Fordham University/Rose Hill has a beautiful campus with close proximity to NYC. My daughter is a Freshmen and loves everything about the school. Amazing opportunities for internships, small class sizes and great professors. Highly recommend checking it out.
I think DU is a very good choice for him. It has the varsity lacrosse team, but also club (which is still very competitive ). No football, but a lot of people in Denver follow CU and the Mountain West conference teams (Air Force, CSU, Wyo), or just pro football. DU has a very good business school. It’s an urban school but has a campus. Easy access by light rail to the entire city. It also has a championship ski team (not a spectator sport) and hockey. The sports facilities are wonderful. Unlike CU and CSU, it is not IN the mountains and you have to travel about 10-15 miles to get to mountain bike trails but you can do that on your bike or take your bike on the light rail.
Air Force (which I don’t think is really an option for this student) just suspended a bunch of lacrosse players and a couple of coaches. They do have a team of a couple of million (okay, maybe 90) players so should still be able to field a team. There are lots of D2 teams, and more springing up, but I didn’t think those were the schools OP was looking for. There are some good ones, Colorado Mesa, Regis, UC-CS that would also fit the bill with mountain biking, lacrosse, business schools, smaller schools (most around 10,000).
If you’re looking at SUNY’s, what about Binghamton or Albany?
One of my personal favorites is Plattsburgh. It has a nice, walkable/bikeable campus, 5 - 7,000 students, has an honors program and is about 30 minutes from Lake Placid, 30 minutes or so from Montreal, has an active skiing EC (where my D ruptured her ACL). Two of my kids went there and I was very pleased with it. One was an education major and the other poli sci. I would have been happy had S17 gone there, too, but it didn’t offer his program. It has a lacrosse team but we are not into sports at all, so I know zilch about it. There is a very small Greek life, probably smaller after this week’s hazing arrests and frat ban; neither of my kids had anything to do with Greek life and both had plenty of friends and things to do.
Don’t know if it has been mentioned yet but what about Santa Clara? It doesn’t tick the winter sports box but has great business/finance and a solid reputation.
Interesting that several Jesuit schools have come up. We are a totally non-religious family. Is there an overtly religious vibe at Gonzaga, U San Diego, or Santa Clara? I get the feeling that Santa Clara might be a little more religious in atmosphere than the others, but I really don’t know, @lr4550 . Someone suggested Fordham, but it’s much too close to home (less than an hour), so he will not want to go there.
It’s a good question since the degree of a “religious vibe” will vary significantly from family to family. Our family is non religious as well and although D1 looked at Georgetown she didn’t have any other catholic or jesuit schools on her list. I really do believe the vibe at Santa Clara is not religious- definitely more to the mission of serving others which I would imagine resonates with most people- though quite a few religious people likely do attend (similar to Ganzaga in that regard I think). I guess what I’m saying is that I wouldn’t hesitate to have any of my kids visit Santa Clara and see for themselves what the school offers because it seems to occupy a pretty sweet spot in terms of academics, community involvement, career network/placement, affordability.
@lindagaf Have you considered Ithaca College? It’s enrollment is just shy of 7K. A friend’s sporty, down to earth, unpretentious kid went there and had a great experience. Merit money is offered there.
I’m not sure where his stats would line up with Syracuse, but the sports might appeal and it’s mid-sized.
Your list seems to be shaping up very well!
@mamaedefamilia , hi there! Thanks so much for reminding me! Yes, Ithaca is being considered, and I think he would like it. We might visit there next week. I am worried about the party reputation at Syracuse, and I know there is a fair bit of Greek life. But yes, we can read up on it.
@lr4550 , thanks, good feedback.
What about Montana State?
I consider contraception provided to employees as part of insurance vs a lawsuit to exclude same a good measure of “too religious” for me.
My niece went to U San Diego and I think it is quite religious. Many of her friends were from catholic high schools and some of their activities were church related. It’s not that other students will not be welcome but whether those students might feel left out of some activities. There is some Greek life but not houses. It is a gorgeous school.
