Does anyone know much about UW La Crosse? D23 is starting to apply to many schools looking for merit. I am most interested in merit$$ offered. D23 is 31/1410 GPA 4.55, 7 APs passed & taking 4 more this year. All the normal ECs with a few leadership positions.
I hate this process. All I am trying to do is get the COA under $20K per year at a school that fits her needs and one that she likes. State is IL so U of I is not an option in terms of $$$.
I haven’t seen it myself, but I have heard it’s a beautiful school. Depending on your D’s interests, different UWs are better for a particular major than others.
My D has both UW Whitewater and Illinois State on her list (we are also IL residents and she wants to study education). My D has a 3.8/4.2 UW/W GPA and I estimate Whitewater will come in around $18K for her (plus auto admission to the honors college) and Illinois State will come in anywhere between $13K-21K. I expect your daughter’s costs would be similar. You’d have to look into whether LaCrosse offers the same scholarships that Whitewater does (their webisite isn’t as specific). Have you run the NPC?
Just above your threshold, there are a few schools where I think the COA would come in around the low to mid $20K’s - Knox, Beloit, Iowa State, Coe, Cornell College…
Illinois State is probably her first choice. She wants to go into teaching and it is really good school for education. Just will be waiting on them to come with an offer, but it won’t come until after many deadlines for other schools.
I will have to look at Iowa State again. I didn’t think it would get that low for her. Am I missing something.
She should get at least $11K merit (and maybe $13K) from Iowa State in auto merit, depending on the number of “core” courses she’s taken, her GPA, and if she has an ACT/SAT score. Here is their matrix:
Plus, there are other potential scholarships available specific to teaching. We just visited Iowa State a week ago. It’s an absolutely beautiful school and the education department is very solid with reciprocity to Illinois. I would recommend taking another look at it, and it’s such an easy application process for them. May as well see how the COA shakes out there! I estimate a COA of about $25K there for my D.
At Illinois State, anyone over a 3.75 GPA is invited to apply for the presidential scholarship, which I believe is $12K a year?
If teaching is her interest, then definitely look at Whitewater. From my research, I believe it’s the strongest UW in education after Madison. They are very transparent about their merit and your D’s costs will come in under $20K.
Isn’t Iowa St about $37-38K for out of state for tuition, fees & R&B? Getting $11K would be good, but doesn’t get it down to $20K. Am I missing anything there?
It won’t be $20K. I’m only including tuition and R&B and I estimate a COA of about $36K. After merit, about $25K, with the potential of further scholarships.
You aren’t missing anything. 
My son lives in La Crosse. They have many excellent programs. As they have 3 colleges in town it definitely has the college feel.
My son has been up there for 3 years with no intention of coming home soon.
Based on the interest in La Crosse and Illinois State, is your daughter looking for larger schools in suburban-ish areas? Or are those the schools that she has found will be affordable and meet her interests?
She is looking for a school with over 5000 students. Urban, Suburban, or Ruralish doesn’t really matter. I contend that when you have a college with 10K+ in students the size of the town isn’t super important. My D19 wanted an urban campus and in the end she ended up at MiamiOH which is in a town that is crazy small. But with 18,000 students there is plenty going on.
I can see this round of college apps is turning into a situation much like my D19 did when she applied to 17 schools that ran the gambit. D23 started off slow but is doing much the same. She has 9 apps done and 2 in progress. When it is all said and done I think she will get to 13-14.
I am a believer at this point in time to just do an app and see what sticks and what you might get. Keep your options open. Most apps are easy with common app where you might have to write an extra essay, but it is easy to repurpose one you have already done.
In the end I hope she ends up at IL St. But Merit$$ I think are a bit harder to come by now and she doesn’t quite have the scores that D19 had.
Have you looked at U. of Northern Iowa, U. of South Dakota, or Western Michigan? Possibly also U. of Louisville?
My older kid’s high school sent many graduates to UW Lacrosse each year, and students seemed to really like the atmosphere there. It’s supposed to be a cute town. As far as other UW schools known for education, I’ve met teachers who went to UW Stout, so that’s maybe another one to look at.
^ Where in doubt, go to Stout
UW Stevens Point has always been strong in education. It grew from a Normal School way (way way) back when. It is also strong in music and acting so many of the teachers also specialize in those areas.
I know there are a lot of scholarships available.
I hope Illinois State comes in with the $.
If she’s considering UW Lacrosse, why not the Illinois directionals…NIU, WIU, EIU, SIU-E, SIU-C? She might also look at UW-Milwaukee.
Missouri schools can come in under $20K with auto merit- Southeast Missouri, Northwest Missouri, Missouri State, Truman.
University of Northern Iowa might.
Winona State in Minnesota.
She has apps in at IL St, Central MI, UW Lacrosse & UW Whitewater. We will see how they go. I think that is enough options for those types of schools. We are not fans of NIU because it is too much of a commuter school.
In the end I think IL St will come in with something. She likes it. She has some other schools that she will get into but I just doubt the money will work out. I really would like for her to start out adult life with little to no debt.
Has your D looked at Viterbo? It’s also in La Crosse. I am an alum and it would provide a similar (albeit smaller) experience to UWL, and Viterbo students can cross-register at UWL (although a car would be helpful for this). Your D would likely get strong merit at Viterbo, there are departmental scholarships for education, and she would likely be eligible for other awards like the Community Fellows Scholarship which could get the cost down under 20k.
Got Central MI acceptance and merit$ based on their grid and COA(not counting books) will be around $17K. D23 will write a couple more essays to compete for a full COA scholarship and a one that pays all tuition & fees. Back when D19 was going through this process we called those scholarships lottery scholarships. D19 competed for about 5 of those. Depending on the size of the school usually there were 3-25 of those scholarships to be had. Oftentimes you had less than a 5% chance of getting one.
Back to D23, I can now relax a little knowing there is a decent option for her that meets our financial goals. I am not saying we would only pick the cheapest option, but instead look at all factors before making a choice. Given all the crazy deadlines this process makes you put in apps for places now because if your dream schools don’t come in where you want you might have missed out.
Overall I hate this process. When I talk to friends and family about the process and the costs they are amazed at the cost most of the time. If you don’t have kids or are older you just don’t understand what us parents are up against.