<p>Smith has an open curriculum (created the same year, I think, as Brown’s).</p>
<p>from <a href=“College Lists Wiki / College Lists Wiki News and Information”>College Lists Wiki / College Lists Wiki News and Information;
<p>A list of schools which don’t have a core curriculum would be hundreds of schools (because they do have distribution requirements). </p>
<p>There are only four other schools with completely open curricula like Brown:
- Grinnell College (IA)
- Smith College (MA) (women only)
- Amherst College (MA)
- Eugene Lang College, a division of the New School (NYU)</p>
<p>Smith and Grinnell both offer merit based aid</p>
<p>[Smith</a> College: Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.smith.edu/finaid/prospect/aid_merit.php]Smith”>http://www.smith.edu/finaid/prospect/aid_merit.php)
[Scholarships</a> - Financial Aid | Grinnell College](<a href=“http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/financialaid/typesofaid/scholarships]Scholarships”>http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/financialaid/typesofaid/scholarships)</p>
<p>But given what you have posted, you would have to speak with your parents to see if they are financially feasible options for your family.</p>
<p>List of Schools with Different Levels of Curricular Freedom</p>
<p>Amherst (MA)
Antioch (OH)
Austin College
Bard (NY)
Beloit (WI) - very limited distribution requirements
Bennington
Brown University (RI)
Colgate (NY)
Eugene Lang College (about 900 students) In Greenwich Village, one division of a larger university called The New School.
Evergreen State College (WA) - [Curriculum</a> Overview at Evergreen](<a href=“http://www.evergreen.edu/about/curriculumoverview.htm]Curriculum”>http://www.evergreen.edu/about/curriculumoverview.htm)
Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU
Grinnell (IA)
Hamilton College (NY)
Hampshire College
Johnston Center at the University of Redlands (CA)
Marlboro College (MA)
Moravian College ¶ - offers students an opportunity to apply to the Add-Venture Program which bypasses the core (Learning in Common) curriculum.
New College of Florida - No required general education courses, no grades (written evaluations instead), and a thesis requirement.
New England Institute of Technology
Oberlin (OH)
Paul Smith’s College (NY)
Pitzer (CA)
U of Redlands - Johnston Center (CA)
Reed (OR)
University of Rochester
St. John’s (great books… both campuses)
Sarah Lawrence - does not have a core curriculum or majors; all students self-design their course of study
Smith College (MA) (women only)
University of Rochester (NY)
Vassar College (NY)
Wesleyan (CT)
Whitman
Wheaton (MA)</p>
<p>still, you would have to go through the list and find schools where you can get great merit aid.</p>
<p>I think Antioch and Amherst are the “granddaddy’s” of Open Curriculum. BUT both are pricey schools with limited financial aid options.</p>
<p>I’m sorry but I would not view Wesleyan as a safety these days.</p>
<p>Your mother isn’t obligated to pay for any of your schooling. You’re lucky to even go to college.</p>
<p>I think the Op is correct. The Op should not be bullied or coerced in any way. After all, the student is by now a young adult, right? Why should parents pick for him?
I urge this Op not to be held down by parents’ wants, grandparents’ wants, or Aunt Sally’s. Heck with them!
I strongly urge this student to ignore all family advice and go to whatever school he wants to pay for himself. Don’t be bullied or limited by family! Make your own choices! Pay your own way! Then after graduation, and once into a happy and successful career, Op can say: “See what a good choice I made?” and be proud about it.</p>
<p>Of course, if the young adult student cannot pay for his own choice then his choices are rightly limited, just like older adults that must work every day for a living. If he expects to make any choice he wants but that others must pay for it he is living in a child’s world, or at least a dream world.</p>
<p>Antioch (main campus) is just getting its feet on the ground, having reopened after several year of having succomed to the economy. I applaud those who are helping it rise again.</p>
<p>Lexieam, I commend your hard work ethic in life and with your schooling. Do not be too hard on the people who provided comments and advice which you disagree with. Yes, some have been harsh but rather listen to the message they are conveying. $25K is alot of money to apply to your college education. My last son (of 3) is in your position as well. He has worked very hard and made alot of sacrifices to position himself in the top 5% of his class come application time. He had visions like yours, considering many of his peers at that level were applying to Ivy Leagues and he wanted the same. Unfortunately, we, like your mom put a cap of $25K on his education. We have worked very hard our entire life and felt that he needed to contribute as well, which he did by being a responsible student while in high school. His first life lesson of taking ownership for his life. We worked together in researching the colleges and found many top quality schools for engineering that provided good aid and co-op programs where he could earn money and apply to his education. While he wished he could have applied to MIT, his acceptances to Purdue, Clemson, NCState, Drexel and UConn are worthy alternatives that he is excited about. Merit aid was awarded from 3 of the 5, still awaiting on two. The merit aid has made it possible to attend these schools, so he has good options. He has rec’d admissions into his safety school, which he does not want to attend, but if they offer him a full ride he will take it and he will work to be the best student he can be while there and enter into his graduate studies debt free. This is your first step in realizing that life is not always fair and there are no guarantees with anything we do. Make smart decisions and be thankful for the people who care about you. Good luck.</p>
