You also mentioned diversity on your list of desired attributes, which isn’t always as easy in the Midwest. Below is the information available in College Navigator (the feds’ website using IPEDS data) that was from fall 2024. Changes in immigration policies since that time for foreign students has had a significant impact on the enrollment of nonresident students, so I would anticipate those numbers would be lower at all of these schools.
And as @NiceUnparticularMan said, you are fortunate to have so many great options in the midwest! Not everyone is so lucky .
Extremely Likely (80-100+%)
Carthage (WI): About 2700 undergrads. 64% White, 18% Hispanic, 6% 2+ races, 5% Black, 3% Asian, 2% nonresident, 2% unknown. 63% from out-of-state and 36% from in-state and 1% from foreign countries. 27% receive Pell grants.
Coe (IA): About 1200 undergrads. 63% White, 14% Hispanic, 10% Black, 5% unknown, 5% nonresident, 2% Asian, 1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 1% 2+ races. 56% from out-of-state, 42% from in-state, and 2% from foreign countries. 37% receive Pell grants.
Gustavus Adolphus (MN): About 1900 undergrads. 78% White, 6% Hispanic, 5% nonresident, 4% 2+ races, 2% Asian, 2% Black, 1% unknown. 81% from in-state, 15% from out-of-state, and 4% from foreign countries. 21% receive Pell grants.
Lawrence (WI): About 1400 undergrads. 59% White, 12% Hispanic, 11% nonresident, 5% Black, 5% 2+ races, 4% Asian, 3% unknown. 62% from out-of-state, 28% from in-state, and 11% from foreign countries. 22% receive Pell grants.
Likely (60-79%)
Illinois Wesleyan (IL): About 1600 undergrads. 64% White, 12% Hispanic, 8% Black, 5% Asian, 5% nonresident, 3% 2+ races, 2% unknown. 80% from in-state, 15% from out-of-state, and 4% from foreign countries. 26% receive Pell grants.
St. Olaf (MN): About 3100 undergrads. 67% White, 11% nonresident, 10% Hispanic, 5% Asian, 5% 2+ races, 3% black. 44% from in-state, 42% from out-of-state, and 14% from foreign countries. 21% receive Pell grants.
Toss-Up (40-59%)
Macalester (MN): About 2100 undergrads. 50% White, 15% nonresident, 11% Hispanic, 9% 2+ races, 8% Asian, 6% Black, 1% unknonwn. 63% from out-of-state, 23% from foreign countries, and 14% from in-state. 17% receive Pell grants.
Lower Probability (20-39%)
Carleton (MN): About 2100 undergrads. 51% White, 11% nonresident, 10% Asian, 10% Hispanic, 9% 2+ races, 6% Black, 3% unknown. 70% from out-of-state, 19% from in-state, and 11% from foreign countries. 17% receive Pell grants.
Low Probability (less than 20%)
Grinnell (IA): About 1800 undergrads . 48% White, 20% nonresident, 9% Asian, 9% Hispanic, 6% 2+ races, 5% Black, 2% unknown. 68% are from out-of-state, 21% from foreign countries, and 8% from in-state. 19% receive Pell grants.
There’s a lot of schools buying kids - schools like Kalamazoo, Susquehanna, Furman, Juniata, Allgehency. You can see some on this thread - but you want to stay close to Iowa…but that’s why Truman State, well respected, is a great safety valve. It hits all your desires.
But see this thread to get an idea of what you might pay at other places - but it’s farther from you and may not have the astro content you desire.
If you go back about 25 messages, some of the posts have merit amounts - and you can compare.
I’d think next year will be even better.
But when you have a budget, you need to build a list for the budget and include one assured to hit cost - whether it’s not an LAC - so a Iowa/Iowa State/Kansas type….or a further away LAC.
I am not an expert in the field, but I know that Rhodes College covers all your needs. It provides merit aid to keep it within 40k, it has Physics with Astronomy (they have an Observatory, Google it), and pretty good orchestra. (My DD’s friend has some music scholarship too and plays first violin there.) It is not close but should be theoretically drivable from Iowa. Another DD’s friend drives for longer breaks to Chicago.
Truman is indeed of interest. I worry a it because Mo is doing som le pretty deep budget cuts to higher ed that are predicted to affect Truman more than the others. We will keep an eye on it.
St. Olaf is pretty iffy for astro, amd it seems everyone at Coe is researching glass… Kinda wierd. But the rest we have on the list to look into or have visited. Except Lawrence- definitely will check it out.
2 questions- Why are you thinking Grinnell would be low probability?
Rice isn’t close or an LAC but in the same vein I put CWRU. Rice will be great but not what you asked about. And unless the NPC shows affordable.
But you need to focus on schools that will hit, not may hit. What do you have for those - beyond Truman State? Are you interested in large publics at all - like a KU? Or if you are willing to go to Texas, then are you willing to go to the E Coast schools - where an Alleghney “might” hit. Wheaton will, etc. Hartwick likely will - the net price is a tad over $40K and they have $10K merit. It’s in upstate NY. They have the major.
