Match my daughter, first generation student focusing on meets 100 percent needs schools [OH resident, 3.87 GPA, 33 ACT, 1430 SAT, <$12k; history and classics]

Chance Me / Match Me
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My daughter is a rising senior and our planned strategy is to cast a wide net at 100 percent meets needs schools. Our budget is low due to our relatively low income (90k). I think we are too high for Questbridge, though.

  • State/Location of residency: OH
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Public, Title I, urban school
  • Other special factors: first generation

Cost Constraints / Budget Under 12k/year. I have run many NPC’s and all 100 percent meets needs schools on our list are under this for us

Intended Major(s) History, double major in Classics where double majors are feasible

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.87
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.25
  • Class Rank: 13/172
  • ACT/SAT Scores: ACT 33, SAT 1430, plan to submit ACT everywhere as it’s stronger than SAT, as I understand it. Average ACT of high school is 25

List your HS coursework

IB diploma candidate with 3 APs sophomore year (APUSH (4), AP Precalculus (4), AP Physics (2 - will not submit)

  • English: English 9 and 10, IB HL English
  • Math: *(including highest level course(s) completed)*Algebra II, AP Precalculus, IB AA SL
  • Science: *Bio, Chemistry, AP Physics, IB SL Environmental science, AP Biology (scheduled for senior year)
  • History and social studies: World History, APUSH, IB Anthropology HL and two DE History courses at community college in 7th and 8th grade summers, Foreign Policy DE course in 10th grade summer at Ohio State
  • Language other than English:Latin 1,2,3 and IB Latin HL
  • Visual or performing arts: Concert Band all four years
  • Other academic courses: IB Psychology SL

Awards
College Board First Generation National Recognition award, College Board School National Recognition Award, will be National Merit Commended, school level awards for excellence in Latin and Math, but that’s it for awards

Extracurriculars
Captain Quiz Bowl team
Theater, actor in 4 productions, plays and musicals
Thespian charter member
NHS
Tennis all four years
Internship at county government agency
Volunteer at history museum
Peer tutor for SAT through Schoolhouse
Election worker
Creative writing club, state qualifier for creative writing competition

Essays/LORs/Other
Working on essay currently, very strong writer so optimistic this will be good.
LOR from IB math teacher and Latin teacher and anticipate these will strong recommendations

Schools
Current plan:
Amherst College ED
Haverford or Wellesley ED II

EA
Ohio State
Case Western
UChicago
College of Wooster
Muhlenberg
Wake Forest (RA round for First Generation students)

RD
Grinnell
Swarthmore
Williams
Oberlin
Kenyon
Vassar
Hamilton
Bryn Mawr
Smith
Mount Holyoke
Wesleyan

We have run the NPC on all of these and they are within budget.

Would love advice on if this is a realistic and balanced list and suggestions of other schools we might want to look at.

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Congratulations to your daughter on her impressive achievements! As a first generation student with solid grades, test scores, rigor, EC, and a good writer…I think she is competitive anywhere/everywhere. But schools that reject almost everyone will still be reaches for her (and everyone else).

Your list is long and includes lots of reaches and targets and few safeties. Your likely/saftey schools (ideally 2) are the most important. A couple of schools on your list have pretty high acceptance rates (OSU in-state and Muhlenberg) but they are very different from each other. Would she be happy at either? If she has two likely admits she likes then apply anywhere else you are interested in and have the bandwidth for. Also be aware that reach schools are likely rejections so some people want to limit those. Having said that I think she could be competitive anywhere so take your best shot at your favorite schools. FWIW many ivies have strong classics departments and are generous with need-based aid, if she has any interest in considering those. Best of luck!

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My opinion, your daughter is a very strong applicant.

A couple of things…

  1. The net price calculators are currently set for students starting college this fall 2025, and that is not your daughter. These NPCs should be updated soon for the 2026-2027 academic year. When you did these, did you use 2024 tax year information? That is what will be used for your daughter for freshman year.

  2. I’m guessing that Ohio State, and College of Wooster are her sure things for admission. But will they be affordable? Neither school guarantees to meet full need.

I like your plan to apply EA wherever that is possible.

:crossed_fingers:t2:the ED school works out both for admission and affordability! That would sure be a win!

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In addition to meets need schools, you also should look at schools that provide merit scholarship for high stat students. Think Alabama, Ole Miss, Tulsa, Ohio Wesleyan, etc.
The meets needs schools are generally very competitive for admission. I see a lot of high reaches on your list. The amount of work that goes into these applications will likely have a very small chance of admission at some of these schools. If you’re truly casting a wide net, you need to look a tier or two down academically for high merit schools.

