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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My nephew attends College of Wooster and loves it. They have a cool thesis programs for
seniors. [/quote]

This is one of ours. I honestly wasn't sure dc would get accepted, they're more selective than some others and I know they're popular. I have a friend who went there about fifteen years ago and loved it and has done quite well in a very tough and very popular field. Wooster's even moved to the top of my list, but they're farther away than I'd like and there are some closer options that also do capstone projects and offer many things that seem similar.

Wooster does seem like it's in good financial shape, and the merit was good. [/quote]

My dd attended Wooster for 3 semesters and then transferred. Granted, she was there during the height of Covid so she did not have a traditional experience. But the reality for her was very different based upon what she expected from several visits.

Dorms: Research this. You can’t choose (understandable) as a freshman but some dorms are fairly new with A/C and some are literally falling apart. The dorm sophomore year was so bad that dh was worried about leaving her there. Read articles about the bats, etc. in the dorms.

Finances: Check our recent issues of the school newspaper (dd occasionally still reads it and mentioned it). They are making some changes to reduce expenses. I’m not saying they are close to closing but some of the changes may affect the school going forward.

The school has a new president since dd was there. The former president is now at Whitman…[/quote]

I thought they had one of the healthier endowments. I could be wrong.

I know a lot of these kinds of schools are eliminating or consolidating some majors. That's one of my concerns. Don't want to sign up for one kind of experience  and have it change. It looks like Allegheny did that recently, and I'm not sure what to think. In general, that's one that confuses me: there are some things I really really like (and I think Meadville sounds okay, I know it has its detractors), and some things I'm uncertain about (social stuff).

[b]It's also a little bit of a relief to hear something negative about Wooster. When dcurbanmom gets too glowingly positive it makes me nervous. Not because I think the posts are fake, but because I' don't always share the same opinions about what is valued.[/b][/quote]

There are probably a lot of LAC admissions reps posting. They tend to be the most militant and most unaccepting of differing experiences, thoughts, and opinions.

College of Wooster gets a lot of positive reviews largely because it awards a lot o[b]f merit scholarship[/b]s. This is a true positive.[/quote]

Uh, maybe because Wooster is almost $75K a year so it HAS to discount the COA for some applicants? https://wooster.edu/admissions/afford/tuition-and-aid/[/quote]

It's their (and other similar colleges) strategy--they give significant merit aid to highly qualified students to make it as affordable/more affordable than in-state public schools, they give some merit aid to good students to make it more affordable than other similarly priced SLACs and they enroll some full-pay--or v close to full-pay-- students with spottier applications than higher ranked SLACs.  Financial aid is usually generous for qualified students who come from limited means.  It's not a bad model, really as you get a fairly diverse student body in terms of SES and academic strength.  The rich full-pay students usually don't drop out because they have the resources to keep going even if they aren't the strongest students and their career outcomes are likely to be fine because of family connections/support. 
They are basically paying full fare to have stronger students around them.  Everyone else is strong enough to do fine and has a better ROI because they are not paying the very high cost.  "Donut hole" families often find these schools are the most affordable ones due to merit aid if their in-state options are not attractive.   You don't get the 'bimodal' distribution of poor and rich kids that you get at the more higher ranked private schools.
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