Anonymous wrote:I consider JMU a mid-sized public.

How..? It's the same size as UVA, a little bigger actually.

I consider JMU a mid-sized public.

For STEM, Colorado School of the Mines

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dickinson?

Private

She asked about privates with merit. Read more than just the subject line.

Anonymous wrote:My son is OOS at William & Mary. Elon has a similar feel with a bit cheaper price tag, and does give some merit. We liked it, but felt W&M was a stronger option.

Elon is a solid school but W&M is a night and day better school.

OP’s post is a bit confusing because the heading is specifically referencing midsize publics, but then there is a question buried in there about midsize private colleges that offer merit.

For privates, Elon is a good suggestion along with Wooster (both give merit and Wooster is quite generous). You could also consider some of the midsize Jesuit universities like Loyola MD and St. Joe’s, both of which are known to be generous with merit.


Also wondering if Marist is worth a look?

Privates at ~7000 undergrads that offer merit:

AI says Wesleyan, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Fordham, Case Western

UC Merced

Which maybe just shows how different two public schools of similar size and ranking can be.

Anonymous wrote:Dickinson?

Private

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is OOS at William & Mary. Elon has a similar feel with a bit cheaper price tag, and does give some merit. We liked it, but felt W&M was a stronger option.

Elon does not have a similar feel, IMO. W&M is intellectual and nerdy.

Also, Elon is private.

OP asked about similar sized privates

Dickinson?

One more way to look at it, but it’ll only reinforce what others have said, that W&M is in a class by itself: Looking at Fiske to see the list of schools with the highest reputation for academics (5 stars; 29 private schools, 8 public schools), W&M is the only public university with fewer than 16,000 students.

(The other public schools Fiske has in this tier are UCLA (32k), UC Berkeley (31k), Georgia Tech (16k), Michigan (31k), UVA (16k), UC San Diego (32k), and UIUC (35k).)

Nothing public will come close because W&M is so unique that no other schools check all the boxes (truly medium-sized, well-ranked, public R1). UMW and SMCM kinda come close as safety options but aren’t really on equal footing.

Some of the SUNY colleges may be worth a look but they really won’t have the same environment. TCNJ, CoC, and Miami Ohio maybe, sorta…

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is OOS at William & Mary. Elon has a similar feel with a bit cheaper price tag, and does give some merit. We liked it, but felt W&M was a stronger option.

Elon does not have a similar feel, IMO. W&M is intellectual and nerdy.

Also, Elon is private.

W&M is a true unicorn, but thinking outside the box, US News loves Truman State in Missouri. Nowhere near the reputation of W&M, of course, but a very solid school with good merit. Unfortunately located in Missouri.