Son has taken every HS class Honors level, several dual enrollment and some APs (more availability of DE/better profs for DE at his HS) and has had straight As, so gpa is well over 4.0, maybe 4.5 (they don’t put weighted gpas on report cards). He has been a top-level club swimmer, volunteered coaching young swimmers, works as lifeguard and swim teacher. Loves to read, plays a little guitar, and is into history and philosophy. Really loved NESCAC schools, esp Hamilton, that we visited in anticipation of swim team recruitment, but now he doesn’t want to keep swimming. Loved Vassar, liked F&M. NOT Skidmore. Muhlenberg OK. Bowdoin is dream school and TO, but a moonshot for anyone. Financially, Bowdoin, Colby and Wesleyan are all the best price for us (on the net price calculator, they are less than our state schools in Md). We can’t afford more than in-state $$, 30Ks incl rm/bd. He’s taken the tests once and got below the 80th percentile. (Odd, as he’s always tested at the top on standardized tests.) I don’t think he can get in anywhere with those numbers. What schools can we consider that have endowments/generous grants even for low test scorers? We are not taking out loans to pay >$40K/yr for schools with middling reputations. Want a school with a great alumni network.
This article includes LACs and may offer you an idea or two for colleges to research further:
As an example, the highly endowed University of Richmond appears in the article.
Unless there are some surprise announcements, the prominent LACs are still going to be test optional next year (and in fact APs satisfy Yale’s new requirement). And if you are admitted, you will typically qualify for need-based aid as per the NPC. So generally any LAC that looks good as per the NPC should be a potential fit for your list. In addition, some LACs also give merit aid to test optional admits.
And speaking of which, have you tried running the NPCs at some non-East Coast LACs that also offer TO merit? I believe that list includes at least Denison, Oberlin, St Olaf, Allegheny, Rhodes, Kalamazoo, Colorado College, Gustavus Adolphus, Occidental, and I am sure more. All these are going to have hyper-loyal alums, and indeed likely many alums will also look out for grads of others.
LACs that are test-optional and offer merit aid will offer merit whether or not you’ve applied with test scores, as far as I know (I’m sure there are some exceptions, but for these schools, every applicant is considered for merit). Schools that offer substantial merit aid include Connecticut College, Macalester, Grinnell, St. Olaf, Oberlin, Dickinson, among others mentioned already. Along with Bowdoin, Bates also has a longstanding TO policy, so you might consider it along with the others (no merit, but run the NPC and see what you’re likely to get).
Thanks, I didn’t realize those schools offer merit scholarships on top of being TO. I had run the NPC for many on your list and they were all much higher priced than the NE schools we liked, plus the airfare to get there. Lawrence is on our list, too. Oberlin seemed too artsy/quirky to him, even tho the swim coach expressed interest; he’s a very middle-road kid. Hoping he can bring up his scores somewhat with a few months of studying, but I don’t want him taking the SAT 3+ times. He did get 5s on the couple AP tests he took and he’ll have good teacher recommendations.
My son was admitted to Wesleyan;, Bates, Colgate, U Richmond, and Tufts, among others, without scores. No merit from any, though.
Regarding applying test optional in the current (although changing) environment, you may benefit from perusing Common Data Sets at colleges of potential interest, if you haven’t done so already. At Bates, for example, only 28% of the recent entering class reported standardized scores.
None of those schools give merit to anyone except Richmond (and Colgate, which gives some athletic scholarships but no other merit aid).
Yes, at a high level there are typically two paths to get to an unusually large aid offer from an LAC, neither certain:
(A) Get admitted to one of the very wealthy LACs with really large need aid budgets such that it will give you unusually large aid based on demonstrated need; or
(B) Get a need + merit offer from one of the LACs with less of a need budget but also a substantial merit budget.
A lot of the former are East Coast, and tough admits because a lot of highly qualified people apply for far too few slots, which is one type of uncertainty. Unfortunately, although they are still test optional it is possible that at least for some of them, your odds might be lower going test optional, which heightens the uncertainty.
OK, then a lot of the latter are in the Great Lakes/Midwest plus a few other areas, and typically at least somewhat easier admits than their East Coast academic peers. But then there is the uncertainty of whether or not you will get enough merit aid to combine with their need aid to get them inside your budget. Test optional might up that uncertainty a bit as well, although I am actually not sure it has the same marginal effects in all those cases.
Anyway, my guess is your best strategy will end up involving trying some of both. If your son would prefer one of the wealthy East Coast LACs options, hopefully one will come through. But if your son would at least prefer one of the non-East Coast LAC options to an in-state public, then it will probably be a good idea to apply to some of those as well, in case none of the wealthy East Coast LAC options come through.
