College advice for someone living in the Midwest!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private SLAC’s in the Midwest may be generous with financial aid, if she can get her SAT scores up. Wooster, Oberlin, Knox?

This. She should also look at LACs in other regions as well. She could also go to a second-tier LAC. They would probably offer a massive amount of aid.

[Anonymous]

If wanting to be on the East Coast is an issue, there are Midwestern SLAC’s that attract a lot of kids from the Northeast and have a more East Coast vibe (and offer generous merit). Oberlin, Macalester, Kenyon.

[Anonymous]

It’s fine to look at LACs but only if she wants to go to a LAC. With good enough grades and scores, she can easily get enough merit at an OOS public as well. She should determine what she wants and go from there, not just look at LACs just because.

[Anonymous]

Look at California LACs. They are likely to see a fall-off in applications. There are also a couple of LACs in Oregon and Washington State. I can’t recall the names. Also, I think there are universities in New Mexico that offer in-state tuition for certain GPAs. It’s been posted here before.

[Anonymous]

OP, is she interested in LACs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some are being unnecessarily harsh. OP’s DD doesn’t feel like she fits in as a Missourian and wants to go back to the familiar. It’s an understandable human impulse. OP, there are some LACs in PA that may give merit as well, Muhlenberg is one and you might look at Gettysburg and Ursinus, too. If she’s open to Catholic schools like St. Joe’s there are more options in PA that give merit.

Because the daughter clearly thinks she is better than everyone else in the Midwest. She spent year mocking flyover country. No slac is going to change her mind.

Karma is real.

Where did she say the daughter “spent year” mocking flyover country? Nowhere. Your Midwestern insecurity is showing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private SLAC’s in the Midwest may be generous with financial aid, if she can get her SAT scores up. Wooster, Oberlin, Knox?

Kalamazoo is generous with merit aid

[Anonymous]

UVM, University of Delaware and UMass all give good merit aid. But she needs to get her SAT score up by quite a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP budget is 30K/ year absolute max.

This will be a very tough for tuition, room, and board to be 30K max OOS or at a private college on the east or west coast. There are many places where room and board is 15-20K so you would need tuition and fees after merit to be 10-15K to meet your budget.

The advice is spot on that raising SAT scores needs to be the priority since that could be the difference in the level of merit. Midwest and south probably have the best chances of finding someplace that would meet the budget with merit. They would need to get the top merit to meet your budget, but University of Dayton might be another mid-west possibility.

[Anonymous]

Is she a Girl Scout? Some LAC’s offer really good merit aid for their equivalent of Eagle Scouts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some are being unnecessarily harsh. OP’s DD doesn’t feel like she fits in as a Missourian and wants to go back to the familiar. It’s an understandable human impulse. OP, there are some LACs in PA that may give merit as well, Muhlenberg is one and you might look at Gettysburg and Ursinus, too. If she’s open to Catholic schools like St. Joe’s there are more options in PA that give merit.

Because the daughter clearly thinks she is better than everyone else in the Midwest. She spent year mocking flyover country. No slac is going to change her mind.

Karma is real.

Where did she say the daughter “spent year” mocking flyover country? Nowhere. Your Midwestern insecurity is showing.

Nice try. Your bitterness is showing.

[Anonymous]

Op, sounds like you've failed to have an open conversation about college expenses and now you are paying for it. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at California LACs. They are likely to see a fall-off in applications. There are also a couple of LACs in Oregon and Washington State. I can’t recall the names. Also, I think there are universities in New Mexico that offer in-state tuition for certain GPAs. It’s been posted here before.

I'm curious about how you know that the California LACs will see a fall-off in applications. Is it because of the wildfire or something else? Which LACs in particular?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some are being unnecessarily harsh. OP’s DD doesn’t feel like she fits in as a Missourian and wants to go back to the familiar. It’s an understandable human impulse. OP, there are some LACs in PA that may give merit as well, Muhlenberg is one and you might look at Gettysburg and Ursinus, too. If she’s open to Catholic schools like St. Joe’s there are more options in PA that give merit.

Because the daughter clearly thinks she is better than everyone else in the Midwest. She spent year mocking flyover country. No slac is going to change her mind.

Karma is real.

Where did she say the daughter “spent year” mocking flyover country? Nowhere. Your Midwestern insecurity is showing.

Op says the kid is uphappy with ALL in state options and will only consider the coasts. It's pretty obvious what happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look at California LACs. They are likely to see a fall-off in applications. There are also a couple of LACs in Oregon and Washington State. I can’t recall the names. Also, I think there are universities in New Mexico that offer in-state tuition for certain GPAs. It’s been posted here before.

I'm curious about how you know that the California LACs will see a fall-off in applications. Is it because of the wildfire or something else? Which LACs in particular?

I don’t “know.” I said “likely” — I think many people would be nervous about starting as a first year at Pepperdine, Occidental, etc. I knew people who even a couple of years ago who were thinking along these lines, much less now. But, no one knows for sure at this juncture. Just throwing out ideas.