<p>yup, Elon is not a safety for most B students and to add to that, we were told that the EA pool was the most competitive…</p>
<p>Regarding Colleges of Distinction. I “looked inside” at the table of contents and it looks promising. I usually rely heavily on Amazons reviews. Interesting to note three of four are from schools!</p>
<p>Although Elon is not a safety for B students, kids who like Elon might like James Madison, Roanoke and Highpoint, which are less selective.</p>
<p>I just checked and there is also a website, [A</a> College Search Tool | Colleges of Distinction](<a href=“http://www.collegesofdistinction.com%5DA”>http://www.collegesofdistinction.com) which provides the same content.
It is essentially for those schools which did not make the Colleges That Change Lives book and is a great 50 state resource.</p>
<p>yabeyabe,
I really don’t mean to quibble, but Roanoke is the only one of the three colleges you’ve mentioned that is remotely like Elon, IMHO. One college that I think is very similar to Elon is Susquehanna in PA. This is one of those colleges that would be hot if it had a better location, which I think is part of Elon’s draw. Pennsylvania has great private and public colleges but many are just out in the middle of nowhere or hard to get to via public transportation.</p>
<p>I really liked how there was rail service available at most of the NC colleges that we visited. On the day that we visited High Point and Elon we put my daughter on a train to go visit friends in Charlotte and the train station was less then 10 minutes from HPU, and also close to Elon.</p>
<p>I’m going to plug this book again <a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Finding-College-Thats-Right-You/dp/0071423060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274360380&sr=8-1[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/Finding-College-Thats-Right-You/dp/0071423060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274360380&sr=8-1</a> This really helped our search for match/safety colleges. The thing about the College of distinction book is that there are only a handful of colleges from each state and if your child is looking to major in something other then education or business that may mean just one or two colleges to think about.</p>
<p>No problem. I could not agree more about the PA schools in general and Susquehanna in particular.
At our HS, which may not be representative, Elon, JMU and Roanoke have substantial overlaps in applications. I think their common aspects are being in warmer weather than NJ but not a 2 day drive; not being major sports schools; rural locations; and having a substantial number of OOS kids. Of course, they have some differences–JMU has 16,000 undergrads–and I am far from an expert on all 3.
Of course, individual HS overlaps can result from something as simple as GCs who know or suggest only a few school schools in a category–our HS has near zero applications on Naviance to Washington College, Mary Washington and Furman.</p>
<p>I agree with that^. If we had not visited HPU, I would have thought it was a lot like Roanoke and Elon.</p>
<p>Hi everyone, new to the board. S applying in the Fall 3.0-3.5 depending on weighting…poor SAT’s which he will take again, but we are applying to primarily SAT Optional schools, some AP’s and Honors classes since Freshman Year, some EC’s, very involved in Youth Group and just elected to the Regional Board of his Youth Organization. 3 years of theatre, 2 years of Art, 4 years of Community Service, 3 years of Soccer…so is our list of Potentials so far:
Muhlenberg(loved loved loved)
Clark
Ithaca(really liked)
UMASS Amherst
Connecticut(Reach)
Marlboro
Green Mountain
Lyndon State
St. Michael’s
Cahmplain
Bowdoin(legacy but still a reach)</p>
<p>thoughts…recommendations…
Thanks</p>
<p>Welcome. I think you have many fine schools on you rlist. I note they vary greatly in size. The schools most like your top choices to date which I do not see on your list which have been top choices for recent grads on this thread that I remember (apologies to those omitted) are Goucher, Alfred, Marist, Franklin & Marshall, Susquehanna, Loyola MD and Juniata.</p>
<p>Welcome, Rakenjake. What does he want to major in, if he knows? I see that you are looking at schools that are smaller, with the exception being UMASS. I assume that you are from MA. I don’t know if money is a an issue, but there are lots of small schools, if that is what he’d like. Has he tried the ACT? Many students prefer one test over the other. I would have him sit in Sept. for the ACT and see what happens. Have him try some real practice tests over the summer to get a rough idea about how he might do.</p>
