We are also in NY. When my middle son was looking at schools, I noticed that RPI and, I believe, U Rochester, both gave scholarships for being involved in robotics. My son had quit robotics after one year, so I never looked more deeply into what the criterion for the awards were but OP mentioned her D does that EC. He graduated in 2012, so my info is dated.
My sons have two friends currently at RPI and both love it. I also know kids who went to UR and also loved it.
How far are you willing to go?
I would aiggest looking at University of Richmond.
No distance issue whats so ever. She does not want a Rural School. Se wants to be in college that is either in urban setting or near a small city or big cities. Therefore Hamilton and Colgate are out because of location.
Is Swarthmore College in a rural setting?
Is University of Richmond in Richmond City?
Swarthmore is suburban, with a train station literally on campus which takes you into Philadelphia (and Amtrak to anywhere after that) in about 30 minutes.
Is she open to women’s colleges? If so, I would suggest Bryn Mawr in Philly area, and Wellesley just outside of Boston.
What about Tufts?
Harvey Mudd also gives robotics scholarships, and is fairly female-friendly.
I just asked about women only college, she told me no interest whatsoever ever, she will rather not go to college.
t do not know about Tufts but will look into it. Thanks
We have recently got invitation to apply back for Jack Kent Cooke Foundation College Award. During seventh grade she went up to final round but as our income was above the threshold was denied the final award. I still think reason was our income was above 100 K. but could be wrong
We conducted a similar search with a similar family income a few years back, and found that only the meets-full-need schools got our costs down into the mid-twenties or below. There are many merit-aid options at expensive privates that will get your costs into the thirty-thousands, but not into the twenty-thousands. The catch, of course, is that many/most of the meets-full-needs-privates are hard to get into. The University of Rochester, mentioned above, is a great option and was one of my D’s ‘match’ schools. Great for sciences, good aid and not a lottery school. As NY residents, you have reasonably priced public universities to put into the mix. We were in IL, so our state flagship was unaffordable (cost in the low 30s) so my D applied to Alabama for their full tuition scholarship.
@hs2015mom that is great. Was UUIC not affordable. We have heard great things about that school but being OOS, it is out of reach.
@ultapradesh, yes, it is UIUC that I was referring to. It was in the low 30s for instate, with almost no merit aid for high-stats kids, so my D did not apply, though it is a great school.
I looked at costs of attending my home state flagship and - yikes! Now $25K or so difference for OOS (essentially doubles instate costs) because of tuition. And no expectations of any merit aid for OOS. It is no wonder so many elite students go to college at their instate public U’s in the Midwest (where there are far fewer private schools in a given radius from home, much less equivalent in caliber to flagships).
I highly encourage you to at least visit a women’s college like Smith, Wellesley, or Bryn Mawr. My D was also not interested, but she saw Bryn Mawr while visiting Haverford and Swarthmore - and she actually liked it! She’s at Smith now and very happy. They offer excellent financial aid and educational opportunities. They are a bit easier to get into since they only accept applications from 50% of the population, so they are closer to match schools (Wellesley is probably a reach regardless). Mount Holyoke offers a few full tuition scholarships, too. If after she sees one and is still not interested, though, follow her lead.
Consider Harvey Mudd and Caltech. She might get a slight boost as a female applicant at those schools relative to her male peers, but they are both clearly reaches. RPI would be a match.
For match schools which also offer merit, consider Macalester, U of Richmond, U of Rochester, U of Maryland, U of Pittsburgh, Tulane.
Reaches with good financial aid include Rice and Vanderbilt.
thanks @Springbird, daughter have told me that she have no interest whatsoever in women’s college. Harvey Mud, U of Rochester and RPI are in the list.