New to this site and now know we made a lot of mis-steps! DD is Tuition Exchange eligible (her dad works at a member school) and focused her search on that list. Thought she wanted a small LAC so applied to Dickinson EA and Lafayette RD (we live near Pittsburgh). At the last minute she asked to look at University of Cincinnati (we used to live there) and started thinking she might want to be in or near a city - she did like it & applied there too. Accepted at UC with minimal merit. Accepted at Dickinson and received the Tuition Exchange. Waitlisted at Lafayette and it hit her hard - it had emerged as her first choice over the past few months.
I am taking her to Dickinson admitted students day. I think she’d do great there - she is leaning toward an environmental science major - but she’s hesitant about its distance from a city. I’ve also encouraged her to contact Lafayette to express interest, see if they would take another recommendation letter, send her senior grades, etc. (she has a 4.0 UW) she did email them but I’m not sure what she said/asked. She now wishes she would have applied at more locations - mentioned Xavier since it’s small but in a city she likes for example - and looked at schools outside of Tuition Exchange. Her test scores are 1430/32. Strong ECs with leadership.
So - should I even mention NACAC to her as an option? I’m not sure I fully understand how it works and we would need merit as her dad and I can contribute about $20k per year. I’m hoping she likes Dickinson after the visit since there’s probably a very slim chance she gets off the Lafayette waitlist with Tuition Exchange. And UC is still in play - though as OOS it costs more than Dickinson and doesn’t have an environmental science major.
Starting May 1, NACAC will publish a list of places that still have spaces. Some places will still have aid. However, unless she really dislikes her options that remain as of April 29, she will probably want to put down a deposit at one of them. There’s no guarantee that NACAC will serve up anything better than what she’s found so far.
Does she still have access to the Tuition Exchange if she takes a gap year? That might be worth suggesting to her.
Thanks - she is really ready to go to college and didn’t seem interested in a gap year when we discussed it. I looked on the NACAC site and couldn’t find anything, so I appreciate the heads up that it will be updated 5/1. Presumably it’s “first come first serve” at that point if there’s anything of interest? In the meantime I will cross my fingers that admitted students day goes well at Dickinson since that sounds like the best option - pending a Lafayette surprise!
Dickinson is about 2 hours 30 minutes from Philadelphia and about 1 hour 45 mins from Baltimore, and is very close to Harrisburg (not a big city, but plenty of shopping and restaurants).
Dickinson does have zip cars available, and I also found several announcements for bus trips to Philly on the Dickinson website. There are many clubs and activities at Dickinson and some will attend events and activities off campus. Perhaps your D could get involved with organizing some field trips with her fellow students.
Thanks @mamaedefamilia - DD is very interested in study abroad so an away semester is a neat option. Good suggestion @mamag2855, I’ll share that Philly trip info from their website with her too. Lafayette did confirm that they have given out their quota of Tuition Exchanges so they are now officially off the table.
Dickinson is a wonderful school. She is not going to get merit from Lafayette if she gets off waitlist. She should go to Dickinson and not look back.
Should also say that many kids think a city is important, but the reality is, that even at a school like Swarthmore, which is on the outskirts of Philly, kids just do not go into the city as much as they think they will. Their food, friends and beds are at their school. There is a lot of fun stuff going on at a school like Dickinson. She will love it.
Did she apply to Allegheny? Run the net price calculator on their website. Her SAT should garner some great merit. Also Messiah might be a good choice.
Her counselor advised remaining on the Lafayette waitlist “just in case”, but in another thread someone said they only gave away 3 TEs so she is being realistic about it. @Lindagaf I agree, I went to college in a small town about 30 minutes from a city and we never left - it was our own insular world. @mommdc she did not apply to Allegheny, it was one of the schools I encouraged her to visit but she wasn’t interested (at the time). Now she wishes she would have visited more. I haven’t told her about NACAC but will keep it in my back pocket if for some reason she really doesn’t want to go to Dickinson…or UC. She can always go to her dad’s school but would like to get away/do her own thing.
I also want to mention that while my D was set on attending a LAC and was very quick to dismiss many of the schools we visited (too preppy, too artsy, too big, too whatever…) to the point of exhaustion. Still, after all of our college searching she came down to a list of one good safety and four other LACs that she felt she had a realistic chance to get into and would be very happy to attend. Both Lafayette (where she did attend) and Dickinson were schools that stayed on her list. Yes, there are differences between Dickinson and Lafayette as there will be between any two schools but unless you want engineering (which isn’t offered at Dickinson) the points of similarities outweigh the differences. At least to us Lafayette and Dickinson were both highly desirable. IMO getting the tuition exchange at Dickinson is tremendous. I wish you luck with the Laf waiting list but I do hope that she falls in love with Dickinson when you visit (or finds another affordable schools she loves). FWIW my D rarely went into Phila. or NYC from Lafayette.