She should look at Wells College. Her stats are in line with their common data set, it’s a small school located in upstate NY in a beautiful, rural locale (but only about an hour from major cities), and they definitely offer merit aid. I know two happy graduates (now in their 30s) who attended when it was all women (it’s now co-ed) and they found an intellectually stimulating environment and are very happy, enthusiastic alumni (they attend alumni weekends and everything!).
How about Hobart and William Smith for bio, I think it’s rural and has a good bio program. Last time a CC poster said her son got large merit aid.
http://www.hws.edu/admissions/finedu_scholarships.aspx
Check out @5boys posts
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1315830-hobart-and-william-smith-vs-st-lawrence.html
@choatiemom, I don’t think it’s very realistic to suggest that OPs daughter could get into a service academy. It takes laying a bit of groundwork before senior year to accomplish that admission.
OP, I get the feeling that you are backtracking from some of your more outrageous statements; you vented and that’s perfectly OK. Most people on this website have done that at one time or another.
I also sense that you are frustrated because you are envisioning that your D will not be happy with her final choices given your price parameters, and you adore her (that’s great…you should!) and you are angry that you might have to deny her a perfect school that actually accepts her – all because of the price and your stance on ROI. Please be careful when considering ROI. Some of the “statistics” that the media love to quote re: ROI are just that…statistics. They don’t necessarily apply to YOUR daughter and whatever school she chooses.
In any event, the final decision about what you will pay for college is really a decision you don’t have to make right now. Just have her apply apply apply and apply some more, and make sure to include some colleges that are highly likely to result in acceptances at your $26k price. If acceptances come in at higher prices, from schools that you both really love, you can make a different decision then if you want.
Also, I’m sure your D’s school is in a higher income community with great resources and probably oodles of remarkable overachieving students. Believe me, your D knows where she stands in the applicant pool; this is not a secret in these kids’ circles. She is not going to be shocked or upset or overly disappointed if she doesn’t get accepted at top colleges; surely she knows even better than you that this is not going to be her path. She’s probably just looking for a really good fit given her stats, and doesn’t want to disappoint YOU if she doesn’t make it into a prestigious college with a big scholarship.
I don’t know if you’ve dismissed FIT (and similar schools), but I’ll put in a good word for the financials and the school, especially for bio and biomedical studies. The sticker price is almost $60k, but I don’t think many pay that. We almost walked away because of the sticker price, but I’m glad we didn’t as my OOP is close to zero after the merit, athletic, state scholarships and other money we’ve received. Most students get merit aid with the top level about $25k, second level $20k/yr. There are a few other awards that are easy to get: $1000/yr for visiting, $1000/yr for ‘knowing an alum’ (very easy to find one), being related to a student or alum, etc. You said your daughter plays tennis, and she might get an athletic scholarship if she wanted to play. There are other scholarships available, and the FA has been very, very helpful to my daughter. I’m sure you could make it work for $20k, but $30k for sure. There aren’t many who go there just for the athletics, and many of the athletes are in engineering, marine bio, forensic psych, business. There aren’t many humanities classes, which would be a negative for most by my daughter doesn’t care at all.
You’ll find that many schools can be ‘worked’ this way, and she’ll find merit if she looks for it. Could she go to Princeton if your family made only $50k per year? Probably not, so why worry about whether others are paying less than you would have to pay and getting into the Ivies? If there is a school on the next level she wants, see what that school has to offer for merit. From her interests it doesn’t sound like she’d want a small LAC anyway, so why worry that she’ll not get aid at those schools? Prestige is what it is. You want a good ROI? She should go to an academy, which is the same price (zero) for rich or poor. Check the Forbes listings and you’ll find the small engineering schools, like FIT, Colorado School of Mines, Stevens are better for ROI than many of the prestigious LACs.
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she were to interview at a college, I’m sure she would get more merit aid.
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If anyone knows a college for this student’s stats where she’d be interviewed for a merit scholarship, recommend that school. Her M+CR is equivalent to an ACT 27.
