Please recommend some target schools for my junior

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would caution that some of the options posted here (Haverford, Boston College etc) are reaches for EVERYONE. Acceptance rates are THE decisive factor when categorizing a school as a reach or a target. Below a 25% acceptance rate is a reach for every single applicant, regardless of stats. It's because of the volume of applicants.
Just to help manage expectations, it's helpful to keep this in mind.

Not for a TJ (or Big 3) student with those stats/ECs. You can apply to a big basket of those schools and you're going to get into more than a few of them.

You probably will, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still a reach.while you could get into a few, an applicant could still find themselves getting into none. It’s simply a matter of the numbers. Too many well qualified applicants for too few spots. Doesn’t mean someone shouldn’t apply. It just means that no one can count on acceptance to any of them regardless of how well qualified the applicant is. An application to schools which accept less than 20-25% is like buying a lottery ticket. Buying more lottery tickets doesn’t mean you’ll win the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rice - not a suburb, but definitely a suburban feel given Houston's sprawling nature. And being a non-Stem student would be a plus.

Yes but merit aid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&M just seems miserable. Why not shoot for U of Richmond if you want a school in Virginia of that size and selectivity? I know, I know, it's private, and private means more expensive, but they have a stupid, retarded high endowment and use it to hand out aid and scholarships like candy. It's such a better environment, with funner kids and stronger on-campus recruiting. Check it out!

Ugh, “funner” and “stupid retarded,” really? Is this meant to be satire?

+1. PP list all credibility with those phrases and also doesn’t understand how endowments work. W&M is an xlnt school and more prestigious than Richmond

W&M is where fun goes to die.

No, that’s U of Chicago

Villanofun

[Anonymous]

Carleton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Target might be Rochester, Tulane, BC

And know that Rochester really values interest. If your DC might be interested at all they NEED to do an interview, so visit this summer if you can or do several online virtual tours and sign up immediately to do an interview right after the tours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would caution that some of the options posted here (Haverford, Boston College etc) are reaches for EVERYONE. Acceptance rates are THE decisive factor when categorizing a school as a reach or a target. Below a 25% acceptance rate is a reach for every single applicant, regardless of stats. It's because of the volume of applicants.
Just to help manage expectations, it's helpful to keep this in mind.

Not for a TJ (or Big 3) student with those stats/ECs. You can apply to a big basket of those schools and you're going to get into more than a few of them.

You probably will, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still a reach.while you could get into a few, an applicant could still find themselves getting into none. It’s simply a matter of the numbers. Too many well qualified applicants for too few spots. Doesn’t mean someone shouldn’t apply. It just means that no one can count on acceptance to any of them regardless of how well qualified the applicant is. An application to schools which accept less than 20-25% is like buying a lottery ticket. Buying more lottery tickets doesn’t mean you’ll win the lottery.

Well said! So strange that more people don't recognize this

[Anonymous]

Many of the colleges which have been suggested are great schools, but they aren’t necessarily a high probability of getting a scholarship because they are so competitive.

Given that your requirements are that you want a college with excellent academics in the humanities, a good chance of getting scholarship money to offset the sticker price, and limited Greek life, I recommend that you look very closely at the University of Rochester. Consider the following:

1. Only 23% of students are members of fraternities or sororities
2. Male:Female ratio is about 50:50, which is very hard to find these days.
3. It’s endowment is $3+ billion, which is top 30.

Because of its wealth, Rochester is extremely well resourced, has excellent facilities and superb faculties, and has money to award scholarships. It’s acceptance rate is about 35%, but that is deceptive. About 25% of their enrollment is international students, one of the highest in the nation. They have a low acceptance rate and are almost always full pay. So, the acceptance rate for US students is in reality more in the 40-50% range and scholarship money to US students is about 13%. With your daughter’s credentials, she will be a very attractive applicant and an excellent scholarship candidate.

It’s frankly rare to find a college with Rochester’s level of resources and excellence in academics but with an acceptance rate as high as it is. It’s reputation is very high for medical sciences and for its renowned Eastman School of Music, but it’s faculty and resources are outstanding across all departments. In this way, it’s similar to John’s Hopkins. This means that it’s an academic bargain for students like your daughter whose primary interest is in the humanities. That’s because demand is high for sciences and music but not as high for humanities.

