Daughter is thinking pre-med but knowing her undergrad doesn’t matter she is thinking of majoring in psychology. Size wise she’s probably looking to stay over 2,000 but under 10,000 so small to midsized. She’s a sophomore at a rigorous private HS with a 4.7 weighted, highest level of classes available to her grade. She does not want anything with a city feel, does want something that has a community feel, and is open to anything between the east coast and mid west (temperature doesn’t matter). Here’s the twist - she is also a softball pitcher and is good enough to play in college but she wants a D3 school. Because of that, the fact that we won’t qualify for aid AND she may want to attend med school, she will be chasing merit. Hit us with your suggestions!!! Thanks!
SUNY Geneseo
TCNJ
St. Lawrence University
clark u!!! might have a bit of a city feel b/c worcester but a super insulated campus + renowned psychology program (only university freud lectured at) + a ton of merit offerings and potentially a full ride scholarship
St. Olaf checks all the boxes. Absolutely the most community-focused school we saw and they have generous merit. Search CC and you’ll get a lot of information about a school you seldom hear discussed elsewhere. A true hidden gem.
S23 was a recruited baseball player and decided not to continue in college. St. Olaf was the one school he said he would have considered playing while in college. If you look at their schedule, they do one short road trip down south, but everything else is close by. That was a big issue for S23 who got stressed out about the time traveling and being away from academics and social/club activities.
Washington college. Good merit. Great D3. Great for psych and premed. Close knit and fun campus.
If her UW GPA is greater than 3.7, you might have a a shot as a recruited athlete at Carleton or W&L; if over 3.4 at a very rigorous school with a number of APs at Conn College; they have merit. If somewhere in between on UW GPA, Kenyon,
Oberlin and Denison might work too. Overall look at North Coast Athletic Conference, Liberty League and Centennial Conference schools for quality DIII options at range of required GPAs with merit. These schools also have the big plus of short conference-play travel.
Rochester is technically in a city location but really doesn’t feel like in in the main (River) campus. Very good for psych and pre-med generally with lots of local experience opportunities. Pretty robust merit program.
I would second the suggestion of St Olaf. Strong in these areas, sounds pretty much exactly like what she wants in terms of campus and community, and has a very robust merit program.
Knowing that students seeking to be athletic recruits need to cast a wide net, these are some non-urban D3 schools that your D may want to consider include:
- Augustana (IL): About 2300 undergrads
- Baldwin Wallace (OH): About 2700 undergrads
- Denison (OH): About 2400 undergrads
- Gettysburg (PA ): About 2200 undergrads
- Gustavus Adolphus (MN): About 2100 undergrads
- Hope (MI): About 3300 undergrads
- Ithaca (NY): About 4600 undergrads
- John Carroll (OH): About 2400 undergrads
- North Central (IL): About 2400 undergrads
- Oberlin (OH): About 3k undergrads
- Ohio Northern: About 2600 undergrads
- Otterbein (OH): About 2200 undergrads
- Roger Williams (RI): About 4100 undergrads
- Shenandoah (VA): About 2500 undergrads
- St. Lawrence (NY): About 2100 undergrads
- Susquehanna (PA ): About 2200 undergrads
- U. of Scranton (PA ): About 3600 undergrads
- Wheaton (IL): About 2100 undergrads, and this university has a Christian outlook
- York (PA ): About 3300 undergrads
Ohio Wesleyan and Hobart and William Smith both give very large merit and have many recruited athletes.
Union College as well, but the largest merit would be more competitive to get.
Smith, Mount Holyoke, Gettysburg, Geneseo.
So define a 4.7 unweighted.
4.0 is A, 3.0 is B.
She’s too early for a test (SAT/ACT).
There will be tons of school.
If chasing merit or wanting small, you can do publics like your in state, SUNYs, CNU, Truman State, etc. or to some second tier LACs that have enough students.
You’re a bit early - there’s really a lot of places you can look - especially because your geography and size limit is so wise.
Take a look at Monmouth University, seems like it checks all the boxes.
Denison has a strong psychology department and a strong softball team and is generous with merit.
Depauw?
My daughter got decent merit from UDel, a larger school but with an honors college, beautiful campus with a great Main Street and a lot of school spirit. She had a rigorous course load in HS, just one B, and high ACT. She was accepted into every DPT program she applied to (is at BU with some merit). She originally wanted smaller but UD got smaller quickly.
What is the budget?
And I agree we need unweighted GPA (calculate it yourself if it’s not on the transcript) and some sense of rigor for the next few years.
Any test score yet? For a potential athlete it would be good for her to prep for a take a test this summer/fall (caveat based on what math she has right now).
We chased merit for three kids. These schools aren’t specifically strong psych except Clark but have generally good LA and merit. Clark TCNJ and Muhlenberg are D3. Rest are D1. Gotta make trade offs
Muhlenberg
It is on the small end of the spectrum but is a great feeder schools for pre-med. excellent community feel. Real mix of arts (literally) and science. Pretty campus is residential area but within Allentown, so not out in the farms. Not too far from Philly/NYC. Merit aid ranges from $18-$36k
St Joseph’s/LoyolaMD
Two very similar schools that are in cities but have real campuses and not downtown. Both give tremendous merit packages ($25-35k). Small to Mid-sized. Jesuit = Catholic-lite. Classic liberal arts undergrad.
Clark
I agree with Clark. 2300 UG students but also >1000 grad students. In Worcester, but a residential area and close to more colleges (Holy Cross, WPI, Assumption etc). 1hr train direct to Boston. Very warm non-competitive feel from students. Very strong Psych. Great liberal arts and stem (non Eng). 5th year free Masters (if they switch from pre-med….). Merit $20-30k+ and cost is not exorbitant
Marist
$20-25k merit. Absolutely gorgeous campus on the Hudson River 1.5hr by train to NYC. Good liberal arts plus pre-professional programs.
TCNJ is cheap and has a medical school connection.
Seton Hall is a lot like StJoes/Loyola but more urban ( so not perfect- it does NOT check that box) but it gives $20-30k merit and has a med-school program affiliation with Hackensack medical which is the Top NJ hospital. I believe they are guaranteed an interview.
So does she want to pursue athletic recruiting?
As you know, if chasing merit she needs to be at the top of a school’s applicant pool academically.
This is a big reason why she is only thinking of playing at a D3 school!
UW is a 4.0 as of now. Their scale is 4.5 so is a little strange to me but she’s a 4.0 on a 4.0 scale. Thank you for all the insight!