Help creating a college list [4.0 GPA in IBDP, top 5%, 1520 SAT superscore, <$50k; undecided possibly psychology, neuroscience, public health]

Applying to College
21

Below are my guesses as to what your D’s chances for admissions might be at the schools on your current list:

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Elon

Likely (60-79%)

  • Clark

  • St. Olaf

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • American (if she shows a lot of demonstrated interest then this would probably more up to likely or extremely likely)

  • Lafayette

  • Lehigh

Lower Probability (20-39%)

  • Denison

  • Macalester

  • Smith

  • U. of Richmond

  • William & Mary

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • Bates

  • Colby

  • Colgate

  • Dartmouth

  • Emory

It sounds as though you ran the NPC at Dartmouth and it came back as unaffordable. I would drop it and any other school that does not offer merit and whose NPC comes back as unaffordable. Schools on your list with no merit aid include Bates, Colby, and Colgate.

Your D may also want to read up on the Greek scene at Dartmouth, Lehigh, Denison, Colgate, and Lafayette. Different schools do Greek life differently, but I think it would be worth investigating at those schools.

If costs need to be under $50k then I would eliminate William & Mary. I think Macalester’s top merit aid award is about $25k, so that one may not necessarily be able to make budget either. I think that most likely the only ones that might hit that price range via merit aid are the ones in the likely/extremely likely category.

I suspect that your D will need to look at schools that are less rejective if she wants to receive substantial merit aid. Some other schools that she may want to consider include:

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Gustavus Adolphus (MN): About 2100 undergrads

  • Loyola Chicago (IL): About 12k undergrads

  • Miami U. (OH): About 17k undergrads

  • Muhlenberg (PA ): About 1900 undergrads

  • Saint Louis U. (MO): About 11k undergrads

  • U. of St. Thomas (MN): About 5700 undergrads

  • Wheaton (IL): About 2200 undergrads; religious affiliation is much more influential on college life than at most religiously-affiliated schools

  • Wheaton (MA): About 2200 undergrads

Likely (60-79%)

  • College of Wooster (OH): About 2k undergrads

  • Fordham (NY): About 10k undergrads, likely admit

  • Franklin & Marshall (PA ): About 2k undergrads

  • Lake Forest (IL): About 1700 undergrads

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • Dickinson (PA ): About 2100 undergrads

  • Oberlin (OH): About 3k undergrads

  • Skidmore (NY): About 2800 undergrads

Lower Probability (20-39%)

Low Probability (less than 20%)

22

Hi, I commented on another thread. Clark is fantastic. D23 had an excellent financial aid offer $26,000 in merit, which was not the top merit tier. Please note we were eligible for financial aid at all the private schools and she also did receive a Clark grant as well. Colby has the Fair Share Fund less than $75,000 in income 0 cost, $100,000 in income $10,000 cost, $150,000 income $15,000 cost, and $200,000 in income $20,000 in cost.

Some schools I would look into regarding on what you described and cost. University of New Hampshire and Connecticut College.

I would encourage you to run the net price calculator at Smith since they have an excellent need based, no loan financial aid policy. We had a pretty tight budget for my D23 to hit and the women’s colleges seemed to hit that budget. It may still be a no go for your daughter but price can motivating factor since Smith seemed tick most of the boxes.

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23

What’s your home state? could it be nothing out west works? You likely have WUE access.

24

Kenyon? Union? Case Western? Hobart and William Smith? Miami U Ohio?

25

Davidson and Elon both came to mind.

26

If Dartmouth is on her list as a high reach and the NPC came back as affordable, then she might also want to consider Brown, which would also be a high reach and checks all her boxes.

Here is a list of current classes this semester so she can see what is available in her various interests. Then choose next semester to see what is offered then. Other colleges have something similar and this can help her choose where to apply.

27

Thank you for all of that. I did the NPC on Wellesley and we couldn’t get the price down low enough. However, UVM is an exceptional deal as the NPC estimated a grant of $26k based on her stats. So that one is definitely in the running.

I know virtually nothing about the SUNYs, so I’ll have to research those.

Re: Canadian schools, the lack of recognition of the smaller schools is concerning to me, but I’ve always wondered if my kids would like McGill. I just have no idea what the college experience is like there, being that it is so big.

28

My son is a freshman at Lehigh right now. Just from hearing about the kids he has met there, I would say a LOT of them got some financial aid to bring costs down. I think they are pretty generous with aid. He was given free room and board to match the 4-year ROTC scholarship he has. Pretty awesome!
As far as greek life goes, many kids are involved with greek life but MOST are not. My son is not interested in frats and he has a full plate with the other clubs he is involved with.

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29

OP can check schools’ common data sets (CDSs) to see the proportion of students who receive financial aid (whether need based or merit) and the average award. Of course, each family’s financial situation is unique, so averages or a reputed generosity of a college won’t apply to all.

