I posted a bit ago with the start of my daughter’s college list, and received a wealth of good information, some of it brutal, but honest … @tsbna44, @AustenNut. After licking my wounds, haha, we sat down and went back to work.
The list has changed quite a bit! I’d love more feedback.
Quick recap:
rising senior
private college prep HS
Indiana, first gen
GPA 4.05 unweighted (that’s what the transcript says … I’ve just been using 4.0 on NPCs)
ACT 34
top 5% of class
Honors and AP classes across the board
Extremely Likely:
University of Tulsa
Bellarmine U
Willamette
Likely:
St. Olaf
Possible:
Kenyon
Macalester
Unlikely:
Hamilton
Bates
Carleton
Puget Sound (because of $$)
Lewis & Clark (because of $$)
Highly Unlikely:
Williams
Bowdoin
Several schools fell off the list, and as of now Hamilton is the clear favorite. She’s still doing a bunch of virtual events and is awaiting the decision on Williams’ fly-in program. We’d like to pare the list down a bit. We like Lewis & Clark and Puget but they are above the target budget right now. Investigating extra merit aid for those in particular but they will probably be removed.
Thanks so much for the update! By their inclusion on this list, I am assuming that you ran the Net Price Calculator (NPC) and all of them that don’t say “pricey” are within budget. If that is an incorrect assumption, please let us know.
For Puget Sound and Lewis & Clark, did the NPC estimates include any merit aid, or just financial aid? That could make a difference in figuring out the “but pricey” part has a possibility of working out.
It’s great that your daughter has three schools that appear to be extremely likely admits and that would be affordable (again, assuming NPCs confirmed this). Would she be happy to attend any of the three? If so, then I think you’re golden.
Are any other in-person visits planned, besides the possible fly-in for Williams?
ETA:
Did your family consider any of these schools?
George Fox (OR): About 2500 undergrads…reported to have a conservative religious bent Pacific (OR): About 1600 undergrads Whitman (WA): About 1500 undergrads Whitworth (WA): About 2k undergrads…reported to have a conservative religious bent
And if California (low humidity) is okay, has she thought about U. of Redlands (about 2300 undergrads) or maybe California Lutheran (about 2500 undergrads)?
If any of these come in at the desired price point, then they could substitute for the Pacific Northwest schools that currently appear too pricey.
Edited to indicate schools that others are reporting to be very religiously conservative.
I just want to point out that George Fox is Christian, require religious event attendance, and is quite conservative. Not sure if OP is interested in that, just sharing (I visited there a few months ago).
She knows she would be happy at Bellarmine (oldest brother attended). Willamette and Tulsa are interesting for different reasons, but we’ve not visited yet.
I am fairly certain they included merit aid, but we were also going to see if they offered any others that weren’t automatically included.
We’ll hopefully have a chance to visit at least some of them before applications. She is going to apply to Hamilton’s fly-in and hasn’t decided about the others. Once she receives acceptances we will definitely visit anywhere she considers attending.
Virtual sessions with Hamilton’s admissions office and students have been excellent so I’d love for her to do the fly-in and decide if she’d like to apply ED there. But, for her to decide!
We looked at Pacific and Whitman. They are still on the long list to look at closer if she wants or needs to. I’ll look at those others you mentioned.
Thanks so much for letting me know! I saw that its religious affiliation was Friends, which I generally think of as Quaker along the lines of Earlham, Swarthmore/Bryn Mawr/Haverford, or Guilford, all of which tend to be very open and accepting of others, with no required religious event attendance (nor are they very conservative). Appreciate the feedback on George Fox.
If the needed net price of < $15k is not likely, then move UPS and L&C to the category that the likelihood of getting < $15k net price is in. For example, if a reach-level merit scholarship is needed to get that net price, move the college to the reach category.
Yeah, that would take it off the list for her. Thanks for the info. A school with religious affiliation is fine as long as it’s a “Catholic as you want it to be” vibe as at Bellarmine
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve updated my original post to indicate that both Whitworth and George Fox are associated with religious conservatism.
ETA: I saw that Whitworth was Presbyterian which I generally associate with PC(USA) which is a fairly mainline/moderate denomination. But in 2013 the university reduced its affiliation with PC(USA) and I’ve linked Whitworth’s commentary about why it did so.
This quote from the link below might be enlightening for others about Whitworth’s perspective:
While historically rooted in the Presbyterian Church, Whitworth has also historically elevated other theological and educational identities that shape Whitworth’s mission. As a Reformed, evangelical and ecumenical institution of higher learning, Whitworth embraces voices from across the spectrum of Christian orthodoxy.
Looking for enrollment <roughly 5k, definitely not in the SE - she can’t stand the heat and humidity, and not in the middle of a large city, but close is okay.
For example, Bellarmine (a safety) is in Louisville, but it’s in a neighborhood outside of downtown with it’s own little “town” area, and that is okay with her.
In my mind 7-8 would be a good number for her to apply to. So I’m really just picking brains to see if there is anything that maybe we didn’t look at that could trump one of these, or if someone says that ** school might not be great merit or whatever. Anything that can give her food for thought as she explores.
I don’t want to hinder nor overwhelm her, a fine line to walk!
Looked at those. Kalamazoo was eliminated for some reason (don’t remember what, could have been price?), and I don’t remember thoughts on Truman, so I’ll have to revisit that.
