<p>It’s too bad he doesn’t want anything in the midwest. I could come up with about 20 financial safeties at great schools for him. Can you convince him that Missouri is “south” and have him look at Truman?</p>
<p>D was looking at Eckerd. It’s on the “Colleges that Change Lives” list but not happy about the surrounding area so probably not on her list any more.</p>
<p>We are starting to plan college visits next week for DD13! Yeah! DS12 just sent in his deposit for U of Miami, and instead of us just being able to obsess about sheet selection (he could care less!), now we begin again. DS12 was not that interested in visiting a whole bunch of schools. He did visit some, but mostly when DD13 was not available. So we begin again, but this time with DD13 who is not as decisive as DS12. DD13 is interested in engineering, chemistry, bio chemistry or some combination. Next week over two days she will visit:</p>
<p>Lehigh
Lafayette
Swarthmore
Villanova (only b/c I think Bucknell is farther than I originally thought)
Bucknell (maybe, as it is a bit farther out than the rest)</p>
<p>Hopefully she will get a better idea of what interests her and what doesn’t. She already has some experience with Cornell (loved it!) so this should let her know if she is really looking for a BIG school or if a smaller school would be good too. </p>
<p>Her first set of SAT tests are in and they were good, but not good enough for Cornell or Swarthmore. We shall see if she can improve and if not, that will be fine too. Good luck everyone!</p>
<p>Longhaul, based on your S’s parameters (they need some!) perhaps also consider Davidson and Rhodes. And perhaps University of Richmond Scholars Program.</p>
<p>Hi folks, does anyone have any perspective on Carleton College’s Summer Science Program or WPI Frontier’s Program? My son applied to both (also to Columbia, but the cost is twice the others, so we crossed that one off), hoping he can get a flash of insight into what he could major in. We’re hoping he can get a flavor of college life that could inspire him to care more :-)</p>
<p>Longhaul,</p>
<p>Because of your <$20,000 budget, it seems that you will probably want to look at some schools that have a lower intitial total COA than the typical east coast LAC, where it seems that the usual cost is $50,000 plus. Your best bet for this is the south and midwest.</p>
<p>In the south, Centre College in KY might be near the $20,000 figure. Use their NPC to get an estimate.</p>
<p>Also in the south, Hendrix College in AR might also be near that figure although I think they had a fairly significant tuition increase for next year. Use their NPC to get an estimate.</p>
<p>Loads of midwest schools could possibly get you in at $20,000 or less. Good ones that come quickly to mind…
Truman State (MO)
Drake (IA)
Central College (IA)</p>
<p>We are looking at schools that come in around the $25,000 (or less) per year range after merit. On our radar…Truman State, Rhodes College, Centre College, and Hendrix College.</p>
<p>Haystack–I agree with your list. Central is one of those schools no one here has ever heard of but I have to say, out of the I don’t know how many schools we’ve visited, 30+ over the years, Central probably has the best admissions staff and the best reception we got anywhere. Everyone was very friendly, went out of their way to say hi and thank us for coming, ran into the department chair for S’s intended major, no appointment set up to meet with him, took S to his office, talked to him for 45 minutes about the program, and other things about the school, walked him over to his next appointment when they were done. We got 6 thank you notes in the mail, including notes to US for taking time out of our schedule to take DS on the tour, etc. Merit aid there is fantastic. It’s high on S’s list as a result.</p>
<p>Longhaul, University of Tulsa used to give a big scholarship to NMFs, bringing the cost way down. Ds seriously considered it because NHRP got the same scholarship, plus we got some FA. Total cost for us was definitely less than, $20K. It’s a great midsize school – about 5,000 UG, I think, and, IMO, is an up-and-comer, certainly sports-wise.</p>
<p>ETA: We also had a great visit at Tulsa. They set up a schedule for us, and when we mentioned that ds was more interested in a dept we didn’t get to see, they called someone right there to make it happen. I joked once we got in the car that maybe they had ds confused with someone else. Consequently, it made the school we looked at the next day seem positively dumpy by comparison.</p>
<p>And I know I’ve said this before, but please do official visit reports on cc in addition to posting here so that people down the line can benefit from your knowledge.</p>
<p>YDS- will take your advice and double post. We live in NOVA, I have a D13 and S14. JMU (James Madison) is one of the schools on both lists. Kids are very different. D is a straight A, tons of honors and AP kid. S is one with mostly As and Bs and every year a C+ in something. D is looking at it as a safety, but one I think she would love. Would be an honors candidate. Top current choice is UVA. Also saw Delaware. Loves CHapel Hill but that 18% OOS thing is a killer. S has been interested in JMU. So, off we went. Campus is stunning especially with trees in bloom. Very well maintained. Exceptionally friendly and kids everywhere today. Food in regular dining hall was fine. I’m a little past college dining hall food but think it was a giant leap forward from the 80s cafeteria style. Also had specialty places like Starbucks and Quiznos which definitely weren’t around for me. Dorms were nice, and seemed to be grouped well. Couldn’t get over how clean it was. Kids from a lot of places besides VA appeared. They were so enthusiastic and very outgoing. Dud not see the off campus places( housing, student handouts). We’re told 70% of students are involved in sports- from soccer to water polo. Great club sports, D1 varsity although clearly not a top D1. But still. Building a new gym for IM and club sports. My kids were delighted, as both are heavily into soccer, less so to football and basketball. Enormous variety of majors available and great flexibility in selection and combinations. Awesome study abroad options. Overall was thrilled with it. S will hopefully dig up a little more motivation ( maybe having bought out the bookstore as far as attire goes will help). D seems comfortable with it as a safety. Good news there as well. S decided purple and gold were pretty cool, announced this after confessing he’d had his doubts. Male- female ratio of 40-60 pleased him but our guide said it didn’t feel that unbalanced unless you actually did a head count in class. Didn’t seem so during the tour or lunch, either. Saw plenty of boys. I couldn’t help but think that ratio should really attract guys! Definitely will be seeing applications from these two in the next two years. Liked the EA status too. Would love D to be able to get in and relax knowing she is safe. Would like S to be motivated by the same possibility and start applications early too instead of at Christmas senior year. Decently big school (17,000 kids) but not overwhelming. Both liked the size and felt comfortable. Lots of jeans and shorts and JMU attire on smiling students spoke volumes to us. These two would have fit right in.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the recommendations. Especially glad to see Centre as it has been recommended to him from various sources.</p>