Some schools don’t seem to have Astro as a feature.
I would watch college budgets - public and private - but STEM is less likely to be impacted.
But the pols are already trying to give some of the money back. These are annual games that seem to get played.
Right. Rice is not as close as she would like (kid asked me to post this as she is busy preparing for AP exams and band leadership applications etc, and knew she wouldn’t follow up. But all the answers are things we have talked about). But it so rich in opportunities she feels it’s worth being farther for. She also plans to look at Case Western, Reed, Whitman, University of Illinois UC and CU Boulder. She’s got a really broad list, and is not in any rush to narrow it yet, but we wanted to make sure there’s not someplace perfect we haven’t thought. So far we have only visited a few SLACs, but she has loved them and really likes the advising they provide, access to professors, etc. She’s got ISU on there as a safety, and honestly their program looks decent, but she’s worried about research opportunities there.
She’s excited by Rice. She’s considering Harvey Mudd and Stanford. Sort of MIT, but she doesn’t really want to go East. We have a ton of family West.
We have visited Carleton, Luther, Carthage, and Grinnell. Vibe and music wise Luther stole her heart, but she has doubts about the physics department there. Grinnell is at the top so far. We have talked about she can apply wherever she wants to, but if we can’t swing it after the aid offers come in, then it’s gotta go.
When you build for merit, you have to build for merit.
So there’s zero point in looking at UIUC and CU - because neither will get close to $40K. Better would be Kansas, Missouri and your in-states. If you could bleed over $40K, U of Arizona is a home run - but you’ll be a tad over $40K - but not close to CU or UIUC. Purdue would be better than those two but like Arizona a bit too high.
She noted $40K - so unless the net price calculator for a Mudd, Stanford or MIT type come in, there’s no point.
She noted $40K - so if that’s a true #, that’s more important than the name.
Whenever a school has an admissions rate below 20%, I generally classify it as low probability. I did indicate in my post that it was leaning toward lower probability (i.e. my 20-39% bucket) due to the strength of the applicant information shared in the first post.
I think it’s a great school, but I don’t think it’s within a few hours of central Iowa . But it’s definitely a schol that I could see being an exception to the general rule if the student is really interested.
A few of the schools in which you have expressed interest, such as Reed, Harvey Mudd and Grinnell, are well regarded for a quality known as classroom experience:
The East has a lot of great options, but the fact that she’s not interested means that it’s an easy way to narrow down the list!
I think Whitman is a good rec for this. Reed is one that is very much a fit school; could be great or could be really not great. She may also want to check out:
Colorado College: About 2k undergrads and where students take 1 class at a time, so a very different academic model than at most schools. It has an astrophysics track within the physics major and its own observatory.
In my circles, Rice is the sort of university that kids also looking at LACs might have on their list. It also has a reputation for really wanting applicants to be very into Rice, but if she ends up feeling that way, that would make sense as an application to me.
My interpretation is different. We don’t know what NPCs were done, just what close to home schools she visited. Later they note they visited we a few but she said Grinnell only meets due to an Iowa scholarship or it wouldn’t, which might be telling of other meets need schools.
Finally, I guess student started and mom took over, mom said this, which all experienced posters with a tight budget know can be a recipe for disaster.
So the most important school - the assured and affordable and preferably one you’d be happy at. If it’s Truman or KU or K State or ISU or Iowa…big or small, that’s what they need, not schools that won’t come close to budget with any realistic possibility (UIUC/CU), etc These are more important than a Grinnell or any other school that cannot assure an acceptance or a price point. Whitman is the kind of school that could work given its pre read assurance.
So a bit more cautious given what poster #1#2 on this thread have said - perhaps a good reason for no account sharing.
At my university, it was easy to double-major in applied math and physics (and, even when I did it, applied math had plenty of computing).
I am not sure it actually makes a difference in getting a job later or admission to a graduate program, but I suppose being able to say you majored in both could open more doors when you graduate.
If you are interested is continuing in astronomy beyond undergrad, I would recommend going to a school that has a good program (rather than an LAC that has one or two professors and just a few classes). It is extremely hard to get a position in astronomy because many schools are producing far more grads than there will ever be positions. You need to start where you want to go in this case. that wasn’t so 20 years ago. If astronomy is just a side interest, then go to a school with a good physics program that has a satisfying number of astro classes. There is far more scope in physics.
Since you work in an observatory, you probably already know that the best place for optical astronomy is Arizona (followed by California). If you can afford it U of A that would be a great choice. You have already been there after all. ASU is also be a reasonable choice. I think UCs will be much too expensive out-of-state. As far as the top astronomy schools go, those would be Harvard, Caltech, MIT, Chicago, Princeton, Stanford. All extremely difficult for anyone.
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. But it’s definitely a schol that I could see being an exception to the general rule if the student is really interested.