ISO urban, merit-awarding school for UNDECIDED son ‘25 [MD resident, 3.8 GPA, <$50k]

College Search & Lists
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Hi, I’m actually “SecondTimeThru” now that DS ‘24 is working, but I’m keeping my username and helping my HS senior son!

I’d really appreciate some ideas from the hive. After I hear from people, I’ll share what he is thinking of, but I don’t want to lead anyone to certain schools!

He is undecided about what he wants to do, so I feel a bit more pressure to find a place where he will be able to easily switch majors without advancing to a five or six year course of study and $$$$$

A year ago he was convinced he wanted engineering or IT; now it’s political science or maybe something else! Considering law school eventually.

I was a liberal arts major and I know how difficult it can be to pin down a major (I created my own), but I also was a full scholarship 1st Gen kid, whereas this kid will be full pay, hopefully with merit. I want to find a place where he can possibly create his own major, have good advising, and get some attention from profs so he does not get lost or on the five or six year plan!

He will apply from a well regarded Catholic HS in DC with all honors and four APs tests under his belt so far (APUSH 4, APWorldHistoryModern 5, Computer Science A 4, and let’s not discuss AP Physics!), a 4.2 or 4.3 GPA (tbd) and an SAT currently at 1330 but with study I think he’ll get it up to mid 1400s.

He definitely wants a city environment and he’d like some diversity.

Any ideas? Thank you for reading this far and for your thoughts.

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Lots of great Catholic options if he’s interested. Loyola Chicago, Loyola NO, Loyola Marymount. Creighton, Gonzaga, Santa Clara, Saint Louis U, Marquette, Fordham, Regis, U of San Francisco, Seattle U.

You get the idea :slight_smile:

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What is his unweighted GPA. Give a 4 for an A. 3 for B. 2 for C. Add up the points and divide by # of classes. Ignore pluses and minuses and just use core classes.

What size school does he want ?

What is your state - is it DC or VA or MD

What is your budget? Some schools are cheaper full pay than others after merit. You may be full pay but sounds like have a desired spend.

Any weather preferences etc ? Sports etc. ?

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Yes, and some of these are on our list! Do you happen to know anything about the merits of Loyola vs Marquette? I looked at Parchment and saw 65% of those accepted to Loyola choose Marquette, and I’d love to understand why. Thank you!

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No idea :slight_smile: could be popular specific programs, merit money, or maybe the cost of living difference between Chicago and Milwaukee.

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Hi @tsbna44 so glad you replied! I remember you helping with my elder son’s choices back in ‘19 and ‘20!

His unweighted GPA is a 3.8

He is focused on medium-sized schools (5k to 10k). Funny because he LOVED UVA even though it is a larger school in an area I don’t consider urban. On the other hand, he considered NC State too big - maybe it was the campus buses! I think there may be some fits with smaller schools of up to @ 3,000 kids or more.

We live in MD (MoCo more specifically, home of probably 60% of MD’s college-bound kids!)

We’d like to keep all-in expenses to no more than $50k per year, hopefully at a school without regular 5% increases!

He’s expressed no weather or sports preferences. He’s a pretty easy going kid. He has expressed a preference for a diverse environment (his BFF are a mix of races). I’ve told him that while we will look for colleges with that diversity, he is unlikely to find a place like his HS and MS, which both have a large population of Black and 1st Gen Dreamer kids from well educated, successful professional families.

I should also add he’s a bit unconventional. He’s an atheist, though he was raised in the Episcopal church. We had to really quiz him on why he wanted to go to a Catholic HS, and ensured he would be respectful to others and during Religious classes. Turns out Religion has been his favorite subject!

Thank you for asking and for your thoughts!

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How far away from home does he want to be?

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Sorry, does he have a list so far? That might help with more suggestions.

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Good question! When we started the process a year ago, he said he’d like to be an Amtrak ride away, like his brother was in Philadelphia. Last night I asked him again and he said he was not ruling out any states (though in the past he’s indicated no further South than NC).

Who knows? I think he really does not know what he wants!

Personally, I like the idea of an Amtrak ride away from DC or maybe a short, relatively inexpensive plane ride away. His older brother came home a fair number of times freshman and sophomore year, though to be fair, this was during peak Covid ‘20 to ‘22.

