Thank you all for the additional suggestions. We’ve just begun this process and although we’ve done a lot of research already, there clearly were things that we hadn’t thought of.
Merit aid is a big issue but so is finding a good fit. I can see now that an overnight at the school and meeting specifically with the department that she’s interested in will be very important. And will have to do more digging into what “honors” means at each college. Just when I think we’ve done plenty of research, I realized we’ve only scratched the surface!
@TomSrOfBoston, her safeties that she’s considering are Providence College and Syracuse. Both very different schools. (And possibly Tulane or Elon but haven’t done much research on those yet.)
@newyorkmom2girl That is not a list I would generate for high merit safeties. You are concerned about how she would fit in academically at schools like Tulane where 30% of students score in the 700+ on each section of the SAT? We are having completely different conversations. I was thinking you were concerned about schools where the student would be in the top <5%.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek - as I said Tulane and Elon just popped up on her list without having done much research so it sounds like Tulane wouldn’t fall in the safety category. Not a completely different conversation, just not enough research on her part yet.
Regarding a small school vs large school honors, my kid who had a great experience at her safety attended a small school. She got a lot of opportunities due to being a top student at her school – invitations to escort visiting speakers on her area of study around campus, a lot of time from her professors, invitations to serve on committees for the college. Her senior thesis was nominated as one of the top 60 undergrad ones in the nation in her field of study.
She did find intellectual peers, too. She chose to live in a “learning community” freshman year. She made a lot of friends there, and she told me later that a significant number of those kids made Phi Beta Kappa. She was also invited to tutor in the campus Writing Center, and found some of her people there, too.
Just saying that a small school safety can work well, too.
Well the flip of the coin is this, a student who was top of the class in high school, gets accepted to a selective school, and now is at best an average student and overwhelmed.
The goal is to find the best fit program for the student to achieve their goals. And also affordable.
@newyorkmom2girl When I think of merit safety schools, I think of schools where merit is guaranteed or pretty much known, not competitive. Competitive scholarships can be super competitive and should not be counted on. If they are required in order to afford to attend, those schools become reaches even if admissions is pretty much guaranteed. I am not familiar with Syracuse or Providence, but I don’t remember seeing them on guaranteed scholarship lists.
In addition to having an Honors program, you should make sure that the Honors college is not so isolated that the Honors kids don’t interact with the school’s general (and typically local) population. Also, check what % of kids receive merit scholarships and what is the average award. The higher the number the better as this means that there are lots of smarter than average kids than would normally attend a similar school.