For anybody interested in Christian colleges, three of the smartest, most articulate, classically-educated people I know went to Patrick Henry College, Messiah College, and Biola University respectively. Each has a significant core curriculum with Patrick Henry being the most structured and credit-heavy of the three. The distribution requirements include, as one might expect, emphasize religion/theology/Christianity courses as well as philosophy/ethics as all as other disciplines.
Two of the above mentioned people pursued humanities graduate degrees, one is now a tenure-track professor at a well-ranked public university. The third got a very good med school placement. All of these institutions offer both merit- and need-based aid in varying proportions. Patrick Henry is quite small and Messiah has about 3,000 students and both are in small town locations. Biola has about 4K undergrads and 2K grad students and is in Southern California. For students of faith, these could be good options.
This is a great thread. Several colleges many have likely never heard of (including me). Lots of places offer a great education at various price points.
Nephew attended Whittier College, a small LAC in the LA area. Really enjoyed his time there. Like most LACs, very small classes with great opportunities to bond with professors. He was taking a gen ed history class and bonded with that professor, resulting in several lunches / discussions ultimately resulting in him adding history as a second major.
I visited once while on business in LA and it’s in a cute town, spanish style buildings. President Nixon attended Whittier.
Nephew was a CA resident at the time. Although a private institution, they are fairly generous with aid (brother doesn’t qualify for fin aid so this must have been merit) making cost of attendance approximately the same as in state costs for UCs. He wasn’t a killer student (probably low 3.x) so getting merit based aid wasn’t a big deal.
The west coast seems to focus on large state schools. If you look, there are pockets of smaller LAC type schools too, just not as concentrated as back east. I think he also considered U of the Pacific in Stockton.
Of course there’s the 5 school consortium, but outside of that, many would be hard pressed to name 10 smaller schools out west.
So many names fly by on the pages here. Hopefully giving them a personal observations or sense of community or strengths to help the parent or student get a feel for them.
S of good friends attended the University of Dayton in OH. He had a great experience. School has a diverse group of ~8,000 undergrads and offers a wide variety of academic programs (friend’s son went for Business). More than 90% of undergrads live on campus which promotes a sense of community.
I really liked U of Dayton. It’s a Catholic college (Marianist) of about 8500 undergrads. Generous with merit even for B students and (at least when my S applied in 2016), when they give you your first year’s combined merit/FA package it’s guaranteed for all four years. Pretty, contained campus that reminded me of Villanova. A nephew and close family friend’s D attend and love it partly because of the very nice, collaborative students. Strong in STEM and business, not sure about other majors. The school has bought up a lot of cute little houses adjacent to campus where many upperclassmen live.
Furman - n Greenville , SC - is a pretty cool place. Has an excellent accounting program.
Greenville itself is a less known gem of the south. Very quaint downtown area. Tons of indy restaurants, craft brew / wine bars, etc. Has local performing arts theater. Kind of an artsy, foody vibe. Know a few folks who live there and they rave about it. Easy drive to Atlanta, Charlotte, Savannah. Charleston, Myrtle Beach, etc.
Now that I think about it, SCAD (Savannah College of Arts and Design) is a wonderful school in a wonderful place. As the name implies, focuses on all forms of art (including performing - have their own on campus talent agency with ties to major studios and the overall industry) and design (architecture, CAD, etc.) Very unusual / specific majors as opposed to the same old generic options (i.e. Furniture Design). Savannah itself is a beautiful city / town with tons of history. It’s known for its Squares where old, beautiful architecture surrounds beautiful gardens. Stayed in a B&B there once overlooking the bench used for filming Forest Gump. Great food and pubs. Very quaint southern historic city. Can only imagine how fun it would be to visit a college kid in Savannah.
Chapman in California seems good. I like New College in FL and Hampshire for kids who can’t do conventional curriculum/course structures, though Hampshire is really hurting (very few attendees this year).
I’m not sure if any of these are underrated or heavily mentioned on CC.
Denison- great small school. Does get mention here
Ohio Wesleyan- small but good
Ohio Northern (but the town is teeny)
University of Dayton (mentioned already)
Ohio University
Kent State
Bowling Green
Kenyon (great school)
College of Wooster
Hiram College (very small)
Wittenberg University
Marietta
Youngstown State (good merit aid)
Otterbein
Findlay
Heidelberg
Ohio has a lot of public university land grant schools also…in addition to one’s that frequently get mentioned (like Ohio State and Miami), there is Toledo, Bowling Green, Kent, Cincinnati.
Really…no shortage of colleges in Ohio…at all…and most don’t get much mention on this forum.
Re: Eckerd, my S is an incoming first year so we have no real world experience yet, but we have high hopes for the Creative Writing program. They have offered the Writer’s in Paradise workshop for years (attracting many top authors) and last year added a BFA program as an alternative to the BA in Creative Writing they already had.
@bearpanther When you toured what did you think about eckerd? I’ve heard they have a great baseball program. And other than that I do t know. What’s its personality. Campus feel. Etc. sounds like a great spot.
Kettering in Michigan is supposed to be another one of the rarely mentioned gems.
Another vote for Eckerd-my undergraduate advisor in college was an Eckerd alum with a PhD from WashU. Some of the schools that most people don’t think about do a good job of placing their graduates into Top 50 PhD programs.
Great thread! At the risk of becoming a one-note, I’ll give a plug to poor little Clarkson and St. Lawrence up near the Canadian border.
I have not visited the Clarkson Campus, but know a few grads. It used to be a very popular destination among top NY students. Now, due to population decrease, a lot of upstate NY schools are desperate for students. Anyway, excellent school that always ranks very highly in job placement for its graduates. Primarily an engineering school, but offers majors in business, finance, humanities, etc. Phenomenal merit aid (or so I’ve heard) and awesome if you like hockey.
St. Lawrence - as someone else has mentioned, meets close to full need - also offers great merit aid for high stats students of families in the donut hole. (Though, unfortunately, they don’t seem to publish stats that would automatically qualify students for merit aid) Beautiful campus, happy students, very loyal and active alumni network. School seems to invest a lot in its students, with vast study abroad opportunities, paid or supplemented internships, alternative Spring break programs, and Spring break abroad - some of these programs are almost completely funded by the school, for others, need-based aid is available) Great academics, but also a fantastic campus for the athletic/outdoorsy student. Gorgeous athletic center complete with climbing wall, golf course, proximity to the Adirondacks and the St. Lawrence river, outing clubs, etc. Good food.
With both of these, you need to be able to withstand a little cold. Lol.
