Underrated gems. Colleges that are never mentioned on CC but are really fantastic

Another shout out for St Mary’s College of Maryland - that is the full name. Public, honors, small, liberal arts college on the St. Mary’s River in Southern rural Maryland. For the right person (my daughter just graduated) it is a dreamy place to spend four years. (My two sons graduated from U-MD and UNC, and couldn’t imagine it for themselves.) Suprising how many Marylanders are unaware of this little instate gem. Has an excellent D1 sailing team, and as mentioned above, has school docks with sailboats, kayaks and paddle boards that can be used by students. Excellent academics, small classes, engaged professors.

I have heard of, and spent time at, quite a few of the Eastern colleges mentioned on this thread - mostly as a result of D playing field hockey. There are a lot of great little colleges out there.

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@privatebanker re: post #151.

I think I can add a little info to Temple & Drexel. I live in Philly suburbs and a lot of very, very accomplished kids choose these colleges. Drexel is next to Penn so University City is a pretty dynamic part of town.

Temple, in particular, seems to be on the rise. Parents and kids who toured recently said the campus is very modern and safe (tough surrounding neighborhood). Heard mention of communication and business schools and access to great internships. I think they have plans for new library as well?? I’m seeing more high achieving kids choose Temple.

Also, my son attended University of Kentucky. Beautiful campus and the university has invested big-time in a new Science center (funded by athletic department, aka Basketball), and many new dorms. Their library was among the nicest I’ve seen on many tours. UK doesn’t seem on the radar here, but it’s a big research u with a ton of school spirit and energy. It’s also get-in-able and generous with merit (or was a couple years ago). Last year or two they received a huge ($20M, I think) donation to invest in Honors College.

I like the city of Lexington and its airport is a 15 minute cab ride to campus.

My DD was looking for D2 athletics with high academics and was surprised at the scarcity. One that stood out way above the crowd was Truman State Univ in MO. Public liberal arts, affordable and a handsome campus.

Another place I loved was Juniata. It was mentioned above without much detail, so I’ll just say they have a pleasant campus with a welcoming air about it. But what set it apart for me was the series of odd but fun traditions that run throughout the year: Mountain Day and Storming the Arch are things that you just don’t find anywhere else these days. DD was unable to overcome its distance from the rest of civilization, but I went to school in the boondocks back in the day so that didn’t bother me. Alas I already went to college…

How about U of MN-Morris, a small liberal arts school that’s part of the MN university system.

My wife went to St. Mary’s College of MD while her father was the Dean of Students there. She loved it, although our kids were not impressed enough to apply (too rural).

I grew up in the DC suburbs of MD, but I had never heard of the school. When my wife was describing it to me, I couldn’t picture where it was. My reaction to her referencing southern MD… “You mean Virginia?”

https://www.northcarolina.edu/content/our-17-campuses

Website that provides links and map to the 17 campuses of UNC. One is the boarding high school for gifted students for science and mathematics. Some of the schools were at one time individual colleges that were folded into the UNC system. Which is why they are all very unique not just in physical appearance but in academics, culture and focus. Included are HBCU’s, fine arts, teaching, joint programs between schools, the only 2 dental schools, law schools, business and vet school and 2 of the 4 MD schools in the state. UNC-Asheville is a public LAC, App state has some really interesting majors as does Western Carolina. UNC-Wilmington has a fantastic marine bio program with turtle rescues and sanctuaries. ECU has the cheapest MD program in the country at one of the largest teaching hospitals in the south- 900 bed regional med center-Level 1 trauma, new cards tower and about 16 miles from the inner coastal waterways. A& T (engineering school ABET) along with UNC Greensboro has a new nanoengineering and nanoscience school, with a new campus and fantastic lab facilities.

Of course, best college basketball and best BBQ, from eastern Carolina style to western. COL is relatively low compared to other parts of the country (we relocated from northern CA) and great access from RDU and Charlotte airports.

Hope this helps.

Kat

@washugrad yeah, you don’t hear a lot about Uni. of the Pacific, compared to some other schools. The guy I mentioned previously who went there, really enjoyed his time there. When I do hear about the school, I hear nothing but good things. So, definitely a school worth checking out!

@Hamurtle I was gonna mention St. Mary’s in Moraga. Small school, beautiful location. My D was accepted but it was too expensive for us and she didn’t get enough aid to make it work. Too bad, because it was a neat school! In the end, she did want somewhere a bit bigger. D’s friend attended St. Mary’s. This girl had brain surgery and has some mobility issues and learning difficulties as a result. She comes from a wealthy family and money is no object, so the cost of St. Mary’s was no problem. This girl thrived at St. Mary’s and had a wonderful time. She now lives on her own and teaches special education at an Elementary school in San Leandro. Her family wasn’t even sure she’d get to go to college!

We toured Santa Clara with both our kids and D applied. Neither was really interested in attending. Most people I know who went to Santa Clara were either quite wealthy or were Catholic and applying only to Catholic schools.

@natty1988 we are neither quite wealthy nor Catholic. Our kid graduated from Santa Clara. We think the Jesuits do a terrific job with higher education. But I don’t think SCU would be considered infrequently mentioned on this forum…or underrated.

For the arts, I’d like to mention University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston Salem. Great NC public conservatory environment for music, drama, dance, film etc. I think it’s a hidden gem amongst conservatories. It doesn’t get a lot of mention even on the arts forums here.

