Choosing schools to apply to with low stats [3.1UW; TO; Business or Comms; $45k tuition]

College Search & Lists
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Below are some schools that your son may want to investigate. They generally have Greek life, strong enthusiasm for intercollegiate sports, and strength in his areas of interest. For the schools whose tuition exceeds $45k, I strongly suspect they would give him merit aid to bring the price below that point. And the fact that I wrote more for some than for others should not be interpreted as anything beyond my energy levels.

I’ve sorted them by my guesses as to your son’s chances for admission, though I admittedly tend to be a conservative chancer. And I linked the CDS where available, as the GPA breakdown of students in section C11 played a definite role in my guesses as to your son’s chances.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

Likely (60-79%)

  • Appalachian State (NC): About 19k undergrads. Common Data Set (looked at 2023-2024)

  • Michigan State: About 40k undergrads (leaning towards toss-up). 2023-2024 Common Data Set.

  • Seton Hall (NJ): About 6100 undergrads (leaning towards toss-up). Did not find a recent CDS, but there was this SY22-23 Data Trends publication.

  • U. of Cincinnati (OH): About 31k undergrads with a school culture that places a lot of emphasis on co-ops. It also made Princeton Review/s list as a school with lots of race/class interaction. Cincinnati also has a number of major companies there, including the headquarters of Procter & Gamble. 2024-2025 Common Data Set

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • Indiana University: About 37k undergrads (leaning towards likely). I wrote more about it in this post. 2024 Common Data Set.

  • U. of Dayton (OH): About 8200 undergrads; many say it has a similar vibe to Notre Dame but with a higher admission rate. 2023-2024 Common Data Set

  • U. of Houston (TX): About 38k undergrads (leaning towards likely). 2024-2025 Common Data Set

  • U. of Minnesota – Twin Cities: About 40k undergrads (leaning likely, but there was no GPA info in section C11 of the CDS).

Lower Probability (20-39%)

Low Probability (less than 20%)

If you let us know if any recommendations that people make attract or repel (and why), that can help folks to make better suggestions.

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