<p>Maybe this is a bit of a stretch here - I’m a Rhode Islander concerned about financing college, but leery of URI and RIC. Both schools just seem filled with apathetic kids who don’t really want to learn, and I’m the opposite. Are there any cheap state schools or private schools that give great aid that work for the more intellectual types? I’m the kind of person who’d rather discuss literature than the game and I’d like to be in the kind of environment where I could live with a whole bunch of people like me. Is this the kind of liberal arts fantasy you have to be in a position to pay $40,000 a year for, or are there any schools that would fit my quest?</p>
<p>In terms of majors and programs I’m looking for, I’m open to just about anything right now: I’m undecided, bouncing around ideas as varied as chemical engineering to the Russian language. I don’t have much hope for big merit scholarships based on my grades, though my 2160 (and likely to improve) SAT score might do something for me.</p>
<p>Yes, I’m a snob, but I’d like to be a happy snob at my chosen college.</p>
<p>Every Ivy League school provides need based aid.</p>
<p>We would need to know your EFC and grades/rank to help.</p>
<p>Look at insidecollege.com . They have a lot of lists that may be helpful, including one of schools that cover 100% of need.</p>
<p>I have a ~3.5-3.7 unweighted GPA (I really don’t know - my school only gives my my weighted, which is 4.2.) Basically I’m not Ivy material. My EFC is about $14,000 a year.</p>
<p>If you can afford the EFC, focus on schools that meet 100% of need. </p>
<p>You would probably do well with LACs in the mid west and south in particular which don’t see a lot of applicants from RI. If rank is high enough, try for some top LACs.</p>
<p>You might want to try some specialized state schools, like New College of Florida or St. Mary’s in Maryland. Not sure how high the out-of-state tuition is, though.</p>
<p>omg, ANOTHER RHODE ISLANDER!!! we’re everywhere!!! What are your EC’s like??? what school do you go to??? Do you want to stay close to home? Because Rice LOVES Rhode Islanders. I go to Barrington and I know two people who got into Rice ED with plenty of money who had lower than Rice’s average GPA</p>
<p>Agree with Redroses, if you are comfortable leaving your region there will be several Midwest colleges that fit your desires and are priced below the $50,000, have merit aid and would appreciate your RI hometown. Hit the Colleges that Change Lives website to get started. If some sound appealing post back and there will be others (the book just scratches the surface.)</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
MIT
Caltech
Columbia
UPenn
Duke
Dartmouth
Brown
UChicago
Cornell</p>
<p>There you go :] I’ve even took the courtesy of ranking them in terms of the close-minded CC prestige</p>
<p><i>omg, ANOTHER RHODE ISLANDER!!! we’re everywhere!!! What are your EC’s like??? what school do you go to??? Do you want to stay close to home? Because Rice LOVES Rhode Islanders. I go to Barrington and I know two people who got into Rice ED with plenty of money who had lower than Rice’s average GPA</i></p>
<p>I go to East Greenwich - my ECs aren’t bad but I’m no world-changer. President of the GSA is probably my biggest thing. I’m not sure about Rice: I don’t tolerate the heat very well. I’ve been looking at the Midwestern colleges most people here are suggesting as some of my top choices. Oberlin, Grinnell, Macalester, and Beloit are all on my list, and Oberlin and Grinnell are near-ideal for me, but I thought they’d be too expensive.</p>
<p>There are some excellent public LACs with reasonable OOS tuition. SUNY Geneseo and UMN Morris are the two that I think of first.</p>
<p>I agree that full-need reaches are your best choice, but they are of course reaches. This is doubly true given your stats.</p>
<p>EDIT: Truman State in Missouri might also be worth a look.</p>
<p>You could check out William & Mary too. It has a reasonable price for OOS students and an intellectual atmopshere.</p>
<p>As to Rice: heat in the Southwest is different from heat in RI. I’d know: I’m from Phoenix and go to Brown. In the Southwest, literally everyone and every room will have AC, so unless you spend extensive time outside during the hot months, you hardly even notice it. And the heat can be somewhat mitigated if you do your outdoor activities in the morning or evening, and it’s not very humid, usually. The current heat wave you’re experiencing is twice as bad as the heat you’d deal with in Texas. Even if you stayed for the summer.</p>
<p>And the thing about the South in general, is that the weather is best during the school year. You’d be at Rice from September-April or so, so you might get a few weeks above 95, but by October, November at the latest, it should be about 80 or lower. And for around 4 months (late November - mid March) the temperature should go from a low of 30 to a high of 60 or 70.</p>
<p>Reed College, good climate, very intellectual. Occidental (though warm) would work as a safety. Whitman College is a bit outdoorsy, yet intellectual, gave my friend loads better aid than Oberlin. Just some ideas.</p>
<p>I love WIlliam and Mary, but it’s more than 40,000 a year OOS. Not cheap!</p>