@thumper1 I don’t think everyone at SCU is Catholic or wealthy. I was just saying that the only people I know personally who’ve attended were either Catholic or wealthy. That said, it is a great school and a beautiful campus and everyone I’ve known who has attended enjoyed their time there. I’d say it’s sort of underrated in the sense that it’s not super well known nationally. When I told friends and family who live on the East Coast that we were touring it with our kids, not all of them had heard of it. Or they would ask, where in California is Santa Clara?

I think some schools are not as well known outside their region or state while others are well known nationally. And some schools, say Rochester, are selective, but you just don’t hear about them very much. At least in comparison to similar schools…

I am enjoying this thread wayyyyy too much!

One of H’s co workers’s kids is finishing up his freshman year at University of Idaho. The kid attended high school in Southern California. He is loving Idaho. He loves all his classes and he has made a good number of friends too! Most of the kids are from Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, but he has met quite a few people from California. And WUE made it fairly affordable. For some Idaho may not be underrated, but for others it’s a school worth checking out. Especially for kids who don’t have perfect stats who may not be able to get into a UC school. In S’s class one girl just signed a letter of intent to play volleyball at Idaho!

My D lives in Reno and she said Boise State is a popular choice there…can’t say much more, but worth looking at!

Speaking of Idaho…I was just in Boise for work last week. Very nice city, clean…some wonderful restaurants downtown and awesome hiking and skiing nearby. It’s also VERY safe. IF you choose to stay after graduation…it has a one of the nation’s fastest-growing job markets. The state has a growing technology presence (Micron Technology, Inc. and HP Inc.) and continuing health care and hospitality opportunities.

@Aug2019 sounds like a neat place to go to college and to live!

My stepbrother’s wife went to University of Delaware. She majored in accounting and got a very high paying job right after graduation. Delaware isn’t a school you hear too much about, especially compared to Penn State, etc…

Idaho! We just hired an engineer from BYU Idaho. I never even knew there was such a thing. He is really good and got a great engineering education there and loved it.

My niece got her degree from Southwest Texas State (business) and has an excellent job. Nice campus.Her sister graduated from Trinity (Texas) which is a beautiful campus with a very good business school.

Another small school that I have read some negative things about on CC is Schreiner University in Kerrville, TX. We have a friend on the board of directors there and know several students that graduated from there in the last few years. All were very happy with their education. I will say not for the super students but helps the average and even slightly below average students grow and excel. If my daughter would have decided to go to college that was were we were going to send her (that or Abiliene Christian University). Small school, small classes, help readily available for students with learning or emotional issues.

UConn - very great state school for business, nursing, pharmacy, engineering and Ag sciences… also York College of PA, affordable, gives decent merit and well known for nursing and engineering

Natty- Delaware is one of the most popular schools for kids in NJ who don’t want Rutgers, NY for kids who don’t want Binghamton or Stoneybrook, and Maryland for kids who don’t want UMD.

I don’t know where you live, but in the Northeast (New England and Mid-lantic) you can’t walk five feet without seeing a Delaware bumper sticker or running into someone whose kid is applying to Delaware, graduated from Delaware, or is dating someone at Delaware!!!

It most definitely does NOT fly under the radar in at least one chunk of the country (and I’m not even counting the state of Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, all of which are an easy drive…)

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Delaware is great. Was high on son’s list and probably would have been a better pick because a lot of OOSers there unlike most state Us. He like it it because he preferred s town, city backdrop over a big campus overwhelming all. Newark is s nice college town and I think overlooked

Augustana has come up as s nice LAC type school for kids that would do better in small schools but don’t have the stats for the well known ones. They have merit money too

@houndmom how is that area around Drexel? They have some interesting majors for D21, but she’s not a huge city kid. I love Philly, but if it’s a bad area I doubt she’ll be interested. Thanks!

Webb Institute on the Gold Coast of Long Island. Extremely focused (naval architecture and engineering) and microscopic in size (100 undergrads), but what a gem. Housed in a turn of the century mansion on beautifully manicured grounds. They do the best they can with sports and activities given their small size.

Webb has a forum here on CC but hasn’t had a comment since March of 2017.

For the right type of kid it’s a “must apply,” especially for anyone with a passion for naval architecture and/or engineering.

  • Full-tuition scholarship for every accepted student who is a US citizen or Permanent Resident *

@blossom On the west coast where I live, you don’t hear much about it. Most of the East Coast state schools we hear about over here are: William and Mary, UVA, Penn State, UNC-Chapel Hill.

It is not small school either - about 25k students although not all on campus at the same time as they have about 6 terms a year, and some kids on missions.

There is also a BYU-Hawaii.

To keep with the theme of this thread, there are a lot of religious schools that don’t get a lot of chatter on CC, but that’s because they aren’t appropriate for most students searching for a school. Saying “look into Liberty” or “Bob Jones has a good history department” just won’t work for most or be helpful. Ave Maria is beautiful but very few non-Catholics would feel comfortable there, and even a lot of Catholics would find it too religious. Those schools have to do their own marketing, usually through their churches or person to person. I know a lot about BYU Idaho because we have friends who have sent all their kids there, and both sons-in-law attended, and their neighbors (who are also LDS), but you don’t hear a lot about it in the general college discussions in this area.

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