All the schools I mentioned in the previous post are in states that are considered safe or low-risk and the towns the colleges are located in went blue in 2024 by fairly significant margins (as seen in this map).
U. of Minnesota – Morris had too many positives for me to not mention it for you to look into, even though one might argue that Town: Remote (IPEDS classification) is not too far off from rural. It’s one of your in-state publics (so MN grants would apply, if you qualify), I think you could be competitive for one of their full tuition scholarships, and the cost of living is lower than in the Twin Cities. And it has a relatively high number of graduates going on to earn doctorates, especially in chemistry and biochemistry (however much you value those ratios). On the con side for you, Morris is small and surrounded by areas that went very red in 2024.
U. of Minnesota – Twin Cities: This could be a very hard option to beat. Depending on your family’s income, this school could be tuition free based on items in the Minnesota Promise program I linked above. It is strong in so many areas and you’d have access to tons of healthcare options.
Some of the private colleges I included were members of Colleges That Change Lives, an association of schools that joined together after they were highlighted in a book of that name. The profiles are marketing info, but I think they generally give a good sense of the schools.
https://ctcl.org/beloit-college/
https://ctcl.org/lawrence-university/
https://ctcl.org/st-olaf-college/
St. Olaf is definitely a forum favorite…a quick search will provide numerous results, including posts #5, 8, & 47 in this thread! @AnonMomof2 and @UTmeritseeker have students there now, I believe.
Posts #93 & 94 in this thread speak to Gustavus Adolphus.
I’m going to tag in some others for additional insight:
@fiftyfifty1 has a lot of familiarity with the region’s schools and can provide additional insight.
@2plustrio is familiar with Marquette and might have insight on the availability of significant enough scholarships at the Wisconsin publics to make them affordable for you, as I think you may only qualify for federal grant aid in those states (rather than state-based grant aid like in MN).
@Knowsstuff had a kid at Beloit, I believe.
And here’s the city population for the various schools per the auto-AI search results in Google, sorted by largest to smallest. Please note these are city (rather than metro) populations.
| School | Undergrad Enrollment | City | City Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| U. of Wisconsin - Milwaukee | 18,288 | Milwaukee | 563,000 |
| Marquette | 8,045 | Milwaukee | 563,000 |
| Macalester | 2,138 | Minneapolis | 430,000 |
| U. of Minnesota - Twin Cities | 41,303 | Minneapolis | 430,000 |
| U. of St. Thomas | 6,270 | Saint Paul | 306,000 |
| U. of Wisconsin-Madison | 38,040 | Madison | 288,589 |
| U. of Minnesota - Duluth | 8,426 | Duluth | 88,000 |
| Lawrence | 1,417 | Appleton | 75,367 |
| U. of Wisconsin - Eau Claire | 9,351 | Eau Claire | 74,000 |
| U. of Wisconsin - La Crosse | 9,501 | La Crosse | 51,000 |
| Beloit | 1,004 | Beloit | 36,650 |
| St. Olaf | 3,124 | Northfield | 22,268 |
| Carleton | 2,128 | Northfield | 22,268 |
| Gustavus Adolphus | 1,905 | St. Peter | 12,290 |
| U. of Minnesota - Morris | 981 | Morris | 5,150 |