<p>Money is a huge issue. He tested poorly with the exception of the SAT2 in US History(his intended major) He got a 610 on that. Im concerned about the ACT in that he struggles with more sophisticated vocabulary and I understand that the ACT is top heavy in that. I guess it won’t hurt as we don’t have to submit them if they stink. He will be retking them this fall in October. We are in MA and he doesn’t want to go further than a 4 hour drive(his rules not mine). He also wants to be near skiing(he’s an instructor and its a good winter job) He is a great kid, a real leader with a belief that he can’t take tests. Self fulfilling prophecy.</p>
<p>Rakenjake, I second the recommendation to at least try the ACT. I don’t know that it’s “vocab heavy,” I really think the SAT is worse about that.</p>
<p>RJ, all I can tell you is that my son was not a great test taker. I don’t know how he would have done on the SAT. He refused to even try the SAT. He decided to self prep for the ACT, but did take a few tutoring sessions for the English and reading section (not many). He is not a literary genius, but he did just fine with ACT. He found that the English section was easy to self prep for (relearning some grammer rules). There is a book that my son loved that is put out by Princeton Review. It was some sort of crash course type of book that one can go through just 3 weeks prior to the test. That book helped him to bump up his score (esp. on the English section). I would suggest looking at it. </p>
<p>If money is an issue, I suggest that you do have him prep for standardized testing, and I hate to say this, but we found that schools in the northeast, in general, were not the best packages (we suspected that going in). We did best with a few schools in the south, and next best in the midwest. We are from NJ. If your son is willing to cast a wider net and look in the midwest (where it is also plenty cold and snowy), he might do better with financial packages. JMO, but nobody knows until the packages arrive. When I say this, I am referring to B students only (not the B+/A- crowd). Just make sure that you have an affordable school at the end of the day. Another school that might want to look into would be Alfred U. (rural area). It might work out financially.</p>
<p>Rakenjake, we are in MA, S is attending UMASS Amherst in the fall. Finances were a factor for us, also S didn’t want to travel far. I think it may be getting a little reachy for those with GPAs in this range without good test stats .</p>
<p>Practice can make a difference for the SAT, if you are starting with a low-ish score.</p>
<p>I got the College Board “blue book” and bribed my sons to take practice tests. (I actually ripped out the tests from the book to make it easier. Also, I told them they could practice on one section at a time.) I gave them $10 for every 10 points they raised their score. It worked. Cheap investment when you consider the pay-off in merit money.</p>
<p>mom2sons: am using the same methodology to get my kid to compensate for a dismal Algebra background this summer by taking an online course (ALEKS). He hates giving up his summer time for anything and especially math so I asked myself what better way to motivate him than to make it his job and pay him for it.</p>
<p>S has taken prep classes, 2 PSAT’s and SAT1 and 2’s. He will be retaking SAT’s in the Fall and I think I will have him take the ACT as well. We’ll see. Im rapidly getting to the “what will be will be stage” I can’t do it for him.I will be sad if he ends up at a school that he doesn’t like or is not challenged by but that would on him…</p>
<p>Rakenjake, Marlboro & Green Mountain give very poor financial aid packages, we have found from personal experience. You might get $10,000 in grants & the usual Stafford loan total of about $5500.00 for your son, but that is about it. Both these schools seem to like to give a “one size fits all” FA package, in other words, the same for everybody! </p>
<p>If FA is a concern for you, go buy “Paying for College Without Going Broke” Princeton Review, Kalman Chany, 2010 Edition, & take your 2009 Tax Returns, do the worksheets in the back of the book & calculate your EFC. Be an educated consumer, what the colleges do not want you to be!</p>
<p>[Muhlenberg</a> College| The real deal on financial aid](<a href=“http://muhlenberg.edu/main/admissions/realdeal.html]Muhlenberg”>http://muhlenberg.edu/main/admissions/realdeal.html)</p>
<p>Muhlenberg is very up front about financial aid & preferential packaging! </p>
<p>Applicants should be very aware of this if they fall in the middle of the applicant pool or down towards the bottom of the pool… It is refreshing that Muhlenberg is so honest!</p>
<p>SLUMOM - I agree completely - I had never heard the term “preferential packaging” until I saw it on Muhlenberg’s website. I always suggest people look at this website - even if they are not interested in Muhlenberg per se - I think it is one of the clearest, most transparent dicussions of merit and need-based FA I have ever seen.</p>