Does this college exist?

[Anonymous]

This may be way off base but what about PITT?

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/university-of-pittsburgh-3379

[Anonymous]

Santa Clara University in California if he could get merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is a junior and we're getting into the thick of college searching. He's a good student, but not a superstar (3.8 GPA, 1860 GPA, will have 7 AP classes by graduation, typical extracurriculars - school clubs, a varsity sport, leadership position in one club, volunteers at a hospital) and is from a MoCo HS that is one of the stronger ones outside the Ws. He wants urban. So far, we've seen Fordham, UMCP, American, and on a whim, toured Loyola in Chicago while we were visiting his grandparents.

He's liked them all, with Fordham and Loyola being his favorites. We are "Christmas and Easter" Catholics but the Jesuit model of education (focus on service and human justice, educate the whole person, etc.) seemed to really appeal to him. Problem, we cannot afford anything beyond UMCP, so he'd have to get merit aid at those places and realistically I don't think he'll get enough to bring the costs down to UMCP - he's firmly in the average of admitted students. UMCP is an option, but I think he'd do better in a smaller environment where it's more difficult to get lost in the crowd and you're not regularly sitting in classes with 50+ kids. He's not particularly shy, but he does have a tendency to get lost in the shuffle sometimes/blend in.

So does anyone have suggestions for colleges that are small but not too small (probably between 3000 and 18000), that are urban, and offer good merit aid to students with his GPA/SAT? I've looked at non-selective urban schools, but it seems the problem with those is that they have sooo many commuter students and the campus is be dead on the weekends. A non-commuter school is important.

He's looking to major in journalism or something business related.

Thanks.

They St. Louis University or DePaul. They might have aid for him.

[Anonymous]

PITT meets all your criteria (and my DS and DD love it) but I wouldn't count on merit $. Our current HS senior is considering U South Carolina which, as another pp mentioned, is generous with $ for OOS students.

[Anonymous]

St Joe's in Philly gives decent merit $$.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Would he go south? I had a wonderful time at Tulane and they give lots of merit aid. He seems to have the stats for it.


Yep. He's open to pretty much anywhere. I was under the impression that Tulane's pretty selective though..


Looks like it's VERY Greek though. That could be an issue for him..

No it has Greeks but it does not drive the social side. The frat houses have to shut down any party at midnight b/c of the neighborhood(that is like shutting down a 10 in DC). You should look at it, maybe st john's in Annapolis, too.

[Anonymous]

Has he done SAT prep? It might be worth spending a little on that to bring up the SAT scores as that tends to be what drives merit aid. Some schools use aid to bring in higher scoring students to up the average. A low to average SAT may not do it.

Take a look at Hobart in NY. They are pretty generous with aid and it might be a good fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would he go south? I had a wonderful time at Tulane and they give lots of merit aid. He seems to have the stats for it.

Lots of Catholic kids from this area go to Loyola New Orleans, and I know they give large merit aid packages. Your son would be an excellent candidate there. Also, if he wants to major in journalism, University of Missouri has one of the top undergrad programs in the country -- it's located in a great college town (Columbia) and OOS tuition is not crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has he done SAT prep? It might be worth spending a little on that to bring up the SAT scores as that tends to be what drives merit aid. Some schools use aid to bring in higher scoring students to up the average. A low to average SAT may not do it.

Take a look at Hobart in NY. They are pretty generous with aid and it might be a good fit.

Thanks for the recommendations everyone! Will look into these schools. PP, he just did a prep class this week and will do another one in two weeks for the May 3rd test. I agree, his SAT scores aren't the greatest, but it's the math that's killing him. He got 800 in writing, but his math score was much lower. I think his reading was in the 700s.

If he got his SAT score to above 2000 (that's his goal), would he be a better candidate for merit aid?

[Anonymous]

If he liked Loyola, try DePaul in Chicago. It's not Jesuit, but it's Catholic. They are a little more generous with merit aid and your son would be toward the upper range of their admitted students so more likely to get aid.

[Anonymous]

I was going to suggest DePaul in Chicago, Emerson in Boston, Loyola in Baltimore, Loyola marymount in CA, and St Joe's and Temple in Philly.

[Anonymous]

OP I'd suggest some private targeted math tutoring. His scores could go from good to great (most schools superstore so he won't lose the 800CR score)

[Anonymous]

St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY

http://www.sjfc.edu/admissions/freshman/scholarships/

FYI Journalism & Communications are minors only:
http://www.sjfc.edu/academics/programs-study/

But Marketing, Media Mgmt., Finance are major options.