Usually the schools that have those competition scholarship interview weekends require higher stats…and the interview is just for down-selection.
I’m not sure the dad understands how merit is usually awarded…
How merit awards are often determined by schools that give merit…
Group #1 - There is a HUGE pool of students with high GPAs. This pool of students will have test scores that range from high to very modest (mostly because of grade inflation, less rigorous curriculum, and/or weak K-12 schools).
Group #2 - There is a smaller pool of students with high test scores (upper quartile for the school).
Group #3 - There is an even smaller pool of students with high test scores for their targeted schools AND high GPAs (eliminating the smart, lazy, won’t turn in assignments kids). Test scores are used to “separate the men from the boys.” ***These are the kids who get the large merit scholarships from the schools that award lots of them. Depending on the school, these kids will be well-within upper quartile, or maybe the top 2-5% of the school.
Group #4 - If the school has a limited number of awards, then they will use ECs, leadership, diversity, scholarship competition interview, or other hooks for down-selection from this pool of students in Group #3.
Be aware that there are some schools (usually lesser-known privates) who need more warm bodies so they offer “discounts” in the form of merit scholarships to virtually everyone. Their tuition is inflated so that they can flatter the accepted students with some token award (often $10k-15k). These schools have learned that there are families that just can’t turn down an award even if the overall cost is higher than another school. When these families get a letter that tells them that their snowflake is being awarded $60k in merit, some can’t resist choosing that school.
Speaking of ROI, I think your daughter might benefit from looking at the kind of salaries she might get with a Bio degree and weigh this when she is considering whether or not to take out loans. This site has information from six states and might be a good starting point for a conversation.
http://collegemeasures.org/esm/
Florida
Texas
Even the schools she is interested in attending aren’t included on the site it will be a good starting point for further investigation and reflection.
has the dad said whether the DD will retake the SAT and ACT?
If the DD refuses, then as a parent I would simply use that decision as a reason why ultimately there will be more limited choices. 100 points higher on the M+CR could mean a lot more merit. An ACT 30+ could mean a lot more merit. Either of these increases would mean that some “better schools” can become more reasonably priced.
@twoinanddone I know FIT alums very well. My wife and I both graduated from FIT. It was a decent school back in the 80s and it is 2x as big now. We visited several months ago. I know that you cannot believe everything you read but this article places FIT in a bad place. I hope (and sort of believe) that is isn’t accurate:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2013/07/24/is-your-college-going-broke/
Look at the link called “Forbes College Financial Grades, Cs and Ds”
Thanks for you reply!
Then it sounds like you are savvy enough to know not to be drawn in by great freshmen year scholarships without asking more questions or doing your research. I was naive and was stunned to learn by reading CC of some schools’ practice of giving great $$$ freshmen year to hook a student in only to start pulling it back subsequent years. Yikes.
@wppdf2, I think those are all great SUNYs. I don’t think Stony Brook has any cornfields,though. It is tough to get into and is known as a commuter school. I’d suggest visiting before she applies to make sure she likes the atmosphere.
With your daughter’s current GPA and
ACT scores she will most likely be wait listed at Clemson. You may want to look at the waitlist thread for Clemson if she’s interested in attending there. There are instate students with waited GPAs of 4.2 and higher being waitlisted. Clemson has become more competitive in the past several years.
Geneseo (SUNY) is cornfield-y. And lovely. New Paltz?
Push for retest! Miami is the top public for undergrad teaching, which seems important to you. It also is small town, but fun. Gorgeous campus. Not too huge.
With some merit, and maybe a little more $ from pops, I think it might be worth the happiness ROI:)
Good luck!
What school is FIT?
@GnocchiB Florida Institute of Technology
@carolinamom2boys thanks - I was thinking Fashion Institute of Technology.
There’s also a Fashion Institute of Technology. I was wondering…
Not sure. You may be right.
OP mentioned he went to school in Florida, so I assume the F in FIT means Florida, not Fashion.
Yes, it is Florida Institute of Technology. We are both engineers.
Sorry, forgot my smiley. Was just kidding about Fashion IT. 