Quality of life at U Rochester has several facets. If you talk to students there, they’ll tell you that Greek life is there if you want it, but there are lots of other options. The 23% membership in frats and sororities supports this. Second, Rochester is an underrated and very livable city. Because it does not have extensive suburbs, the city itself is where most people live. The result is that it has great neighborhoods. The campus itself is located on the outskirts of the city, on the south side away from the lake, offering some protection from winter winds off the water. It has a reputation for cold winters, but it’s really no worse than New England or the upper Midwest and the college has built tunnels and enclosed walkways to protect against the worst that winter has to offer. And they know how to handle snow up there, so roads and sidewalks are cleared a lot quicker than a snow storm in the Middle Atlantic.

Not to be underrated is the male:female ratio. Research suggests that young women are safer and are treated better on a campus which is 50:50 rather than the 60:40 female, which is the overall enrollment ratio in all colleges across the country. It’s rare to find a college that is 50:50, and Rochester is one of them. At 6200 undergraduates, it fits your requirement of small to mid size. At its core, it is a liberal arts college even though it has grown into a research university. It’s similar to Tufts in that respect.The neighborhood around the campus is reasonably safe. Whether it’s Yale or John’s Hopkins or any other campus located in a city, students learn where to go and where not to go, but in this case there is not high risk in the immediate vicinity and it’s on the outskirts of town.

IMO, University of Rochester is one of the best kept secrets in the country, and it meets all of your daughter’s stated requirements. She may hate it once she gets there, but it’s certainly worth a look to find out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many of the colleges which have been suggested are great schools, but they aren’t necessarily a high probability of getting a scholarship because they are so competitive.

Given that your requirements are that you want a college with excellent academics in the humanities, a good chance of getting scholarship money to offset the sticker price, and limited Greek life, I recommend that you look very closely at the University of Rochester. Consider the following:

1. Only 23% of students are members of fraternities or sororities
2. Male:Female ratio is about 50:50, which is very hard to find these days.
3. It’s endowment is $3+ billion, which is top 30.

Because of its wealth, Rochester is extremely well resourced, has excellent facilities and superb faculties, and has money to award scholarships. It’s acceptance rate is about 35%, but that is deceptive. About 25% of their enrollment is international students, one of the highest in the nation. They have a low acceptance rate and are almost always full pay. So, the acceptance rate for US students is in reality more in the 40-50% range and scholarship money to US students is about 13%. With your daughter’s credentials, she will be a very attractive applicant and an excellent scholarship candidate.

It’s frankly rare to find a college with Rochester’s level of resources and excellence in academics but with an acceptance rate as high as it is. It’s reputation is very high for medical sciences and for its renowned Eastman School of Music, but it’s faculty and resources are outstanding across all departments. In this way, it’s similar to John’s Hopkins. This means that it’s an academic bargain for students like your daughter whose primary interest is in the humanities. That’s because demand is high for sciences and music but not as high for humanities.

Quality of life at U Rochester has several facets. If you talk to students there, they’ll tell you that Greek life is there if you want it, but there are lots of other options. The 23% membership in frats and sororities supports this. Second, Rochester is an underrated and very livable city. Because it does not have extensive suburbs, the city itself is where most people live. The result is that it has great neighborhoods. The campus itself is located on the outskirts of the city, on the south side away from the lake, offering some protection from winter winds off the water. It has a reputation for cold winters, but it’s really no worse than New England or the upper Midwest and the college has built tunnels and enclosed walkways to protect against the worst that winter has to offer. And they know how to handle snow up there, so roads and sidewalks are cleared a lot quicker than a snow storm in the Middle Atlantic.

Not to be underrated is the male:female ratio. Research suggests that young women are safer and are treated better on a campus which is 50:50 rather than the 60:40 female, which is the overall enrollment ratio in all colleges across the country. It’s rare to find a college that is 50:50, and Rochester is one of them. At 6200 undergraduates, it fits your requirement of small to mid size. At its core, it is a liberal arts college even though it has grown into a research university. It’s similar to Tufts in that respect.The neighborhood around the campus is reasonably safe. Whether it’s Yale or John’s Hopkins or any other campus located in a city, students learn where to go and where not to go, but in this case there is not high risk in the immediate vicinity and it’s on the outskirts of town.

IMO, University of Rochester is one of the best kept secrets in the country, and it meets all of your daughter’s stated requirements. She may hate it once she gets there, but it’s certainly worth a look to find out.

Excellent description of U Rochester! It's a gem hidden in an underrated location. My own DC is headed there this fall. DC just lit up each time on this campus unlike any other place.

That being said, they do not give much merit. My DC is at 80% for SAT/GPA and received nothing as an engineer major (if you research, more engineers get merit $$$ than the rest of the schools so we were a bit shocked to not get even a little). No clue how good they are at meeting FA.

