You can play with the inputs at College Navigator - Search Results, but it looks to me like your best bet for a likely school would be George Washington, which has about 11,000 students, has a ~45% admissions rate, is a part of the TE consortium, and doesn’t care too much about demonstrated interest. Their deadline is also 1/5.
[Edit: Here’s a slightly tweaked search query that shows a few other options that could be worth checking out]
I think University of Minnesota is a great safety. They have a high admission rate, a wonderful honors college, and give merit to our of state students. They also have a lot of highly ranked programs.
I’m not sure what state you’re in but specific SUNYs and UMaine are matching in-state tuition for selected states
SUNY offers a Tuition Match program for out-of-state students from specific states (CA, CT, IL, MA, NH, NJ, PA, VT)
*The Flagship Match Scholarship allows eligible out-of-state students from specified states to attend UMaine at the same cost as their home state’s flagship institution. Qualifying students will receive a substantial scholarship that is applied to UMaine’s out-of-state tuition and fees. The amount of the scholarship will vary depending on the tuition and fee rates of the flagship institution in the student’s home state.
*
UMaine National Merit Award
Eligibility Criteria: Semi-finalists and finalists with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation
Award Amount: 100% tuition and mandatory fees, up to 30 credits per academic year (renewable for four years with a maintained 3.3 GPA)
GW was on our list already. I assumed he would probably get in, but not get tuition exchange, or at least that wasn’t something he could rely on. Good to know we’re not completely delusional.
Most people don’t consider Minn to be east of the Mississippi (although depending on where you are on campus, it can be).
For GW, setting aside tuition exchange as I’m not familiar with that, my personal guess based on recent experience with similar stats, you might anticipate merit around 30 and a net price after merit will probably be in the ballpark of 60+
I would be looking at small liberal arts colleges which offer scholarships like:
Connecticut College
Trinity College
Lafayette College
Dickinson College (has 3+3 with Penn State Dickinson Law School, saving a year of tuition)
Washington & Lee (has its own law school)
Oberlin College
Kenyon College
Denison College
Macalester College
Union College (NY)
Grinnell College
Rhodes College
University of Richmond
Davidson College
Also:
SUNY Binghamton
University of Massachusetts
University of Connecticut (has the only public law school in New England)
SUNY Buffalo (has the only law school in NY’s state university system)
That’s your opinion and you’ve made it very clear. Out of nearly 70 posts, you seem to be the only one upset.
When you find yourself repeating your previous posts, it is time to move on to other topics. It is the OP’s prerogative to determine what details to share. If that frustrates you, it is time to move on to other topics.
More importantly, posters should address the OP in a respectful and helpful manner. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation. Happy New Year, everyone!
Can the OP give us a school they’d like if they can get in and afford? Not Harvard or Stanford, but say U of Maryland or, if smaller is okay, Furman? Then we could suggest schools of the same type.
So far, I’ve got:
High gpa/scores, and NMSF so many schools would like this student
limited ECs
east of the mississippi
about 8000 students (so not small); maybe a consortium?
not STEM (so no tech school that may have limited arts and humanities)
Not NYC
football/greek may be okay if in a different state, so okay to suggest and OP will ignore if their home flagship
I think OP/son already has all the reaches and high matches but is only looking for safeties, so schools with good merit would be appreciated.
I think Syracuse was a good suggestion. OP, is that they type of school you are looking for? Yes there are sports and greek life, but other strengths too.
Is 8,000 a deal breaker? Because it means lots of very strong Humanities/Social science colleges with merit would be out (ie., Denison, Dickinson, Macalester, Skidmore, Holy Cross…)
It keeps small flagships like UDel, UMaine, UVT open but Honors College and scholarship application deadlines would likely be well past.
OhioU tutorial college may work.
Chadbourne Residential College at UWisconsin and James Madison Residential College at Michigan State are still open though the earlier the app is in, the better.
Catholic universities tend to be strong in the Humanities, especially languages and philosophy, and are on the larger side (5,000+). They all offer merit aid.
It’s not really helpful to throw out random schools. It’s helpful to try to brainstorm schools that are a good match for whatever details the OP has shared. In this case, the OP shared in the post’s title that the student has a 4.0, 1550, 15 APs (mostly 5’s) and NMSF. This is a PHENOMENAL academic student. And yet Central Michigan is suggested for some reason. CMU has an acceptance rate of 80-90%, average GPA 3.5, average SAT 1050. It’s like there is no thought given to what schools might actually be good academic matches or even safeties and instead some random schools you like because they are not selective and are low budget are suggested. I think it would be more helpful to spend more time being thoughtful about suggesting schools that are actually realistic for the applicant’s profile. Would you suggest the reverse - that an applicant with a 3.5 and SAT 1050 apply to Yale? I assume not, because it’s not a good match.
However, those states do not look like the OP’s state of residency, where the OP said that “Our state flagship is a football team with some sort of academic program attached” (i.e. better known for football than academics) and has “a huge Greek scene”.
Below are some schools your family may want to consider, several of which have already been mentioned:
Loyola Chicago (IL)
Marquette (WI)
Binghamton (NY)
U. of Delaware
U. of Pittsburgh
Miami U. of OH
After your kid decides what other schools to add, it would be really appreciated if you would let us know which schools he applied to, and then come back to let us know how much merit aid (if any) he ends up receiving.
Are you sure about your state flagship? A lot of public schools have upped their game recently. Especially the Honors programs. 10 years ago if you said Florida State would be a reach type school most people would’ve laughed.
Based on that description, I’m guessing they are in a state with an SEC flagship (that’s where my mind goes, anyway).
No, we can’t force the OP to divulge additional details but “ideas for safeties” can only go so far if we don’t know specifics and this is where random colleges get thrown around in the hopes that OP will be enticed into supplying additional info so a list can be narrowed down.
I also get the feeling that OP’s idea of safeties for their high stat student isn’t the same as the suggestions on this thread and that’s fine, but the advice can only go so far before all the usual suspects are named, honors programs and price matches mentioned, and we burn out.
And that’s fine, too. I’m assuming the OP is new to this site. What constitute “usual suspects“ to us may be new ideas to them. Believe me, I hear you; I’ve gotten into my own arguments with OPs over the years (nothing sets me off faster than the ones who claim to be looking for advice but turn out to only be interested in having their high regard for their kids’ chances confirmed!) But this OP does not strike me as being that way.
What about the University of Rochester?
I would put that as a target. Merit is possible but the deadline in past years was Dec 1. It is likely to be way over budget/full pay.