Yale, Princeton, Harvard and Northwestern do not provide merit aid. While UChicago and Georgia Tech do technically provide merit scholarships, they are few and extremely competitive. Aside from GT all the other schools will cost over $90k per year. Are they affordable? Would they cause financial distress to your family?
Many state universities have very good honors programs/colleges that emulate a small school environment. Would you consider those?
And how large is too large?
OP probably meant that Wash fills 2/3 of its class with applicants who applied in one of the ED rounds. Which is accurate.
For class of 2028, the 2024/25 CDS shows 1,217 admitted in ED and a total of 1,847 students enrolled, so 66% of the first year class was filled via ED. Maybe not all those 1,217 admitted in ED actually enrolled, but I doubt that would be more than a handful who didnāt.
For OP, I echo the Pitt suggestion and getting that app in as soon after Aug 1 as possible. We really need a budget (or more clarity on the type of schools that OP would āstretchā for) to make more helpful suggestions.
You have gotten some suggestions about colleges where chances of acceptance are better. Reallyā¦you need to find one or two affordable, sure things for admission that your student likes. Please do that first. Your list of reach schools is fine, but they are not predictable in terms of chance me because so many well qualified applicants apply, and the admission rates are low.
I would urge you to read this thread Iām about to link. The student in this thread was top notch, much like your student. No one expected him to be denied acceptance everywhere he applied, but thatās what happenedā¦Iām talking class val, NMF, great ECs and LORā¦really a great student. This is an old thread and admissions have on,y become more competitive. Pleaseā¦read this whole thread.
This student did land well on his feet after a great and well crafted gap year. But their senior year in high school was not a happy time. You donāt want your student to be in this situation.
If your student gets accepted ED anyplace, they will be required to withdraw all applications and acceptances to other schools when they accept the ED off. Soā¦there is no ātechnicallyā about it. If you accept an ED spot, you need to pull the rest of the applications.
Does Wash-U still have ED-2? That could be a backup if you donāt see desired results in December. I also vote for the Pitt suggestion, and the Honors Colleges at bit state universities. However, if you are willing to pay for them, there will also be privates that are the ānext tier downā from the fancies, that will want your son. I think he needs to visit some and see what seems good to him.
And Wilkes, given how you described your son, may be perfect and just in-state at Jupiter although likely not a typical experience. But itās made for studs like him.
It is perfectly fine not to ED anywhere. ED only makes sense when a bunch of specific personal factors line up. And sometimes they do, but when they donāt, it is fine not to ED.
I agree there are a bunch of Likelies and Targets that could make sense, and those are what ACTUALLY make sure you have multiple good offers to consider. Like lots of people bank on an ED at a Reach to provide a good offer, then instead they get rejected by their ED college. Oops. WashU, for example, still rejected 75% of their ED applicants in the last reported cycle, and it was very likely even higher among unhooked ED applicants. So likely an unhooked ED application to such colleges wonāt work, and then what is the plan to make sure you have good offers to consider?
For Neuro, others have already suggested some great optionsālike Pitt, Case, Rochester, Brandeis, and William & Mary are all popular options among kids I know who are also looking at places like WashU.
I also agree that based on what you are describing, an LAC might be a good choice. In terms of less Reachy (and with merit) LACs that have strong neuro programs, I recommend you check out Macalester:
Rhodes:
Trinity University:
https://www.trinity.edu/academics/departments/neuroscience-bs
And the College of Wooster:
Iād also strongly consider St Olafāno Neuroscience major per se, but they have what they call a Concentration in it, and in general it is very friendly, very strong in STEM, and has good merit:
And there are many more if this becomes an attractive possibility in general.
Echoing others. Donāt ED unless it is your Sā first choice. He has a strong enough record that the far reach schools are āreachableā. He may consider, REA to Yale, Princeton or Harvard to get an early read on how strong of a candidate he is. Who knows, he may get in and you are done. Run the NPC for HYP. If your family income is between $150 to $200k, those 3 schools may be cheaper than in-state options and most likely cheaper than out of state.
On research opportunities, my D attended a NE LAC. She did paid research in Chemistry with her professors all three summers. This led to her first job doing stem cell research at Mass Gen. I think it would have been harder to get that type of research opportunity at a big university.
Definitely look into honors programs at the various Florida universities. That could easily be your safety. My brother did an honors program at Univ Mich many years ago, and he thinks he had the best of all worlds, an intimate academic program in Molecular Biology and Biophysics while attending a huge university with a lot of school spirit.
I would have thought the University of Rochester was worth looking into.
