SgtDonut

August (and senior year) is fast-approaching, and I've been exhaustively researching colleges, making sure I don't miss any schools that would be a good fit for me. However, I don't exactly have specific criteria; I don't have a location preference, and I don't know how exactly to distinguish between the schools on my list (mostly LACs).

Pomona
Carleton*
Wesleyan
Vassar
Grinnell*
Oberlin
Macalester*
Colorado College
Kenyon
Connecticut College
Occidental
Pitzer
Whitman
Rhodes-
Beloit*
Wooster

The ones with asterisks are ones that I am definitely applying to.

The situation is made worse by the fact that I have a few universities to apply to, largely for financial reasons.

Tulane
Tufts
USC (dream school)
UMN (same price as UIUC, but better location)
MU-OH (for merit aid)
UIUC (in-state flagship, though w/o scholarships, it would be more expensive than a private LAC)

I am also worried about not having a "true" safety. I can use NPCs to predict what my family would have to pay at a school like Beloit or Wooster, but only a couple of schools, like UA, which I really don't want to go to, offer guaranteed merit aid, which I would quality for.

Longhaul

Your list is similar to my son's. He narrowed by:

1. Running the NPC at all schools.

Pomona, Pitzer & Oxy all meet "full need", but when we ran the calculators family income over $85k yielded very different results.

2. Logistical ease to get to school. Whitman dropped off for us because of this.

3. Supplement - not necessarily the length, but how easily the ideas for the essays came to him.

IMO Pitzer should be considered a reach no matter your stats because of the low acceptance rates. This may come into play if you find a heavy reach list.

Rhodes is more conservative than many of the others.

tk21769

>> I don't exactly have specific criteria

That's the problem. Nobody can narrow down your list for you if you cannot specify what is really important to you. Distance from home? Climate? Urban/suburban/rural setting?
Specific academic programs? Cost?

If merit aid is important to you, that would rule out several of the LACs (Pomona, Wesleyan, Vassar, Carleton) . But your financial strategy isn't very clear. If you're using Net Price Calculators, that suggests you might qualify for need-based aid. If you're seeking merit aid, that suggests you might not qualify for need-based aid, but cannot afford your Expected Family Contribution. What's your situation? Generally, the most selective private schools are generous with need-based aid (if you qualify) but offer little or no merit aid.

sally305

^^Good advice from Longhaul and tk21769.

I would try to visit a few of the schools on your LAC list this fall--you could knock off Beloit, Grinnell, Mac and Carleton in a three-day trip. Each of these schools has a different campus culture (although they also have certain similarities) and you might find you like one more than the others. That can then lead you to search out other schools with similar attributes.

Whether you get merit aid at any of the LACs that offer it (quite a few on your list do) will depend on your grades and test scores, mostly.

SgtDonut

"Distance from home? Climate? Urban/suburban/rural setting?
Specific academic programs? Cost?"

The first three are not important to me (honestly), and I'm undeclared. Some of these schools have unique programs that I think would interest me, which is why they're on there. I don't know what else really differentiates these schools.

As for cost, yes, I'm pretty sure I qualify for need-based aid. Our income is around 120k.

What I mean with the merit aid is that several schools (like Alabama) would offer me full-tuition based on my test scores/grades, making them financial safeties. I know a lot of these schools could and would possibly give me some merit aid, but it would just detract from the grants, so it really has no effect on what we'd actually have to pay.

The only schools I haven't visited yet/don't currently have plans to visit this summer are Pomona, Pitzer, Colorado College, Whitman, and maybe Rhodes.

sally305

"As for cost, yes, I'm pretty sure I qualify for need-based aid. Our income is around 120k."

At a lot of schools, no, you wouldn't. You can do that research yourself before going to the trouble of applying. And make sure you have an honest conversation with your parents about what they are willing to pay.

SgtDonut

Why wouldn't I at any of the schools that I listed? All the net price calculators say that our estimated price is around 18-20k, which is what my parents told me they're willing to pay. Most of these schools cost over 50k, so I must have gotten some need-based aid there.

tk21769

At that income level, with typical assets, I would expect you to qualify for (and receive) some need-based aid from most of the LACs on your list. The devil is in the details. Some of them would not necessarily cover 100% of determined need. You can look up the average percentage of covered need in each school's Common Data Set, section H.

