This site offers suggestions for colleges with abundant options for outdoor activities:
Schools that emphasize writing can make good choices for pre-law students: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/writing-programs.
Although they may be more selective than indicated by your target zone, schools such as Hamilton and Williams nonetheless may be worth researching.
Yes, I agree with you. These are good options to look at - thank you!
You are 100% correct. And that’s great to hear about Oberlin, esp compared to those other two schools.
For UVM, be aware that they’ve shifted their curriculum recently to focus more on applied and pre-professional fields, so it’s less the public LAC (or LA university) that they were known as in the past.For someone who wants to do English and creative writing, it might not be as good of a choice as it once was.
These are excellent resources, thank you! I saw Bates and Bowdoin on the outdoors list. He’d love to go to either, but I told him to take those off his list since he’s so reach-heavy already. I think he’s going to apply to Bates anyway though. Also, it was nice to see Iowa make it near the top for writing. Thanks so much!
If he loves CU Boulder for the setting, he should absolutely consider Colorado College for academic and outdoorsy reasons.
I agree! I just thought it would be another reach. The kid loves to write, so maybe he won’t mind doing a bunch of extra essays to more reach schools. Thank you!
CC is great, but my D (who applied to many of the schools being discussed here) hated the idea of a block schedule.
Finding schools for him is easy. Finding schools that will offer substantial merit aid is the challenge. How much aid are you looking for-$10k, $30k, more? How much are you willing to spend? A very good LAC which might give him substantial aid is Trinity University, but that is in San Antonio.
Law schools offer loans, but that can be a lot of indebtedness. Not sure it makes sense to apply to schools like Williams if you know the npc won’t work.
Also, ps, I would guess your son has a shot at the Johnson Scholarship (full ride + stipend) at Washington and Lee. I believe they value leadership.
That’s right! I knew there was a reason we had taken it off the list. Block schedule isn’t a fit for our son either. He liked a lot of other facets of the school, but that was a deal-breaker for him.
He loved it there when he visited last summer! He has the leadership, but I just worry that his GPA (and non AP math/sci junior year, so not max rigor) would hold him back for Johnson consideration. Thanks for the feedback!
I second Rhodes that someone mentioned. Close to you and excellent pre-law. They may give him some merit. It is your best bet in terms of merit. Dd got the best FA package from Rhodes out of 20 schools she applied. If Richmond even considered you have to ED and do full pay. They are terrible with FA from our experience. EA will not work. DD and her freind did EA with GPA 3.95 and excellent extra curricular. Both were defferred and then both were accepted in RD. Both decided not to go due to cost…
Forget about Johnson… He will not get it. Sorry. Very competitive these days.
No he does not… This year experience. With a lot of leadership and much better grades and inteview end up only on waitlist for school…
What’s the budget ? An actual figure because you’ve mainly chosen pricey schools, even with merit.
What’s an LA school ? Liberal Arts. ? You say small LA and then list the opposite as possibles?
Just trying to get a handle on what you really seek.
Ps why ED to Davidson where you won’t get $$ - COA = $76450.
when you can go to a school with a more known writing/English program like Sewanee - and it’s also more outdoorsy. And you’d get merit.
But you can’t say you need money but are going to apply ED to Davidson as a full pay applicant.
Why we need a #. Then we can walk you off that cliff unless you want to be there.
Many of us are you btw. Full pay but not willing to pay. So you can get a great school to hit the # you want. But you have to be honest about that # and steadfast in protecting it.
Lehigh and George Wahington you almost need ED to get in… I would consider them reaches not matches…
Williams,Hamilton… etc. Chances are slim to none…
Yes, he may be great writer but there are thousands of students who are similar to him.
You need to find affordable likelies…
Make sure that you son will not end up with very few good acceptances because he applied only to top schools. Top schools without ED will not happen. Even ED will not work for Williams…you can ED only to one school…
My advice is to first come up with a cost that you are able to pay, and then look for schools that might come in at that number (merit schools). You can add the small student loan if you want.
Right now I get the feeling that you are creating a list of schools, many of which are reaches, and then deciding/figuring out if you can pay.
While I recognize that both strategies will lead to a list, I almost feel as though the current strategy is backwards. I think it will be easier if you have a concrete budget. I do not understand ED’ing to reach schools if you need money.
He won’t consider it because of location. I know, I know. We are picking our battles here. That’s kind of what I thought about UR, but was hoping EA would be enough. Good info - thank you!
I totally understand! I think he’s amazing but wouldn’t give it to him either based on the app pool.