I believe FSU/UF have honors colleges with dedicated dorms which could make things feel smaller for him. And I believe FSU/UF merit scholarships stack with bright futures allowing you to get paid to go to university. A very good option to fall in love with. Can you schedule a visit?
UChicago has a very strong neuroscience program and isnāt too big, so itās a good choice to keep in your roster.
You know - you donāt need targets or reaches. You need a school he can excel - that yes he can get in and you can afford. The article is aged butā¦no doubt there will be writing outlets too.
Yes heās well above the profile but Wooster is near tops in regards to research.
Sewanee is another thatās safe and is strong in writing too.
If you are at a top school, I have no doubt research will be there - but there will be more competition. Iām guessing at lesser star schools like these two - the opportunities will be there with maybe less competition. And theyāll cost less.
Because Iām not sure the plans after school - a job or more school (more money) but Neuro in many (not all) occasions will be tough to wedge into a job.
Amherst does show good job placement but no $$. You should ask the career center while there. Three of the top employers are universities and two are hospitals. So perhaps med school aspirants?
With regard to research, I recommend speaking with profs and students at the schools the student is interested in. How many participate, how easy is it to get, funding, etc.
I would apply to Pitt. It is a very strong school and I know there continues to be a lot of research going on.
In further praise of PItt, I note in addition to having its own associated medical complex full of more research, it is ALSO basically adjacent to CMU, itself a top research university. And you can actually take classes at CMU as a Pitt student (and vice-versa). Whether you could get a research position actually at CMU as a Pitt undergrad is a different matter, but then in terms of non-university internships and such, CMU is very much contributing to the overall density of research activities in that area.
So it does stand out a bit to many applicants with this sort of interest. Not uniquely, but definitely interesting for an OOS option without overwhelmingly hard admissions and actually some possibility of merit.
On the research university versus small liberal arts college point, several have already provided examples of their kids getting excellent undergraduate research opportunities at SLACs. One key wildcard for the coming years that I havenāt seen mentioned, is the impact of the federal governmentās efforts to pull back, withhold, or reduce federal funding for research at universities. While I donāt have a crystal ball, I do think that there is a real possibility that in the next few academic years, many R1 research Universities will have less undergraduate research opportunities available given how many are funded by the federal government. SLAC research tends to be less dependent on the federal government I believe. With the uncertainty around research university federal funding, I feel more confident about what SLAC undergrad research opportunities will look like (likely more similar to the past) than what R1 University undergrad research will look like for the next couple years at least. If my kidās priority were undergrad research, Iād give SLACs a clear advantage right now, and be urging that direction.
Same, and I think I said this elsewhere, but some LACs are making this point in their admissions sessions!
Good that some of them are doing this. It is a huge advantage they have in this environment that goes counter to most peopleās preconceived notions around research. They definitely need to be telling that story to prospective families.
Based on the schools youāve listed so far, Iād suggest taking a look at Rice, and as youāre looking for a few more ālikelyā schools, Iād strongly suggest William & Mary. My twins were pretty picky about their schools, and their list of reaches looked a lot like your sonās, and theyāll be heading to W&M in the fall.
āD&D DM / church youth group leader / district quiz bowl championā pretty much describes the ur-student at William & Mary. Basically: super-friendly, super-smart.
W&M would fit into that ālooking for a targetā desire. From my research this year, hereās a list of all of the mid-size (4kā9k undergrads) schools that Fiske rates academically as 4/4.5/5, along with their admit rates. (Iāve bolded the ones youāve already mentioned as being on your list.) Though all of the schools listed on the spreadsheet (and elsewhere in this thread!) are worth considering, from a ātop academics with an accessible admit rateā perspective, you can see how W&M is in unique territory, and from what youāve described of your son, I think the campus culture would resonate a lot.
OP is at Amherst. Perhaps what theyāve heard today is not to their liking - whether that applies to all LACs or just Amherst I donāt know. At both my kids schools - an R1 and regional public, it seemed like profs were looking for research help all the time.
They can also look at the phd feeder list - right side for per capita. Doesnāt have Neuro but they can look at adjacent majors.
The University of Richmond has a neuroscience major and merit scholarships. You might also want to look at the University of South Carolina honors college.
There is zero evidence that the federal research cutbacks had ANYTHING to do with the Carnegie classification. No U or college will be immune if they are working on something that crosses some invisible ideological line.
Professors and research staff at LACs are just as terrified as their colleagues at large universities. They just have not been as obvious a target as Harvard or Columbia and donāt attract media attention. The minute some politician decides that a promising study on Alzheimerās or Autism might use stem cells, or that an economist is studying the link between Head Start and long term employment and concludes that MORE federal dollars should be deployed supporting early learning because it leads to a more productive work forceā¦look out.
LACs are not immune.