Fortunately I think Oberlin is way out there on the artsy/quirky end of things, and a lot of the other LACs I named would potentially be more “middle-road”. This idea may take some getting used to, but I think for a kid interested in history and philosophy, a college like St Olaf, say, could be great. If he liked things like the curriculum plan at Vassar, maybe Kalamazoo, which has something they call the K Plan which is very cool. And so on. There can be things to love about all these LACs once you really dive into them.
Again, he doesn’t have to immediately rank any of those ahead of, say, Bowdoin. But if he would like some of them more than his in-state options, then they are probably worth including on his list with the hope of a big merit offer to get them on budget.
My kid was admitted TO to Macalester EA with top merit and to Wesleyan ED (where he’s attending). Wes has been TO since 2014, so I would not anticipate any change there. If your kid ends up with a clear favorite LAC, and the NPC lines up with what you can afford, I’d strongly recommend considering ED. We are full pay, but other CC users have posted that Wes’s FA packages are particularly generous, FYI.
I was also going to say strongly consider ED to a school that has a good NPC for you. The drawback is that you can’t compare offers (so not the best strategy if you want to weigh competing financial aid offers), but at some competitive LACs applying ED can really help admissions chances. If there’s one (or two) that stands out, you can ED to it (and possibly consider another for ED2, if offered). Admissions officers at Bowdoin and Colby said clearly that they will remain TO and I remember that at Bowdoin 50% of applicants do not submit scores. I think Bates is similar. The competing strategy would be to find some schools where admission is more likely and kid would be happy,
apply to a bunch , including more reachy LACs, and then hopefully have some offers to compare at the end of RD time. Both valid strategies that can lead to successful admissions, but each with risks.
My S24 was in same boat. He was going TO even with 4.0 and 12 AP classes, great EC’s…
I also didn’t want to pay full boat.
Our short list was
Denison - very TO friendly
Bucknell - NPC ran higher, hard to get to.
Trinity (Conn) - very TO friendly
St. Olaf
Carleton - felt they would likely prefer scores
W&M - not generous with OOS
I also took off the table Colgate, Hamilton etc because the travel was too much. I didn’t want to do a connecting flight and a drive.
His S22 brother got the most $$ from Macalester and College of HC, but he also submitted high scores.
We also knew that going ED would be beneficial especially with the TO.
So he went ED at Denison and got the 25K merit (which seems very widespread) plus 24K grant, so out of pocket around 35K a year.
He is very middle of the road, not artsy or athletic.
Conn Coll gives good merit! I got 32k/year (we didn’t apply for FA, but also will offer need based if you need it)
Different vibe, but Union also gave me 30k/year merit with a scholars program. I did submit a 35 ACT though which might’ve been the factor, since I go to a highly competitive public school and my GPA was 3.79.
Congratulations to your kid. We liked Wes, and the price is v good for us re need-based aid. It’s on the list. I’m heartened by the anecdotes of kids getting in w/o test scores. We do want to make a trip to MN to see Mac, Olaf, Gust Adolphus.
Go Camels! We liked Conn Coll, too.
Is St. Mary’s College of Maryland (your in state public LAC) of interest?
Practice/review for the test and take it again! My kid rose her ACT score by 6 points with a small amount of review. Some kids need to get used to the test structure to do well. Look at which areas he scored lower in and have him focus on those. If you can afford a tutor, get one for a few hours to target those skills.
We spend about 15 days/yr at St Mary’s Md for swim meets. The campus is beautiful, academics are sound - I know a former prof and dean. But the fact that there is no town near campus and bad reviews of food and dorms all are big points against it for my kiddo.
I am not sure if you looked at Gettysburg College, but they offered my S24 and his classmate $41k as recipients of the Abraham Lincoln merit scholarship. They have been unbelievably kind during this process. If you fill out all the scholarship forms, Elon offers a lot of merit aid. Lots of NE kids head down there. Both were TO.
Your son sounds like a great and accomplished kid. And no matter what it might look like around here on CC, a 1200 SAT and 25 ACT are well above the national averages. There’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed about with those scores.
I suspect that your son definitely has a shot at some of the very selective/rejective colleges, particularly if he ends up going ED. That said, I always like to focus on finding schools that are likely or extremely likely admits, and hopefully for costs as well. Thus, that’s where the bulk of my suggestions are going to come in.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
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John Carroll (OH)
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Washington College (MD): Oftentimes in-state privates will try and make sure their costs align with the state flagship, so I think odds are good that this will financially meet the target. Plus, it does have a town, unlike St. Mary’s.
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Wheaton (MA)
Likely (60-79%)
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College of Wooster (OH)
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Hobart William Smith (NY)
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Lake Forest (IL)
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St. Lawrence (NY)
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SUNY Geneseo – and though Maryland isn’t part of the flagship tuition match program, I suspect they’d do it unofficially (i.e. tuition would be the same as at College Park…or possibly better)
Toss-Up (40-59%)
Lower Probability (20-39%)
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College of the Holy Cross (MA)
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Kenyon (OH)
Low Probability (less than 20%)