Colleges Similar to Culver Academy

College Search & Lists
1

I applied to Culver last fall and absolutely fell in love with everything about it. I got in, but as an incoming junior, I wasn’t eligible for any of the scholarships and didn’t receive enough financial aid to afford the cost of attendance. Ever since, it’s stayed in my head and now that I am looking for colleges, I would really like to find somewhere that captures the sense of community, passion, kindness, and excellence that I found at Culver. Of course, I absolutely adored the old buildings and trees on campus, so somewhere with those features would be a huge plus as well.

Basically, I am trying to ask if anyone knows of any small colleges that are similar to Culver. It can be quite hard to hear about those little gems for you aren’t from that area. Thank you for your help!

2

There are a very large number of small colleges in the US.

What is your situation? I am just guessing that if you are looking to be an incoming junior at a 4 year college then you might be a community college 2 year student, or very recent CC graduate. Is this correct? What are your grades and test scores? What can you afford?

Also, do you have geographic preferences or limitations?

3

@DadTwoGirls I am a junior in high school (sorry for the confusion). I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA and a score of 1560 on the SAT that I took in August, so that may help with costs. My family doesn’t have a ton of money saved up, but hopefully scholarships/financial aid will save us. Cooler climates (e.g. New England) are preferable for me, but I am keeping my options open.

4

With that GPA and SAT you will have a lot of choices among small colleges. I would however suggest that you intend to graduate high school in the normal 4 years and then go to college. You might want to run the NPC on a range of small schools and see what it says.

5

Looks like Culver has a military orientation. Do you want that in your college?

6

Many small liberal arts colleges will have a similar feel to Culver (we live in Indiana, so I’m familiar with it) as a small, close community, engaged, big school spirit. If the military component matters to you as a priority for college, that narrows the list considerably. Another narrowing principle will be financial aid – will your family be eligible for financial aid, or are you not eligible for financial aid but cannot afford full price so need to receive merit awards from the college to bring the price down?

Small liberal arts colleges which may have a similar feel to Culver:

Williams, Amherst, Haverford, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Middlebury, Franklin & Marshall
In the south – Davidson (NC) and Washington & Lee (VA)

Small liberal arts colleges which offer merit awards and also have similar feel:
Dickinson, Gettysburg, Denison, St Lawrence

Colgate and Hamilton are schools which I have never visited but would also make sense are Colgate and Hamilton.

7

@moooop No, that aspect is not as important to me.

8

@Midwestmomofboys Thank you, this was super helpful!

9

With respect to financial aid, these schools are among the country’s most well-funded:

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2017-09-21/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need

As a group, most of the ten NESCAC LACs would be likely to appeal to you.

10

“that aspect is not as important to me.”

That’s fine, but if you had such a great impression of Culver, it’s worth looking at small colleges that incorporate a similar leadership and honor code model, notably Virginia Military Institute and the Citadel.