To stick with Lehigh, from CDS section H2, 48% of class of 2028 matriculants received need based aid (so 52% had no financial need per Lehigh’s calculations.) Also, 247 first years with need received merit aid, while (from section H2A)182 students with no need received merit aid (avg around $26K).

After OP does the NPC on all the schools, they can also do this CDS analysis.

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30

I think Bates meets all the criteria. There is not a cozier school out there other than maybe Smith.

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31

Have you checked the net price calculator at all of the above for the various scenarios of number of students in college?

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32

Given your daughter’s great stats this is not a big surprise to me. One daughter got her bachelor’s at UVM and liked it quite a bit (and then got into her top choice graduate program elsewhere). I would keep it on the list.

McGill is big. At least to me when we toured it felt like a big university.

Montreal is an interesting place to live for four years. McGill is right in the middle of Montreal, in an interesting location. The other English language university in Montreal (Concordia) is nearby, and the region around both is largely fully bilingual. In my experience if I walk into a store in the area and start to speak French they immediately break into English (which is a comment on the quality of my French). I have heard that students who are trying to learn French will sometimes ask people to speak French after first having the same experience. There is a lot to do in the area (restaurants, stores, Place des Arts, museums, the park on the top of Mount Royal, …). Old Montreal is not all that far away. The subway is quite good and stops right near McGill. When I was in high school I am pretty sure that I saw both Joan Baez and Pete Seeger at Place des Arts, just a couple of blocks from McGill. McGill also has a very good music program, so there are (I think probably free) concerts very frequently on campus which feature their students (these would not be at Place des Arts, but would instead be at some of the facilities on campus).

The drinking age in Quebec is 18. I have been told that this mostly pulls the undergraduate drinking out of the dorms into the bars and clubs, which is an improvement. People are less willing to make a fool of themselves in public.

McGill is a very good university. It is academically challenging. Getting A’s is significantly more difficult compared to comparable universities in the US – grade deflation is real at both McGill and Toronto. McGill is good for a wide range of subjects.

One daughter applied to McGill. I applied decades ago as an in-province student. Both of us were accepted but went somewhere else. One sibling did go there, liked it, and did very well. The application is quite quick and easy to fill out. Admissions is largely based on stats and your daughter has the stats.

I think that McGill has probably added, under pressure from the provincial government, a requirement that students show some limited proficiency in French in order to graduate. This would not have been a problem for me since I think that a similar level was already needed to graduate high school in Quebec. However, individual students may vary in terms of whether they want to do this.

I do not know whether McGill would fit your budget, but it is likely to be close one way or another. Note that all prices are listed in Canadian dollars, and the exchange rate is favorable for Americans paying for universities in Canada.

I would not visit during February break. We did this and it was probably a mistake.

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33

I have a student majoring in psych at Bates. You can pick psych or neuro as a major, and you can select public health as an additional concentration. Psych is one of the most popular majors at Bates. Students do a thesis senior year and work closely with a professor. Many psych majors also choose to do a semester abroad (studying positive psych or neuro in Europe, for example). Bates is worth a visit, and would recommend ED1 if it’s a first choice (acceptance rates have been 12-14 percent in the past few years). Also, lots of internships available in Portland and in Boston.

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34

Yes. None of them met the under $50k threshold, but Dartmouth came back with the most aid by far, even more than the aid offer from UVM, with either one or two siblings in college at the same time. So, if she were to get in there, we might rationalize bridging the gap by pulling from “somewhere,” along with her contributing $6k / year earned during summer and on-campus jobs. We (and she) would only do that for an Ivy, due to the name brand and alumni network.

35

Yes, that was what she LOVED about Smith: the coziness. I would love to see her at Bates. Unfortunately, I don’t think we would get enough aid there.

36

Given the major and future grad school, how would the name brand and alumni network be of benefit ?

And frankly and perhaps it’s just me but the rampant sexual assault that happened in Dartmouth’s psych department (grad level) just a few short years ago, how could anyone consider sending their daughter - especially to that specific department.

Give the major, save your dough. You’ll likely need it later because in most cases, more schooling will be required.

37

Seems like a bunch of wasted visits…

It also looks like the $50k limit must be met at list price or with merit scholarships, since need based aid is unlikely to be sufficient. If merit scholarships are needed to afford a specific college, then the reach/match/likely/safety categorization must be made on the large-enough merit scholarship, not admission.

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38

Since you wrote this, I’d think very carefully about Dartmouth.

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39

Be aware that some of the Ivies will count some of a parent’s home equity as an asset and others will not. Dartmouth did recently—not sure if they still do.

Princeton is usually regarded as being the most generous of the Ivies. You might want to run the NPC for Princeton to see best-case scenario.

And the standard caveat: if parents own a small business or are separated/divorced, the NPCs are likely to not be accurate.

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40

If your daughter sticks with one of the majors that were mentioned…there is a good chance that she will end up in some type of grad school.

Something that you may (or may not) wish to consider.

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