I think the acceptance rate is so high simply because of the location. Put it in a "more desirable location" (ie Boston/chicago/major metropolitan area) and UR's acceptance rate would drop dramatically and the yield would greatly increase. All of the students we met on campus (got a private tour from a current student and met a few others) really love it there. One of the Happiest campuses we toured, in terms of students attitudes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many of the colleges which have been suggested are great schools, but they aren’t necessarily a high probability of getting a scholarship because they are so competitive.

Given that your requirements are that you want a college with excellent academics in the humanities, a good chance of getting scholarship money to offset the sticker price, and limited Greek life, I recommend that you look very closely at the University of Rochester. Consider the following:

1. Only 23% of students are members of fraternities or sororities
2. Male:Female ratio is about 50:50, which is very hard to find these days.
3. It’s endowment is $3+ billion, which is top 30.

Because of its wealth, Rochester is extremely well resourced, has excellent facilities and superb faculties, and has money to award scholarships. It’s acceptance rate is about 35%, but that is deceptive. About 25% of their enrollment is international students, one of the highest in the nation. They have a low acceptance rate and are almost always full pay. So, the acceptance rate for US students is in reality more in the 40-50% range and scholarship money to US students is about 13%. With your daughter’s credentials, she will be a very attractive applicant and an excellent scholarship candidate.

It’s frankly rare to find a college with Rochester’s level of resources and excellence in academics but with an acceptance rate as high as it is. It’s reputation is very high for medical sciences and for its renowned Eastman School of Music, but it’s faculty and resources are outstanding across all departments. In this way, it’s similar to John’s Hopkins. This means that it’s an academic bargain for students like your daughter whose primary interest is in the humanities. That’s because demand is high for sciences and music but not as high for humanities.

Quality of life at U Rochester has several facets. If you talk to students there, they’ll tell you that Greek life is there if you want it, but there are lots of other options. The 23% membership in frats and sororities supports this. Second, Rochester is an underrated and very livable city. Because it does not have extensive suburbs, the city itself is where most people live. The result is that it has great neighborhoods. The campus itself is located on the outskirts of the city, on the south side away from the lake, offering some protection from winter winds off the water. It has a reputation for cold winters, but it’s really no worse than New England or the upper Midwest and the college has built tunnels and enclosed walkways to protect against the worst that winter has to offer. And they know how to handle snow up there, so roads and sidewalks are cleared a lot quicker than a snow storm in the Middle Atlantic.

Not to be underrated is the male:female ratio. Research suggests that young women are safer and are treated better on a campus which is 50:50 rather than the 60:40 female, which is the overall enrollment ratio in all colleges across the country. It’s rare to find a college that is 50:50, and Rochester is one of them. At 6200 undergraduates, it fits your requirement of small to mid size. At its core, it is a liberal arts college even though it has grown into a research university. It’s similar to Tufts in that respect.The neighborhood around the campus is reasonably safe. Whether it’s Yale or John’s Hopkins or any other campus located in a city, students learn where to go and where not to go, but in this case there is not high risk in the immediate vicinity and it’s on the outskirts of town.

IMO, University of Rochester is one of the best kept secrets in the country, and it meets all of your daughter’s stated requirements. She may hate it once she gets there, but it’s certainly worth a look to find out.

Rochester is not likely to give OP's daughter that much merit aid. My DD, who just graduated from HS this month, was a recruited athlete to Rochester (UR is D1 and D3 and recruits athletes for both). She also earned the Rochester book award for technology her junior year, graduated in top 5% of her well-respected DMV area HS in a class of close to 550 and plans on studying engineering. We were pretty excited as family, thinking this could be one of the few schools where she could be a serious athlete and study engineering. We visited a couple times and she interviewed with admissions. The only merit aid (no financial aid) they gave her was $15K so we said no thanks.

[Anonymous]

Look at Union, Rochester, Lafayette, Case Western

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear about the negative experiences with merit scholarships at Rochester. Most similar colleges in the Northeast give absolutely no merit aid at all - with all of their money going into need based aid. Rochester is unusual in this part of the country in that it does give merit based scholarships with about 13% of US applicants receiving scholarships in the most recent class. So, your comments put it into the reach category for finances, but I still think it’s worth investigating for an exceptional student like this one because there is still a chance that she could qualify for scholarship money. Thus family can’t afford to be full pay, but I got the impression that they don’t need a full tuition award either. So, I’m thinking that even a partial scholarship might put it into the affordable category for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry to hear about the negative experiences with merit scholarships at Rochester. Most similar colleges in the Northeast give absolutely no merit aid at all - with all of their money going into need based aid. Rochester is unusual in this part of the country in that it does give merit based scholarships with about 13% of US applicants receiving scholarships in the most recent class. So, your comments put it into the reach category for finances, but I still think it’s worth investigating for an exceptional student like this one because there is still a chance that she could qualify for scholarship money. Thus family can’t afford to be full pay, but I got the impression that they don’t need a full tuition award either. So, I’m thinking that even a partial scholarship might put it into the affordable category for them.

