Any idea whether you prefer urban or not? I agree with the recommendation to check out the colleges that change lives (CTCL), we visited the CTCL conference when it came around and it included a great presentation and a college fair. I also agree with other recommendations. “Significant merit” means different things to different people. Amy idea of a target all-in budget per year? Here are some ideas:
Oberlin
St. Olafs (same town as Carleton)
Clark University in Worcester, MA
UMASS Amherst (access to 5 College Consortium)
Bard is good but has no merit
Reed
Dickinson or Muhlenberg in PA
In either 2017 or 2018, I was still interviewing for Vassar. I had an extremely qualified and impressive applicant that was accepted to VC with no financial aid but received the “Presidential Scholarship” at Bard.
She ultimately accepted the Bard opportunity. I can only assume based on her complete lack of FA at VC that the scholarship at Bard was tantamount to merit based.
First hand experience once removed so apologies.
FYI this current passage from their website seems relevant when discussing “if” Bard offers merit aid. They do!
I’m going to give a good suggestion. If you want to know whether Bard continues to give merit aid, CALL BARD and ask the folks in admissions about this. Surely they know what their school policy is.
What I meant to say instead of prestige is rigorous academics. Being academically challenged is very important to me which can come from the environment of students, rigor of classes, or the professors. I will definitely contact Bard about their aid policies. I believe that I need at least 20k of merit per year. I will definitely add Macalester and Mount Holyoke to my list! I am willing to go anywhere/accept any suggestions although I would prefer a place that is urban. I am fine going to college in a red state as long as the college campus is accepting. Thank you to those that have suggested colleges so far. I really appreciate all of the help. I have never heard of Colleges That Change Lives but I will definitely check it out now!
Just giving you our recent experience for D25- I think all these would fit type of college you’ve described and offered D25 merit aid this admission cycle:
Conn College
Mount Holyoke
Smith College
University of Vermont
Brandeis
Wheaton College (MA)
Someone mentioned Skidmore upthread and while I think it’s a LGBTQ+ friendly SLAC, I think merit scholarships are relatively rare. At least, D25 was accepted but didn’t get one.
Likely too big but Pitt is beloved here, will check your boxes, and makes budget. It’s large but not crazy large.
Speaking of red state, blue and accepting campus, College of Charleston. If you’re a top student, you could get fellows. And they have a few other programs - Intl Scholar, Ketner. Very rigorous. My daughter’s bf at school turned down Vandy, Rice and Penn for it. It’s 9-10k kids. Both Pitt and Charleston are urban.
When you go to a red state though you do have to measure comfort - with the politics.
As for rigor, it’s hard to know and often major related. Both my kids chose safeties over accepted into reaches and have both been challenged. People post on here wanting to leave top schools due to lack of challenge. So that’s hard to qualify up front.
Yeah it’s not always. It’s tough. Sure directionally it might be the case. But not as a definite.
My kids friend breezed through Vandy. She told me it was cake. Was it - or was the course work aligned to her strengths ? Others might have struggled. This graduated early and according to her rarely challenged. She’s off to grad school in a pre professional field.
When I was an mba (rank 40), my first roomie went to Cornell. His best friend was at Wharton - ostensibly brutal. My roomie and I got through but it was hard. His U Penn friend used to laugh at us. From day one they were job focused. School was secondary - getting in was the prize.
So one never knows.
But i will say this - all schools are loaded with top PhDs. Even if the school overall doesn’t challenge you, when you show interest, you might have profs that will mentor you, nourish you. I knew a Vandy psych prof. He geeked out when kids were zoned in. I’d imagine many would be similar.
Btw look at the list of PhD feeders right side (per capita)for your majors. If you are going PhD, you likely had rigor.
It sounds like you are being super thoughtful about what you are looking for. There are lots of less selective schools with rigorous programs and fantastic professors that offer quite a bit of merit aid. Unfortunately, they are rarely in urban areas. Some schools to check out that come to mind are:
Juniata
College of Wooster
St. Olaf
Kalamazoo College
Wheaton College (MA)
Knox College
Drew University
Lawrence
Beloit
All of those colleges have extremely inclusive vibes, great LACs even if you may not have heard of them. All offer significant merit aid, many giving up to 50% of Cost of Attendance in merit aid.
At the risk of sound like “that mom”, I will urge you once more to get a firm hold of what your budget will be for college. It can come as a nasty surprise that college can easily cost > $80-90k/year to parents/students who haven’t been paying attention* to the rising cost of colleges.
If $20k of merit would bring cost of attendance down to something well within your budget, then great! Just make sure a $65-75k/year budget is something your parents are ok with…and find out if that budget is for any school you choose. It can be heartbreaking to find a school you fall in love with and then find out you can’t afford.
Good luck, you have so many amazing people on these boards who want to help you find your best matches!
*It comes as a surprise to most people when they start this process. Not knowing that is a common issue.
I would add Kenyon to the mix. My daughter (who also considered several other schools already mentioned, such as Grinnell, Macalester, and Oberlin) was a social sciences/humanities double major there and had a fantastic experience. These are similar schools in terms of (high) academic rigor and types of students.