My D17’s narrowed her list of accepted schools to Santa Clara and Fordham. We are not a religious family at all, and neither was too religious for her. She decided on Fordham and is in the Gabelli business school there. Btw, the Gabelli students do Not have a foreign language requirement, while I think the Santa Clara business students did. Also, no football team at Santa Clara, but other great D1 sports. Absolutely beautiful campus.
Clemson sounds like a good school, but look into the Greek aspect. I don’t think he would like Wake Forest. When we saw it was very preppy and not laid back and I don’t know about great outdoor adventure activities. For a reach, if he’s willing to go smaller there’s Colorado College. He might also like St. Lawrence in NY which very outdoorsy and might be a safety. Again, it might be too small though. One of my favorite public universities is Indiana in Bloomington. Perfect campus, perfect town. Syracuse might meet his needs. Lots of spirit, not really preppy or hipsterish, big. Just some thoughts.
University of Minnesota-Duluth (UMD). Great town, a little cold and snowy in the winter, but great access to the outdoors (skiing (both kinds), biking, watersports, hockey). Very Minnesota…
@Lindagraf I took the Santa Clara tour with my nephew and did not get the sense the school was overly religious. The tour guide said there is a religious studies class that student’s have to take but it can be anything from World Religions to Buddhism; it isn’t a required course on Catholicism. And it is a quite beautiful campus.
These may have been mentioned already, but UMASS Amherst, Bucknell and Lehigh might be worth checking out.
I have an exciting update: My son scored 1480 on his SAT! 690 in verbal, 790 in math. I’m very proud of him, because he worked hard.Given that he is dyslexic and dysgraphic, he has done a fabulous job. However, I am also aware that he might not have quite as high a score as he would like in order to be more assured of getting merit offers. He actually does want to be offered money.
So his current GPA is about 93. Generally good course rigor since the start of high school He has two honors and two IB courses in his schedule currently. Next year he will be taking 2 IB courses, 2 AP courses, and 1 honors course.
Here’s how the list is shaping up.
Definitely applying:
Syracuse (BUT, is there any chance of merit aid given his SAT score and grades? Not sure.)
Penn State
UVM
UNH
Will probably apply:
Gonzaga
Lafayette
U Conn
A SUNY, prob Binghamton, New Paltz, or Plattsburgh.
Interested, but won’t visit:
Clemson
Colorado Boulder
U Denver
Still thinking about:
U Maine Orono
U Washington
something in California
I now have a much better idea of what is important to my son. School spirit is a big deal to him. He wants a nice-looking campus. (He has rejected U Mass Amherst because it’s ugly.) He doesn’t want to be in a city, for sure. Good access to the outdoors is important, particularly for winter sports. And we, his parents, would like something with good academic support, good career opportunities, and a strong alumni network.
If we are missing any obvious contenders, would like to hear your thoughts.
Wow! Congratulations on that SAT score. He might be a good candidate for Michigan. Not sure what the outdoors scene is like, but it has the spirit and strong alumni network. I’d even throw in an application to Dartmouth. Has everything he is looking for. Lafayette is probably a match and the other schools on his list are probably safeties or low matches. He may want to find some reaches, because you never know. His stats would be impressive even if he didn’t have a LD. The fact that he does is even more “wow”. GL
Congrats to him on those scores, wow!
Hmm, some other schools where winter sports are feasible probably wouldn’t offer merit/much merit, and may be too urban. For instance, Minnesota Twin Cities is urban. Wisconsin sits on Lake Mendota for limitless pond hockey in winter, and there are winter sports accessible, plus gorgeous nature trails etc., but also is in the state capital so parts of campus feel very urban, also, no merit money. Indiana has no winter sports, though great school spirit and a smaller town setting. Washington is both urban, and could be more of a reach for OOS.
Vermont really sounds like the sweet spot.
Pay attention to whether his intended majors are competitive admission beyond the school’s selectivity for frosh admission, and/or whether they require a secondary admission process after enrolling. You may have to move them to different reach/match/safety categories, or reconsider their desirability based on these factors.
Also, these are all affordable?