This is great. I am trying to make spring break plans now. H thinks that we could go to one or two locations that would likely give in-state. D says she doesn’t have any preferences to where as long as warmish to run and thinks she would prefer middle-size school. We think small might be too restrictive for course options, but willing to consider large. She is now saying not necessarily engineering but calculus/physics/neuroscience. Would any school great in engineering also be great in science/math in general?
She is also interested in study abroad-in particular Japan. A school that offers Japanese language is a plus, but not a deal breaker. She has 2 years of HS Japanese that she took online.
@WayOutWestMom To clarify…she is interested in running as a hobby and not cross country anymore. She regularly runs 10k and not planning to run with a team, but if there is a great cross country team, then chances are there great running trails. Thanks for the links to the auto merit and honors. I appreciate when a school has auto merit chart!!
@1Lotus , Alabama (the flagship in Tuscaloosa) offers Japanese and like other have said, offers generous merit aid and a warm climate. It’s a gorgeous campus and very attentive to students. Really nothing bad to say about it from our experiences! Happy to talk more about UA or Japanese at UA.
I think only FSU has tuition waivers for some of its scholarship recipients, and for those who do study abroad program for 1st year (Spain, Panama, and one other choice).
@1Lotus
Both of my daughters are recreational runners (anything from 5K to full marathons) and according to them there are plenty of good running trails.
If your D likes mountain running, there’s the La Luz and Pino Trails. Either will give your D a challenge. D1 and D2 used to run up the Pino Trail (4.7 miles, 2700+ ft elevation gain) many Saturday mornings.
@WayOutWestMom This is great info-thank you. We are now considering New Mexico. How do you feel about safety in Albuquerque? She is used to the suburbs…how “urban” is the campus?
Anyone with suggestions of mid-size FL schools that D might qualify for OOS tuition waiver?
My D18 is at Utah and loves it there, you can’t beat the outdoor lifestyle, they go skiing, backpacking, climbing etc. very frequently (she’s had 6 days of skiing already since Thanksgiving). The Honors College is excellent (with truly gorgeous dorms) and they do offer a Japanese major.
Although the U offers good merit aid (up to and including full rides) there are some very strong students (including winners of nationally competitive scholarships every year) and your D’s stats wouldn’t get the 4 year full tuition OOS scholarship (the cutoff will likely be 34 or 35 ACT this year). However she may qualify for the 1 year full tuition scholarship (which you follow up by getting residency and paying instate rates after that), so $25K per year is potentially doable. Don’t worry too much about renewal cutoffs, the grading policies are quite generous and something like 40% of graduates have a 3.6 GPA or above.
UNM’s campus is pretty suburban. It’s definitely not inner city, “gritty” urban. There are no high rises, no huge apartment blocks nearby. Mostly lots of older residential houses, some converted to funky businesses. Lots of small non-chain restaurants/breweries/stores within walking distance. Campus has plenty of green space including a nice duck pond, where students like to study in nice weather, and well tended sport practice fields right next to the undergrad dorms. No public roads go through the campus so on campus traffic is non existent. Major streets delineate the campus on the north and south sides, but major streets here are only 4 lanes wide (2 in each direction) with crosswalks & lights at every cross street.
The having to be separately accepted to the major at UMN was making me nervous until I came across the actual stats. 3.2 is guaranteed admission to any of the majors, but in reality they don’t deny very many.
You might consider the University of Kentucky. Great new honors college (changed from honors program) and good merit possibilities. Lexington is a neat town too!
Flagler in St. Augustine has merit. It is a small private school but with a low starting COA, so the merit goes a long way. I really like it and it is ‘downtown’ (a very small town) in a historical area.
Other Florida schools that give merit are FIU and FGCU. Not sure if they give OOS tuition waivers, but they give merit.
Florida Southern also gives merit and has a lower COA than many LACs. It has nursing and some other science majors. I think biology is a big one.
Embry-Riddle has engineering and other STEM subjects, and gives scholarships to attract women. Florida tech has engineering but also a top psychology dept (both forensic and autism studies). The private schools give a lot of merit $$ that could bring the price down to instate levels (~$20-25k)
Any thoughts on FSU/UCF? They seem much bigger than I thought my D originally wanted, but if they have good programs in engineering/physics and she would have potential for scholarships for oos tuition waiver or similar, we may want to look into these. Warm but good school is important to her and we are ok with it if we wouldn’t be paying much more than in-state flagship @$25,000/year. We understand that travel will add to the expenses and that is ok too. We are full pay. STATS Junior-Her official Feb ACT-32 (STEM 33)-will take again in April with entire class, 4.0 gpa, 8 AP, lettered in XC, Math League and Academics, other ECs at school and community. Thanks in advance for thoughts.