Hi everyone. So I’ve been searching my butt off for colleges but I’m having trouble. I’m a senior in Georgia but I’m fine with going to college pretty far away from home (up and down the east coast). I want to be a sociology major and a strong program in that field at my college is important to me. I want to be at a smaller school (less than 7000) and a private school. I’m definitely farther on the liberal side but I’m not super extreme and I don’t want to be somewhere where I’m afraid to say anything for fear of not being “politically correct”. The school has to be coed. The one school I think I might really love and pretty much matches what I want is clark university but that’s the only one I can really find that captures what I’m looking for. I thrive on spontaneity and exciting experiences so I don’t want to go to a school that you know everyone just sits studying on a Saturday night, but academics are important. Most importantly, I just don’t want to go to a school where everyone thinks they’re the bomb. I have a 3.5 gpa but it’s going to go up a lot senior year and I’ve done a mountain of volunteer work.whatever college I go to has to be around or under 25,000 per year after financial aid. Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
Have you looked at Union College?
Questions:
- Is 3.5 your unweighted GPA? If not, what is your UW GPA?
- What is your SAT and/or ACT score?
- Do you have a preference for rural, urban or suburban surroundings?
- Do you have strong weather preferences?
I’m going to suggest Flagler College, St. Augustine FL.
@prezbucky yes, 3.5 is my unweighted gpa
My sat score is 1240 but I’m taking it again in a month, my act score is 27.
See this is what I’m not sure about I mean I don’t want to be in the middle of nowhere where there isn’t a grocery store within a 10 mile radius but I also don’t want the city to be the campus. I guess suburban or it could be in a city as long as we aren’t in the middle of it and there is a campus where everyone pretty much stays.
I’m not a heat person. That’s why I’m pretty intent on going north instead of south. I love cold weather and I can deal with really cold winters.
For ideas that might match your location preferences, you can search for a Newsweek article, “The 25 Most Desirable Suburban Schools,” which includes a few LACs such as Skidmore.
Maybe look at Denison in Ohio? It is in a small town but the town is charming and functional with a decent selection of restaurants, coffee shops, pharmacy, grocery store, etc. About 30 minutes from Columbus, OH with a couple of larger towns not too far distant. I have read here that its student body is more moderate than at some other LACs. Ditto for St. Olaf, also in a small town (about 30,000 people) in Minnesota, about 45 minutes from the Twin Cities. St. Olaf is affiliated with the more liberal branch of the Lutheran church, but is inclusive of all faiths (or no faith at all).
College of Wooster or Ohio Wesleyan might also be worth investigating. Again, located in smaller communities but with viable downtowns. Ohio Wesleyan is within striking distance of Columbus, College of Wooster is roughly equidistant from Cleveland/Columbus, maybe 1 to 1.5 hours away from both.
While these locations are probably less suburban/urban than you’d like, I think they are a good fit for your GPA/test scores. Not sure about the financial side but I’d say that your chances for admission are reasonable. I believe that Denison is test optional.
In addition to schools already mentioned:
Reach: Bates, Lafayette, Holy Cross, U of Richmond, Whitman, Trinity (CT - low reach)
Match: Beloit, Lawrence, Kalamazoo, Gettysburg, Connecticut College, Earlham, Rhodes
Safety: Lesser state schools, less selective private schools (100-200 in the US News LAC ranking)
Note: Rhodes (in Memphis) and U of Richmond are in the South, but you’d escape the worst of the heat and humidity if you went home for the summer.
Check out Wheaton college in MA (not IL) and Washington College in Chesterstown, MD
Clark University seems great. My child visited and had a nice financial aid package but ultimately decided it was too far away. If you fear “over political correctness” then be careful with Earlham. The students are an eclectic bunch for sure, with lots of amazingly wonderful, dedicated professors, but the atmosphere is restrictive. And it is very isolated from the local community with nothing going on at campus – from friends who had kids attend there, there is a growing problem with alcohol and other such activities, partially due to the isolation.
Since you have a pretty good idea of size, location, politic views, etc. you want in a college, you should probably just use Supermatch to find more schools. Once you have a list, you can use their NPC to figure out if they’ll likely give you enough money for you to be able to afford it (the more accurate the numbers, the more accurate the estimate so you’ll probably have to sit down with your parents and your tax return forms and stuff)
Some good recommendations on prior posts, especially at LACs in Midwest. So many kids want to go East Coast or West Coast, and there are so many good schools in Midwest. (I am not a partisan. I live in NC). My Ds are also looking to go outside the South. I applaud your plans to see that part of the college experience can be to attend in a different area. We just attended a CTCL event and were impressed by St Olaf, Kalamazoo, and Lawrence. The LACs vary greatly in student characteristics. Beloit leans left, Gettysburg has a lot of Greek life, Clark sounds like a good match for you. So does Skidmore.