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Ohio State would be affordable only if she lived at home while attending, which is very doable as we live in Columbus. It would not be her first choice, but if she didn’t get accepted elsewhere (which is a risk with so many reach schools on the list) it would be a solid option. College of Wooster looks like it would be at the high end of the affordable options (based on the 2025 NPC), but we think it’s worth keeping on the list.

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Thanks for the recommendation! I will look at Ohio Wesleyan. She is familiar with the campus as she did a summer program there in middle school.

So far, she has been reluctant to consider schools in the south. I sold her on applying to Wake Forest, but I think Alabama or Ole Miss might be a harder sell. She has no interest in sports or geek life, and would prefer a SLAC, but affordability is the most important criteria for us, so we will take another look.

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I get it, but your current list is filled with many reaches. Would she be fine with 2 acceptances and 17 rejections? To me, looking at just meets needs schools is recipe for disappointment. There are many schools with big merit, and they’re not all in the south. I’m sure some posters here can provide a good list.

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Classics has become a lightly subscribed major in recent years. If your daughter would like to compare colleges by the size of their classics communities, IPEDS can provide a research tool for this. Amherst, for example, reported that it graduated zero “first majors” in classics in a recent year:

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Although their automatic-for-stats merit scholarships are well known on these forums, it does not look like those will be enough to get the cost down to $12k or less.

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Good to know. I’m sure there are plenty of merit seeking families that can point OP in the right direction. My point is that there are other alternatives to looking only at meets needs schools.

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Run the NPC on St Olaf, which has strong Classics/Ancient Studies, meets need, and also has competitive merit.

She would have to show interest (ie., join the mailing list, click on links that interest her, contact professors/students for specifics that she could use in her application…)

Do you qualify for fly-ins?
That would allow her to target her applications where the fly-in apps were successful.

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Check Denison. It’s a great school, not that far from home for you, and I believe meets full need. It doesn’t have a “classics” major but there are other majors that could work.

@blossom

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Id recommend looking at Sewanee. Has a wonderful Classics program, a dedicated semester in Rome, strong creative writing and a stellar small liberal arts atmosphere. It would be very likely admission and probably would come through on combo of need and merit aid based on her stats.

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Thanks for the recommendation. I did just run the NPC and it looks like it would be within budget for us.

She is planning on applying to fly-ins (has already applied to Dartmouth bound) and she is prepared to adjust the list based upon her success with these applications. She is a little concerned about applying for a bunch of them with the fear of the impact on her application if she gets accepted to multiple and has to decline an acceptance because of overlapping dates. Many of them tend to be on the same or overlapping dates. Also, some of the schools with fly-ins she has already visited and I know many prioritize students who have not visited.

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She might look at some of the fly-in programs that some of the schools on the list run. Here’s Amherst’s: Access to Amherst (A2A) | Diversity Outreach Programs | Amherst College

Besides Ohio State and living at home, this list seems reachy with no other sure things from an admission and affordability perspective. When I run the NPCs for Wooster and Muhlenberg (both likely admits) with a $95K income level, I get in the range of $30K for net COA. It’s difficult to get greater than full tuition at the schools that don’t meet full need for all. Other LACs with classics majors that may meet full need for some students include Allegheny, Dickinson, and Gettysburg.

I would also consider Franklin and Marshall and Union, both have classics and meet full need for all. Here’s F&M’s NPC: Net Price Calculator
and Union’s: Net Price Calculator

I wouldn’t try to ‘sell’ her on schools…if she doesn’t like sports or greek life (assuming you meant greek), I probably wouldn’t encourage a Wake Forest app. Has she visited? A school that has some similarities to Wake is Lehigh, which has a classics major and does meet full need. Sports aren’t too big there, and Greek Life, while still a thing there, isn’t at the level of participation as it is at Wake.

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Thanks for the recommendations!

Ha! I see my typo now and I definitely meant she isn’t interested in Greek life! She is all for geek life, though :slight_smile:

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As an aspect to consider, Denison’s ancient language offerings are slimmer than those of colleges that have maintained their traditional foundations in classics. More specifically, beyond the first two semesters of available classroom instruction in ancient Greek and Latin at Denison, further study in these languages is limited to directed study.

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What about the Honors Tutorial program at Ohio University?
Classics is included in the academic subjects covered.
She could study classics at her pace and in-depth with professors acting as her personal tutors while taking any class that strikes her fancy.

The scholarships for HTC students should make it within budget.

It just occurred to me this St Olaf program might be of special interest to her:

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Be aware that Dartmouth has a big fraternity and sorority presence.

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I see you have Vassar on your list. Other schools may offer this as well, but I wanted to mention an additional benefit that Vassar offers. They have several summer education/internship scholarship funds that provide financial support for students accepting low pay or unpaid summer internships. Many may forget that families with high need may need support over the summer as well.

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