Your money - but I HATE full pay at BU. I have a hard time believing any school can be worth that much 
But you’re not wrong in your assessment
NYU and then GW might be more similar as back ups
I love the UMN idea - it’s a safety, it’s crazy urban, and it’s less than half the price of BU. I know not your concern - it’s just a crazy thought to me whereas outcome wise, it’s likely as good
Are sports (big time) an interest?
Has to have full course load with gpa requirements and such, not gap year, but still pretty awesome opp that we weren’t expecting! Thx!
How much does the strength in math/chem/physics matter in comparison to art and also in terms of urbanness vs. less-urban? I guess I’m trying to get a sense of his priorities. Is it sufficient that the school offers the majors in those fields or that the offerings are super robust in those areas?
Speaking of the Jesuits, Loyola Maryland could be an interesting possibility. It has all the majors, though I can’t say how robust all of them are (particularly in comparison with a WI or MN). But because of the Baltimore Collegetown consortium, he can take classes at other area schools like Johns Hopkins (a 1.0 mile walk away) or the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA, 3 miles away)…and there is a shuttle for the consortium, too.
Such a good question re: his priorities. They are definitely still loose/undecided. Right now, I think art is becoming a stronger priority. As is an urban experience. But strength in math and physics/chem not far behind. But I think we will know more after our visits to Reed, UW, Seattle University and UBC Vancouver next week. He’s very much an “in the moment” visual person, so seeing more schools will hopefully help him form more opinions. I do think he’d want good art facilities. He’s spent a lot of time in programs at CCA, Oxbow in Napa (sadly now closed) and his high school art program is well funded by the parent foundation. So he’s accustomed to facilities that really care about the artist experience and space.
Please check VCU - I linked above to VCU Arts. It’s urban too.And Richmond is a great city - will snow a bit less but will snow. Just based on your last post…
My D26 sounds similar to your son. It looks like with the exception of some UCs, she will apply to: Fairfield, Holy Cross (my alma mater, and I’m also an atheist), BC (total reach), Conn College, Fordham, Gonzaga, and DePaul. We’re visiting the first five from that list next week.
She’s about a 3.75 UW, 4.2 W, potential history or poli sci major.
I hope the visits go well! Would love to hear what your D26 thinks. Fordham and DePaul might be good for my S26 and he hasn’t seen either yet. I saw Fordham with my D22 and she liked it, applied and received a decent amount of merit aid—26k I think. She didn’t pick it, and it wasn’t in the final 3, but she liked it enough to apply.
C25 – 3.744 UW GPA (no weighting at our HS), average SAT (applied TO to most schools), 5 APs total (not 5s on the ones taken thus far…). Live in WA
ED - Northwestern - rejection
EA - CU Boulder, WWU, UW Bothell, OSU (oregon, not ohio), RIT - all accepted
RD - UW Seattle (they don’t do any early option) - rejection
Committed to RIT and starting to make plans for moving into the dorms in August, once this pesky “finish high school” thing is completed.
RIT came through with a financial aid package that roughly matched their NPC tool when I put in our information. So, the sticker price would’ve been out of our price range, but the NPC number was in it, and so is the final price.
D25’s results:
White Female
Parents Have a College Degree/PhD
West Coast/Best Coast/Bay Area
3.7 UW /3.9 W GPA
1380 SAT (720 math/ 660 reading) - submitted everywhere
10 APs (all 4 scores on tests submitted)
3 years varsity sport
part-time job
a few club memberships–no leadership
volunteering (over 100 hours as a language volunteer)
emphasis on language/linguistics (AP Mandarin, French 3)
Accepted
American University
University of Washington
University of Maryland ($60k merit)
University of Pittsburgh
University of Denver ($132k merit)
University of Delaware ($50k merit)
University of Oregon ($40k merit)
University of Nevada - Reno ($56k WUE)
University of Colorado - Boulder ($55k merit)
University of California, Santa Cruz
San Diego State University
San Jose State University
University of Toronto
University of British Columbia ($7k merit)
WL
Cal Poly SLO
UCONN for fall, given spring admit with study abroad
Rejected
UC Davis
UC Berkeley
UCSB
UCSD
UCI
UCLA
Northeastern
I was surprised by no admission or WL for UC Davis (local and D25’s emphasis on languages is not competing on Engineering or Biology) or even a WL for Irvine. Other than that, these are the results I expected.
Congrats.
Most impressive to me is CU and UMD.
Getting merit at UMD is next to impossible and you got $15K a year.
CU is all about $6250 a year or $25K - and you got another $7500 a year on top.
Very impressive - on both.
Any leading contenders?
I don’t know the UC GPA but i’m guessing it’s not competitive for the two you were surprised.
Anyway, tons of great options.
Does she have a major interest?
Best of luck.
#classof2025 results:
90UW/92W average. Large, suburban public upstate NY high school, does not rank. No test scores. Captain of two varsity sports, recruited athlete for one, had mid-major DI offers but is going DIII. HOBY ambassador and JIF, NHS, handful of honors classes, 15 college credits-1 SUNY OCC, 2 SUNY Oswego, 1 SUPA (Syracuse University),1 AP. Solid essay and LOR. No need based aid anywhere.
Accepted EA:
-SUNY Fredonia, $2500 merit total COA $22k
-SUNY Oswego, $2500 merit total COA $23k
-SUNY Cortland, total COA $25k
-SUNY Buffalo (UB not Buff State) total COA $28k
-SUNY Stony Brook total COA $30k
Deferred EA to RD then accepted guaranteed for Fall 2026, (then also accepted study abroad Fall 2025 then start main campus Fall 2026)
-SUNY Binghamton total COA $31k (study abroad option more)
ENROLLED SUNY CORTLAND! Go Red Dragons! 
Thank you to all for sharing!
There is a reason for that - they were set up to serve urban populations. The reason most have (good) basketball teams rather than football is because it is much cheaper to have a gym and a few balls than it is to have the whole football set up of stadiums and practice fields and dozens of coaches. In Catholic schools (except Notre Dames), especially Jesuit, basketball is King because of the urban locations.
Jesuit schools also tend to hit the sweet spot many students want for size, 5000-8000.
Most of them had football teams at one time.
Fordham had Vince Lombardi and “the 7 Blocks of Granite” back in the 1930s. San Francisco went undefeated in 1951 but didn’t play in a bowl game because they refused to leave their black players home - or in some cases weren’t even invited because they fielded a team with black players. As a result, their undefeated team wasn’t considered when it came to voting for the national champions. Boston College, Holy Cross, Georgetown, Fordham and Villanova still field football teams.
I know they have football teams, but basketball was still the sport they found easier to share with their communities through youth basketball (Lebron James was a product of the Catholic school league). I still remember going to a football game at Holy Cross when I was about 5 but no one would mistake that experience with going to a Big 10 game.
A number of Catholic schools make it to March Madness every year, and they all have hope!
FYI - Villanova is Augustinian - NOT a Jesuit University
Good point.
I think the big picture remains the same since the Jesuits weren’t the only Catholic schools to follow that formula. I went to a LaSallean college in a big city which had football when my father went there before me while 2 of my brothers went to Jesuit colleges.
funny timing that this came up TODAY of all times..
I think the whole world now knows this:)