Here is a list of need-blind, full-need colleges:
Need-blind admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Schools on that list tend to be among the very most selective schools. Exceptions (LACs on it that are somewhat less selective than the others) include Knox, Lawrence, and Holy Cross.

Schools that are NOT full-need & need-blind include all the ones on your list from Oberlin down. That does not necessarily mean these schools won't offer you a good aid package. Colorado College claimed to meet 97% of determined need for 2010-11. Macalester & Oberlin claimed to meet 100%. However, they may be considering need in some admission decisions.

tk21769

Academically? Not much, really.
Almost all selective, private LACs offer pretty much the same academic programs (departments & majors). It's hard to find data that expose clear, significant differences in the strength of specific departments at liberal arts colleges.

The distinctive curricular features that do leap out include the Colorado College block plan, the Claremont consortium arrangement, and the more-or-less open curriculum at some of the LACs (Beloit, Oberlin, Pitzer, Vassar, Wesleyan, Whitman).

Other than that, among the LACs, you're back to costs and personal preferences. The latter can include, again, features like location and climate ... or more elusive aspects of personal fit and atmosphere (intellectual/nerdy? preppy? outdoorsy? etc.)

momrath

I agree that academically there's not a huge difference among LACs on the same level. Some focus more on the arts, some on sciences, some on social sciences, but the popular majors are solid across the board. There are, however, significant differences in environment, ambience, personality if you will. There are overlaps and the differences can be subtle, but often a visit will give you a visceral read on whether or not it's the place for you.

You've got quite a range in personalities and physical surroundings. Maybe if you tell us which of those you've visited is your top choice, we could suggest others in the same general ambience.

On money, I would also agree that some of the most selectives are some of the most generous. There are exceptions, like Grinnell, for example, but I would say if you think you like Pomona and Wesleyan (and have the profile to get in) you might also look at Swarthmore, Williams and Amherst. Lots of overlap in student body between Swarthmore and Wesleyan and among Pomona, Williams and Amherst. All offer very good need based aid.

I understand the reason for including public universities as financial safeties, but I'm not sure that Tufts fits on either list.

sally305

Back to your original question, a good way to narrow down your list is to look realistically at your chances of getting in based on your stats. Your list contains a lot of pretty competitive schools. Do you know where you fit in terms of the profile of the entering class at each of them? That's some research you can easily do.

ucbalumnus

However, some LACs are broader and deeper in some subjects compared to others, depending on their emphasis. Even some popular majors like computer science can be weak at LACs (and non-LACs) that have a small department that is mainly offering service courses for non-majors.

Lower cost LACs include Truman State, University of Minnesota - Morris, SUNY Geneseo, and UNC Asheville. The first two may even be within financial reach even if you get no financial aid or scholarships.

sunmachine

Beloit, CC, and Wooster all offer non-binding Early Action. One way to narrow the list would be to apply to these schools EA, and see what results you get. You may find that after getting a few acceptances EA that you are no longer interested in applying to some of the regular decision schools. That's what happened with one of my kids - he liked his EA schools and ended up applying to only one RD school (Whitman). Many others fell off his list.

I would also place zero stock in any school's claim that they meet full financial need. My older son received much better need-based offers from LACs that do not claim to meet full need than from the ones that do. Any claim to meet full need is meaningless until you have an actual offer in hand.

SgtDonut

My top choices are Macalester and Carleton, currently, then CC and Grinnell. Pomona/Carleton/Wesleyan/Vassar are my reaches; I'm pretty confident about my chances at all the rest (33 ACT/top 3% in the class), at least from a numbers-based standpoint. The other reaches aren't my top choices because I am not sure I will get in and don't want to fall in love with them too much (except Carleton), but I am going to visit Wes and Vassar next month to see if I want to apply to them.

I'm looking for a really non-preppy (as Whitman's propaganda calls it, "unpretentious") environment, LGBT-friendly, not a huge drinking/drugs scene (though I know this will be difficult to avoid), intellectual but not overly-so kind of schools.

I also visited Occidental, and it sort of dropped down in my mind based on my (summer) visit, though I will still be applying.

sally305

Your list sounds good for what you describe as your interests and stats. You might want to look at St. Olaf when you are in Northfield--it has a fantastic reputation, and a lot of kids who don't find Carleton a great fit really like it.

As an aside, Grinnell has officially been "discovered" and had a 50-percent increase in applicants last year, which means it is probably becoming harder to get in.