of the reasons she scratched it) and it’s not as convenient to Boston as it looks on paper. The students we spoke to there mostly said they didn’t go into Boston very often, maybe one or two weekend days a month…
No NYU - because of aid?
Another vote to bend the criteria for Fordham. We liked it a lot and they seem quite generous with merit from what we can figure out.
Fwiw my D19’s preferences were very similar to your D’s, though not caring about religious or not schools. Her top 5 choices after visiting were NYU, GWU, BU, American and Fordham.
Might be helpful to drill down into the meaning of “urban.” She loved the Yale campus? New Haven is certainly urban, but Yale feels very separate from the city. In Boston, the suburban schools mentioned are physically close, but have no citylike feel.Then there are schools in self-contained communities with a lot going on (Wesleyan, Amherst); they are not at all close to citiez but might still have what she wants. Is she looking for urban activities, pace, anonymity, diversity, or something else?
Trinity College in Hartford. It is one of the few NESCAC elite liberal arts colleges that is embedded in a city. The campus is large and beautiful and Trinity takes its urban location with pride. There are many opportunities both to pay it forward (at the Trinity Magnet School, Hartford Children’s Hospital for example) or in Hartford itself. The Bushnell Theater and Wadsworth Anthaneum are well known arts venues and close to campus right in Hartford. Trinity also hosts a burgeoning annual film festival in the redone (and gorgeous) cinestudio on campus. It offers juried films. Exemplary academics. Trinity is close to New York City. It is sectarian.Close mentoring relationships with faculty. Trinity is proud of its recent Fullbright scholars as well.
Next to Penn are Temple and Drexel. In Pittsburgh there is Duquesne as well. In our suburban PA school there were waitlist for students with mid 1400 test scores. Be prepared.
Assuming NYU is out due to cost? She’d likely get significant aid from Temple and admittance to their honors college which comes with honors housing and research opportunities. Philly is a great city and although the area around Temple isn’t exciting the subway takes you a couple of stops to everything downtown has to offer. They have a strong musical theatre program for her enjoyment and Philly is great for professional theatre as well. We visited the honors college welcome day (my D ultimately chose NYU) and were pretty impressed.