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So I’m more familiar with the midwest and west coast schools so hopefully you’ll get more east coast advice from someone else, but for easy plane rides, I’d look at: Loyola Chicago, Saint Louis U, Butler (my D23 got great merit there and Indy is a fabulous airport), U of Dayton & Marquette.

If he’s interested in looking a little farther out, U of Denver, Gonzaga, Creighton, are all in cities and give decent merit.

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DePaul in Chicago. Xavier in Cincinnati. A few kids from our HS seemed happy at Dayton. St. Joes in Philly. Both sons liked DePaul with nice offers. Both chose other schools though.

SAT score will play a role in options. Good luck.

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Similar ask on another thread. below was my response. So I’ll add Manhattan College, UDel, Clark, etc. see link

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For Urban + Diversity + affordable + poli sci, he might look into SUNY Albany. The diversity here is notable, with Black students comprising almost 20% of the undergrad population, 18% Hispanic/LatinX, 9% Asian, and 43% white. SUNY’s Flagship Match agreement includes Maryland, so you’d pay no more than the cost of UMD, and potentially less with merit. Albany is the state capital, so there are ample opportunities for involvement in the political sphere. There’s both a Poli Sci major and a more-interdisciplinary Public Policy major with multiple sub-concentrations. If he leans back toward IT, there’s an Informatics major with an IT concentration, and the engineering school offers a limited range of majors (ECE, CS, Environmental & Sustainable Engineering, Nanoscale Engineering, & Nanoscale Science). I’m not familiar with the barriers to switching majors here; that would need to be investigated specifically with respect to any programs of interest. The Honors College (to which I believe he would be admitted) offers its own residential community (which could make a big school feel smaller), in addition to priority registration and enhanced academic programming. While he might find less red tape and more flexibility at a private U, the priority registration would help with access to classes for exploring his interests; and the racial/ethnic/economic diversity here would be hard to match at all but the most competitive and expensive privates.

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The kids I know who have attended SUNY Albany have had VERY cool internships and summer jobs. The economy of New York State is larger than many countries- so even though Albany is not the epicenter of the states economic productivity, it is where billions of dollars in spending decisions are made. And some fantastic opportunities for students.

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@aquapt Thank you both for suggesting SUNY Albany. I had thought of some SUNYs, but not that one in particular, so I will check it out.

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Thank you for sharing this and it reminded me that I forgot to ask him to check out Clark. Will add it to his SCOIR suggest list, along with DePaul.

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Thank you for your suggestions. We looked at Loyola Chicago but did not have time for DePaul. I’m thinking it may not be on his list due to the quarter system. Did you happen to look at both universities? I’m looking at some overlaps and trying to focus on why more kids pick DePaul and Marquette than Loyola Chicago. Would you mind sharing where your boys ended up? You can DM me. My eldest went to St. Joe’s and suggested Drexel to his brother, who loved it. Drexel has the right urban feel but I have some concerns (quarter system, engineering emphasis, and cost).

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As Charlottesville worked as a “city” for your kid, I gave myself a bit of latitude on that front, although the vast majority of these are in veritable cities. I focused on schools that were unlikely to have many (if any) barriers between different majors and attempted to have a number of them having ABET-accredited engineering, as that was one of his (passing) interests. I listed some of the demographics of the student enrollment, as listed in College Navigator.

  • Bradley (IL): About 4100 undergrads. 65% white, 14% Hispanic, 9% Black, 4% Asian.

  • Fordham (NY): About 10k undergrads with 50% white, 18% Hispanic, 13% Asian, and 6% Black.

  • Howard (D.C.): HBCU with about 9800 undergrads. 65% Black, 6% Hispanic, 3% Asian, 0% White.

  • Loyola Maryland: About 4k undergrads with 66% white, 14% Hispanic, 10% Black, 4% Asian.

  • Marquette (WI): About 7500 undergrads with 67% white, 15% Hispanic, 6% Asian, 5% Black.

  • Saint Joseph’s (PA ): About 5100 undergrads with 66% white, 11% Asian, 9% Hispanic, 7% Black.

  • Salisbury (MD): About 6400 undergrads with 69% white, 14% Black, 7% Hispanic, and 3% Asian.

  • Seton Hall (NJ): About 6k undergrads with 47% white, 24% Hispanic, 11% Black, and 11% Asian.

