One of my college roommates went to graduate school at the University of Idaho, and he’d always complain about the snobs at nearby Washington State.
“They think they’re so much better than us because they’re Pac-10.” (Before there was a Pac-12.)
A friend of mine has a kid at Carelton and it sounds like a school that really minimizes the snob factor.
I agree with others that more remote schools are often better in this regard.
Does your antipathy against higher income people extend to you not wanting to work among them in your future career?
Graduation rates tend to correlate with selectivity. A school that brings in stronger students will have higher graduation rates. Your chance of graduating in 4 or 6 years is probably not much different between your reach school and your safety school.
Note that, for pre-med purposes, if you skip any pre-med courses with AP or IB credit, most medical schools expect you to substitute more advanced college courses in those subjects. E.g. if you skip calculus 1 with AP or IB credit, a medical school that wants to see calculus will likely want to see calculus 2 or 3 in lieu of calculus 1.
As far as schools go, what about University of Minnesota - Morris and Truman State? Both are small, relatively inexpensive public LACs in rural areas or small towns in the midwest.
Run the online net price calculators on a variety of colleges that interest you.
Let’s give it a try on a few schools mentioned above using College Abacus (which let’s you compare the net prices of up to 3 schools at a time). Assume $120K income, no farm or business income, 4 kids, married parents, $60K in financial assets, Maryland resident.
Estimated Net Price … College
$14,836 Bryn Mawr (private, women only, claims to meet 100% of demonstrated need)
$16,106 Grinnell (private, claims to meet 100% of demonstrated need)
$17,538 Whitman (private, meets ~93% of demonstrated need on average per CDS)
$18,250 University of Minnesota - Morris (OOS public)
$18,250 University of Minnesota - TC (OOS public)
$28,095 New College FL (OOS public)
$38,925 Wisconsin - Madison (OOS public)
$39,880 UC - Berkeley (OOS public)
I think you can. Use net price patterns to eliminate the kinds of schools that probably won’t be affordable, such as
OOS public flagships that don’t grant merit aid*. I suspect that in your situation, you’ll get some of the lowest net prices at selective private colleges that claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need (or close to it). Identify the subset of those ~60 colleges that appeal to you on paper, then research them in depth.
- Public universities in Minnesota do seem to have relatively low costs for OOS students.
I completely understand that.
I would suggest another factor to consider - what does the school do to make their lower income kids able to access all campus resources? Do clubs cost extra money? If so do FA students have the option to ask for help with those (or do they HAVE to ask)? For example, a club that does skiing and mountain climbing and other activities that are expensive and/or require expensive gear - is there a way for lower income students to participate in that club? Does the optional orientation outdoor/camping trip cost something? Is gear provided for kids who may not have sleeping bags or tents? Is there help for book costs or bedding/dorm needs/toiletries for the lowest income kids?
Some schools do consider these things so as to allow everyone to do everything offered without feeling awkward about it. Not to eat out and go clubbing, but the campus-sponsored stuff.
Also, the whole clubbing/eating out thing is more relevant in cities I think, than schools located in more rural areas. There’s simply less to go out to in those areas.
Of course there will always be differences between kids with families of different wealth that will manifest in cars and ability to take weekend jaunts and the like, but there are factors that can mitigate the “I’m the only one who can’t afford to do anything” lonely feeling it seems you are concerned about.
PS: I wrote the above before seeing @Pizzagirl 's post. YES - all that and dorms too. Some large public Us we visited had seriously fancy dorm/apts and some seriously NOT…whereas many of the smaller(?) had everyone on campus for 4 years in a housing lottery system. Then again, the larger publics we saw had plenty of lower income kids to hang out with.
You might look at:
- whether the school has an equestrian program
- whether the team fields impressive teams in expensive sports (fencing, sailing, etc.) not normally taught at public schools
- what percent of internationals get financial aid (vs. playboys)
- whether the campus hosts certain fraternities and sororities known to be ‘rich kid places’
- whether the school has secret societies
- what percent of students have cars
Great question and really useful responses, thank you. And I’m not seeing any “antipathy towards higher income people” here so much as a desire to live and study in an environment where one’s family’s income doesn’t make a critical difference in one’s college experience. This could well be a criterion for people in all income brackets.
Interesting development at Columbia, not entirely unrelated to this discussion: https://bwog.com/2015/09/09/ccsc-unveils-plan-to-fight-food-insecurity-on-campus/
Re: #47 - I’m not sure those are the most compelling criteria, since many of them would apply to the same colleges and universities that offer the most generous financial-aid packages. Unfortunately, lower-income students have the fewest opportunities to visit campuses and get a sense of their “vibe.” Some colleges might have a lot of students from privileged backgrounds, but they are not the types to engage in superficial displays, whereas others will have lots of luxury cars parked on campus, and students will flaunt expensive accessories. Students at urban campuses are less likely to keep cars there, but might self-segregate according to their weekend entertainments. I’m inclined to say that the more a college or university stresses community engagement and intellectual rigor, the less it’s likely to emphasize social stratification . . . but that is an over-simplification. A college like Reed or Pitzer will not have Greek-letter organizations, and will have an extremely progressive campus culture, but they will have fewer students from less affluent backgrounds than University of Alabama will.
A college that offers a lot of free activities to students, in a community with affordable opportunities for off-campus housing, dining, and attendance at events, will be more welcoming toward impecunious students. Also, bear in mind that many of the richest people are obsessively frugal, and their kids are often on tighter budgets at college than some middle-class counterparts.
Both are on my initial list. I’ll research them in more depth.
Thank you for this! Very helpful!
Study engineering or the hard sciences. No snobs there, only nerds, no matter which school you attend. Personally, I haven’t found many snobs at any of the better schools (top 25) we visited. It was exactly the opposite of what we expected. There are always a few, but colleges go out of their way to be inclusive these days. Most students are studying so hard that they don’t have time for that nonsense. Look for a school that is extremely well funded so they can afford to attract the best students.
It is perfectly fine to be an academic snob. It makes college more interesting.
What you will find is the absolute conviction that their school is better than their rivals, no matter what type of school it is.