DD was just accepted with good merit : )
Can’t believe the how quickly she found out!
Anyone else considering XU?
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Congrats! When did she apply and what were her stats?
Congrats! When did she apply and what were her stats?
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Thanks @hal7401 !
She applied 10/20 with 3.5 gpa & 1500 SAT.
My son applied last week! Do you mind sharing what kind of merit she got? Did it come with the acceptance? I promise to share my son’s when/if he gets his! 
We were able to visit and tour a few weeks ago. It’s definitely a little smaller than he would like but being in a city makes up for that and he would love a school with a great basketball team! Is she planning to commit? Merit money is going to play a huge role in where he commits. He’s applied to a lot of schools chasing merit but Xavier is near the top.
@LaurenGMR The merit award was in the letter (posted on portal & emailed, no snail mail). She received 50% of tuition ($21,000/year). Will be notified of Financial Aid much later.
DD is strongly considering, but waiting to hear from others before committing. Haven’t been able to visit yet, but we’ve only heard good things! I was impressed with reviews on Niche. Sounds like a good fit for her.
Hope your son gets good news!
^^Edit to above: impressed with reviews on Unigo
@LaurenGMR
Our son just got his acceptance from XU. They were the first to reply of all of his applications. 3.8GPA and he opted to not take SATs or ACTs Received the same merit award of $21K. Guaranteed for all 4 years and they added books. We are waiting to hear about FinAid. He visited in oct of 2019, felt it was small but he really enjoyed his visit. Thought everyone was super friendly. He said the niche review of Xavier seemed spot on. He was surprised by the amount of contact the admissions office did. Compared to other schools, they have been by far the most active in communicating with him.
My daughter was also recently accepted. She applied the end of October. Her acceptance letter offered $23K per year and books as well. She had around a 3.9 UW GPA and applied for Social Work. She had not been able to visit but loved Creighton when we visited and Xavier is now closer to where we moved.
I think she will choose a school closer to home - I am mixed - while I think Xavier or Creighton would be wonderful for her, I will be happy to have her within 3-4 hours of our home…
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My son was accepted, applied 10/16, heard 10/30. $23K per year with books. 3.9 UW GPA and a 32 on his ACT. We hope to rent an RV and hit all of the schools he’s been accepted to in the spring.
My son was accepted. $23K merit which I think is probably the max? GPA 4.0 unweighted and a 34 ACT (35 superscore). Unfortunately, I don’t think that will be enough merit to make it work. 
I realize your decision has been made by the time I’m writing, but for other parents I want to share a story about XU and merit aid. Our son (a senior this year) got the similar aid (it was $19k/yr at the time). He started in a major that ended up not a good match for him, and his GPA was soon below the threshold to keep the scholarship. We had heard stories at other schools where that had happened and the schools cut the scholarship. After freshman year we figured he had a slim chance to keep it, and without it we couldn’t afford to keep sending him there. But Xavier stayed with him. Part of it is the personal attention they get but part of it - and I’m certainly not religious - has to be genuine faith. I don’t have data but it appears that private schools (maybe especially Catholic/Jesuit schools?) want the student not just to enroll, to get them in with the money but then move that money (so their parents have to pay more), to attract another kid, but to succeed. It turns out that those schools we’d heard of from other parents, whose kids hadn’t made the grade to keep their merit money and it was retracted, all went to large often flagship state schools.
Our son made it - he changed majors and brought his grades way up. He is on track to graduate with his last three semesters on the Dean’s List. My point is that not all merit money is the same. I can’t speak for other schools but I will always, always, be grateful to Xavier for having faith in our son. Let’s Go X!!
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My son was accepted to Xavier and Dayton and has not been able to visit either one yet. We need to book a flight, hotel, etc. Can anyone tell us some of the differences between both schools? He’s very social, likes watching sports and having fun, and would benefit from small classes. Thanks.
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We are visiting both schools next weekend. My son has been to Xavier with my husband but not Dayton. We are doing the Accepted Students thing at Dayton next Saturday then we will stop by Xavier the next day so that I can get a chance to see it also (nothing official just do our own walking tour since he did an official tour last fall). We live on East Coast so figure I might as well take advantage of being nearby at Dayton to also go to Xavier again.