<p>Lexie, I am sorry for your frustration. The college application and especially the finances are incredibly stressful. From a parent’s perspective, living in NJ is expensive (I assume you live here if you are doing research at Rutgers) and your mom’s salary may not go as far as you think. Parents are sometimes guilty of magical thinking along with their kids. They may go into the application process thinking their high achieving student will get lots of merit money or that loans are easy to get and not that hard to pay back, or that the student could take out lots of loans. When they look at the actual numbers, parents realize they really have no way to pay for this. Certainly, the parents should have had the money talk with their children before the application process started and it is unfair to the kids if they didn’t do that.</p>
<p>My advice would be to start an honest, non-judgmental dialogue with your mom. Explain to her that while you don’t know how your acceptance will play out, you want her to be up front with you about the money. If she is willing to pay $25K great, if the number is smaller than you will have to live with that and figure out how to make up the difference. Perhaps you can get her to agree to at least be open to a different school, one you are in and know the actual cost of attendance. The Ivies don’t give merit money and I am not sure how much need-based aid you will get assuming your mom owns a house in NJ and makes a good salary. </p>
<p>It can be very hard in NJ suburbs to be the kid that has to think about the money in school choice. However, you are not alone. Even if they don’t talk about it, there are other kids in your HS that are in the same boat. My son, now a college freshman, knew up front he needed merit money to attend a private college. He didn’t get enough and is at a state university and is happy. It was hard for him to hear about another student, a kid with lower stats, going to one of my son’s favorite schools when we could not afford it. </p>
<p>There is also a difference between being able to afford on paper and willing to pay. My oldest ended up at a school with good merit money. He was accepted at several other schools, some of which he like better, but would have been full pay. He was not able to convince us that the more expensive school was worth the difference in tuition (same ranking on USNews, similar programs but much better location). We ran the loan numbers for him to pay back a substantial loan and he realized he did not want that much of a burden. He was very happy at his school and is happy to have only a small loan to pay back. </p>
<p>At some point you will have to look at what is on the table and choose your best option. It doesn’t matter how your mom spends her money, it only matters what she is willing or able to pay towards college and how much the school will cost you.</p>
<p>Good luck. You have some great choices.</p>
<p>Needing to have an Open Curriculum (no Gen Ed, no Core) may be a non-issue if this student has a good number of AP Credits and the school accepts them. My kids’ school has Core, but my kids didn’t have to take them (except ONE class) because their AP credits covered them.</p>
<p>So, if this student has a good number of AP credits in a variety of areas (history, English, social sciences, math, etc), then likely she would have Core satisfied at the schools that accept AP credits.</p>
<p>Note: Lexi is a NMSF and a likely NMF.</p>
<p>So this means she has received full tuition at Fordham. The 25k will be enough to cover room board and misc. expenses.</p>
<p>If the assumption of family income of 100-150K is correct, doesn’t the possibility exist that there could be some financial aid package if you are accepted to a top school that has some funds to disperse? If a person makes 100K, they are paying at least 20K in all the different taxes (not even including state tax), after paying full tuition/room and board of 55K or so, there isn’t much left, particularly in a high cost location. Even at 150K, there isn’t much wiggle room. Sure, not a full ride, but maybe some assistance. A parent willing to provide 25K at that salary (without a ton of savings, and who has that anymore), is contributing a painful amount of money.</p>
<p>Op is railing on her mom, who she believes is making the lions share of the money. However at the Ivies and Elite LACs, they are going to require the non-custodial profile. Is their income counted as part of this 100-150k? If not, she still does not have an accurate picture of the family’s financial situation as her dad’s and stepmom’s income and assets will be taken into consideration also. Has mom remarried? If yes, then there will be income and assets form a step dad to take into consideration.</p>
<p>She will have 2 separate EFCs- one from her mom and one from her dad and stepmom. Op has stated that dad is not consistent when it comes to working and that stepmom is ill. What will happen when they receive their EFC and are unable to pay it? Op already knows that there is going to be a short fall, because mom is paying 25K.</p>
<p>From the OP’s information, it sounds like Dad’s EFC should be zero.</p>
<p>Have you considered Denison? It’s not too late to apply. They have a competitive full tuition scholarship for NMF. We loved the school and would be happy to share our experience if you pm me. Northeastern also is very generous to NMF.</p>