  • Suffolk (MA): About 4400 undergrads with 49% white, 16% Hispanic, 8% Black, and 7% Asian.

  • SUNY Buffalo State (NY): About 5500 undergrads with 46% white, 30% Black, 12% Hispanic, and 6% Asian.

  • SUNY New Paltz (NY): About 6100 undergrads with 59% white, 23% Hispanic, 7% Black, and 4% Asian.

  • The College of New Jersey: About 7k undergrads with 59% white, 18% Hispanic, 11% Asian, and 5% Black.

  • Thomas Jefferson (PA ): About 3800 undergrads with 49% white, 15% Asian, 14% Black, and 12% Hispanic.

  • U. of Hartford (CT): About 4k undergrads with 49% white, 17% Black, 15% Hispanic, and 4% Asian.

  • U. of Indianapolis (IN): About 3700 undergrads with 59% white, 13% Black, 9% Hispanic, and 4% Asian.

  • U. of Mary Washington (VA): About 3500 undergrads with 64% white, 12% Hispanic, 8% Black, and 4% Asian.

If willing to go above 10k undergrads, then these are some additional possibilities:

  • Binghamton (NY): About 14k undergrads with 55% white, 17% Asian, 13% Hispanic, and 5% Black.

  • DePaul (IL): About 14k undergrads with 48% white, 23% Hispanic, 12% Asian, and 7% Black.

  • Drexel (PA ): About 14k undergrads with 45% white, 23% Asian, 8% Black, and 8% Hispanic.

  • Loyola Chicago (IL): About 12k undergrads with 51% white, 21% Hispanic, 13% Asian, and 6% Black.

  • Old Dominion (VA): About 18k undergrads with 42% white, 32% Black, 10% Hispanic, and 5% Asian.

  • Rowan (NJ): About 15k undergrads with 63% white, 13% Hispanic, 11% Black, and 6% Asian.

  • Towson (MD): About 17k undergrads with 44% white, 30% Black, 10% Hispanic, and 7% Asian

  • U. of Louisville (KY): About 16k undergrads with 64% White, 15% Black, 7% Hispanic, and 6% Asian.

  • U. of North Carolina – Greensboro: About 14k undergrads with 40% white, 29% Black, 15% Hispanic, and 6% Asian.

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Hi, thank you so much for your suggestions. I just realized I made a mistake - he is willing to go above 10k. Actually, UVA has 17k students. I think he wants a place that feels manageable, if that makes sense.

So, I guess I should let you know his list now, and I’ll put my thoughts and additions after it.

Reaches: UVA, Emory, and he’s toyed around with Wake, U Mich, Berkeley, U of Richmond, Northwestern, and Duke. He visited UVA and Wake and loved both of them, but I told him we couldn’t afford Wake unless he dove into debate club and landed a scholarship, which he did not do. We looked at SCOIR and it was not encouraging, so I asked him to add some others that are perhaps not as competitive as these reaches, but more competitive than his targets.

Targets: Drexel, Pitt, Loyola Chicago Honors

Safeties: St. Joe’s

I’ve asked him to look at Fairfield, Manhattan College, CUNY, Providence, Marquette, DePaul, St Louis Univ, Seton Hall, Clark, Dickinson, and Universities of MN and WI. I originally thought he would be a great fit for Fordham, but then I read they began restricting merit to NMF winners. Now I hear rumblings that they may be offering up to 20k to other non NMF candidates. That would take us 10k above our theoretical max, but comparing graduation rates at Loyola and Marquette, I’m wondering if that is not a bad trade-off given the ease of visiting and the much higher graduation rate.

He originally said he did not want to go to a Catholic university, but he loved Loyola’s campus and his brother is nearby, working in Chicago. I am a huge fan of Jesuit schools as a Georgetown grad and because of my older son’s experience at St. Joe’s.

I’ve been going on and on here…so if you are still following along, thank you!

PS - Despite the length, I’ll add that he is very interested in foreign affairs and study abroad. He’ll be taking AP French this year, and taught himself some Russian a while back. He will definitely do a semester abroad, perhaps a year, and he would love to study in Sweden.

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University of Denver is definitely worth a look, then, even if it’s a little farther away than you might have intended. Very much an international focus, vast majority of students study abroad, and they give very good merit aid. Another one I thought of was Lewis and Clark – but maybe that’s too far?

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