I can’t offer too much insight yet but do know that Dayton is larger than Xavier. My son is leaning toward Xavier in that sense - he said he is worried Dayton might be a little overwhelming (he is social but not especially outgoing). He loved Xavier when he visited with my husband who was also impressed with what they offer. My husband and I are both Jesuit educated so Xavier also appeals to us in that regard as a Jesuit university. We also know two students who are there now and love it.
I’ll report back after we visit next weekend. Do you have visits already scheduled?
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Your son sounds like mine.
We don’t have visits scheduled yet because he’s waiting to hear back from his top school, but we’ll need to schedule it soon. It sounds like Dayton might be a better fit socially for him but we’ll definitely need to visit. Any insight after next weekend is appreciated.
We were at Dayton today, too, and Xavier last weekend! Dayton came off the list during our visit and I think of the 3 remaining schools my daughter is considering, that Xavier is in the lead. Prefers the smaller size, the community service focus, the immense enthusiasm and warmth of the students, the mentoring structure, impressive academics, small classes, Manresa orientation, Cincinnati, how very well they’ve done with Covid with in person and hybrid classes, the diversity of students (especially with a lot out of state -she’s also out of state), and the personal attention they have given to her.
Dayton was just too big and it looked like the entire campus had turned out to drink beer in their front yards for admitted student day. Not my girl’s thing. People were nice enough, but it all seemed more impersonal and distant than Xavier. Could be the size, I suppose. And when they told us freshman orientation was going to be on Zoom this year that was enough. We’re Zoomed out. Awesome academic opportunities and gorgeous campus, but not the fit for my girl.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who was turned off by that! I could not believe, especially given we are still in a pandemic, that right in full view of campus, there were large groups of kids, unmasked, partying it up in front of several of the upperclassmen houses.
Were you there for the Business School thing? My son actually came away with a very good impression about all the on campus opportunities for business students that help prepare them in terms of experiential learning. Unfortunately not an apples to apples comparison with his Xavier visit which was more a general overview of Xavier. Plus, his Xavier visit was last Sept so it’s not fresh in his mind. We actually drove down to Cincinnati afterward so I could see the Xavier campus (just did a little self tour). He thinks he liked the Dayton campus better. Aside from the fact that the students were partying right in front of everyone today, he liked that the upperclassmen houses are right there next to campus. That was nice, I admit.
Before our Dayton visit, he was leaning toward Xavier but now he’s unsure. I don’t want to influence him so trying to help him think through pros and cons of each. I wish he could do an Explore XU Day with his department but unfortunately we just can’t make another trip out here on the day it’s offered. One big plus for XU that he mentioned are the various success coaches assigned to each student.
We head home tomorrow so we will sit down and make a list to compare. Altho he is Zoomed out, I’m going to have him watch some of the videos with student panels, etc that Xavier has posted. While I didn’t think Dayton seemed impersonal today in person, Xavier has definitely been more actively communicating with my son. His admissions counselor has contacted him several times and last week had a 45 min Zoom session with him which was very helpful. I agree XU has definitely had a more personal approach, which is one of the things that have impressed us all along.
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I did like the UD campus better, too - just gorgeous! But also completely wrong vibe for us. We were there for Arts & Sciences in the afternoon. Explore XU helped a lot - we were able to go in a lot of buildings, see an actual dorm room, and meet so many people - very highly personalized and in depth. We spent a good bit of time talking with the success coaches - definitely a selling point. And there were current students in the buildings and walking around campus - at UD noone was inside or appeared to be doing anything academic (but it was a beautiful day, so can’t blame them for that!). My daughter wants to combine art and business (entrepreneurship), so we were able to have a personal tour of all the art studios and classrooms and gallery. Met a lot of business students at various stops. Student panels have been very helpful - she watched the first-year panel last week. She’ll probably check out the major-specific sessions on April 7 to meet faculty. Then, for goodness sake, we’ll need a final decision soon! A solid pro/con list is essential.
Good luck to your family - such a big decision!
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Realizing your son has probably already decided, but if others are reading - that’s just the initial merit. For our part, when the full package arrived in early February it had more renewable grants and last week another grant was added to the package. So we started at $21K and are now at $27K, which makes Xavier pretty competitive for us at this point! (no need-based aid, though)
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