Help with my college list?

College Search & Lists
1

Background: Chinese-American from the midwest, no siblings. Will not qualify for significant financial aid.

Budget: 30k

Stats: 3.37 GPA, 1550 SAT. My school doesn’t rank or weight classes, but I have taken 4 APs, which is typical for honors-track(is that the right term?) kids at my school.

EC’s: Art(sculpture), 3 years of debate and XC/Track, research(internship at a local college, presented at a conference), 3 years of being a teacher’s assistant at a Chinese Language School, volunteering at various places.
No notable accomplishments.

Academic Preferences: I’m undecided on my major, but I know for certain I will not be going into art or engineering. I also may be pre-law or pre-PhD.

Non-academic Preferences: Ideally 10k or fewer undergrads(absolute maximum of 30k), urban/suburban, minimal Greek Life, minimal emphasis on sports, located somewhere cold(ideally New England, but it’s not a big deal), close to the coast, not overly political. None off those are major sticking points, though, and especially with the grades I have, I’m willing to go with pretty much anywhere.

Currently considering:
Mizzou, Purdue, UMass Amherst(depending on whether or not I can get MA residency from my dad moving over there for work), UAlabama(doubtful I’ll make National Merit Finalist, but applying anyway just in case).

2

What state do you currently reside in now?

3

Purdue and Bama have over 30K undergrads, Mizzou and ZooMass have over 20K undergrads; Bama, Purdue, and Mizzou have pretty significant emphasis on sports, and are not close to the East or West Coasts; Bama has major emphasis on Greek life, and is not cold. They clearly don’t meet your criteria; so why bother considering them?

You are going to have a bit of a problem finding schools that meet your criteria where you can pay $30K or less per year; and if you don’t get merit or financial aid, you probably will be looking at a state school in your home state. Where do you have your legal residence?

4

Any interest in Catholic colleges? They’re the right size and often fairly urban with minimal, if any, Greek life. You might get enough merit at Xavier (Cincinnati), Dayton or Duquesne (Pittsburgh) to get your cost close to $30,000. Closer to the coast is St. Joe’s (Philadelphia) and maybe U Scranton or Providence. Basketball is big at some of these schools but that’s about it for sports.

I don’t know how much your grades will hurt you in terms of merit, but that’s a really nice SAT score.

5

Throwing out a few schools that my daughter applied to that seem to match your wants. Her stats were similar to yours. All were around or less than 30K due to merit received:

-UMaine
-Siena
-Allegheny
-Susquehanna
-Washington & Jefferson

Some others we looked at that should’ve come in in that price range as well:

-Wheaton (MA)
-Juniata
-Muhlenberg
-Ursinus

6

Pre-PhD.?

7

@ProfessorPlum168 Missouri

@gandalf78 Sorry, I should have been more clear. I’m considering those even though they don’t fit my criteria because, my main priority is cost–everything else is just nice to have.
Also, I’m from Missouri, but I think I can get Massachusetts residency as well due to my dad working in Boston(he will have lived in MA for a year by the time I enroll).
Mizzou is actually one of my top choices–I got a 1510 on the PSAT which at least gets me NM Semifinalist, meaning I can get a full tuition scholarship there.

@LuckyCharms913 I hadn’t really considered any, but I’ll look into them. Thanks!

@taverngirl Thanks for the suggestions.

8

@TomSrOfBoston It said to list that on the stickied post if you had pre-professional goals, so…

9

Are you looking at Truman State? It has the smaller size you want, and it’s an excellent school. The baseline cost would be well within your budget even before automatic merit, and while I haven’t looked, I would assume there would be NMF merit there as there is at Mizzou.

The smaller and colder public LAC alternative to Truman State would be U of Minnesota Morris. (Neither urban nor coastal, but high-quality and very affordable, and not dominated by either Greek life or sports.) Through the MSEP reciprocity program, this would cost you $23K as a baseline, before any merit that might be possible. This is an incredible price for a great residential LAC experience with small classes and the kind of neither-Greek-nor-sports-centric experience you’re hoping for.

New England is a hard place to bargain-hunt. There are, as noted above, some great bargains in the Maine state system. Your GPA may make merit at private U’s hard to nail down, in spite of the great SAT score.

You might look at SUNY Geneseo, the LAC of the SUNY system (5500 students), which has a $34K OOS COA - not too far above your budget.https://www.geneseo.edu/about It’s just about half an hour outside of the city of Rochester. SUNY Oswego, on Lake Ontario 90 minutes east of Rochester, is another SUNY with under 10K students, which has a co-op program, if that would appeal, https://www.oswego.edu/co-op/home and rings up at $33K. (Binghamton and Buffalo are both excellent, but larger than you want and significantly more expensive. Geneseo seems like the one to consider unless you would specifically like the co-op approach - and the large art department, if the ability to minor in art is important to you - at Oswego.)

If you really can get in-state status in MA, UMass Amherst could be a great option. And you could apply to the Commonwealth Honors College as a continuing student if you get the grades.

If you really want the quintessential Northern New England Coast experience, you could consider Dalhousie in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Tuition & fees + housing + books/supplies total around $31KCAD which at the current exchange rate is around $24K US, though I’m sure there are some additional costs that come into the COA estimates for US schools that aren’t tallied up there. Still, it should be in range, and wow, it’s a gorgeous place. Under 20K students.