CWRU; Wake Forest; Santa Clara; GWU

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With scholarships, it would cost my D $33k to attend University of Colorado; $48k to attend CWRU; $59 for University of Washington; $60 to attend GWU; $64 to attend Santa Clara; and $88k to attend Wake Forest. We can afford all of these colleges but cannot also then help out with graduate school or a house down payment.

She wants a medium size school with a strong community and a lot of student support and attention in a warm climate. She wants to major in biochemistry (premed) and have a high level of dance.

She can get everything she wants at CWRU except for the warm climate so that is her/our first choice. My question is: if she doesn’t like it….where should she go? Is Wake that much better quality to choose it over Santa Clara despite the cost? How much $ is “fit” worth?

Net price per year at each college, after applying scholarships and financial aid grants.

Maximum parent contribution per year.

Major/division admitted to at each college, if applicable to the college. Also, any special programs like honors programs or combined degree programs (e.g. BA/BS->MD).

If you applied to regular fall term start, specify if you were admitted to start at a different campus, in study abroad, in an online/distance or extension program, or other than in the fall term.

Desired major and post graduation goals (including if pre-med, pre-law, etc.).

If not a frosh admit finishing high school, indicate status (e.g. sophomore level transfer, junior level transfer, frosh after gap year(s)).

International or domestic student (and state of residency if domestic).

Student preferences beyond the above (including weather, class sizes, campus culture, college demographics, fraternities/sororities, distance from home, etc.).

Preliminary assessment of each college based on the above.

Why did you apply to each college you are considering?

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Highly biased SCU grad here but it checks all of the boxes. Weather is great, excellent pre-med support, friendly vibe. It was very high on my D25’s list but she landed a yes from UCLA and will enroll there. I do think SCU is a super great fit for a friendly, involved, hard working kid who wants great professors, small classes, and lifelong friendships and career connections.
(If you look at the profile of an accepted student, you will see that the 40%+ acceptance rate is deceptive. It’s a highly, highly qualified pool.)

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I’m sure Wake is great. Given the major, whether med school or not there will likely be grad school.

So $$ matter. CU is sunny. But big and cold.

There’s other schools you can still get into - as low as $20k.

Who will pay for grad school if you overpay now ?

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What kind of dance is she interested in? Of these on Case and Wake made my daughter’s first pass list looking for high level ballet.

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All types of dance including ballet and modern.

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Santa Clara is still 24k less than Wake, so if she chose it, and you’d set it aside for her she’d have 100k for med school, grad school, or anything else. It seems to check all the boxes AFAIK (I don’t know wrt dance though but assume she’s looked into it at all of these?)
So after visiting Case she should visit SCU :flexed_biceps::tada:

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So I think Wake is a great college. Very nice campus, fun sports, and also a real dedication to undergraduate teaching, including strong student-professor relationships, that helps it stand out from some other institutions. Among the other professional families I know, it is quite popular for these reasons.

As it happens, though, Santa Clara shares that same sort of undergraduate teaching strength! Of course take this with a big grain of salt, but US News does peer surveys on this specific question, and Wake is in a tie for #31:

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/undergraduate-teaching?_sort=rank&_sortDirection=asc

But Santa Clara is then in a tie for #17! I wouldn’t take the exact rank too seriously, my point is just BOTH these colleges have a well-deserved reputation for, as the US News says, “putting a particular focus on undergraduate teaching.”

Of course some people can comfortably afford to simply choose whichever they like best regardless of cost, and I could see some kids preferring Wake (and others Santa Clara). But in this case, it sounds to me like Santa Clara is a good fit generally, and the total budget of parental financial help could maybe be better saved for other things. So while this is very personal, I would strongly consider going with Santa Clara of those two, given the circumstances you described.

Random addition, but I note you will find a lot of Jesuit colleges “overperforming” their generic US News ranking on that undergraduate teaching list. As someone who thinks the top reason to go to college is actually to get an education, I might suggest this indicates there could be something a bit off with the priorities represented in their generic rankings.

But my feeling that US News’s generic rankings might be underemphasizing this sort of factor also extends to some other non-Jesuit colleges, like Wake. So this doesn’t really answer your question per se, other than to reinforce the idea that they have some strengths in common.

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