Thanks so much @MYOS1634! We are looking at 2 CTCL’s (Willamette and Ursinus), but her heart belongs to Ithaca right now. She is also an athlete so hopes to find a great fit with a coach as well.
I really hadn’t thought an honors college was a possibility, but thanks for the tip - I will look into it!
I may have mentioned it to you before, but you should look at SUNY Fredonia. Even at OOS rates, it’s well within your budget. My S17 just finished his first year and is very happy with the tech program. With his 3.4 and 27, he is in the honors program and received merit money.
Don’t let Drew sneak back onto your list without checking their financial health.
D is going to be a senior in HS next year and was wondering her chances at the following schools that she has told me she is interested in. (We live in VA)
Virginia Tech
Indiana
Appalachian State
South Carolina
Oregon
SUNY Buffalo
South Florida
UNC Asheville
Ole Miss
Alabama
She has a 3.4 UW and 3.71 W with a 1230 on the SAT and 27 on ACT. She has also taken 4 APs and the rest of her courses were on an accelerated path.
If anyone can help me decipher which of these are reaches, safeties, and targets based on your experiences I would be very gratefu
@EmpireFrontier I can’t speak to most but I would expect VT to be a reach and Oregon to be a match/target. In many ways I’d consider Oregon a safety given their admissions % but as stats are a match I find it safer (lol) to err on the conservative side.
If there was ever a doubt that Plymouth was the right choice for my daughter, todays orientation. Would have erased it. She’s floating on air, so very delighted with this school!!
what did she say or her did they do that made her sure it was the right fit?
Honestly we were separated for the majority of the day, so I’m not sure. It a consistent part of he raves over dinner seemed to indicate that she had “found her people”… she raves about how nice everyone was, how much she loved the campus, how much she liked the girl she’ll be rooming with.
With so many kids making their college lists this summer, i wanted to bump this thread.
Thanks for the thread and for bumping it.
Well, tomorrow Plymouth will post dorm assignments, and my daughter will have a better idea of what’s going on for the fall. She has her classes, and we’ve ordered most of her books. Her shopping is largely done-- she still needs to order the comforter she wants. But tomorrow she gets confirmation that the roommate she has chosen is the one she’ll get, and where they’ll be living for the next year.
Exciting times!!
That’s great @bjkmom ! I have a D19 and it’s hard to think about being in that position a year from now. This summer has been so incredibly busy with test prep/testing, refining college lists, starting applications, sport recruiting, etc. Even though the big decision will have been made, I can’t imagine what next summer will be like!
YAY!! She got the roommate she wanted in the dorm that was just redone. She’ll be steps away from the main dining hall, from the building with most of her classes, and from the student center where mail and packages are delivered. She’s a happy camper!!
@bjkmom I don’t post much at all (the intensity of CC scares me!) but have found all of your posts so helpful and encouraging. So happy it all worked out for your daughter - best of luck to her.
Thanks @5050100 I know what you mean about the intensity… it’s part of why I keep going back and reviving these threads for B/C students. I think those kids who stumble on this site need to know that there’s a HUGE population of kids applying to college who are just like them, even if they’re not well represented on this site.
If even one kid with a 79 average follows this thread, through my daughter’s ups and downs, he or she may realize that a rejection or two are survivable, and that there are wonderful options out there. Sure, Community College is one of them— though it could still be “away”. But there ARE other options to consider.
We still have a few weeks… and anxiety is starting to creep in as it approaches. Her friend group has gone through a lot of changes over the last months, and it’s splintering apart. So, while going away is looking better each day, it’s a rough time for her. She talked it over with her roommate the other night, and she’s going through something similar. My guess is that it’s pretty common. The good news is that she’s hoping to put in lots of hours at work, to bulk up her bank account before leaving. And she’s mostly shaking with anticipation
. But I told her it’s absolutely OK to call in the middle of the night from school; parenting doesn’t end when she leaves for school. I’ll continue to reinforce that idea in the coming days.
@bjkmom good luck to your daughter and Thx for all you do here on cc.
As stated many times, colleges that change lives is a real thing. My daughter went to a small LAC and is transferring to one this fall. We know many people that had kids go to one and graduated to careers. Can’t speak highly enough about them in general. Especially for kids that want /like smaller classes with more student focus. Plus going out with your teacher to coffee to discuss your project etc is pretty cool.
Finally got around to booking the hotel for drop off. Both her brother and sister want to come along. so I needed to find one that could accomodate 5 in a single room. Luckily, I found one just a few minutes from school with a Q, a K and a sleeper sofa.
I keep seeing Colleges That Change Lives as something to consider. However, after looking at the list I am somewhat puzzled. I thought that CTCL were schools that gave scholarships to average-stat students thereby allowing them to go to an LAC that would be a better fit. But many of the colleges are very expensive and give little financial aid to average students. For example, Wheaton College is $47k a year and would give my 3.5 UW 30 ACT son only $3k a year at most. He’d qualify for loans but what’s the point? It might be a good fit but if it means graduating with staggering debt I don’t see how that changes lives.
Did you run the NPC? That was only one example. For my children, a CTCL school with merit and financial aid was about $6,000 per year less than our state school.
I don’t think CTCL makes claims about affordability, but some of them give scholarships to kids who wouldn’t get them at more selective LACs. My 30 ACT, 3.4 wGPA kid received $18,000 from Eckerd College. But they are still private schools, most have pretty decent rankings/reputations, and most people will find less expensive options at an in-state public college, a lower ranked regional private LAC, or an OOS that gives a lot of merit with a lower stats threshold.
For people with a B student and a budget that’s somewhere in between in-state public and OOS public or private, it might be a good option. If a student is getting little money from parents and doesn’t qualify for any need-based aid, then no, not a good option.