<p>Geogirl – Bucknell is quite a drive from the others. If you do decide to drop it and are in search of merit, you may want to add Drexel to your list. It would be easy to do Villanova and Drexel in the same day. The only thing at Drexel is to allow ample time for parking.</p>
<p>Who lives in the DC area? We’ll likely be there in July and would like to try to see the three DC schools and Hopkins. How many days would it take to do this? I’d be happy to discuss in PMs. TIA!</p>
<p>I’ve only visited DC but I say, if you want to see those schools and visit DC, plan at least 3 weeks :D. There is SO much to do in DC. Getting to the schools in DC proper is so easy though, metro or a quick bus ride (Georgetown) but you could walk to Georgetown from GW if you wanted. When we were visiting Georgetown our bus got stuck in traffic because there was a huge sink hole in the road. We looked up the closest metro stop and decided to walk because it was under a mile (maybe 7 block or so). We didn’t look at American because we really were not there college shopping, just wanted to see Georgetown campus and passed by GW along the way.</p>
<p>DC is about the only major city I would consider living in. It’s a great place. You could easily do the 3 DC schools in a day and a half-2 tours one day, 1 the next and then head to Hopkins that second day as well, if you wanted to push it.</p>
<p>One suggestion would be to make sure you fly into Reagan. The metro runs to Reagan and you can get by without a car at all, or for the one day to drive to Hopkins. We personally like staying in Alexandria and I can recommend the Embassy Suites in Alexandria but there are 1000’s of choices.</p>
<p>Thanks Longhaul! Upon further analysis I think we are going to do Bucknell on Sat as they are having a special Jr. visiting day and then Lafayette and Lehigh on Friday. We can go see Swarthmore and Villanova a different time. I don’t think Drexel will be a good fit for DD; she wants a campus in the burbs or burb like - not city. Plus she is not sure about engineering, she might do chem or bio chem or bioengineering and there are other schools that fit better for that than Drexel.</p>
<p>Steve, can you get from the ES in Alexandria to DC on the Metro?</p>
<p>Longhaul: yes D is considering UA; as a probable NMSF, it will be both her admissions and financial safety. She really liked their Blount undergraduate initiative.</p>
<p>College of charleston is on her list as well. Centre is great (visited w/d1 but was too rural; I’d suggest researching Hendrix, milsaps, Denison in oh (40,000 NMf $) elon, and Davidson.)</p>
<p>the University of Utah this summer. He’s interested in mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, computer engineering, and game design. U of U, our flagship, is rated #3 in the US for game design/animation. He also likes the U because freshman mechanical engineering students start right off the bat working with robotics…He would also like to visit University of Colorado-Colorado Springs…but first I have to see how we can manage to do that this summer. </p>
<p>Just to make his life more complicated, he takes the ACT on the 14th…and doesn’t seem concerned at all-not even going to practice for it 
I tried to tell him the next test date is June if he doesn’t do well…</p>
<p>You all have me excited about visits! I booked a Saturday visit in a couple of weeks for S3 and I at UCSD.</p>
<p>Folks, as you are builing your lists you may want to keep this post in the parents forum in your mind. I know many of us do not regularly read other posts, but this one is worth the time. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1314179-angry-over-college-admissions-process.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1314179-angry-over-college-admissions-process.html</a>. </p>
<p>If anyone has visited schools on the list below we would love your feedback. D’s list so far includes:</p>
<p>Reach Schools: Cornel, American University, UNC Chapel Hill</p>
<p>Match: Indiana University, Syracuse University, UM College Park, </p>
<p>Safety Schools: Ithaca University- Academic safety which D LOVES
SUNY New Paltz- financial and academic safety
St Bonaventure University- academic and probable financial safety- they are very transparent with their merit money</p>
<p>We have visited:
American University- she loved the school and the surrounding area. DC is an exciting place to be.<br>
Cornell is just beautiful- they have great events and speakers all the time.<br>
Ithaca- D really felt like she found her tribe
St Bonaventure University- Pretty area, small campus- D felt it was okay but a bit too heavy on the Northface and Ugg crowd. :)</p>
<p>My dd found her college on our visit today. My only concern is that she falls outside the scope of merit aid and we won’t get much need based. Not sure how on earth we will pay for it. But it was so exciting to watch her finally get really involved in the process and fall in love with a school.</p>
<p>nelliah: I read that thread and I agree it is worth reading. My take is that a kid with great test scores but not a great GPA was rejected from a lot of top schools which they thought he/she should be accepted and didn’t have any “safeties”. I know when I went through this (without CC) with D1, you learn that yes your kid is great, but there are a lot of great kids out there. On another thread a 2012 HS student said “If you can let go of what might have been, it can be surprisingly easy to be happy with what can happen now”. It is easy to get caught up in the “admissions game”, but in reality there a lot of great schools. Keep an open mind and things will work out fine.</p>