In previous years (see the CDS data), 95%+ of engineering students received merit awards (as in only 2 or 3 in 2020 who were not FA eligible did not get Merit). For the CDS they have on the univ website, 100% of ESM (engineering/science/math) not given FA were given merit with the avg award over $25K.

Given my kid's stats, I have to assume not as many got Merit this year simply because my DC was at 75/80% for stats so logically should have gotten some if 95%+ were being awarded merit. Thankfully we can afford full pay.
So apply to UR, especially if Engineering/sciences and hope you get some merit, but even then $25K when "all in " is nearing 80K means you need to be almost full pay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many of the colleges which have been suggested are great schools, but they aren’t necessarily a high probability of getting a scholarship because they are so competitive.

Given that your requirements are that you want a college with excellent academics in the humanities, a good chance of getting scholarship money to offset the sticker price, and limited Greek life, I recommend that you look very closely at the University of Rochester. Consider the following:

1. Only 23% of students are members of fraternities or sororities
2. Male:Female ratio is about 50:50, which is very hard to find these days.
3. It’s endowment is $3+ billion, which is top 30.

Because of its wealth, Rochester is extremely well resourced, has excellent facilities and superb faculties, and has money to award scholarships. It’s acceptance rate is about 35%, but that is deceptive. About 25% of their enrollment is international students, one of the highest in the nation. They have a low acceptance rate and are almost always full pay. So, the acceptance rate for US students is in reality more in the 40-50% range and scholarship money to US students is about 13%. With your daughter’s credentials, she will be a very attractive applicant and an excellent scholarship candidate.

It’s frankly rare to find a college with Rochester’s level of resources and excellence in academics but with an acceptance rate as high as it is. It’s reputation is very high for medical sciences and for its renowned Eastman School of Music, but it’s faculty and resources are outstanding across all departments. In this way, it’s similar to John’s Hopkins. This means that it’s an academic bargain for students like your daughter whose primary interest is in the humanities. That’s because demand is high for sciences and music but not as high for humanities.

Quality of life at U Rochester has several facets. If you talk to students there, they’ll tell you that Greek life is there if you want it, but there are lots of other options. The 23% membership in frats and sororities supports this. Second, Rochester is an underrated and very livable city. Because it does not have extensive suburbs, the city itself is where most people live. The result is that it has great neighborhoods. The campus itself is located on the outskirts of the city, on the south side away from the lake, offering some protection from winter winds off the water. It has a reputation for cold winters, but it’s really no worse than New England or the upper Midwest and the college has built tunnels and enclosed walkways to protect against the worst that winter has to offer. And they know how to handle snow up there, so roads and sidewalks are cleared a lot quicker than a snow storm in the Middle Atlantic.

Not to be underrated is the male:female ratio. Research suggests that young women are safer and are treated better on a campus which is 50:50 rather than the 60:40 female, which is the overall enrollment ratio in all colleges across the country. It’s rare to find a college that is 50:50, and Rochester is one of them. At 6200 undergraduates, it fits your requirement of small to mid size. At its core, it is a liberal arts college even though it has grown into a research university. It’s similar to Tufts in that respect.The neighborhood around the campus is reasonably safe. Whether it’s Yale or John’s Hopkins or any other campus located in a city, students learn where to go and where not to go, but in this case there is not high risk in the immediate vicinity and it’s on the outskirts of town.

IMO, University of Rochester is one of the best kept secrets in the country, and it meets all of your daughter’s stated requirements. She may hate it once she gets there, but it’s certainly worth a look to find out.

Wow! Thank you for your detailed reply. It definitely sounds terrific. I'll tell my DD to look into it.

[Anonymous]

The pictures of U Rochester on Google maps seem quite old and depressing.

[Anonymous]

I’d focus on talking up Virginia schools and not take on debt. If money wasn’t an issue I’d suggest grinnell, Rochester, Carleton, McAllister, Harvey mudd, BC, BU, tufts