Also pay careful attention to forming a list of reaches, matches, safeties. Generally the higher the reach, even if you get in, the less likely you will get merit. So if you apply to a dozen or so, across a range of schools, you will have fin aid packages to compare.
Looking at Clark University’s 2015-2016 CDS (Common Data Set) the ACT range (25% to 75%) is 27 to 31. Testing is optional, though 51% of accepted students submit SAT, 41% submit ACT (can’t tell how many submit both) SAT Reading 600 to 720, Math 590 to 670. So you are a tad low but in the ballpark. Applying ED would be helpful, if you have toured school and like it, AND if you’ve run the NPC and have a good sense you can afford it. There are least 2 other fine schools in Worcester, Holy Cross and WPI.
In addition to going to college websites and finding NPC, I recommend finding the CDS for any school you have serious interest in. Just Google college and CDS and it usually pops up near the top. It;s the source of much of the info for the guides and websites for college selection.
https://www.lclark.edu/offices/institutional_research/common_data_set/
I think both Union and Trinity CT lean more preppy and conservative.
Look at Whitman in WA. Wonderful school, with legions of fans who sing its praises. Right @doschicos ? Regularly ranks high in Princeton Review’s Happiest Students list. Dickinson in PA might also be good for you, lovely school, not quite as preppy as Union or Trinity. Both of those colleges should be doable for you. Good luck!
From the OP’s original post:
“I’m definitely farther on the liberal side but I’m not super extreme and I don’t want to be somewhere where I’m afraid to say anything for fear of not being ‘politically correct’.”
–> I take that to mean that the OP would be fine with the political climate at all but the farthest left (due to potentially running into safe space/trigger warning delirium) and farthest right (at odds with much of OP’s politics, potentially).
So – all but a relative handful of schools would probably be ok for the OP from the political perspective, IMO.
Trinity is pretty dang preppy. For someone who says they love Clark, Trinity and Union do seem to be quite different from that. Question, though. Have you visited Clark yet or do you like Clark based on what you’ve read and seen online?
I’be be happy to throw some suggestion out based on the answer to that question above.
@saphal ‘Whatever college I go to has to be around or under 25,000 per year after financial aid.’ That is great that you know what you can pay, as that will a key influence as to where you actually will go.
‘I love cold weather and I can deal with really cold winters.’ That defines it somewhat. Beloit, Lawrence, St Lawrence, Hobart, Bennington, St Olaf, Kalamazoo. I second Linda on Whitman, a hidden gem.
As far as being isolated, there are really only a handful of schools like that that come to mind. And just an handful that are right in the midst of a big city.
On finances side – the OP should clarify, with her family and in her own mind, what “$25k a year after financial aid” means. Have they run the Net Price Calculator at various schools to see what range of financial aid they would likely receive? Being able to pay $25k a year is a great position to be in, but you want to make sure that the rest of the $25-35k in tuition and room and board is going to get covered by financial aid or, if not, then by merit awards.
A number of the midwest LACs have lower tuition and room and board than other midwest (Kenyon, Oberlin, Grinnell) and east coast schools. As I recall, Lawrence, Beloit, Kalamazoo were in the $42k-$45k a year range, with room and board running closer to $8-9k a year than the more common $12+k a year at many schools. That can mean that total costs are already about $10k less a year than at other schools.
Another shout out for Whitman! D (just heading back for senior year today) has had a great experience. Walla Walla is a small city/big town pretty far from any big urban center. Used to be a farm town but has now become a somewhat hip wine center so there are great coffee shops and restaurants with a revitalized downtown area. But the campus is definitely the hub for the students with lots going on nearly all the time. And they have a strong outdoors program for those interested. Your scores are a bit low for middle 50%, but they don’t have a lot of folks from Georgia, so that might be a plus…
Whitman is lovely but the OP wants east coast and Walla Walla is about as far away from that as is imaginable to me. there are many lovely west coast LAC’s that might suit the OP, but geographically I question the suggestion. Whitman is not known for great merit aid at her stats. Decent financial aid but not merit and yes, scores are a bit low for Whitman, and definitely low for any merit.
I’d suggest going through all the CTCL schools. Beloit, in our calcs has come up consistently one of the best deals out their for merit at those stats but…Wisconsin isn’t East coast either. No one has mentioned the mid Atlantic options like Muhlenberg, Allegheny, Ursinus, Goucher and McDaniel. All on the Safety or Match side and generous at the OP’s stats.
That said, finding almost any LAC’s at 25K or under, COA all in after merit, is going to be difficult. Even in Wisconsin. 30-35? Much more doable. My S has very similar stats and looking for similar type schools though he can go a bit more liberal and prefers not super conservative. Beloit came in around 28-29. However, despite the price tag, I couldn’t sell my West coast kid who wants to go east on Wisconsin.